The Day of Pentecost

Take a long drink of something good and think about the act of drinking.

How we humans drink is kind of funny. 

Head turned up, neck vulnerable to allow passage, usually involving at least one hand.

I don't know if you have ever watched someone else drink, or tried to watch yourself drink something.

Its one of the few things we have a hard time doing while doing other things.

Drinking does not lend itself to multitasking well. 

I mean, I know I can drink water while riding my bicycle or running,

but I can't write while drinking, at least not well. I can't text or wash dishes well.

Taking a sip of water requires a pause in everything else. 

It doesn't last long, but there is pretty much always a pause.

Even in the metaphorical ways of drinking

drinking in music or art, or seeing someone else,

the act of drinking in is a pause to let something enter us.

Jesus knows what it is to drink

and he uses this metaphor in a lot of ways.

In the Gospel passage from John today, 

Jesus invites all those who are thirsty to come to him and drink.

At another time in John, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he has living water

and that all who drink of it will have eternal life.

We definitely need water, we can only go about four days without water.

When it comes to understanding this metaphor though, we have to understanding the way 

Jesus is talking about water.

In nature living water is moving water: springs, rivers, streams, oceans, lakes.

Living moving water is clean water. 

Stagnant water is not usually healthy.

Living water is always moving and changing.

In many ways, this metaphor truly fits with Jesus as living water.

We need to drink in Jesus

but when we do, we will change.

The living water will move in us and change us.

We certainly see this in the disciples. 

In the passage from Acts today, 

we see a prime example of how drinking in Jesus and having the living water enter and move us

will change us.

In the Gospel passage for today, Jesus quotes, "Out of a believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water." 

It is a two way movement, those who believe in Jesus drink him in,

and then living water flows out of them. 

This is what happened in the passage from Acts, 

the disciples had been given living water and they were changed.

You could almost say, the disciples were drunk, 

just drunk on Jesus and not on alcohol. 

They had been given living water, they had been given the Holy Spirit,

and they overflowed with the Spirit and they shared it in every language they possibly could!

Jesus offers us the same living water. 

I think we resist because we know, 

the minute we touch our lips to God's living water,

we will be changed. 

We are all thirsty,

thirsty for familiarity perhaps at the moment, thirsty for love, belonging, 

thirsty for a different future.

And Jesus is offering us a real drink.

God's living water.

God's living water which will change us and fill us and give us eternal life.

God's living water will come flowing out of our hearts,

we will share God's love and grace in ways we may not even feel comfortable with.

We may overflow, as the disciples did so long ago,

knowing they couldn't keep the amazing love of God inside.

Pentecost is in many ways a great celebration.

The scriptures which describe what happened on that day are absolutely amazing,

you really should go read them again, drink them in,

there is hidden depth and meaning, symbolism around what God is doing in the world,

and we tend to only focus on one part of it.

We celebrate Pentecost as the coming of the Holy Spirit 

and the birthday of the universal church,

which is especially interesting because the birth of the church happened at home,

and immediately went out into the world.

The birth of the church did not involve committees, buildings, or high altar decorations.

Pentecost happened out among the people

the church was gathered, because it was the people who are the church.

It doesn't matter where we are, we are the church and the Holy Spirit will come to us where we are.

Even in the Gospel passage from John where Jesus is proclaiming the living water

which we are all desperately in need of a drink of,

Jesus was doing so out in the streets of Jerusalem, outside the Temple,

out among the people. 

Anglicans have a long tradition of being both-and people. 

We wait for the kingdom of God while we are living in it. 

We wait for the coming of the Spirit while we know the Spirit is with us. 

When it comes to paradox, we like to straddle both sides.

When it comes to the living water Jesus is offering to us,

we have already tasted its sweetness and we are ever poised on the brink of drinking.

Will you drink of Jesus' living water? Will you let the Holy Spirit enter your heart

and allow it to overflow with the amazing goodness of God?

As we celebrate today the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the coming of Pentecost,

let us lift up our heads in the vulnerable but opening act of drinking in

and take a long drink of God's living water.

Amen.