Where’s the River?
Luke 6: 17-26
I like the water.
I spent
my early adult life on the east coast
And
we would spend part of every summer
At the shore near the water.
I’m
partial to rivers as well.
Vacation
spots that I really like
Are
those that have a river near by.
When I got to
And I
was even happier to see the
I
didn’t care what we called it.
I
just liked seeing the river near by.
You can imagine my excitement when I discovered
An eating place called
I
imagined a little café with a river view.
You can also probably imagine my
disappointment
When I went to
I
liked the owner, the waitress, the food but
My
question was “Where’s the river?”
“Where’s
the water?”
We come to the Gospel lesson today “Sermon on the
Plain”
with some
expectations as well.
In
the gospels of Matthew and Mark
We
have similar gatherings of people
To hear the teaching of Jesus.
In the Gospel of Matthew the gathering
is called
“The Sermon of the Mount”.
People
who come to Luke from Matthew
Are
likely to ask “Where’s the Mountain?”
The
gathering in the Gospel of Mark takes place
By the
People who come to Luke from
Mark
Are
likely to ask: “Where’s the water?”
In each of
the stories there is a great crowd of people
From
In each story Jesus is
healing and teaching
And
calling disciples to follow him.
And we get
caught up in the details
“Where’s
the water?”
After years
of studying these parallel passages
I had the opportunity to go to the
site
Where Jesus did this
preaching, teaching,
Healing
and discipling in
You know
what I discovered.
The
There is a slight incline of
plain
from the Sea
shore up to a little Mount.
Depending
where you were when you heard Jesus
It
would have been a Sermon by the sea,
A
sermon on the Plain or
A
sermon on the Mount.
So the physical setting is not so important
And
yet I think we can still ask the question
“Where’s
the water?” in a different way,
for a different reason.
The real question to ask of this passage
is:
“Where’s the
living water?”
“Where is the
This is a question that first gets
raised in the Psalms
Psalm 46 says:
“God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in time of trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the
earth should change,
Though the mountains shake in
the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the
mountains tremble with its tumult.
There is a river whose streams make
glad the city of
The holy
habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; it shall
not be moved;
God will help her when the
morning dawns.”
In the Old Testament the River symbolizes
the presence of God.
The
River testifies that God is in the midst of God’s people.
The
River makes glad the city of
Even and especially when they, or we, are in trouble.
In the New Testament, in the Gospel of
John
a Samaritan women
asks Jesus:
“Sir, where do you get that living water?”
Jesus answers:
“The water that I will give will become in
them
a
spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
So there is an answer to the question
“Where’s the river?”
Or
“where’s the water?”
In the Gospel of Luke’s telling of this
story is
The
River is the Jesus Christ who says in Luke 3:
“God anointed me to bring good news to the
poor.
He has sent me to
proclaim release to the captives
And
recovery of sight to the blind,
To
let the oppressed go free,
To proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favor.”
The teaching of Jesus Christ is the
River that demonstrates God’s presence in the midst of God’s people and makes them,
us, glad.
Notice in the Gospel of Luke these
teachings, called the Beatitudes,
Are different that we might remember from Matthew.
In
Matthew it says:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the
But in Luke
it’s personal:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the
kingdom.”
Remember how I said that depending on
where you were
When
you heard Jesus’ sermon it was either
A sermon by the
The
same is true, I believe, of Jesus’ teaching.
Matthew
was a tax collector.
He
would hear the teaching of Jesus as a word
Of
hope to the other people “the poor”
And
he would have heard it
As
a spiritual word, a word about
spiritual poverty.
But
for Luke, the physician, it was the physical condition
And
it was personal- “Blessed are you poor,
You who hunger, you
who weep,
You who are rejected and outcast.”
I think Luke’s perspective allows him to
get it right
And
gives us a hint of how we can also listen to Jesus teaching
even when we
might initially find ourselves more
on the woe side more than the blessing side
of this
particular teaching.
Where’s
the water? Where’s the river in this teaching?
The water starts in Christ.
Just
as Jesus answered the Samaritan women’s question
“Where do I find this water?”
The water comes from Christ but it wells
up within us
To become streams of living water.
Jesus is telling us of his great love
for all of us
When
we need him most: when we as sick
Or struggling, or in despair, or mourning.
Jesus
is the source of comfort, blessing and renewal.
That’s
why Luke uses the personal “You”.
We
usually think we are blessed when we have all our
Physical
resources: food, housing, water, health
And
yet Luke is telling us here that
we are most
blessed when we don’t
because then we depend on God,
for comfort, healing, hope.
That’s when we are closest to the
kingdom,
When we depend on God.
But then Jesus calls forth living water
from us.
Isn’t that amazing…but that’s what he says:
We
are to become comfort, healing and hope to each other.
And
it’s not an instance where we who have,
Help those who don’t have anything,
Because
those who don’t have anything
Have
the blessing of God!
Rather
it’s an opportunity to share in the living water,
To
become a River of gladness as Christ flows
Between us, over us and through us.
That’s why we send people to the Lord’s
Diner each month,
And
to Hurricane relief, and to youth retreats,
And
to bowl for and serve as big brothers and big sisters,
And to build Habitat Houses and visit at hospitals.
It’s
not to fix other people- they are already blessed of God
But
it is to share in the blessings of Christ
And to let the living water well us within us.
And that’s where the river is.
That’s where
the water is.
Shortly after my first visit to the
Riverside Café
We started
meeting there with the Men’s Prayer breakfast.
We started studying the Gospels
together and
The Book of
Romans together and praying together.
We have been
doing it for over three years now
And I no longer ask “Where the river
is?”
At the
I see the
river every time I go there.
The river runs right through the Café
as we gather
Around the River, the
teaching of Jesus Christ,
And eat and pray
together.
The river is the teaching of Christ and as we study and pray
Together we become streams of living
water ourselves.
Amen