Monday, June 9, 2014

Living Water

The Day of Pentecost, A
June 8, 2014
John 7:37-39


Introduction

Today we celebrate the Day of Pentecost, the end of the Easter Season. We read in our first reading that Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples "when the Day of Pentecost was fully come" (Acts 2:1). Pentecost (πεντηκοστή, pentekoste) is the Greek word for 'fifty days', thus Pentecost is the fiftieth day of Easter (seven weeks of seven days plus Easter Day itself). The Day of Pentecost is also considered the "birthday" of the Church because the Church was born with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples.

What is the Day of Pentecost? Pentecost is the ancient Jewish festival called the Feast of Weeks, or in Hebrew, Shavuot. It is called the "Feast of Weeks" because it is a "week" (shebuah) composed of seven weeks. According to Leviticus 23:15-16, the Day of Pentecost is computed after the Sabbath after the Passover. Thus, Pentecost always fell on a Sunday, the day after the seventh Shabbat. (Remember that Jesus celebrated a Passover supper with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, which was the eve of the Passover. He was crucified the following day, Good Friday, which was the Feast of the Passover itself.)

According to Jewish tradition, the Day of Pentecost was the day when God gave the Law (including the Ten Commandments). Just as fire descended on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law, on the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples to give birth to the Church!

"In the last day, the great day of the feast" (John 7:37) In our Gospel reading, Jesus stood up on the last and greatest day of the "feast". This is not the Feast of Pentecost but the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2), called Sukkoth in Hebrew. According to the Bible, the Feast of Tabernacles is an eight-day festival celebrated starting the fifteenth day of Tishri, the seventh month of the Jewish calendar (Leviticus 23:39). During this time, the Jewish people are commanded to construct and live in "booths" (in Hebrew, sukkoth) as a reminder that they used to dwell in tents (tabernacles) during their journey to the Promised Land (Leviticus 23:41-42). "The last and greatest day of the feast" is the eighth day, when the Jews hold a solemn assembly (astereth; Numbers 23:35).

In Jewish tradition, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles is called Shmeni Atzeret. On this day, the Jewish people pray for rain!

On this day there was the greatest concourse of people, and they were then wont to fetch water from the fountain of Siloam, which the priests poured out on the great altar, singing one to an other, With joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation. On this day likewise they commemorated God's miraculously giving water out of the rock, and offered up solemn prayers for seasonable rains. (Notes Upon the New Testament)

(We can remember that Jesus healed a man born blind at the pool of Siloam in John 9.)

So we can see that when Jesus stood up on the last and great day of the Feast of Tabernacles and talked about the Holy Spirit as a "spring of living water", the Jewish people were pouring water on from the pool of Siloam on the altar of the Temple and praying for rain!

What does Jesus mean when he talked about "living water"?

I. Living water can only come from Jesus (John 7:37)

Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." Jesus is the only source of living water. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman,

Whosoever drinketh of this water, will thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, will never thirst... (John 4:13-14a)

That is why Jesus said that only those who believe in him can have this living water (v. 38).

Jesus told the Samaritan woman the whoever drinks water from the well where they were talking, even it was dug by the Patriarch Jacob himself, will still thirst and will have to go back to the well again. Such are the things of this world! The world can give us food, drink, clothes, money... But these cannot truly satisfy a person. We will always want more food, more drink, more clothes, more money.... Only Jesus can quench the thirst of a thirsty soul.

Happy are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)

II. Living water flows out of a person into eternal life. (John 7:38)

Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, out of his belly (as the scripture hath said) shall flow rivers of living water" (v. 38). In the language of the Bible, "living water" is fresh, flowing water, as opposed to still, stagnant water. That is why his imagery of living water is flowing water: "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". Jesus described the water that he will give to the Samaritan woman as a fountain:

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, will never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, will be in him a fountain of water, springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14)

Speaking of everlasting life, only Jesus can bringing everlasting life. The things of this world like food, water, clothes, & c. can only bring life in this world (olam hazeh) but not in the world to come (olam haba). When a person believes on Jesus, everlasting life will spring from him like water from a fountain.

III. Living water is the Holy Spirit who is given to the believer. (John 7:39)

St. John the Apostle and Evangelist explains that the living water Jesus was talking about is the Holy Spirit: "This he spake of the Spirit, which they who believed on him were to receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (v. 38).

In the New Testament, there are seven verses (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; John 1:33; John 3:5; Acts 8:35; I John 5:6 and 7) where the words "water" and "Spirit" occur. (In linguistics, this is called "collocation"). One of these is John 3:5:

Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

This Spirit is the one that is given to us in the Sacrament of Baptism. In all of the seven verses where the words "water" and "Spirit" occur, the context was that of Baptism. When Jesus commanded his disciples to "go...and disciple all nations", he commanded them to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). We may not have felt anything because we were children when we were baptized or there did not experience "supernatural" signs if ever we were baptized as an adult. But we can rest assured that in the Word of God that whosoever believes on Jesus shall receive the Holy Spirit!

Conclusion

The Holy Spirit comes not only as tongues of fire as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, but also as living water. This living water comes only through Jesus Christ himself and accessible by faith. Things of this word cannot truly satisfy us because they are temporary. But when the Holy Spirit is in our lives, we shall have a fountain of living water that will spring up into eternal life. Amen.

The Ascension of the Lord

Seventh Sunday of Easter, A
Ascension Sunday
June 1, 2014
First sermon preached at Alfonso United Methodist Church


Introduction

Today is the June 1, the first Sunday of June and the beginning of the new Conference Year 2014-2015. Today is also the Seventh Sunday of Easter, also celebrated as Ascension Sunday. According to the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven forty days after his Resurrection. This year we celebrated Easter last April 20. Counting forty days, Ascension Day is May 29, which is a Thursday, but it may be celebrated on the following Sunday.

The Ascension of the Lord is a time of transition. It marks the end of the bodily presence of the Lord on earth and the beginning of his indwelling presence in us through the Holy Spirit. According to our first reading today (Acts 1:1-11), Jesus appeared to his disciples on different occasions during a forty-day period after his Resurrection. Before he ascended to heaven, Jesus told his disciples not to leave Jerusalem "but to wait for the promise of the Father" (v. 4), i.e., the Holy Spirit.

Today is also a time of transition. We mark the end of the faithful ministry of the Rev. Jheny Agaser here at Alfonso UMC and the beginning of the ministry of yours truly. Our church itself is in a time of transition. We are saying goodbye to our old chapel which has served us for years and we are in the middle of the construction of a bigger and better chapel for the glory of God!

For us Christians, the Ascension of the Lord is a time for us to wait for the coming of Jesus. When the disciples saw how Jesus was ascended into heaven, two angels ("young men in white apparel") told them,

Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as ye have seen him going into heaven. (v. 11).

While we are waiting for the coming of Jesus, what should we do?

I. We should "open" the Holy Scriptures (Luke 24:44-45)

When the Lord Jesus appeared to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, he opened (in v. 27, διερμηνεύω, dihermeneuo, 'expounded'; in v. 32, διανοίγω, dianoigo, 'opened', also used in v. 45) to them the Scriptures--specifically the Jewish Scriptures, which the Jews call "the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms" (v. 44). (In Hebrew, the Torah [the Law of Moses], the Neviim [the Prophets] and the Ketuvim [the Writings; of which the Psalms is part]. Hence, the Jews call their Bible as the TaNaKh.)

As Christians, it is our duty to "open" the Scriptures. But the job of opening the Scriptures is not getting easier. Now it is easy to buy a Bible from the bookstore or download it into our smartphones. But despite of this the Bible remains a "closed" book--even to many Christians! Many Christians do not read the Bible anymore, or not longer like biblical sermons. This is exactly what St. Paul wrote to St. Timothy:

Preach the Word; be instant in season, or out of season....  For the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine, but will heap to themselves teachers, according to their own desires, having itching ears. And they will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables. (2 Timothy 4:1-4)

This Conference Year, let us make a commitment to "open the Scriptures". We should not just settle for what "feels good" or what is "relevant". We should be committed to know what God is actually saying in his Word!

II. We should proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Luke 24:46)

As Christians, it is our duty to open Scriptures and help people understand what it means. What shall we proclaim? That it was "necessary" for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead (v. 46). Our "opening" of the Scriptures should be centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

The central message of the Bible is Jesus Christ himself. That is why when Jesus expounded the Scriptures to his disciples, "he explained to them the things in all the scriptures, concerning himself" (v. 27). This is the reason we have three scripture readings in the liturgy: the Old Testament points forward to Jesus; the New Testament (Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation) point backward to Jesus; and the Gospel are about Jesus himself.

As we "open" the Scriptures, we should always ask ourselves, What does tell me about God, (or Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit)? As St. Paul wrote to the saints in Ephesus,

The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, through the knowledge of him. (Ephesians 1:17)

III. We should preach the repentance and remission of sins in His name. (Luke 24:47)

As we open the Scriptures and proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we should also preach the "repentance and remission of sins" (v. 47). But preaching repentance and the remission of sins is not the popular thing to do. In fact, it can be an offensive thing to do. Some people even defend sinful behavior and call them "alternative lifestyles".

The word repentance (μετάνοια, metanoia) means 'to change one's mind' and remission (ἄφεσις, afesis) means 'release from bondage or imprisonment' and 'forgiveness and pardon for sins'. To repent means to change one's mind about sin--to see how destructive it is in our lives. To be remitted of our sins means that we are released from the bondage and imprisonment of sin. Repentance is the action of man (but we should always remember, only by the grace of God) and the remission of sins is the action of God, made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Kaya po pag tinamaan kayo ng sermon ko, huwag po kayong magagalit. Unang taon ko pa lang naman kaya kung may tamaan man ako, 'di ko sinasadya. Ang dapat nga ay magpasalamat tayo sa Diyos dahil nararamdaman pa rin natin na gustong baguhin ng Diyos ng buhay natin para sa ating ikabubuti.

Conclusion

As we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, and as we begin this new Conference Year, let us commit ourselves to the opening of the Scriptures, the proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the preaching of the repentance and remittance of sins. May we be so committed until we see this Jesus who was taken into heaven comes again. Amen.