Monday, October 25, 2004

Drinking from Cisterns, Drinking from the Spring of Living Water. Carol reminded me of this image the other day. Its from Jeremiah 2:13:

My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

She recalled a sermon on that text preached by David Bridgman, our pastor during the 1980s. David was a "missionary kid", raised in China. His family fled when the Communists overran his parents' mission station. During the sermon, David recalls that his family had to rely on cisterns, and that the cisterns became dirty, with scum and insects, after many days without rain.

This is such a powerful image. So many times I turn to a broken cistern to quench whatever thirst happens to arise. I am too lazy to walk down to the spring of living water. I'm too busy. How important it is to attend church at least once a week. I am forced to be quiet, to listen to the Word preached and sung and prayed. So middle-class, so bourgeoisie, going to church every seven days. But it is like living water, and it has nourished me all of my life, despite what I allow down my throat during the week.

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