(1) Streams of Living Water

 

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for Streams of Living Water, the first video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water, originally shared on March 30. 2020 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

    And, just like that, someone online pointed out, it seems that there are more pastors online than cat videos.

    It occurred to us that one of the things we could do while we are here is to connect with friends old and new and share encouragement with one another.

   Sally and I are doing what most of us are supposed to be doing now: staying at home.

    These are challenging times for all of us, especially doctors and nurses and all hospital workers, all first-responders, food service professionals and all workers in essential services. And many of us are struggling with various degrees of cabin fever.

    We are streaming the videos and writing this blog in the hopes that you will be encouraged and live the abundant life that Jesus came to give us, even in this time of risky work and quarantined homes. You are not alone.

    Leave your thoughts in the comments section below. Please, just remember that your comments here are public.

    Jimmy Fallon of NBC's Tonight Show recently asked his Twitter followers, What was the moment you first realized you had cabin fever? Here are some of the replies:

    I knew I had cabin fever when:

 When I started labelling my pj’s 9 am PJ’s and 9 pm PJ’s.

 I arranged my daughters stuffed animals in order of who I would like to be friends with first.

 I started to interrogate my cat: “I know you can talk. STOP PRETENDING YOU CAN’T.”

 I drove from the garage to my mailbox because I miss my car.

 I got excited about taking out the trash.

 I fired my dog for being a lazy co-worker, and then rehired him because I needed someone to chat with at the water cooler.

 The cat was so tired of me that he went into the spare room and shut the door.

  Maybe you remember when you first knew you had cabin fever.  Share yours in the comment section, and we’ll read them.

 John 7:37-39

    Sukkot (Su-Coat), Festival of Booths: The (“Feast of the Ingathering,” Exodus 23:16), when grains and fruits were gathered at the harvest’s end, and to ḥag ha-sukkot (“Feast of Booths,” Leviticus 23:34), recalling the days when the Israelites lived in huts (sukkot) during their years of wandering in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt. 

    Water is drawn from the pool of Siloam, as from the wells of salvation, taken in a procession and poured over the altar as an offering with great joy, seven times.

   Jesus is the water and light of the festival.

    Streams of Living Water are like that. They are like a washing machine. They clean us out. There is nothing we do, it is the water and the agency of the soap that cleans us by wearing itself out.

   Likewise, in every season, the Holy Spirit flows like living water. Everything is transformed. The result is a living faith in the living God. And we are a new Creation.

    Have you ever walked on a frozen river?

   Water is moving under the ice even when it can’t be seen.

    We’re calling our broadcast Streams of Life with Sally and David. Because, well, we’re streaming this video, and we’re basing it on John 7:37-39.

    May you be filled with the eternal surprise of the streams of living water that brings life even when we can’t see it moving.

   May you know peace in this season of pandemic in the life and death and life of Jesus Christ.