Read: John 7:37–39
If you have always lived in East Suffolk, you may have become desensitised to the impact on our lives of the many rivers that make their way into the sea between Harwich and Lowestoft. The coast is very beautiful, but the rivers can also make travel tortuous. For example, the distance from Felixstowe to Harwich is short if you have a boat; without one, however, the journey involves a drive of fifty minutes over thirty to forty miles, depending on the route taken.
The rivers have shaped our landscape and they shape our lives. Recreationally and logistically, we are changed by them.
In today’s reading, Jesus offers himself as drink and goes on to say that those who believe in him will find that living water flows from within them. This is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit which, at the time of Jesus’s statement, had not yet been poured out. When the Holy Spirit came, the way in which the Good News was spread changed; the days of going to hear and see Jesus gave way to the involvement of all believers in preaching, healing, and teaching.
Suffolk has not been shaped by one river but by many. They vary in size from the Stour and Orwell estuaries to the Alde and Deben. Some move and continually change direction, like the Alde and the shifting landscape of Orford Ness, while others are more fixed.
So, it is with our faith and our response to the Gospel. Believers come in all shapes and sizes, and at different stages of maturity, but each one has a part to play and an impact to make on the life of the world.
A Prayer
Creator God, you have made the landscape and you have made us. Just as geography is constantly evolving, so we pray that we may continue to change as we respond to you and to the world around us. Enable us to impact life for good and to be a revelation of you to those we meet, even as others reveal you to us. We ask this for Jesus’s sake. Amen.