A River Runs Through Us

Sunday, Sep 25 2011

Speakers: Rev. Laura Loving

Scripture: Genesis 2:8-10, Revelation 22:1-5

It Runs all day but never walks

It Often murmurs, but never talks.

It has a bed but never sleeps,

It has a mouth but never eats.

Every culture has its river lore. Mark Twain practically canonizes the Mississippi River in his books, Life on the Mississippi, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  The Ganges in India is at the same time the most polluted and the most sacred water in the world. Children in Africa sing stories of the snakes and crocodiles in the Zambezi River, and each of the countries though which the Amazon flows has its own tales of that river, from pink dolphins to the amazing anacondas. Each culture has a point of view about rivers.

In the collective culture that issues forth from the Biblical texts we heard this morning, we, too, have a deep history of rivers, from the Garden of Eden to the water of life, bright as crystal, at the end of the Book of Revelation.

Is there such a thing as a Christian point of view of rivers? I actually shudder when I ask that, because the literalistic, neo-conservative Christians have been monopolizing the mike in promoting one, right, Christian point of view to our culture. Yet we all have inherited these stories of the first and last rivers in the Bible, as well as many that run through the pages in between, the Euphrates, the Nile, the rivers of Babylon and most notably the Jordan River, in which John baptizes Jesus. We also find metaphorical rivers, as when Jesus says in the Gospel of John: “Out of the believer’s heart (or belly) shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7.38)

So, yes, there can be a Christian point of view about rivers, past and present. The rivers in the stories in the Bible provided deliverance, new life, boundaries and borders, places for trees to grow roots, places to bring forth new leaders like Moses and Jesus. And the contemporary eco-theological point of view towards rivers must be to preserve, to be responsible stewards of, to protect and maintain rivers as vital arteries for trade and habitats for wildlife and places for quiet reflection.

Developing a point of view about the world is part of the journey of spiritual formation, part of the Christian education that takes place in the children’s church school classrooms, at Adult Enrichment, at Vacation Bible School and in sermons and the lyrics of our hymns and anthems. So what specifically shapes our spiritual journey? How do we develop a point of view?

Well, the story goes, that a river runs through us. Rivers shape the landscape of our spiritual lives, carving through the clay of prejudice, irrigating a world thirsty for justice and peace. Just as the curling Mississippi created bypasses and cut through hardened soil, the river of faith bypasses outdated ideas of racism, sexism, classism and discrimination based on sexual orientation. A divine river of love runs through us.
From Genesis to revelation.

From the Nile to the rivers of Babylon.

From the Menominee to the Milwaukee.

I’ve even heard that a river runs through our very property here at Tosa Presbyterian Church.

Yes, we’re talking about river water, but we’re also talking about the artery of faith that pumps us with stories, testimonies, prayers, music and experiences f the living God. Our Formation, our Christian Education, runs through us, and waters the world in which we live. Our faith should inform our lives. Our beliefs should inform our politics. Our history should inform our future. This is why we need to develop a unique, Christian point of view.

Let me illustrate a way that a point of view informs a way of life. Listen to the words of this poem, entitled:  “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.  My soul has grown deep like the rivers.  I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln      went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy      bosom turn all golden in the sunset.  I’ve known rivers:  Ancient, dusky rivers.  My soul has grown deep like the rivers. The deep, rich voice of this poet,–Langston Hughes, is rich and brown as the Mississippi delta mud. The voice is as clear and lovely and loud as the spirituals growing out of African tribes and flowing into the fields of American plantations. The poem gives a particular perspective about oppression and pride, about heritage and strength in black history. Those ancient, dusky rivers were conduits of Trade, passages to freedom. Some rivers powered the building of the Pyramids and others separated a new American nation divided over slavery. But above all, Hughes’s poem gives power and identity to his people, developing a point of view. Today I am proposing that our point of view on the river that runs through us can, and should, empower us and give us our Christian identity. And this is how it works: This month, the children of our church are immersed in a new curriculum called  “Seasons of the Spirit”. Last week there was a bulletin insert that outlined the essentials of this new resource, and today, Denise, our Christian Educator (is presenting) (has presented) an Adult Enrichment session on the curriculum, in the fellowship hall downstairs between services. Currently we are in the “Season of Creation”, a new season of the liturgical calendarwhich had its origins in the Uniting Church in Australia, our sister denomination down under. Because of a growing concern for the ecological crisis of this new century and because of our call to be stewards of the earth, the churches have responded with attentiveness to different elements of creation. Today is dedicated to the celebration of rivers, and our Scripture texts form rich tributaries that flow naturally from this timely topic. Norman Habel, author of An Inconvenient Text and co-creator of this season of creation, suggests that as we celebrate rivers today, we think about them from the Earth’s point of view. He writes: Especially important for any Bible study, reflection, or preaching from the Readings for a given Sunday is a willingness to read texts from the perspective of Earth. We have in the past read only from the perspective of humans or God. But as Earth Beings we are invited to read with a sensitivity to Earth or our Earth kin  and seek to hear their voices in the text.  What would that be like, to put ourselves in the position of the river in today’s texts? Maybe the radical idea within Mr. Habel’s suggestion is that the Christian point of view, the way of seeing the Earth as children of God, is to consider the earth’s point of view. After all, that’s what God does in the incarnation of Jesus Christ—God becomes one with Earth Beings to live on our level to see and experience the world as we live it. As followers of Christ, shouldn’t we do the same? Embrace the earth and its rivers and take on their point of view? I think we’ll find a familiar stance there, a bend in the river where we can stand hip deep and say, here we stand, we can do no other. The place we stand, our point of view,our bend in the river sounds like this: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Yep, the Golden Rule: The underground river that feeds all religions and guides us as Christians. Treat the river as you would like to be treated. Respect, refresh, renew, reflect. The river teaches us how to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. It runs through us, surging toward eco-justice, urging us toward refreshing others, toward renewal of attitudes and toward the quiet place of prayer and reflection. That puts the passage from Revelation in a whole new light for me. Listen again:

Rev 22:1-3

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb ²through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ³Nothing accursed will be found there any more.

What if we take on the role of that river? What if all around us we plant trees for the healing of the nations? What if we bring freedom and hope to others, as rivers of new life? I really do believe that a river runs through us, ushering us into the next stage of our Christian formation. I really do believe that the river that runs through us is the voice of God, urging us to wash away prejudice in our daily lives, calling us to build homes for the homeless, to bring clean water to a village in Africa or to help a student in Milwaukee learn to read. I believe that transformation awaits us in this river, that in our actions we will be transformed. Our old point of view will be eroded with the rushing river of God. Worn smooth as rivers stones, we will be agents of transformation while being transformed ourselves!

In Mark Twain’s epic story of a boy and the river, the narrator, a young Huck Finn, voices his point of view on the  river as he drifts along on a raft with the runaway slave, Jim:

 “We catched fish, and talked and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness. It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big still river,lying on our backs looking up at the stars.” (Mark Twain, 2006, p. 88)

In a Commentary from the School of Foreign Languages and Literature, in China, home of the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers, WU Bin writes:

 “Here we can see how happy Huck is when being free from family constraints. He is as free as a bird out of a tiny cage. The life on the river is quite fresh and Huck and Jim are as joyful as fish in water…,. On the river, Huck finally finds his home where no alcohol, no cruelty, no corruption and no violence exist: The adventures down the Mississippi not only change the fates of Huck and Jim, but also change the attitude of Huck towards the slave….” (Dec. 2008, Volume 5, No.12 (Serial No.60) Sino-US English Teaching, ISSN1539-8072, USA)

You may know that Huck struggles with his point of view toward slavery and the river releases him and helps him develop the conviction that Jim, the runaway slave, deserves to be free. Ironically, that conviction goes against what he had been taught in Sunday school. But the river can carve through those old views. And it does.

Our new curriculum, Seasons of the Spirit, asks our children to develop a conviction, a point of view. It helps them to birth a Christian perspective on the world. Today’s lesson asks them to consider this question: What do you think a healed, restored, renewed and refreshed Earth community would look like? What do you think a healed, restored, renewed and refreshed Earth community would look like?  I hope you will think about this, too, and talk about it on the way home, with a friend, in a study group or a kaffeklatsch . Write about it in a prayer journal, or talk about a restored earth before bedtime with your children or grandchildren. Listen to one another’s points of view. Listen to the point of view of that river in Revelation that makes glad the city of God. 

And ask yourself, what can I do, who do I need to become, to embody that artery of hope, that bright crystal cataract of justice that comes down like a mighty stream, that quiet brook of peace and reflection?

What are we willing to do to release that river that runs through us? What are we willing to do to navigate that river with the children of this congregation?

Let’s do it.