The Joshua Victor Theory

“ Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters !” (Isaiah 55:1a). Come to Jesus Christ, the Living Water! Amen! Today is Pentecost, one of the three great Jewish festivals of the Old Testament, and the day full of grace when Jesus poured out His Holy Spirit on the disciples. But I want to talk to you about one of the other of the three great Jewish festivals—the one mentioned in our Gospel reading, John 7! Because at the Feast of Tabernacles (which means tents or booths) Jesus prophesied about sending His Holy Spirit on the disciples.  So, in John 7:37, it says, “ on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out… ”  So, if you look earlier in the chapter, you find out that this last day of the feast is referring to the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a joyful, annual holiday, rich with reminders of how they lived in tents in the wilderness as God lead them to the Promised Land. There was lots of beautiful imagery—God dwelling among His people in Hi...

* We had a wonderful service of Evening Prayer, at which I preached this message, and we sang many beautiful variations of Psalm 42 and hymns inspired by it or echoing themes of it. Our sermon hymn was "As the Hart" by Dewey Westra, from the Genevan Psalter, and we also sang "When Peace Like a River" (It is Well with my Soul), and "The Night Will Soon Be Ending". I wish I had made a recording to share with you the beauty of the singing! Truly stirring, with rich words of Scripture as the foundation.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Advent is a season of waiting and hopefulness, symbolized by the blue that adorns the altar, as we long for our coming King. Perhaps it seems out of place to you that in a season of hope, I would choose such a seeming “downer” of a Psalm to open our series. But we’ll see that in the midst of all that darkness, the Psalmist still directs us to hope in God . Psalm 42 trembles and pace...

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Tonight we reach the fourth beatitude, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Physical hunger and thirst are easily recognized, and “hunger pangs” in the stomach or dryness in the mouth or throat inform us whether we are hungry or thirsty. The sensations are pretty easy to recognize—although people who talk about dieting say that even these ordinary sensations of our body can sometimes be misread. People say that sometimes when we feel hungry, a simple drink of water can satisfy us. As a parent (or maybe it’s just dads), you are sometimes uncertain whether your baby is crying because they are hungry, or just because they need your attention, or have some other need to be attended. If physical hunger is felt in the stomach or thirst in the throat, where do we feel spiritual hunger or thirst? What are the “spiritual hunger pangs”, and do we ever misread or misund...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Last week we read in John 3 about Jesus’ talk with Nicodemus about being born from above, of water and the spirit. Jesus said that just as the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from or goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. So Jesus taught that the work of the Spirit was recognizable, but moved by the unseen. Today the breath of the Spirit and the Living Water move yet again in an unexpected way, to restore and refresh a parched and thirsty soul, who did not even know her thirst at first. You ordinarily escape indoors from the hot noontime sun when you live in the Middle East, I understand. Before indoor plumbing, the women ordinarily went to the community well in groups during the cool morning hours, to avoid the heat and avoid going alone. So this Samaritan woman either had a reason to be, or wanted to be alone, even if it meant going out in th...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. For the one who is desert-dry, parched and thirsty, what words could be more inviting than “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.” For the one who is weary from their journey, staggering from the weight of their burdens, or exhausted from the difficult road, nothing can be more refreshing than the cool, splashing water, quenching your parched throat. For the one who is hungry, starving for food, but flat-broke, what words could be more inviting than “he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price!” Such an offer would be a beggars’ delight. Free food, wine, and milk?! A feast freely offered, of the best and richest food? Would anyone refuse such an offer? If you were such a person, parched and thirsty, starving hungry, would you not drink deeply and refresh yourself, and eat the rich food and satisfy your hunger? If you were trav...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The setting for today’s reading is just after the disciples returned from their mission to preach the Gospel to the surrounding villages. They were tired and worn from the journey, and Jesus calls them to a desolate place to rest for awhile. Jesus knows that we all need a little time of rejuvenation, and that we need to take care of our bodies, as well as our souls. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Can you imagine what it would be like if crowds of people rushed to church every morning? That they were desperately hungry to be fed by the Word of God? And not only did they hurry, but they beat everyone else there? To be first in line? We have a hard time imagining it. Sometimes just to show up seems an effort. But it does happen. Just because we aren’t always so eager doesn’t mean that people elsewhere aren’t. In Madagascar, for example, the people...