Isaiah 55; Matt. 10: 40-42     Water: Enough for All    E/GR/DC  April 30, 06

Water ? our faith Issue

Let's take a good long look at this glass of water. (Pause 10 seconds) Now, can you guess how old it is? (Wait for guesses.) The water in our glass may have fallen from the sky as rain in the last several weeks, but the water itself has been around pretty much as long as the earth has!

From space the planet Earth is blue, with bits of green. About 75% of Earth's surface is water, and about 97% of that is ocean. Water is the basic structure of the planet. All life is related to water. Water flows through our bodies, through our memories, and through every cell of every life form) Water is God's gift of life to us.

Water is also God's gift of life for our spirits. It is one of God's greatest gifts for helping us understand that we are people who live in, with and by the Spirit. Many biblical writers use water language when they speak of God's love and desire for us, and our love and desire for God.

Come, let us ponder water in this service. Let us listen to scripture. Let us learn about the properties and characteristics of water. Let us hear stories about water from different parts of the world. And let us use water to discover who we are and who we are meant to be, in ways we can understand with all our senses, with our minds, our hearts and our bodies. Let's begin with scripture.

Isaiah 55: 1-2a,3a,10-13

Water for our Needs

There is not a passive verb in this passage from Isaiah. Water is like that.  Water exists in an ever-moving cycle, delicately balanced. The sun causes water to rise as vapour from the oceans, cool, and fall back on the Earth as fresh water, returning to the ocean. The water cycle connects the sky to the earth and to fountains and springs under the earth, and then returns to the sky to start again.

We need water. Without water we would die. In our bodies sophisticated systems retain, eliminate or evaporate water. Babies are 75% water, men 64% and women 58% water. Water is in every part of our bodies, in cells, blood, spinal fluid, and the digestive system. All of creation is made to be thirsty for what gives us life. We are thirsty creatures, part of a thirsty creation. And all of creation is satisfied, happy even, when our thirst is quenched. Then we get thirsty again. That is who we all are. Every bit of creation is thirsty.

God's love and desire for us is like the water cycle. Jesus let go of the power and equality he had with God, (pour the water out of the glass into the basin) so that he could become a human being, live with us and show us what God is like.² Then Jesus left the earth and returned to God. We are as thirsty for God as we are for water. We are thirsty for Jesus' reign, thirsty for Spirit, thirsty for justice, thirsty to do the right thing. We know that God's rain touches what is deepest and most holy inside us.

?Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.?  Proverbs 25:25

Gospel Matthew 10:40-42

Hope Kasheija tells a story of a Cup of Cold Water in Uganda.  The Ugandan church has strong grassroots experience in developing water resources, particularly in poor rural and urban areas. At the request of the rural community where I grew up, a church development program funded the construction of a water well project and trained 30 villagers how to properly use and administer water resources. The effects on the community have been like ripples in a pond.

Before, when I was growing up, we did not have easy access to water. With the new well, villagers created an irrigation system to water crops of bananas, mushrooms and vegetables. Water makes it possible to raise livestock. Livestock provide milk that lowers malnutrition, with a surplus to sell. With water, some are beginning to farm fishponds and sell fish.

There is more. As they drilled and built the well, villagers discovered clay that makes good bricks. Some villagers have become brick-makers and sell what they make. Others have built more permanent housing by using the bricks instead of grass. All of them worked together to build a permanent school for their children. Water has brought surprising new life to the village.

The church has demonstrated that water services can be managed locally, within a small economy. Uganda is rich with fresh water resources, and in recent years Uganda's water has become big business as the government has given over responsibility for water services to private companies.

In 2003 the Africa Women's Economic Policy Network did field research in Uganda. Their research, not surprisingly, revealed that water privatization has already taken a heavy toll. When the cost of water is high, people who live on less than a dollar a day have to choose water over school fees or food, or find alternative ways of getting water. People resort to unprotected springs, boreholes and long-distance wells. Health problems increase from lack of clean water, including cholera, typhoid, diarrhea, malaria, intestinal worms and skin-related diseases. Alternative water sources hold not only health hazards but also physical dangers. Stand taps installed along the Nile require a fee. Those with no daily income to pay the fee fetch water from the river. Women and children have drowned in River Nile, and several have been taken away by crocodiles. When water is no longer free, there is illness and death.

Based on Hope Kasheija's presentation to the Ugandan PDR Round Table, November 2003, and on researcher Hellen Grace Akwii Wangusa's "Study on the Privatisation of water in Uganda" for the African Women's Economic Policy Network (AWEPON), and her presentation, "Commodification of Public Goods, Water the Source of Life" at the WCC-World Bank-IMF Seminar, Evaluation of Institutional Mandates and Related Views/Concepts of Development, February 13-14, 2003, Geneva. AWEPON is a Partner of KAIROS: Canadian Justice Initiatives. Their work is supported by the Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches.

Silence

Hymn 186

Water also has tremendous destructive power.  Then too we need the Water of our Compassion.  On December 26, 2004, the world saw the immense destruction water can cause. Hearts were moved. Compassion and donations flowed. Tears of traumatic loss and grief engendered tears of compassion and generosity.  The earth needs fresh water to grow. The seeds of compassion, mercy and justice within us need salt water. The salty water of our tears clears our vision and opens us to the mind of Christ. Maggie Ross, who writes of the role of tears in The Fountain & the Furnace, says that "to get from the attitude of dominance to the attitude of kenosis, or the mind of Christ, is an enormous task, and one that only tears can accomplish. Tears are always a sign that we are struggling with power of one sort or another: the loss of ours; the entering of God's."  The mystery is that tears of powerlessness water the seeds within, and God?s power is released within and among us.

Let us hear of compassion in a Cup of cold Water ?India - theTsunami.  The sea has always meant life for many villages along India's eastern coast. Before the tsunami of December 26, 2004, many families depended upon the bounty of the sea for their food and their way of life. Death and destruction came from the very ocean that provided their only source of income. The fishing families who lived next to the shoreline, close to their boats, had nothing after the tsunami. It swept everything away, including thousands of people who did not survive the giant tidal waves.

Verammal lost four of her grandchildren. A week after the tragedy struck, all she could do was weep, her grief overwhelming. Her son told the extent of the trauma he and his family suffered. He spoke about the tsunami wave coming out of the blue, crashing over everything and taking with it his family, his home and his life.

Although the fishermen along the coast have generations of experience with cyclones and tropical storms, some were terrified to return to the very thing that provided them their livelihood. The tsunami was both unexpected and unknown, and that's what scared them. Some were not afraid to go out again but saw no hope of raising 80,000 rupees (about Cdn $2,300) to re-establish themselves. "If I could, I would go out at once," one man said. "A boat and a net, that is all I need to start again."

What was also unprecedented and unexpected was the outpouring of compassion, goodwill and donations from other Indian communities and the rest of the world. It made new beginnings possible. By early March, the Church's Auxiliary for Social Action and a member of Action by Churches Together was able to distribute the first of 90 "fishermen's collective livelihood kits" that included a new fiberglass boat, a 10-horsepower engine and two sets of nets. Each kit will be owned and managed cooperatively by a group of ten families. The fiberglass boats were actually handed over to women in the village to clearly show that they are equal partners in fishing businesses. Women clean the fish, sell them at the market and help keep the nets clean. Others in the village will benefit from fishing-related jobs?jobs that will be revived as the fishing resumes.

Story compiled from ACT (Action by Churches Together) stories by Gesine Wolfinger (Diakonie Emergency Aid), Hege Opseth (Norwegian Church Aid), Lutheran World Service India, Peter Hovring (DanChurchAid). The Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches are collectively supporting the work of Action by Churches Together to rebuild communities devastated by the December 26, 2004 tsunami.

Conclusion Water. What a gift!  For our spiritual and our physical lives.  Water.  What a challenge.  To our compassion.  To our call to justice.  Is water as commodity or birthright?  The prophet Amos is very clear.  ?Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.?(5:24)