Daily Worship

A Voice Challenges the Festival

Albert Bogle August 30, 2016 0 0

John 7: 37-39

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 
By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Yesterday was the last day of the Edinburgh Festival. The streets were crowded as thousands of people crammed into the city to mark the occasion. Many came in the late evening in order to catch a glimpse of the fire works. Visitors and locals all in search of entertainment but always wishing somehow there might be something more.

In our reading today in John’s Gospel, it is also the last day of a great Jewish Festival known as the Festival of Booths. People had come no doubt in search of entertainment but also looking for more, perhaps an encounter with a prophet or even a healer? It was to these people that Jesus offered himself as the water of life. 

Imagine the scene, almost like a busy Festival day in Edinburgh, then the voice cries, with power and compelling compassion and the world changes at that moment for spiritually hungry people. The same voice can still be heard today by those who know their need and long for times of refreshing.

Lord Jesus,

I’m one of the seekers

I’m looking for more

I'm thirsty

I enjoy the festivals

The entertainers

The noisy streets 

The feeling of expectation

But too often I'm disappointed

There is always an ache

A longing to be found

To find something else

Something - someone?

I can’t put my finger on it.
 

Lord,

I'm listening and waiting

Touch my soul 

Stir up the deep waters 

Within me

Let a river pour out of my soul

That I may refresh all I meet today.

May your river of grace flowing through me

Bring healing wholeness and forgiveness

To those I know and love

Those who are burdened with

Anxiety and care 

Those who feel dried up inside

Struggling in a desert place 

Flow river flow

Through my life 

Their lives

Our lives 

Flow until we are overwhelmed 

In the grace and love of God.