Water Under the Bridge

“Water Under the Bridge”
Worship at CITY BEACH
Psalm 145:10-18 Ephesians 3:14-21 John 6:1-21
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B, July 25, 2021
First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly, Pastor

Now, here we are at City Beach. This has been an annual tradition for many years. We missed it last year because of Covid-19 restrictions, and even this year our potluck is a bring-your-own format. It was four years ago that Shawna and I were in Scotland while you had a bagpiper here at City Beach during the Sabbatical in 2017. Was it three years ago we had a blessing of the bicycles? Two years ago, a blessing of the water? These are all in the past now. Water under the bridge. We can’t go back. You don’t push the river back upstream. You let it go. In letting it go, more water comes and life flows on.
As we look out here, we look at a lake, but also a river. The Clark Fork River enters Pend Oreille Lake to the east as it provides drainage for most of western Montana. The Clark Fork merges with the Bitteroot, the Flathead, and other streams and tributaries so whether you’re in Darby Montana in the Bitterroot Valley or in Glacier National Park up by Whitefish and Kalispell, thousands of square miles all converge right here in this lake. Just over there it flows under the bridges and becomes the Pend Oreille River, one of the only rivers that flows north into Canada, eventually it joins the Columbia River and flows to the Pacific Ocean. Once there the waters mingle, providing nutrients to sea life. Eventually, evaporation brings water vapor back inland over the mountains and the plateaus and the basins and precipitation in the form of snow or rain feeds the Rockies and the Bitterroots and the Selkirks, Cabinets, Percells, Monarchs, and one cycle leads to another in an endless of chain of being as the land breathes and the rivers pulse their flow as arteries and veins for life.

Any volunteers to enact the scriptures today? Jesus walks on water! Before that he feeds the crowd of five thousand, likely more, and had baskets of food left over from the five loaves and two fish. Any volunteers for these miraculous signs?

Throughout this river system, there are numerous dams. Hydroelectricity, water for irrigation and recreation and flood control. Dams are a part of the river scene in the Pacific Northwest. The waterflow is affected. The rivers don’t run as free and swift as they were created to. They are more regulated, which helps with flood control and has its benefits. But they do have an effect. Dams affect the types of species and numbers of fish. They slow the water, which makes it warmer, so the entire natural system is different than it was before the dams were built.

We as created beings are intended to be like a free-flowing river, running clear and life-giving. But like the rivers that have points of constriction, runoff pollution from industries and agriculture, we too get corrupted and lose contact with our original blessedness. Some people call this sin, others see it as the ego operating through self-interest rather than Christ-centered, and this morning’s texts show us the human condition as people strive for power and control and the desire to keep life safe and predictable. Jesus shows us what life in God’s Presence is like. Paul invites us in Ephesians to “have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Filled with the fullness of God. This is what those fish and bread and baskets of leftovers symbolize as the crowd sits and rests in God’s Presence.

And yet the people who are impressed with Jesus are not satisfied with this lingering in God’s Presence like Jesus himself is as he lingers on the mountain. They want to push Jesus into the powerplay of that strange mix of culture, politics, and religion, to take him and force him to be King. They miss the point, and this is when he retreats to the mountain. A mountain is a place, scripturally, where God is encountered. It says he is alone, and yet God the Father and Jesus the Son share a unity, a one-ness, and so he may isolated but hardly lonely. He’s not interested in being king the way the people want. After they leave, the disciples head out in the boat and during the night as they row, the wind comes up and they see Jesus walk on the water. They are terrified, but he says, “It is I; do not be afraid.” “It is I,” echoing the words of God to Moses, “tell them it is I who sent you.” The great I Am of God Almighty, Jesus “filled with the fullness of God,” the very fullness Paul prays that, we too, experience.

Any volunteers? There’s the water. I’ve walked on water. Of course, it was in the winter when I was ice fishing. The loaves and fishes are fun to tease also, like the birthday card I received which shows Jesus holding bread and a fish above the crowds. The people ask, “Has that fish been tested for mercury?” and “Is that bread gluten-free?” and the say, “I can’t eat that, I’m a vegan.” We don’t really know what to make of these stories because the physical realities we deal with don’t match up with the literary narrative we read. But the power of myth has deeper truth that doesn’t depend on the mechanics or the physics or whether our brains accept one thought or another. The fullness of God is greater than all of this.

If we can trust that God creates systems and creatures as amazing as the river systems of western North America, this points to a deeper trust that we can have faith in God who creates us and calls us by name. Like the Psalmist who says, “All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your faithful shall bless you,” we too can open our minds and hearts and spirits to the works of God. We can share with others how we’ve come to trust God’s nearness. And we can invite the flow of Living Water, the Christ, to fill us, and help us live and move and have our being as we invite God to help our ego become translucent like clear waters that shimmer the sun in ways that share beauty and the amazing grace of God’s goodness and love.

To come alongside Jesus as he sits near the lake in communion with God, let’s take a minute in silence and just be here. Take some deep breaths, look at the water as it flows under the bridge and ask God to help you trust each moment in a life that is connected and filled with purpose, intention, and a unique place in the larger rhythms of life. Let’s sit for minute…

“The Lord is near to all who call on him, who call on him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18). “To him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21).