Wednesday, October 6, 2010

October Phountains in Phoenix

‘Come Thou Font of Every Blessing’ could easily be a theme song for our trip to Spain this past summer. Everywhere we went – there were fountains. Big fountain, little fountains, fountains under repair, fountains newly constructed: fountains fountains everywhere – yet not a drop to drink (no I don’t think I’d have trusted the sanitary conditions of the h2o flowing through those pipes.)

Shawn laughed at me for the number of photos that took in the fountain theme – and there are quite a few. Water is a symbol of life, if not the source of life – and in those places where the fountains were empty, sitting devoid of water, there held a certain sadness, even a pall over the setting, as I imagined the once free-flowing coursing though and splashing upon the rocks and stone used in the making of each fountain.

How much water had flowed across each facet of these fountains? How many hundreds of years had these symbols withstood the soft but continually persistent force? From the baptismal fonts in the cathedrals to the aqueduct in Segovia, the wear-marks, the grooves, the slow eroding of the rock tells a story of the life these fountains lived, for the movement of the water is not without consequence. Though it may not be as dramatic an observation as witnessing a raging river shove boulders and rocks and gravel downstream, cutting an ever-widening path though the mountain canyon, time-lapse photography over the centuries would reveal course surfaces smoothed, sharp edges rounded – a visible witness to the impact the water has had over a lifetime.

In a similar way, the Holy Spirit leaves its mark upon our lives, both individually and communally. What residual changes has the Source of Life left upon you? Where are the rough places honed smooth? Where’s the indicative watermark of the Holy Spirit upon your life, letting others know of the freely flowing Spirit moving within your being? Hopefully you don’t scrub it clean so as to remove any evidence that the Holy Spirit had ever left its mark in your life.

There’s a reason for our filling the Baptismal Font each Sunday in worship – to serve as a reminder of what it is that binds us together as Christians – namely the claiming, the cleansing, the anointing, the rescuing that God – by the power of the Holy Spirit- does with each of us. Not a onetime deal, baptism is a lifetime experience, through which the power of God fills, renews, strengthens, emboldens, reveals, comforts, restrains, contains, and explodes the ministries of the Good News that because God is merciful, God forgives – you, me, us, them.

It’s the stories of this mercy flowing though community that give shape and distinction our calling as the Church – the body of Christ bearing witness to God’s mercy. As we think about what it means for the Spirit to flow through us, know that your acts of prayerful worship give shape and definition to our life as The Church; know that each decision, observation, and question; each conversation, concern, inquiry, receptive listening and prayerful response; each time we allow the Spirit of God’s Word to shape our life together, God uses us to shape one person, one aspect or dimension of life. God proclaims ‘You are forgiven’ through this body that is 1st Presbyterian Church of Phoenix.

I ask you to prayerfully consider how it is God’s Spirit is flowing through you and through 1st PC Phoenix with the Gospel of grace and mercy – and how it will be that this freely flowing Gospel will shape, not only 1stPC Phoenix, but the community of Phoenix, the Rogue Valley, and the whole world in which we are residents.

Rev. Mike