Who is thirsty?

Ezekiel 37:1-14, Acts 2:1-21 and John 7:37-39

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breathe your life into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us and better love and serve you and one another. Amen

The disciples of Jesus experienced - fifty days after his departure, a radical change in their lives. They started - after the fire and the wind touched them and entered them to do things that they had never done before.

They became new creatures - brought to life - in a new way - much as the bones in the valley of dry bones received new life in the sight of the prophet Ezekiel.

The Spirit of God - that breath that proceeds from the Father and the Son - creates and makes all things new - it makes them all that God intended them to be.

The Day of Pentecost ushered in a new age, the age of the Spirit - the age of new life - for all people.

We very often hear about beginning new eras and new periods in human life.

Every time a new region in Africa gets piped water, or every time a new power plant is built in an area that had no power before, an important official will address the people and speak of a new era, a new start, a new creation, a new epoch.

But in fact human life in its relationships goes on as it has before. The only difference is that the quarrels at home, the fights in the bars, the deceptive talk, and the selfish grasping is now done in electric light while drinking clean water.

Real human newness cannot be a building, a power plant, a landing on the moon, a flight to Mars, nor can it be a psychological theory, a sociological paradigm, a new communication system, nor even a new set of laws or a more rigorous enforcement of old laws.

You cannot change the quarrels in a family by eating better food, by installing a large screen TV or by buying a bigger car.

A real evolutionary step can only be made if mentalities and attitudes change; real progress can only be made if outlooks and judgements change.

That is what happened at the moment that the Spirit of God descended, at the moment that all the disciples of Jesus became not only capable of speaking all kinds of languages, but were willing to use those languages to contact people they never would
have thought of addressing before.

It happened when they went from believing in forgiveness to showing forgiveness,

It happened when they went from believing that God would protect them to actually venturing forth from the upper room into the danger filled streets of Jerusalem.

It happened came when they went from thinking about what Jesus had said, to proclaiming what he said - in word - and in actions, in reaching out to heal, to serve - and to love - all those around them.

There is a mysterious moment in our all of lives
- a moment when belief comes alive
- a moment when our thinking about the promises that God has made becomes in us a transforming faith
- a moment when ideas and concepts suddenly move our minds and our hearts, and through these, move our feet and our hands, our mouths and our lips in a new and a life giving way.

That moment is the gift of the Holy Spirit. That moment is the fruit of the Holy Spirit which now dwells in all flesh, and seeks to bring us closer to God - and closer to one another.

For the first disciples that moment happened with a rush of wind and tongues of fire - and it still happens that way for some people.

For John Wesley - the founder of Methodism - it came when he was listening to Martin Luther's Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Romans, and he felt his heart "strangely warmed".

For me it came while seated in chair in a church with several people of faith praying around me and over me, and I felt a kind of electricity inside my body.

For still others - it comes in other ways - and as with the first disciples, as with John Wesley, and even as with me - it changes their lives.

It changes it like the air changed a balloon for it gives life to the form and substance, to the bones and sinews -- life to the heart and soul. It is the evidence, as Paul writes - it is the sign and it is the seal – of our relationship with God.

God's gift took me from having belief in God - to having God's power in me.

And while I can stifle that power within me for a time, or even for a season; while I can turn from it and conceal it for a while, I can no longer escape it.

It is there - and I know it. And it struggles within me for expression - and when I let go - when I let God within me - when I let the Spirit within me - beautiful things happen.

Indeed the Spirit does all that Jesus said it would do.

It brings to mind the words of God - the words we sometimes try to forget and the words that we sometimes look for - and suddenly have; - those words that allow us to bring real comfort to a friend who is lost- those words that allow us really communicate forgiveness and love to someone in need - those words that convict - and exhort - and at last – when surrendered to, bring peace to the soul, my soul - and the soul of others.

The Spirit flows in us, and through us it flows to others.
It is like the wind,
it is like the gentle flapping of a dove's wings
It is like fire,
It is like a river.
It is like a still small voice with.

And this my friends is the age we are in, the new age that was born on the day of Pentecost, an age that allows for a true transformation, for a new way of
living.

It allows for it - it makes it happen - it brings it to reality and all we have to do to enter that age is to reach out for it.

According to our passage today - Jesus cried out; he cried out : "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink."

When we drink, when we turn to God when we believe and seek him in prayer, in church, in the world around us, he comes -- he comes in the Spirit - and he honours all his word unto us, -- he works a new work in us and through us he works in others,
he works to establish his kingdom fully upon the earth - as it is in heaven.

"As the scripture has said", repeated Jesus, "'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'"

That river flows because God makes it so.

He makes it so through the gift of Pentecost - the gift of his Spirit.... Praise be to God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.