ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
September 30, 2026
On Sunday, I discussed how I believe many Christians, instead of finding themselves near the streams of water mentioned in Psalm 1:3, end up far from the Source due to a Christianity that aims to keep people uneasy, fearful, and guilt-ridden. This Christianity understands the power of spiritual apprehension to keep people who thirst for God’s grace and mercy distracted as an image of the Living Water is dangled in front of them like a carrot motivating a donkey. Historically, religion has found it hard to trust the very message it proclaims, and within Christianity, there appears to be an inability to trust the life-giving water that we know as love to do exactly what Jesus told us it could do. In John 4:10ff, Jesus is speaking to a woman at a well, and he says,
“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?… Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Some Christians are concerned that if they genuinely offer people the Living Water that satisfies the spiritual thirst, then those people may lose interest in the church. It would be incredible if the church would put itself out of a job. And though I am a person of hope, I don’t see that occurring in the near future. Plus, in a world where we are inundated with what seeks to suck the life-giving energy from this God-given sustenance, it is important to plant ourselves among those who serve as a conduit of that Living Water. When we do so, we are better able to guide others away from the parched religions of uneasiness, fear, and guilt and to the stream that never runs dry.
Holy Sustenance, O Living Water, we drink you in and discover how our thirst is truly quenched. Your grace and loving-kindness are never held out of reach, but given fully and unconditionally. We are blessed to be on the receiving end, while also asking for your help as we try to guide others to this gift. It is not just life for us, but for all. Amen.
