St. Paul’s United Church
Sunday, September 28, 2008
A River Runs Through It – Rev. David Mundy
Genesis 9:12-17 Psalm 104:1-4, 10-13,31-33 Rev. 22:1-5
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Does the name Brad Pitt ring a bell? It would be hard
not to be aware of Mr. Pitt, the actor who is one of the world’s most beautiful
people, married to Angelina Jolie, another of the world’s most beautiful
people. I have commented to several women along the way that Pitt rarely stars
in a movie that gets good reviews from the critics and invariably their
response is “and what’s your point?”
One of Mr. Pitt’s best pictures was also one of his
earliest. He played a supporting role in the 1992 film called A River Runs
Through It. Pitt plays Paul, the impetuous younger brother in a preacher’s
family, but it could be argued that the river that, well, runs through this
story, is no less a star.
The motion picture is based on a story: an 80-page
memoir by author Norman McLean, which is based on his own family. In the story,
he observes that, for his Presbyterian father, there isn’t much of a line
between fly-fishing on the river and religion. One day, the two sons and the
father spend an amiable day casting lines, and when older son Norman eventually
seeks out his parent, he finds him sitting on the river bank reading from the
Greek New Testament. It turns out that he is pondering the opening verses from
the gospel of John, which says that in the beginning was the Word, rather than
the waters of Genesis. Together they consider which is true, or whether the two
are intertwined.
The closing paragraph of A River Runs Through It offers:
Eventually all things merge
into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great
flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are
timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are
theirs. I am haunted by waters.
Last Sunday, I told you that there are alternate
readings for the month of September which invite us into a season of Creation
in the Christian year. The themes are forests, and land, and wilderness, and,
this week, rivers.
The imagery of water and rivers is very important in
scripture, even though water is in short supply in the arid lands of that
region compared to what we often take for granted.
We heard just a portion of psalm 104 today because it
is thirty-five verses long, and you want to get home before supper! This psalm
is unique in the way it celebrates the wonderful diversity of God’s world,
including the streams and rivers, which begin in the springs of the mountains.
If you have visited Israel or other countries in the Middle East you will have
seen that rivers are different from what we imagine here in North America in
that all but the largest dry up for a good part of every year, and the
riverbeds turn to dust. But when the rains return and the rivers begin to
swell, it all stems from the hills and the mountains. According to the
psalmist, it is God who replenishes the streams.
We also heard from the very last pages of the New
Testament in the often puzzling and disturbing book called the Revelation of
John. Here we find the imagery of a new heaven and new earth, which includes a
sparkling river. The bible begins with an Eden which is a well-watered garden
and some scholars maintain that the location for this mythical garden is the
confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The bible concludes in a city,
the New Jerusalem. Yet, even in this
holy city, a river will run through it which will be crystal clear. And the
river of the water of life will nourish the tree of life with an abundance of
fruit. At the very end of our Christian bible we have this image of God’s
river, Christ’s river of life.
The rivers of our world are a visible, and often
audible, reminder of life, which is a gift from God.
In some ancient religions, there was a belief that gods
actually lived in rivers. Not only do Judaism and Christianity ascribe holiness
to rivers, virtually all the major religions do. In Native spirituality, rivers are regarded as
arteries and veins carrying the lifeblood of the earth.
If holy rivers run through our lives, why is it then
that we as humans can take our streams and rivers for granted and even abuse
them?
Many of us are old enough to remember the headlines from
forty years ago when the Cuyahoga river, which flows through the city of
Cleveland, Ohio, caught on fire, fuelled by an oil slick and flammable debris.
Actually, this fire took on a life of its own in the media, but it did
galvanize the city of Cleveland and other cities in North America to begin the
important work of cleaning up their waterways.
One summer, our family of five drove from our home in
Northern Ontario to Newfoundland in a Volkswagen Vanagon,
with the pop-top and fridge and stove. I should mention that we were on the
road for five weeks, and still speaking to one another
at the end of the trip! Our first night had us camping on the shore of the
Ottawa River. Then we followed the St.
Lawrence, before heading south along the St. John to the Bay of Fundy. I was
struck by these remarkable waterways, which were in fact the transportation highways
of another era.
Unfortunately these same rivers have been abused over
time, used as sewage conduits, and convenient dumps for industrial runoff. We
wouldn’t have considered drinking directly from any of them out of concern for
the quality of the water, despite the millions of litres
which flowed past any spot on any given day.
That same year, the Beluga whales of the St. Lawrence
made the news. Not because they were
white and rather cute, but because they were dying, filled with cancer, victims
of toxic pollution. Their corpses had to be disposed of as toxic waste, the concentration of dangerous chemicals in their fat
was so high. Again, the symbolism of these intelligent, attractive creatures
perishing because of our crass abuse of our rivers pushed legislators to do
something about pollution in the St. Lawrence, and it has been successful.
Of course, we always seem to be waiting on governments
to make things better, rather than asking what we might do as Christian
communities to “live with respect in Creation,” as our United Church
creed states.
One of the finest examples of practical Christian
respect for our waterways comes from a cooperative project by Roman Catholic
bishops in western Canada and the northwestern United States. In 2001, they
released what they called a pastoral letter, about the well-being of the
Columbia River, which begins in British Columbia, and flows
through four states before reaching the Pacific Ocean. This letter is actually
a thirty-page reflection on finding balance for all those who benefit from this
vast watershed. It is a call to ensure the health of the river and its
tributaries so that fish and creatures will continue to flourish. It also
acknowledges that humans, including aboriginal peoples and fisherman and
recreational users, benefit from a healthy Columbia river.
The Columbia Watershed and
all creation are entrusted to our loving care. As persons created in the image
of God and as stewards of creation (Genesis 1-2), we are challenged to both use
and respect created things, The watershed is ultimately God’s: human beings are
entrusted with responsibility for it, concern for its species and ecology, and
regulation of its competitive and complementary uses. The watershed, seen
through eyes alive with faith, can be a revelation of God’s presence, an
occasion of grace and blessing.
This is an important message. The earth and its waters,
including the rivers, belong to God, and we are called to be caretakers, not
exploiters. This vision needs to be constantly guiding our decision-making and
our sense of wonder in the world.
Can we get a little closer to home on this one? We
don’t have any major rivers in this part of Southern Ontario like those
mentioned in our Call to Worship this morning, but there are many
streams and waterways which we hope will flourish through proper nurture and
care. In fact, we have an example nearby of how streams and rivers can be
healthy if they are simply given a chance.
When land was expropriated for a new airport to be
located near Pickering a generation ago it was shielded from the pressure of
development simply because it now belonged to the federal government. As a
result, the creeks and streams which run through this land are among the
cleanest in the GTA, and some species of fish, such as trout, which are very
sensitive to pollution, are thriving. Oshawa Presbytery of the United Church
has asked the federal government to shelve the renewed proposal for a new
airport and preserve this land for future generations.
We began worship this morning with a traditional hymn
which imagines what heaven will be like, using the book of Revelation as its
inspiration. So we sang the verse which says:
Shall we gather at the river, where
bright angel feet have trod,
with its crystal tide for ever
flowing, by the throne of God?
Yes, we’ll gather at the river, the
beautiful, the beautiful river;
gather with the saints at the
river that flows by the throne of God.
I would suggest to you that, whatever promise we have
for a future life in Christ, does not begin when we die and then go to heaven –
“pie in the sky.” We need to live as though our promise of abundant life is for
today and tomorrow and for all eternity. If we do this, we will pay attention
to the gift of the waters around us, and ensure that our streams and rivers
continue to flow.
Jesus tells us that he is living water to quench our
parched souls, and he is the river that runs through all our lives, now and
always.