(McCowan Falls, Durham Ontario)Have you ever wondered about the role rivers play in our world and our lives – I mean really thought about it …
When I was an undergrad at McMaster, one of our profs once wrote the word WATER on the black board then had us begin to think about other words and concepts that we associate with water. Given that it was a Religious Studies course, we pretty much kept it in the realm of religion … from water we started with things like Baptism, life, cleanse, … pretty soon the blackboard in the lecture hall was full … panel after panel filled with jottings from our thoughts.
Using the word - river would have a similar outcome.
Religiously we have many examples of rivers as metaphors and experiences of faith. From the ancient Greeks and the role of the river Styx separating the world of the living from the world of the dead through to Jesus standing at the River Jordan to be baptised along with today’s story of Joshua and the Israelites preparing to cross the River Jordan – rivers play an important role in our religious traditions. Even our theology of the afterlife is centred on the concept of The River of Life that flows out from the throne of the resurrected Christ into all of the new creation that will come into being.
On one level, this makes sense given that the Israelites were a people of the desert, who spent countless days wandering around looking for water for their flocks. Water is found in rivers, so rivers would be an important source of water, which in turn is a source of life. The river would loom large in their day to day world, and would in turn loom even larger in their spiritual world.
Yet this importance is not limited only to desert dwelling people. Rivers continue to play a central role in the thoughts and reflections of religious traditions the world over.
If we were to begin to brainstorm the word river in the same way my prof did at Mac twenty some years ago, I think we could and would quite quickly fill a few blackboards with our concepts, experiences and ideas.
We could begin with the River Jordan … the Baptism of Jesus … rivers as means of transportation … rivers as source of irrigation water … rivers as place of peace and serenity … rivers in full flood as a reminder of nature’s power and fury … and on and on it goes.
I thoughts about the place rivers have occupied in my own faith journey and came up with quite a list … my son Sam was baptised on warm summer morning by the river in Bella Coola with the community of friends and family gathered around us. As the words of the Baptism Covenant were shared an eagle looped overhead and a seal bobbed in the greeny grey glacial waters … it was a service that was simultaneously both breathtaking and simple.
I thought about a visit to Niagara Falls with two Palestinian friends from the city of Bethlehem. They stood on the edge of the falls watching – completely speechless at the thunderous experience of the falls … they commented later that in the ten minutes they stood there more water had poured over the falls then they would like see in their entire lifetime in the deserts around Bethlehem.
I thought about having grown up a stone’s throw from the mighty Avon River in Stratford … and yes, I’m being facetious about the mighty part. Most of the year the Avon is a trickle of water that winds its way through the broad valley Stratford sits on. It is hindered by a dam that creates the swan infested lake not far from the Festival theatre. But the part of the Avon I was most familiar with was east of that, running through the golf course of the Stratford Country Club.
We spent many an hour wading the river looking for snapping turtles and golf balls in the summer. Paddling up and down in my friend’s family canoe. Or just trying to avoid falling in while we looked for frogs, snakes, turtles, golf balls, or other treasures that lurked along its banks … but like any river in Southern Ontario, there were also times of the year when you avoided it.
The spring floods when the trickle turned to a torrent meant you stayed well back and watched as massive willow trees were under mined and swept away by the river’s power. And in the winter, the constant flow of water meant the ice was never safe enough to skate or play on …
The tiny trickle of the Avon was both revered and feared. Revered for the life it offered, and feared for the power it possessed that could take back that gift … it might only be knee deep for most of the year, but there were times it ran far deeper and more deadly, and those of us who grew up in our neighbourhood still remember the day when it swept away one of our neighbours who foolishly ventured out on the spring flood in an inflatable rubber dinghy bought at Kmart or Canadian Tire … he was found and later revived after his immersion in the icy waters, but we never looked at the river quite the same again. The threats of it drowning you were a little more real after that …
But such is the power of the river … even a trickle of a creek can inspire fear and awe in the bystander.
So, Joshua and the Israelites standing on the side of the poised to enter the long awaited promised land isn’t too far out of the realm of possibility … even though the River Jordan isn’t much bigger than the little creeks that wend their way through our country side around here. Creeks you can easily jump with a good running start. It represents a division – a physical separation that stands between here and there.
To cross the river is to commit to living on the other side.
To cross the river is to embrace the new life offered by the Promised land.
So, Joshua wants the people to be ready … ready to commit to this new life and new venture. He wants the people to be ready to face what lies on the other side, even if it isn’t much different than what they’ve been living and experiencing on THIS side.
These river moments, moments when we find ourselves standing here, but really wanting or needing to be THERE, happen all the time. Some are big and momentous, while others are smaller and more subdued. But if we honestly think back in our lives, we can identify many moments in time where we stood like Joshua; facing a choice and having to come up with a means of crossing whatever the river before us was …
The heart of the story of Joshua is a reminder that in that moment we are not facing the choice alone. We stand as children of God, immersed fully in the love and strength and grace of God.
AND, with the celebration of All Saints looming on the horizon, we are reminded that we stand as part of God’s family, with the saints of every time and place around us … as we face the challenges of making a choice, and crossing the river into the unknown that lies before us, we are, as a people of faith able to make that transition knowing that we are loved by God, and that we have the examples and experiences of others to guide, inspire and help us …
It doesn’t make the transition any easier to face, but it helps us to move forward knowing we are not alone, and knowing that no matter what happens God will be there to help us …
It’s all about being open to the presence of the Holy around us …
May it be so – thanks be to God … Let us pray …
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