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The Church as an Estuary
During a trip to the Holy Land, we were in the north of Israel visiting Tel Dan, the headwaters of the Jordan river. I was astonished to see just how much water there was flowing from this place and how rapidly the water was moving. What is so easily thought about as desert or a land that is very dry was now gone from me totally. I could see the life and growth that the water brought and how people would build communities around water sources, because water is life.
In Ezekiel 47, he is shown the waters flowing from the sanctuary of the temple, spreading far and wide to the east. The water gets deeper and deeper from just a bubbling up flow. Its depth comes then to ankle deep, then to the waist and finally so deep that one has to swim to cross it. On the banks there are trees for fruit to eat and leaves to heal. Wherever the river goes there will be life, abundant life. Even the Dead Sea will become fresh and there will be fish in abundance. The vision the writer conveys is that God, the Holy One, the Creator and Sustainer brings life everywhere that the river flows. The vision imparts that life in all its fulness comes from God alone. Grace, mercy, well-being, salvation, and true life.
Jesus conveys works with this imagery in John 7:37-39 when he shouts to the people, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and let the one who believe in me drink for as the scripture says, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ That living water, the river of God will flow from our hearts to the world around us, we are conduits of the flow of God’s life to the world.
The church, in our particular case, St. Cuthbert’s, is both a source and a meeting place of the waters of life that flow into us, to renew, refresh, and restore the people and their hearts so that being sent out into the world once again, the life of God’s river may flow wherever we go.
We are ‘all sorts’ in coming together Sunday by Sunday, or any time at all to the community of faith. There is a diversity of humanity drawn together similar to an estuary at the meeting places of rivers or at the mouth of a river and its tributaries at the gathering place to reach the great sea. In a river’s estuary there is immense biodiversity. It is a place that is teeming with life. The water and nutrients gathered there give that life.
The Estuary of St. Cuthbert’s draws our lives together and as we flow together in our gathering to be filled with God, the Holy Spirit and then flow out once again to bring Holy life to other places, people, situations, and conditions. Where we go, brackish water becomes fresh, people are fed and nourished, people experience grace, forgiveness and well-being. The incredible enormity of what happens in worship on Sundays or anytime God’s people gather, deepens the river because God’s life is flowing from our hearts.
In our Season of Creation, we think about physical estuaries of rivers like the Fraser River or the Serpentine Fen flowing into Mud Bay and to the Ocean. We see the gathering of so many species of animal, birds, insects, fish and marvel at it. For me, this is a wonderful metaphor of the church and how much life there is when and where the church gathers in all its own complexities and diversity. The intensity of the fulness and joy of living is made possible. The life of the church should be seen by the surrounding community as a place of welcome for many people of all and every tradition because the water of life is brought by the Holiness of God who is the author of all life.
In this Season of Creation, perhaps we can see the Water of Life that flows to estuaries where the diversity of life gathers as a symbol of who we are as God’s people at St. Cuthbert’s, where each one of us receives the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in all the ways we need, to know life in all its abundance and allow it to flow from our lives to bring life to others in the Name of the Lord and by the power of the Holy Spirit. St. Cuthbert’s as an estuary, can be a place to draw people in need of the living water.
As we consider all the charities we support or are involved with, each one of these can be brought before us all, not just in name on a list, but in a way that we can consider their trials and tribulations and how we can be supportive of them as they seek the living water to continue. It is one thing to pray for them. It is another to throw our support their way. By this I specifically mean Alongside Hope, The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Philippines, The Canadian Food Grains Bank, International China Concern, the Front Room, North Crest Home, Laurel Place and so many, many other charities and places for well-being where the River of God flows.
The Estuary of St. Cuthbert’s
In this estuary, the river of life bubbles up. It becomes ankle deep, chest deep, then so deep, all one can do is swim. It floods Delta and the surrounding communities, but it does not destroy or take away. It gives and causes the people and all that the River of God touches to thrive and grow and live as God would have us. We are blessed.
With grace and peace,
Rev. Stephen Laskey
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