Bible Reading: John 7:37-39
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice,
"Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said,
rivers of living water will flow from within them."
By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
A Reflection
I have never been to a music festival; I think it’s the thought of all the mud and the absence of decent loos that puts me off! I have been to a lot of Christian camps, though, starting with youth camps in tents when I was a teenager, through to family camps in a caravan (much more civilised) until Covid intervened.
The key event at most music festivals and Christian family camps is often the final meeting which is more of a celebration, featuring the main speakers and musicians, before being sending everyone back out into the real world, re-energised and re-envisioned.
It was at such an event at the end of a major festival that Jesus chose to make some powerful claims, not just about himself, but about the Holy Spirit and about the church that would soon be born.
"Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said,
rivers of living water will flow from within them."
In what ways are you thirsty today?
Have the last twelve months left you dry both emotionally and spiritually?
If that is the case, Jesus is saying to you, ‘Come to me and drink’. But not only that, he is saying that, as you quench your thirst, God’s life-giving water will flow from you to quench the thirst of those around you. Can you take some time now, or later today, to be quiet before God and to drink from his life-giving water so that you, and those around you are refreshed?
As we approach Pentecost, another Jewish festival, but one at which became a major Christian festival when God chose to pour out his Holy Spirit on the Early Church, let us come to God and seek a fresh outpouring of his Holy Spirit, that the church may be equipped and empowered to serve him in a post-Covid world.
A Prayer
Holy Spirit of God, I come to you now.
Pour upon me your soul-quenching, life-giving water, and flow through me into this parched and thirsty world.
Amen
All who are thirsty
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