Tale of Two Rivers

September 28, 1999

Psalm 65 "The river of God is full of water . . ."

Introduction

It is certainly not my purpose to have a string of sermons based on 'what I did on my summer vacation,' and yet here I go again! Last week I talked about heat and desert dryness and God's Presence that satisfies like a drink to a thirsty man. This week I have been thinking about rivers. And my mind went to the Red River in Texas.

All my life I've been singing "When I come to the Red River valley..." But when one sees the Red River it is likely to be quite different from what one expects. The bridges that cross the Red River seem to be few and far between. When there is a bridge it is a BIG bridge. A strong bridge, too; we were told a number of times about last year when the floods came, and how the water all but swept away the bridge that carries I 44 across the Red River (I 44 is the Interstate from Oklahoma City to Dallas.)

The Red River basin itself is quite wide, too. It is made to carry a lot of water or perhaps more correctly, has been shaped across the centuries by carrying a lot of water. But the thing that has impressed me the several times that I have seen the Red River has been: HOW LITTLE WATER! Where's the river?!

Now comparisons are odious. And no one can blame the Red River for it depends on its sources.

Every river is the product of its tributaries. And evidently in the normal course of events the Red River has a very limited supply of steady, dependable, unfailing water. When the cloudbursts come up in the hills, the Red River, and many Texas rivers can become extremely dangerous. They fill up their wide banks and more.

If one came to cross the Red River bridges at flood time one would say: "Here is one of the strong suppliers of water, a major stream in this part of the world." But when the run off of the distant storm is over the Red River becomes a shallow, meandering stream amidst a great long pile of sand.

Comparisons are odious. No one can blame the Red River. But for years I lived near another river. As a matter of fact I was born on its banks, at Nyack, New York. I have crossed the Hudson many more than a hundred times. I have put my little boat on its broad expanse and felt it moving powerfully under me.

The Hudson is actually a tidal estuary as well as a mighty river, and the tides move many miles to the north from its mouth in New York Harbor. It is navigable by ocean vessel more than 100 miles, all the way to Albany. It is connected with the Great Lakes system through the Erie Canal. And while the Hudson has its moods, it is always there, and it is always FULL! It can't help it. It is a product of its sources.

For coming down from Lake Champlain, and through two (or three) ranges of mountains (if you want to name the Berkshires as separate from both the Adirondacks and the Catskills) the Hudson does not change character for thunderstorms. The mighty Hudson is fed by hundreds of spring fed lakes and streams that flow into scores of brooks and rivers.

It is amazing when one thinks of the sheer volume of water that passes, say, the Tappan Zee, where the river is two or three miles wide, flowing two or three miles an hour past a given point. Where does all that water come from? But there it is!

What is the difference between the Red River and the Hudson? Or, perhaps more importantly: How may we keep the rivers of our souls filled with God's water of life and blessing?

ON KEEPING THE STREAM FULL

  1. WE CAN DETERMINE: Not just to live on the run off.

    We can begin to keep our soul's life streams filled when we determine that we will not be satisfied with a spasmodic flow of grace.

    Perhaps "determination" is the key in starting. To say: "Inasmuch as in me lies, I will tap into the great and permanent sources of God's grace." Rivers cannot help what they are, nor can they determine their 'character.' But people may choose how they shall be filled. People can simply move to higher ground, or to where the water isflowing. People have the privilege of tapping into God's resources.

  2. So how do we go about 'tapping into the deep springs?'

    I want to talk about keeping our souls filled with God in these minutes we have together.

    (Perhaps there is one sense in which this is a process that cannot be taught. Our relationship to God is intensely private, and each of us must learn the deep lessons for ourselves. But in another sense we can guide and help each other. That is what pastors are for, and churches, and fellowship in the Holy Spirit. There are two sides to that truth!)

    Illustrations are helpful. When we talk about rivers that are full and rivers that are half full or less we get a picture in our minds. But illustrations cannot sustain the total truth. They aren't the whole picture. And we need to see that while we may talk 'tributaries,' of many 'sources' and many 'means of grace,' there is really but one Source of Life! And that Source, of course, is God Himself! God is the Source of spiritual fullness.

    All that we do, all that we are come to this one point: we are made to know GOD!

  3. GOD IS THE ONLY SOURCE. But He has provided what we call "means of grace."

    Our goal is God Himself. Not what God can give, or what He can do for us: God Himself! But in finding God Himself, we still see that God has provided (what we call) means of grace that bring us into contact with Himself.

    Some of these means of grace are public worship, and scripture, and daily communion, and fellowship with God's people. And the goal of all these and many other channels (or tributaries) to our stream of life is an increasing awareness that God is with us, and wants to share all our life with us.

    1. So we look to meet GOD when we come to worship! It may seem so elementary but often people come to church because they know they should; or they come because vaguely they want to 'receive help.' But deliberately come to meet God and be filled anew with His Presence.
    2. And read the scriptures to meet GOD. Once again, it is so simple I hardly dare say it but many of us learned to read the Bible because we know we SHOULD (and so we should! . . . but there's the rub!
    3. And so on down the list of "means of grace!" PRAY in order to be filled with God's Presence . It is one of the things that will make a river of you instead of a dry stream bed. SEEK JESUS IN FELLOWSHIP with God's people!

One of the rich sources of finding God is looking for Him in the face of the Church! We find God in an INCREASING AWARENESS of the "Presence."

The Quaker teacher Thomas Kelly (A Testament of Devotion) holds forth the ideal that common, ordinary, work a day mortals like himself and you and me can practice the Presence of God until He becomes to most real Person in our lives!

Conclusion

I don't know about that but I'm bound to find out! Where will such a determination to find God leave us?

  1. It won't make 'little gods' out of us as we said in the message this morning: when we pray "OUR Father..." With Jesus we still have our faults and need His grace . . .
  2. But it will become our greatest joy to know that in some measure GOD DOES FILL THE CHANNEL OF OUR LIVES and once in a while we have that exquisite joy of realizing: God has used me! God has blessed me by letting me serve Him!

Oh, humanly it is possible to be exhausted in doing well (don't we have to 'rest up from our vacations' now and then?) and even Jesus became weary. But Jesus also said, at the well at Sychar when He had been so very tired: "I have meat to eat that ye know not of!"

In ministering to the woman at the well, Jesus had been physically refreshed, as it were.

None of us are great "Hudson Rivers," perhaps. But God's Source channel is full of water! We do not need to be gushing full and then empty and dry. We can tap into the deep wells of God and stay filled with Him!