DISCLAIMER: It is a bit difficult to think of writing about parched waters and overflowing sanctuaries in the light of the Nepalese humanitarian and geographical disaster. This reflection was written prior to 26 August, but I am persevering because what the world needs to see now, especially the good people of Nepal and beyond, is our love of God flooding from our hearts, bringing healing and peace.
In Marree, in the heart of the desert, there is a yacht club. The water is missing. This great basin stretches across a sixth of the continent, yet most days it is Jeremiah’s failed stream—a dry river, a lifeless wetland. To gaze across the salt pans is to see creation itself echo Jeremiah’s sorrow. But sometimes, the Commodore stands and watches as water arrives like an inland wave, bringing new life to the land. It is as if the river becomes, as Ezekiel saw, God’s blessing flowing over what was barren. God’s life moving, deepening, healing, making fruitfulness possible.
Crustaceans appear. The desert fills with life. Fish are carried in the flood. If you have ever wondered where pelicans go, Marree is their holiday. Kati Thanda, at the heart of the Dreaming for the Arabana and Dieiri people, is what Ezekiel saw.
“9 Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. 10 Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. 11 But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. 12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”
Ezekiel 49.9-12
Ezekiel’s river is a more pleasant image. God’s life flowing outward, deepening, healing, making fruitfulness possible again. Soon, the Lake Eyre Yacht Club will host its regatta, as the Season of Creation ends and World Animal Day arrives. The birdlife, the fish, the creatures—life at the lowest place—continue to change and grow.
In time, the waters recede. Fish, crustaceans, birds diminish. The great lake evaporates. Kati Thanda returns to salt and desert. This is not creation failing. It is the rhythm of this ancient land.
Ezekiel sees water flowing from the sanctuary and bringing life wherever it goes. Paul sees something remarkably similar flowing from lives immersed in Christ: genuine love, generosity, hospitality, compassion, peace; evil overcome not by greater evil, but by good.
This is Ezekiel’s vision: water flowing from the temple, deepening until it becomes a river that cannot be crossed, only entered. Wherever that water flows, there is life.
Trees grow beside it. Their leaves do not wither. Their fruit does not fail. What they produce nourishes, and even their leaves are healing. There is also room for patches of dryness and barrenness. It is all part of God’s word in creation.
It is a vision of creation alive.
It could also be a vision of ourselves.
If we call ourselves temples of the living God, what flows from us? What follows downstream from our choices, our words, the creatures we share this place with, and the way we care for the earth?
Romans 12 answers the question:
Let love be genuine.
Romans 12
What flows from the temple?
Love without pretence.
Honour.
Hope.
Patience.
Generosity.
Hospitality.
Compassion.
Peace.
Refusing vengeance.
Good overcoming evil.
The river reveals the temple.
What flows from us reveals where our heart and mind have been set.
Jesus’ rebuke shifts from ‘Get behind me, Peter!’; the issue is strikingly one of orientation. Jesus does not accuse Peter of lacking affection, loyalty, or even faith. Peter’s problem is where his mind is facing:
“you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
And then comes the extraordinary sequence:
Get behind me → deny yourself → take up your cross → follow me.
“Behind me” is precisely where a disciple belongs. If we take the Good Shepherd imagery, it is the sheep who follow the shepherd.
So “Get behind me, Satan” can be heard not simply as “Go away!” but with a rather sharper irony: Peter, stop standing in front of me, trying to determine where this road ought to go. Get back into the place of the disciple. Follow.
When we repent, we turn around and see the world differently. Repentance is not primarily staring backwards at what I have done with remorse. It is turning so that what was behind me is now ahead of me. The landscape hasn’t changed; my orientation within it has.
Then, the words of Paul begin to crystallise into something even more extraordinary. We are called to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what the will of God is…”
The transformed Christian isn’t simply someone whose account has been settled. The transformed Christian sees anew and therefore walks differently.
What flows from us shows where our heart and mind rest.
Don’t be conformed to this age’s way of seeing.
Be transformed.
Have your mind renewed.
Discern the difference.
Live differently.
We come through the water facing another direction.
Repentance is not spending our lives looking back at what we have left behind. It is turning around, discovering Christ before us, and walking on.
Renounce.
Turn.
Take up.
Follow.
Today we close with the blessing of baptism. It is the commission we share, because the water of life in which we were immersed still flows from our hearts. It could defile us, or define us. We are sent people. We are an apostolic gathering, pushed out the door with work to do.
Ezekiel sees water flowing from the temple. Soon, we will be immersed in the season of creation. In these weeks, we remember the water of our baptism. This is a time to contemplate what flows from our lives.
We are called to be immersed in the life of Christ, so that his life may flow through us for the healing of God’s world.
And with them, and everything else we do and see, we might continue to praise God together with the psalmist
6 I will immerse my hands into your innocence, O Lord,
Psalm 26.6-8 alt
that I may serve what is flowing from your sanctuary;
7 To make heard the voice of thanksgiving
and proclaim to all your wonderful deeds.
8 Lord, I love the house of your habitation
and the place where your glory abides.
Psalm 26.6-8 alt
Caring for our own temples as a living sacrifice calls on us to realise that where we are is not always where we wish to be. I no longer belong to that. Turning to Christ, I give the past no more of my allegiance. And when I renounce all that is evil, know this: I am going somewhere else.
Renounce.
Turn towards Jesus.
Take up the cross.
Follow.
The true position of a disciple. Then there remains one question that I cannot instruct you on, nor give you an easy solution to. That question is, “What way of seeing the world do I need to leave behind in order to be a disciple of Jesus?” How can I resist being conformed to this age’s way of seeing, but rather, be transformed, renewing our mind, discerning and living differently?
Paul helpfully provides us with a list to take on board.
Humility. Different gifts. Genuine love. Abhor evil, hold fast to good; give honour, practice patience, be hospitable, bless those who are against you, let the vengeance be God’s, and never overcome evil with evil.
Romans 12
I’m not sure about you; I think that is more than enough to get on with.
Soon, the burgee will fly again over Kati Thanda, Lake Eyre. The Commodore will review the program for next month’s regatta. The integrity of creation, as we name in our Marks of Mission, is as important as the integrity of our relationships to God, to ourselves, to our neighbours. What flows out of us is what matters.
Dear friends, where do we belong? Are we facing the right direction, following Christ? Individually, as a Parish, as a people, we always need to look at where we are facing. And if we need to change, to repent in the truest sense of the word, think differently. There is still a road to walk.
May we all have the courage to walk the path ahead.
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Breaking Open 