From Feast to Feast …
John 7:37-39 37On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and called out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! 38As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Holy Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Peter preached, “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.’” (Acts 2:17) Amen.
The weekends in May and June are filled with feasts. There are a lot of high school and college graduation parties on weekends this time of the year. We enjoy hot dogs, brats, hamburgers, and taco bars at these feasts. We enjoy lemonade, iced tea, soda, adult beverages, and water at these feasts. We are celebrating a big day in the life of our friend or family member.
In John chapter 7, the Jews are celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles or also called the Feast of Shelters. The Feast of Shelters commemorates 40 years of big days where the Lord took care of the children of Israel while they wandered in the Sinai wilderness. During that time, the Israelites lived in temporary shelters or tabernacles on their way to the Promised Land of Canaan. During these years of wilderness wandering, the Lord graciously provided for his people by giving them food and drink, even in a dry and desolate desert. God miraculously supplied them with bread from heaven and water from a rock.
The Feast of Shelters was a pilgrimage festival where Jews would travel from wherever they lived to Jerusalem to celebrate. For this festival, the Jews would live in shelters outside the city for a week. Each morning, water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam and carried in a golden pitcher to the temple. The water was poured out, the trumpet would sound, the people would sing the words of Isaiah, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).
Jesus is in the temple courtyard on the last day of the Feast of Shelters. John records for us, “On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and called out, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.’” This is not just a prayer for the outpouring of water. This is a prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The Jews in the crowd probably didn’t understand what Jesus was referring to. By inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St. John enlightens us to the meaning of Jesus words. “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Holy Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
The Holy Spirit was certainly active throughout the Old and New Testaments bringing people to faith in the coming Savior. But the special outward gifts of the Holy Spirit that St. Paul mentions in our Epistle lesson from 1 Corinthians 12 were not poured out on people until after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.
Jesus promised the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit after his ascension. Pentecost was another pilgrim festival to celebrate the harvest. Pentecost was celebrated seven weeks after Passover or 50 days. Pentecost means 50. It was a celebration of the abundance of blessing the Lord gave to Israel when they settled in the Promised Land. It was a land flowing with milk and honey. Jewish people who had been spread out over the world made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. They were “Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, and of Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya around Cyrene; visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; Cretans and Arabs” (Acts 2:9-11). At the Feast of Pentecost, the people brought the firstfruits of their crops as an offering to the Lord.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised took place at this Feast of Pentecost. There was the sound of rushing wind, tongues of fire on the heads of the apostles, and the apostles preached to the people in their own various languages.
This Feast was the firstfruit offering from among the nations. The harvest of 3000 who were baptized that day were brought to the Lord.
You are a part of the harvest. You are an offering to the Lord. You are a reason for the angels and saints to celebrate. You come to the Feast of the altar with your Lutheran brothers and sisters. You drink deeply from the Water of Life. You celebrate that you are living in temporary shelters here knowing that God will soon be bringing you into the Promised Land of heaven.
But do you always feel like celebrating? Do you always cherish receiving the living waters of Baptism? Do you cherish having your faith fed regularly at the Feast of the Lord’s Supper? Do you cherish feeling the wind of the Holy Spirit blowing through the voices of pastor and people, blowing through spoken and sung words entering your ears, heart, and head?
Do you remain spiritually hungry at times? Do you feel parched and dry? Do you feel bored by worship? Are you uninterested in the repetition of these feasts and festivals of the Christian Church Year? Do you go elsewhere looking for excitement and refreshment? Are you restless, not knowing what you’re looking for?
The African bishop, St. Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you” (Confession Book 1). God has put a thirst for him in our hearts, and we will never be happy, never truly be at rest, until we come to God, and he satisfies us. We will never have our thirst quenched unless we are drinking deeply and continually from Christ’s living waters. We will not have our spiritual hunger satisfied unless we are partaking of Christ’s body and blood at his sacramental feast.
So Jesus calls to us, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.” If you think about it, if Jesus was a mere man, this is an extraordinary promise. How can Jesus meet all my needs and desires if he is nothing more than a man. How can Jesus be enough to quench my thirst and satiate my hunger. … He can’t. Unless … unless Jesus is more than a mere man. Unless Jesus is true man and true God – God who came in human flesh, born among us, living, and suffering, and dying on a cross for us. And then rising from the grave and ascending to the Father’s right hand.
Because Jesus is more than a mere man – but God and man together to be our Savior – he is enough for us. Jesus has been through the worst of what this world has to offer … and he still stands before us, holding out joy and jubilation, satisfaction and salvation, to us with both nail-scarred hands. “Come to me,” he says, and we come forward. “Trust in me,” he says, and we learn to rest the weight of our hopes and fears on him – a little bit more each day. He can handle us, all of us, even the darkest and most broken parts of us. He knows what you need. He knows whom you need. He gives you himself. He gives you his Holy Spirit. “I will quench your thirst,” he says. “I will make my Spirit a river of living water flowing from my heart into and then out of your heart. You will never be thirsty again. And I will use you to share the water of life with those around you.”
God takes his people from Feast to Feast to Feast. This week, we learned that God has graciously granted us the opportunity to feast one more time. On Thursday, the Lord of the Church blessed us with Nate Klusmeyer, who will be ordained and installed on July 9 as our Inreach Pastor. After calling 16 times over 2 ½ years, we will feast. We will feast together on God’s Word in the worship service, feast on the food at the celebration meal afterwards, and then the pastors and their wives will feast at the after-party at the Zarling Jedi Temple.
Nate’s ordination and installation give us even more reason to continue to feast. I’ve told every pastor who has held our call that I feel the Lord will bless our efforts with growth in his Kingdom gathered here at Water of Life. We have every confidence that the Holy Spirit will use the spiritual gifts of Nate and me and all of you to bring our members here for the feast of Word and Sacraments. He will use and bless all of us to invite the families at WLS, Shoreland, and in the neighborhoods and communities around our two campuses. He will bring forth a harvest of souls like he began to do at the Feast of Pentecost with the apostles. He will use us to bring more people to the feasts of Word and Sacraments, the feasts of the Water of Life and the Bread from Heaven, in our two sanctuaries.
The Feast of Shelters to the Feast of Pentecost to the installation feast to the feast of Word and Sacrament to the banquet feast of salvation. That’s a lot of feasts!
Celebrate. Cherish. Come. Eat. Drink. Get excited. Be refreshed. Then invite others to come to celebrate with you. To eat, drink, get excited, and be refreshed with you. To come to the feasts with you.
From feast to feast to feast to feast … Amen.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Acts 2:21) Amen.