American
preacher, Peter Marshal, had a published sermon entitled, Keepers of the Spring. Although the sermon’s point in the end, is
to speak about the disparity of society as the fault of women not living into
their roll as mother; the sermon begins with a story that I wish to re-tell as
we contemplate wisdom as a theme in this morning’s scripture.
Once upon a time, there was a town at the foot of
a mountain range. High up in the hills, a strange and quiet forest dweller took it upon himself
to be the Keeper of the Springs. He patrolled the hills and wherever he found a
spring, he cleaned its brown pool of silt and fallen leaves, of mud and mould
and took away from the spring all foreign matter, so that the water which
bubbled up through the sand ran down clean and cold and pure. The water leaped sparkling over rocks and dropped joyously in crystal cascades
until, swollen by other streams, it became a river of life to the busy town: where
it whirled millwheels, refreshed gardens, fed fountains, was swimming ground
for swans, and children played on the bank.
But the City Council was a group of hard-headed, hard
boiled business people. They scanned the civic budget and found in
it the salary of the Keeper of the Springs. Said the Keeper of the Purse: “Why
should we pay this romance ranger? We never see him; he is not necessary to our
town’s work like. If we build a reservoir just above the town, we can dispense
with his services and save his salary.” So,
the City Council voted to dispense with
the unnecessary cost of a Keeper of the Springs, and to build a cement
reservoir. The Keeper of the Springs no
longer visited the brown pools but watched from the heights while they built
the reservoir.
When it was finished, it soon filled up with water, to
be sure, but the water did not seem to be the same. It did not seem to be as clean, and a green
scum soon befouled its stagnant surface.
There were constant troubles with the delicate machinery of the mills,
for it was often clogged with slime, and the swans found another home about the
town. At last, an epidemic raged, and the clammy, yellow fingers of sickness
reached into every home in every street and lane.
The City Council met again. Sorrowfully, it faced the city’s plight, and
frankly it acknowledged the mistake of the dismissal of the Keeper of the
Springs. They sought out the hermit hut
high in the hills, and begged him to return to his former joyous labour. Gladly
he agreed, and began once more to make his rounds.
It was not long until pure water came lilting down
under tunnels of ferns and mosses and to sparkle in the cleansed
reservoir. Millwheels turned again as of
old. Stenches disappeared. Sickness waned and convalescent children
playing in the sun laughed again because the swans had come back.
Marshall
farther along preaches:
There never has been a time when there was a greater
need for Keepers of the Springs, or when there were more polluted springs to be
cleansed.
And likewise
stresses:
If Keepers of the Springs desert their posts or are
unfaithful to their responsibilities, the future outlook of this country is
black indeed. This generation needs
Keepers of the Springs who will be courageous enough to cleanse the springs
that have been polluted.
This morning
consider yourself a Keeper of the Springs. This is in keeping with the
exhortation of Moses from Deuteronomy, from St. Paul advising the Corinthians,
and Jesus extrapolating on the law with the crowds. Each – Moses, Paul, and
Jesus- are inviting and insisting that people live to a higher moral, ethical,
and spiritual standard; concentrating on the importance of right relationships
– for in this there is life and health for the whole community. It takes Keepers of the Springs to ensure
health, life, and shalom.
Deuteronomy is
a book of three sermons. The first
revisits the past from slavery in Egypt through to the present time where the
people are standing in the land of Moab ready to enter into the Promised Land,
after spending 40 years in the desert.
The second sermon reiterates the importance of relationship with God and
the keeping of the law. It comments on the beauty and true living that can come
from living for the common good. The
third sermon stresses that when the people will inevitably screw up, by not following
the law, following their own desires, or forgetting God, all can be restored
with repentance.
Moses’ sermon
is quite blunt:
See, I have set before you today life
and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 If you obey the
commandments of the Lord
your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and
observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and
become numerous, and the Lord
your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if
your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to
other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you
shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the
Jordan to enter and possess.
The people of
Israel are being called to live according to a set of rules: moral, ethical,
spiritual. They are being set aside as Keepers of the Springs. The Springs are
springs of life, health, and wholeness. The Springs begin in having
relationship within the depths of God. For those who have never noticed, there
is something special about the ordering of the Ten Commandments. The first three are about relationship with
God, the 7 remaining are about relationship with other people; the ability of
the last seven are contingent on the first three; for ones’ experience of God
allows one to entertain other human relationship. Without an outside source of
compassion and grace, it would be impossible to get beyond the importance of
self to venture into the face and heart of another.
In the
scripture from Matthew, Jesus is specifically speaking to the Law of Moses as
in Deuteronomy. This sermon is a continued recounting of Jesus’ sermon on the
mount. Jesus is commending the law to his listeners;
shockingly, he upholds the law and insists on a deeper following of the law. Jesus exhorts his followers to embrace
standards of righteousness that exceed the legal requirement and traditional
expectations. (Sundays and Seasons
2017 -Augsburg) Jesus is teaching the crowd how to be Keepers of the Springs.
To be Keepers
of the Springs:
We recognize
that the Springs are the life and grace that flow from the Creator, from
God. The water is pure, lifegiving, and
a never ending free gift to all.
These waters were in the beginning with God, always have been, always
will be. They are the source of life.
We recognize
that the Springs, mostly because of human beings, get full of dirt and
debris. This would be the mess we see
around us; all the mess coming down to sin ---broken relationships which is
most seen in self-centred pursuits; in politics, on City Councils, in churches,
board meetings, in the school yard. The
debris can include: injustice, poverty, power. Dirt is made of broken families,
forgotten members of society, inequality. Wisdom – the Spirit of God – places
in us the understanding that dirt and debris can be removed; continually
checked and cleaned.
We recognize
that in many places the Keepers of the Springs are no longer paid or seen as
important. Cement reservoirs have been
made and life gets muddier, morals turn green, ethics become slimy, spiritual
health gets bogged down; compassion is washed away. And with this society
becomes an entity all about its own survival, consumption, and expansion, no
matter the cost --- people do not matter.
In this world, one keeps laws or creates new ones to be self-serving,
not for the wholeness of life.
To be a Keeper
of the Springs, Jesus’ words and Paul’s words hit hard.
Paul speaks
that the wisdom held by the Keeper of the Springs, is a different kind of
wisdom than that of the rulers of the age, who do not understand God’s wisdom
--- the wisdom of relationship, with God first and then other human beings.
So what
does it mean to exceed legal requirements and traditional expectations?
Fearlessly
persist in taking down walls, build bridges, offer kindness, question
intolerance, fight repulsion, stand to protect and give voice to neighbours.
Personal
development gurus and church growth hot-shots suggest that each person or company
or church succeeds when it proceeds from an articulated operation or mission
statement. They say that every action or
decision made, should first go through the filter of that statement.
This is how to
go about being a Keeper of the Springs.
Each decision and action you take, send it through the law… a
relationship filter. Will this decision
or action make relationships better? If
not, then don’t do it. See what happens over the period of a week if most of
what you are about is all about relationship with God or others. I suspect the
waters of life will be fresher, purer, and more lifegiving; not only for you,
but those who live down stream.
As Keepers of
the Springs be persistent to your posts and faithful to your responsibilities,
the future outlook of the world is dependent upon it. This generation needs Keepers of the Springs
who will be courageous enough to cleanse the springs that have been polluted,
and to tirelessly repair relationship for the wellbeing of the whole people of
God.
I call heaven and earth to witness
against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and
curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving
the Lord your God,
obeying God, and holding fast to God; for that means life to you and length of
days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. To Sarah, Rebekah, Leah,
and Rachel.
