The world is thirsting for God. The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit to guide the Church into the whole truth. We all have something in our life that we are chasing after, but we remain thirsty. Christ offers Himself as the source of rivers of living water if we believe. Instead of offering people the world which will never quench their thirst, offer God to those who are thirsty.
Transcript:
My brothers and sisters, we just heard in the gospel a promise from Christ. He says, “Whoever thirsts and comes to me and believes in me, as the Scripture says,” He says, “out of His heart will flow, rivers of living water.” Rivers of living water, I want you to imagine this concept for one moment, because in Jerusalem, this is an arid place, this is a half-desert place where these people are living, and Christ is promising a river of water.
He says, “Whoever thirsts and come after me and believes in me will have this river.” If you imagine, this never ending supply of water. How many of you have ever been thirsty? Raise your hand. And you go and there’s no water in the refrigerator, maybe you’re outside and there’s a little bit of water left in the bottom of the glass. You see these in the movies all the time. When they’re out in and they’re lost in the wilderness and they find just three drops of water. They’re dripping for the drips of water, but it doesn’t quench their thirst. Sometimes even the glass, or for those lost at sea, the seawater is worthless when we’re thirsty because of all the salt. And here, Christ is promising rivers of water if we are thirsty.
And so my brothers and sisters, the world is thirsting for something. The world is thirsting for God, and we have Him. We know Him. He has been promised to us by Christ. The Holy Spirit has come today, the Feast of Pentecost we are remembering, that the Holy Spirit has come and guided the church into all the truth, that is the promise of Jesus Christ. And here, we are still thirsty, because we’re chasing something other than Christ in our life.
All of us have something in our life that we’re chasing. Maybe it’s a good job, maybe it’s a position of honor, maybe it is that relationship, but we’re all chasing something. And Christ is here to offer us an alternative. He says, “If you thirst and come to me and believe as the scripture fulfilled, rivers of living water.” You see, my brothers and sisters we’re searching for the wrong thing. We go out these doors on Sunday afternoon and we go about our life and we’re still thirsty and we can’t figure out why our thirst has not been quenched, because we’re trying to fill it with something else. Maybe it’s money, maybe it’s a job, something. But Christ offers us himself. And our friends, our neighbors, the world thirsting for God, and what do we offer them? We offer them our community, we offer them our culture, we offer them fellowship, but we don’t offer them Christ.
Think of how we interact with the other members of our society. Are we presenting Christ to our neighbors and to our friends and to our coworkers? If we know they are thirsting, because everyone thirsts, do we offer them baklava or do we offer them Christ? This is where Christ rests in Tarpon Springs, Florida. On the altar table, in this beautiful cathedral is where any of our friends can come and have an encounter with Jesus Christ and be filled with rivers of living water and they will never thirst again. So, my brothers and sisters, as the heat of summer begins to bear down on us, as we begin to thirst for water, remember to quench your thirst with Christ, and to offer your friends not just a glass of water, but to offer your friends Christ, and offer to bring your friends to church so they too can encounter Jesus Christ and allow their thirst to be quenched by God and His Holy Spirit. Glory to God for all things.
