Getting around the hose-pipe ban

This sermon was preached the Sunday before a confirmation in our church. I'm distressed by how many people support the church outside of Sunday Morning Mass, hence some blatent, though I believe justified, haranguing!

Sermon preached at St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Swanscombe on 21st May 2006 based on Isaiah lv.1-11

Sheila,
a proud gardener,
stares sadly up at the sky
and waits for the rain to come.

It doesn’t.

Her wonderful lush green lawn,
the pride and joy of the neighbourhood,
is looking brown and withered.

Yet because the sun just happened to appear
from behind a cloud in late February,
the water company have imposed
the dreaded hose-pipe ban.

So, if Sheila were to hose the lawn quietly by night,
you can bet that someone would squeal
and she’d have to pay a large fine
to the water company.

Sheila would love to know
how to get water for her thirsty lawn
without having to pay a fine for it.

She is seriously considering holding a barbecue
on Bank Holiday Monday,
just to be sure that it will rain.

For the moment,
she has to lug a heavy watering can
backwards and forwards
from the kitchen.

[PAUSE]

On her weekly trip to ASDA,
Sheila looks around her town,
at all her friends and neighbours,
and she notices something.

Like her lawn,
they are all thirsty,
each one of them.

This seems strange
for everyone is thirsty:
they have nothing to drink.

Yet water still comes out of the tap,
there’s plenty of beer down the pub,
and the coffee shop is still open.

Yet everyone Sheila meets
is terribly, terribly thirsty.

Why should this be?

[PAUSE]

How about you?
Are you thirsty?

Thirst is a deeply unpleasant feeling, isn’t it?

This should come as no surprise:
our bodies are mostly made of water.

If we’re thirsty
then it means that we’re low on water,
and if we’re low on water,
then there is less of us than there should be.

We are literally not quite ourselves.

Being thirsty means that
we’re not quite the person
that we were created to be.

We need to be restored,
re-nourished,
revived.

So how do we get this reviving water?

[PAUSE]

Isaiah shouts
"Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price."

Wow, sounds brilliant, doesn’t it?

Come to the Water of Life,
come to Christ
and you will be
revived,
refreshed,
renewed!

But just how do you
buy water without money,
without price?

[PAUSE]

Sheila looks around her neighbourhood
at all the thirsty people.

She sees posh cars,
posh houses,
and satellite dishes.

She looks at shopping bags
filled with food and drink for the week,
good quality stuff.

She sees people contented,
living their lives without worry,
knowing that they are
well-fed and well-watered,
knowing that they have roofs
over their heads.

Yet for all that they have,
they are dying of thirst.

The tragedy is: they do not know it.

[PAUSE]

And God says,
"Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to Me,
and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance."

What is God telling you
about how to get this refreshment?

Just how do you buy water without money?

[PAUSE]

Next week,
in this very Church,
five members of our congregation
will be getting around
the world’s hose-pipe ban.

They have been paying for the water of life
by careful studying, praying,
seeking God and listening to Him.

Their confirmation will give them
the strength that they need
to grow further in their relationship with God,
and they will need our support.

It isn’t only these five of our Church members
who need refreshment;
it’s each one of us,
and the Church too.

The Sacrament of Confirmation
is a major point in our lives
when we receive some
of the Living Water from God.

We also receive food from God.

When?

Well, why are you here this morning,
if not to eat and drink of
the Body and Blood of Christ?

As the world daily drains us of life,
so we daily need to find refreshment with God.

As the world tries to enforce a hose-pipe ban on us
by making us spend too much on things
that don’t really matter,
so we need all the more
to seek the Living water of Christ.

God gives plenteously
to those who look for his refreshing water.

With God, there is no hose-pipe ban.

Yet, it does cost us.

We do have to work for our refreshment.

We do have to work for our Salvation.

We do have to listen to God.

[PAUSE]

It’s fair to say that our Church
is wilting somewhat, isn’t it?


If we want our Church to be revived,
then we, as a congregation
need to listen to God together,
for only then by working together
in His service will we find
all the refreshment this church needs.

Only then will we get around the hose-pipe ban
that the world puts on us.

If there are only a small handful of people
at the Confirmation service next Sunday Evening,
what does this say about our willingness
to be revived?

What does it say about our willingness
to help Charlie,
Jessamy,
Jason,
Malcolm,
and Tracey
receive Refreshing Grace of God
in their lives?



What does it say of our commitment
to support them as our brothers and sisters in Christ
if we don’t help them to receive
the reviving waters of God,
by being present
and praying with them?

The Bishop will ask us
whether we will support our Confirmands
in their search for God and growth in Him.

How can we honestly answer "yes",
if we are not there for them
either in body, and in spirit?

How do we buy the water of life without money?

[PAUSE]

When you leave this Church today,
will you be just as thirsty
as when you entered it?

What will you do to make sure that you aren’t?