Above: St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, Hamilton, Georgia, November 2, 2014
Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta
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The Collect:
Mighty God, you breathe life into our bones,
and your Spirit brings truth to the world.
Send us this Spirit, transform us by your truth,
and give us language to proclaim your gospel,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 36
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The Assigned Readings:
Exodus 15:6-11
Psalm 33:12-22
John 7:37-39
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There is no king that can be saved by a mighty army;
a strong man is not delivered by his great strength.
–Psalm 33:16, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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Psalm 33:16 applies well to the case of the Exodus from Egypt, the incident which gave birth to the Hebrew nation.
The reading from Exodus 15 language which Christian baptismal rites have invoked. For example:
We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation. Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through his death and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life.
–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 306
The imagery of living water recurs in the Gospel of John. Each time the source of the metaphorical water is God–sometimes Jesus. Thus, in John 7:38, the spring of living water comes from the heart of Jesus, if one reads the verse in the full context of the Johannine Gospel, as I do. The New Revised Standard Version (1989), which gets much correct and which I quote more often than any other translation, identifies this heart wrongly as
the believer’s heart.
How one interprets the Greek text of John 7:38, which does not specify whose heart is the source of the spring of living water, indicates something about one’s theology. We who are more Catholic point to Christ’s heart, but those who are Eastern Orthodox or Evangelical are more likely to agree with the NRSV‘s rendering.
May this spring of living water from the heart of Jesus fill more and more people with the active love for God. May we who have this love already retain it and nurture it in others. And may this spring quench the thirst for God which many people possess yet do not know where to turn to find the living water to satisfy it.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 20, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF SAINT DOMINIC OF SILOS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF SAINT PETER CANISIUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST
THE FEAST OF KATHARINA VON BORA LUTHER, WIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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