There is an old story that claims years ago a ship on theAtlanticwas in distress because its supply of fresh water had run out. It had sailed for nearly three months along the coast of NorthAmerica, through the Gulf of Mexico and now was several nautical miles off theshoreofBrazil. The ship was floating listlessly on a completely still sea. The crew was near starvation but even worse, they had been floating without fresh water for nearly two days. You can live a long time without food, but water of course is a necessity. The crew faced a horrible death from the thirst, and the great irony was there was water all around – alas – only sea water all around them.

When hope was almost gone, they sighted a small fishing vessel powered by oars approaching them. At once they hoisted distress signals. But the only answer they got was dip it up. What heartless mockery, they thought to themselves. Dip it up? To dip up buckets of salt water! They again began to despair. A second time they signaled to the smaller fishing vessel and again came back the answer – dip it up! They signaled one final time, but received the same answer.

Finally in despair, they lowered a bucket. Imagine their amazement and joy when it turned out to be fresh, living water! They didn’t know it, but they were less than two miles out from the mouth of the mighty Amazon River, whose fresh water flows far out to the sea. All they had to do was reach out and dip it up and they would live!

I believe this is a terrific metaphor for our lives. So often we feel like we are floating through life listlessly and dying – and yet we are surrounded by living water. All we need do is dip it up! There are so many times when people share with me their experiences of hopelessness. They feel that their prayers are unanswered and life isn’t turning out the way they had dreamed. In moments like this I wonder if the scriptures aren’t calling them to stop for a moment and breathe in and out –simply to breathe in and out and feel the breath of life filling them up. The Spirit of God is all around us and all we need do is dip it up. So too, there are people who share with me their feelings of loneliness and solitude. They walk through life often times feeling as if they are all alone. In moments like this I wonder if the scriptures aren’t calling them to look – really look – at all the people who pass by them on the street; who serve them at the grocery store; who care for them at the doctor’s office. There are lonely people all around us – so many who are just waiting to be seen and spoken to, acknowledged and affirmed. The Spirit of God is all around us and all we need do is dip it up. And every day there are folks who share with me their physical trials. They are absorbed in their real pain, their death and their dying. And while these feelings are valid, I wonder if the scriptures don’t call us to remember that every moment is a gift. That we are not dead yet! Nature reminds us that we live in a springtime world of rebirth and the Spirit of God – the Spirit of Life is all around us and all we need do is dip it up.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning in one of her great poems has affirmed it well:

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God:

But only he who sees takes off his shoes.

Browning is simply proclaiming what Jesus proclaimed to his friends, the Kingdom of God is within you. And this then is the challenge of Pentecost. We must begin searching for the Spirit of God who is promised to be with us always  . Pentecost reminds us that earth is crammed with heaven, that God is walking with us at this very moment, that the Spirit of God surrounds us and all we have to do is dip it up. And so this summer when you are feeling listless and dying – breathe in the breath of life. This year when you are feeling lonely or abandoned – look into the eyes of another and reach out. In the months ahead when you are feeling pain or your mortality – look around at a world being reborn and remember you are not dead yet. The Spirit of God is everywhere – dip it up!

Jim Wallis is one of America’s premier preachers and pastors. He is the leader of the Sojourners Community, a social justice organization intentionally located in a poor inner city neighborhood in WashingtonDC. After living in that neighborhood for more than twenty years, Wallis found himself one day the victim of a mugging. Preoccupied with an upcoming speaking engagement, Jim failed to “watch his back” as he turned the corner on a deserted street, and by the time he heard the sound of feet running behind him, it was too late. As he turned around he was hit by something sharp enough to open a gash over one eye, and he immediately felt blood running down his face. Several hands pushed him to the ground, and he could hear one of the assailants shout, Keep him down! Get his wallet! Take his money!

Popping up quickly to face the muggers, Jim discovered that there were four of them, all young teenagers, no one more than fourteen years of age. The youth circled Jim, and the youngest one, who couldn’t have been more than twelve years old, clearly had watched a lot of television, because he began to flail away at Jim with earnest but ineffectual karate kicks. Noting that the youth weren’t carrying weapons, Jim decided to confront them with what they were doing. Stop it! Just stop it! Jim scolded them. You guys have got to quit terrorizing people like this. The young teens, taken by surprise, dropped their hands, so Jim continued, I’m a pastor. You boys want to try and beat up a pastor and take his money? Come on ahead. Take your best shot. At that they fled down the street, but the little karate kicker turned back, looking directly in Jim’s eyes with a sad expression and saying in a sincere voice, Pastor, ask God for a blessing for me!

Jim Wallis says this: Who among us does not yearn for a blessing from God? Even those we are tempted to write off as too tough, too entrenched in their destructive behavior – buried deep beneath the hardened exterior there s a yearning for a blessing. Whether a troubled youth, one struggling with addiction, or the “respectable” person fearful of giving voice to his or her own inner struggle – whatever our situation in life, we ache to know God’s blessing.

Jesus was a man very much aware that the whole world “aches” for God’s blessing. In this Season of Easter we hear such wonderful stories about his Apostles bringing the blessing of God to a world “aching” for such a gift. They stand before Gentiles and Jews, they stand before Roman centurions and jailers, they stand before judges and tribunals, and even in the face of death, they bring the blessing of God. And of course forty days after Easter we find Jesus standing with his disciples at the moment of the Ascension and he tells them to go out and baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus doesn’t say: Hey guys, bring my blessing to just the good folks, those who are deserving, and those you love – NO – Jesus says: Go out to the whole world and baptize…bring God’s blessing. Jesus was aware that the world, the whole world aches for that blessing.

What a tremendous challenge for us as we strive to live like Easter people! It’s easy enough to pray for and bless the people whom we love in our lives. The harder part is to bless those whom we don’t even know. We dismiss so easily the co-worker who is irritating or the loud mouth at a football game, or the thoughtless driver who cuts us off. What if we took these opportunities to bless them? What if we asked God to bless them? Would we not be carrying out the Great Commission of Jesus? We dismiss so easily the immigrant, and the person who doesn’t speak English, and the homeless and the one asking for a handout. What if we offered more than our tolerance? What if we asked God to bless them? Would we not be carrying out the Great Commission of Jesus? We dismiss so easily the ex-spouse, the ex-partner, and the ex-friend. What is we took a moment to bless them? What if we put aside our bitterness and hurt and simply prayed that God might bless them? Would we not be carrying out the Great Commission of Jesus? Even more, we might find that we have been blessed in the blessing of others.

Easter is the Season to remember again the Great Commission of Jesus – a commission that he gives to each of us – we are called to bring the blessings of God to the whole world, to a world that “aches” for blessing!

        Chaim Potok was an intensely religious man. He was raised as an orthodox Jew in the Bronx the son of Polish immigrant parents. When Chaim was sixteen he read Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and from that moment on he knew also that he wanted to be a writer. At the tender age of sixteen, he began to write. Day after day he would toil at this new passion.

Chaim’s mother however had a different idea. She wanted her son to go to university and become a doctor. Often she would encourage young Chaim: Son, I know you want to be a writer. But I want you to think about surgery. Become a surgeon. You’ll make your family proud. You’ll make lots of money. And you’ll keep people from dying. Chaim listened to his mother’s desire and responded: No, Mama, I want to be a writer.

Still, like all mothers, Chaim’s mother would not give up. So every vacation break from Yeshiva University, she would repeat her comments in always the identical way: Son, I know you want to be a writer. But I want you to think about surgery. Become a surgeon. You’ll make your family proud. You’ll make lots of money. And you’ll keep people from dying. And Chaim would respond: No, Mama, I want to be a writer. Shortly before his graduation in 1950 his mother still had hopes of Chaim becoming a doctor. One more time she took him aside and began to speak her mantra: You’ll make your family proud. You’ll make lots of money. And you’ll keep people from dying…and Chaim cut her off with exasperation, and with great passion he told his mother: Mama, I don’t want to keep people from dying! I want to show them how to live!

By the time Chaim Potok died in 2002 he was considered one of the great writers of the 20^th century, and as he suggested to his mother, he had spent his literary career showing people how to live.

In the month of April as we celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection are we not remembering that Jesus came to show us how to live? All too often we frame the story of Jesus’ resurrection as one of the next life. We lift up the resurrection narratives as hopeful signs of the eternal life that it promises. We look to the empty tomb and the stone rolled away and the appearance of the angels as signs of the great promise of the next life. And while all of this is certainly part of the Christian story, the resurrection is as much about this life as the next. The resurrection story shows us how to live!

The women who arrived at the empty tomb were told to fear not. In other words they were told that every day should be lived courageously – as a great adventure of faith, and that discipleship means living with a confidence that God was in them and around them. They were also instructed to go to the Apostles and tell them that the Lord is risen! And God is alive – they were to encourage and inspire those closest to them, their community of love. And finally, the Apostles were instructed to go out to the whole world and tell the story of Jesus baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit – that they were to continue the work of Jesus. The resurrection challenged them to have a purpose in life – that they were to be bearers of Good News to a broken and frightened world. The resurrection was not about keeping them from dying; rather, it showed them how to live.

This Easter, the Feast of the Resurrection shows us how to live as well. We so often live with great anxieties and fears. We worry about the future and our health; we worry about the world and its problems; we worry for our children and our families. The resurrection reminds us to drop the fears and remember that God is with us and around us. Fear not!

We are so caught up in our own concerns and problems that we forget to pay attention to those around us. Yet the Feast of the Resurrection reminds us that God has given us a community on this journey of life and the people near to us need our support, our encouragement. We need to inspire our family and friends.

And finally, we can get so caught up in our daily routines that we forget that God has called us to the Great Commission – to proclaim the love of God to all people. We are called to show our faith and the reason for our courage and the source of our hope to a broken world. This is our purpose! In the end the resurrection is certainly about God’s victory over death, yet as much as this; the resurrection teaches us how to live. Fear not! Love your community of faith, your friends and your family! Bring hope to the whole world! Happy Easter my Messiah family.