The River of Life

The following is a short meditation I gave today at Sargent Mennonite Church's  fall retreat:

Have you ever noticed how the Bible's writers don't understand basic geography?

In the book of Genesis, at the beginning of time, God put us in a garden. From the Garden flowed a river, and that river divided into four rivers, the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates.

The problem with this image is that rivers don't work this way, rivers start at as tiny streams forming from melting mountain snow or rainfall and flow down hill, as they flow they meet more streams and form into a river, more and more rivers connect and eventually it flows into the ocean.

But geography lessons aside, the bible tells us that a river flows out of Eden, and this is important. This is the unfolding story of humanity, a story of life flowing out of Eden.

Between the Tigris and the Euphrates, a city was built, and was called Babylon... or as we know it in the Hebrew Babel, The Babylonians built a massive step-pyramid, with hanging gardens. It was here at Babel that humanity gets dispersed, and spreads throughout the whole world.

In the Revelation of John we see a reversal, where previously we were scattered because of a city we now see a gathering together of the nations into a new city, a new Jerusalem, the city of God. God will live on earth among God's people. Again basic geography goes out the window and from God's throne there flows a new river, this time it is the river of life. On either side of the river is the tree of life, whose fruit is the healing of all the nations.

As the church, we are the beginning of that new city. When Jesus was on earth he proclaimed “The Kingdom of God is at hand” The Kingdom of God, where God reigns, began during his earthly ministry, but when Jesus left this earth, it wasn't done, instead he left the church behind to continue bringing about the kingdom. To continue working at it.

Now, during yesterday's discussion some of is noted how As humans we are incapable of bringing the kingdom of God in it's fullness, Revelation shows that this will only happen when Jesus returns, and yet that doesn't mean we don't work at it. We participate in a Kingdom that is already, and not yet, and we invite others to join us in that Kingdom.

Like the river that flows from the city, we are called to go out into the world, and like the river flowing out of Eden, we break geographical bounds and spread out, travelling north and south and east and west. As we travel we come in contact with other people, and the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the Tree of Life, which surrounds us on both sides is offered as a way of healing all the nations.