IT’S THE WATER!

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

February 11, 2001

Text: "They shall be like a tree planted by water." (Jeremiah 17:8)

First Reading: 1 Cor. 15:12-20

Second Reading: Luke 6:17-26

About six weeks ago I started using distilled water to water my African violets and other houseplants. I had heard some time ago that the professionals used distilled water on their plants, since it’s free of any chemicals and chlorine usually found in municipal water. Before that either I never minded nor gave much thought to what water I used, as long as the plants didn’t die on me. But, for awhile I’d noticed that the violets just didn’t have the sheen, or they didn’t bloom as often as they should. As for the other plants, the tips of their leaves turned brown. I suspected that was from the chlorine in the water. But then, we have a water softener, so I thought that would have taken care of the chorine.

Then for Christmas last year, we got a gardenia plant. In reading the instructions on how to care for it, they said quite clearly and in bold face print, "do not use water from a water softener!" It seems the salt used in the water softener would upset the ph factor in the soil and eventually kill the gardenia, which it did. So, I thought it was about time to switch to distilled water, and since then the plants have seemed to thrive. Their leaves are green. The violets have bloomed more than they ever have and there are no more brown tips on the edge of the others.

Two weeks ago many of you know that we were on vacation on the island of Barbados. While we were there we heard how Barbados has the cleanest water in the world. Volcanic action and coral activity formed Barbados, and so the base of the island is coral. It is through this coral the water passes as it seeps from the aquifers to surface wells. There it is pumped to the treatment plants where it is processed for drinking. Once we heard that the water was so pure, we had no problem drinking it, and I have to admit it tasted quite good.

Water, it’s everywhere. We’re born in it. We’re re-born through our baptism with it. We won’t live long if we don’t drink it. We should drink more of it. If we don’t get it fresh and uncontaminated it can kill us. When we do die it leaves our bodies, so they return to dust, "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. It’s a vital and necessary part of life on this earth.

Throughout the two weeks in India I was so careful not to drink the water. Try doing that when you brush your teeth. It’s almost an automatic reflex to rinse the brush first, put the toothpaste on the brush and then brush your teeth. Try changing your routine, so that you don’t put the brush under the water. I had to learn to take bottled water, not the water from the tap, wet the brush, brush my teeth and then rinse again using the bottled water. Before I got to that point, however, I’d thrown away three toothbrushes, because I’d put them under the spigot each time. I was so afraid of the water, in the trash they went. Finally, I put a cup over the spigot to keep from turning the water on and avoid wasting any more toothbrushes. At any rate, I was so proud of myself that I hadn’t gotten sick. I got on the British Airways flight for the trip home, went to brush my teeth before turning in for the night, put the brush under the spigot, thinking this was now an English "safe-water" sink and forgot they’d refilled their tanks in New Delhi. Sure enough, the next morning the stomach was upset and stayed that way until I got home.

Jeremiah can’t live without it. He uses water as a metaphor for those who’ll be blessed and those who’ll be cursed. The cursed will find themselves parched, cut off from the refreshing waters that cause the desert to bloom, and left to live in an uninhabited salt bed. The blessed, on the other hand, "shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream." Even in the year of the drought they shall not be anxious, since even then it will not cease to bear fruit.

Yesterday we buried one of our young people who died from an overdose of drugs. He’d been at a party and taken Valium and Percocet in sufficient quantities that he never woke up. He was a member of the communicant’s class in 1988. During the class, I’m sure David Roquemore reminded him of his baptism, what it meant to have the water poured on his head, and how from the time he joined the church he would be part of a larger family. It’s much the same as we said this morning when we baptized MacKenzie and Kyle.

Two weeks ago, the communicants participated in the worship service. I’m sure everyone was proud to see them. We like to see the youth active in the church. It makes us feel good when they participate. We feel that we’re doing something worthwhile that will pass the faith on to future generations. Again, with MacKenzie and Kyle, we realize their mother is a single parent. She’s trying to do the right thing by having them baptized. But it’s going to take more than the water we poured on their head.

I wonder if David Tomaszewski remembered the water that was poured on his head? Did it matter, when he lived in the parched places of the wilderness, "in an uninhabited salt land?" Did any of us make the effort to remind him of his confirmation in 1988 and what that should have meant to him? When the communicants this year join the church on Passion/Palm Sunday we’ll feel good and proud to see them here in front of the church. They will have met with the Session and answered some questions. They will have been taught well by Carleton and their adult sponsors will be by their side. They will have done their necessary service projects around the church and earned their hours’ credits they need.

But, where will it go from there? Will we take the time to remind them just what the waters of their baptism mean to them. Or, will it be just like me with the houseplants, it doesn’t matter what water you use, the plants will live anyway. Except in David’s case, when he took the waters of Valium and Percocet they killed him, just as the soft water killed our gardenia.

This past Thursday, I listened to the Maryland Senate debate a bill that will cost the state about 3 million dollars over the next ten years to treat heroin addicts. There’s no question that drug use is growing. It seems as though more and more people are opting out of responsible life styles for the quick, the comfortable, and the easy. Jeremiah is right when he tells us how they shall be like a "shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes."

Relief is meant to come in the waters of our baptism. Our baptism is the distilled water in our lives that can cause us to bloom, our leaves to retain their sheen, and hinder our tips from turning brown and becoming lifeless. It’s time we took more seriously what we do when our communicants join the church. It’s sobering to think that one of them who stood before you and led you in worship two weeks ago could die of a drug overdose in ten years. It’s also time that we took the Kyles and the MacKenzies more seriously, along with the families who show up here weekly from now through June to have their children baptized.