When I was 14, it was June of 1967, I woke up to the news that Israel was carrying out surprise air strikes against what was then called The United Arab Republic. It was a quick (six days) and decisive victory for the newly founded nation of Israel. Israel wanted to control the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula in place of Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in place of Jordan, and the Golan Heights in place of Syria.
What I did not know then was that The Jordan River was a huge part of Israel's modern strategic plan, and that the river is still a major factor in the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts in the Middle East.
Imagine that River.
Water is essential to Life. The first sentence of the Bible is about water. Our Jewish ancestors tell us that God was about to utter those unforgettable words, “Let there be light…, let the waters be gathered together…, Let the earth put forth vegetation…”
And there was life.
But not before there was water.
Water and wind were first.
Water and wind made up the formless void.
We thank you, God, for the clean air we breathe and the clean water we drink.
For the past two days, I have been away at the Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Church in Delaware. At the close of the convention, a spokesperson for Episcopal Development and Relief in Delaware rose to speak; and as he did, he took a sip of water, clean and sparkling water. And he asked each of us (2 or 3 hundred people in the room) to raise our hands if we had had a drink of water that day. And we all did. And he asked if we had washed our hands that day. And we said yes. And he asked, did we know that 884 million people on this planet have no access to clean water—to drink, to wash in, to reflect on, as we do this morning, on what was present when God was said to have breathed life into this planet—884 million people who cannot imagine it because they have never known what it is like to have clean water.
884 million people have no access to clean water. Imagine a community where everyone has clean water except those on the other side of the tracks. Imagine your half-quadrant with no showers, no drinking water, no bathrooms at all. That is what it is like for the 884 million.
Brothers and sisters, reflect with me, if you will, on the story of Naaman, a commander of the Syrian Army, who suffered from leprosy, a highly contagious and debilitating skin disease. I did a little research on Naaman and found that, in Bernhard W. Anderson’s extensive and scholarly work, Understanding the Old Testament, Mr. Anderson makes clear that the Syrians and Israelis were at war with each other in 850 BCE. The war was over water rights.
They are still at war! And the war is over water rights.
Water is life! Since the beginning of time, living things have organized their societies in places where there was water.
Around 850 BCE, a little Jewish girl was abducted by the Syrian Army and put to work in Naaman’s house. One day she said to her mistress, “I know a man who can heal my master Naaman. He is a holy man who lives across the Jordan River. He is the prophet Elisha and Yahweh is his God.” To make a long story short, Naaman, the Syrian army commander, was granted permission by his king to go check out this miracle cure. The doctor, so to speak, was the prophet Elisha, and Elisha simply wrote a prescription. Naaman was offended by this because he thought that he should be seen in person. Elisha declined to see Naaman, but on the advice of his servants Naaman decided to trust the prophet and so he washed in the Jordan River. Scripture says, “So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean.”
Friends, I don’t know about you, but I want to live in a world where miracles like that can happen, do happen. I want to live in a community where the message from the wise and the faithful is one of hope and promise. The message of the Old Testament is that God is a God who makes covenants—promises, that both side are bound to keep. Jesus broke bread and poured wine on his last night with friends, as a sign of the new Covenant—a promise that God wants something better for you and for me.
Morning has broken, like the first morning is a reminder that we are living a sacramental existence, older than anyone reading this blog.
I remember hiking with my wife, Mary, before we were engaged to be married. We were young and had stronger legs than we do now. We were hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and we were thirsty. We had stumbled onto a stream. Parched and dry, we knelt to drink the cold, clear water at a place called The Basin, where the water flowed down from the mountain. It tasted great. It was refreshing beyond our imagination. Could we do that today? Is the water flowing in our planet’s streams safe or polluted?
Friends, the planet is sick right now. Planet Earth has leprosy, and we are not doing enough to cure its disease. We are exploiting our fragile earth, our island home, in order to make temporary profits, profits that will pay a one-way ticket to oblivion and reserve a front row seat for our children to unknown suffering and disease.
Some say that small sections of the Jordan's upper portion, near the Sea of Galilee, have been kept pristine for baptisms, but the 60-mile downstream stretch is polluted. Environmentalists say the river might recover, but it would take decades to restore its quality to safe standards. In 2007, Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME) named the Jordan River one of the world's 100 most endangered ecological sites.
I will finish with one last story. When a group of students and teachers visited South Africa two summers ago, we spent several days at St. Mark’s School in Jane Fyrse. At one of the morning chapels (they have one every day to start the school day), we were asked to share what we had imagined about South Africa before we came. Our students from America said things like: beautiful stretches of land, jungle animals and exotic birds. Then a student from St. Marks stood up to share, and she said one thing. There was one thing she imagined about America. Can you guess what it was?
Water.
“I imagine a place where everyone has plenty of clean water.”
Water is life. The Naaman story is a sweet reminder that The Jordan River has a mysterious power to heal. We must be mindful that for many nations and religions, The Jordan River represents Life and Spirit. In it Jesus was Baptized. I believe that it is our sacred responsibility to protect it and all our natural rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, seas and oceans.
"Morning has broken, like the first morning, … praise for the singing, praise for the morning, … praise for springing, ... ." Praise for courage to do all we can to ensure that future generations can stand and sing, "praise this new day."
