INTRODUCTION:

A garden full of flowers in bloom. A stroll through the park. A trip to the museum. Holding your grandchild. A long conversation with your best friend. A new book. An afternoon nap. A cold drink of water. A dip in the pool. A few minutes in prayer. What is it that refreshes you? What is it that quenches your thirst?

Years ago, in the very first church in which I was able to serve the Lord's Supper, a little girl from the neighborhood, maybe eight or nine, visited the church. After Worship she was talking to the little girl who had obviously invited her, and she said: "I like your church, they serve refreshments."

And isn't that just what the Sacrament is all about, refreshment? Refreshing our spirits; refreshing our relationship with God and refreshing our memories of all that God has done for us? We come to the Sacrament for refreshment.

In the passage from Revelation this morning, we find out that this sense of refreshment is not just for us but for "everyone who is thirsty." Let's look at the passage together. Rev. 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21.

[12] "See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone's work.

[13] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

[14] Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.

[16] "It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."

[17] The Spirit and the bride say, "Come."

And let everyone who hears say, "Come."

And let everyone who is thirsty come.

Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

[20] The one who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

[21] The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.

In this passage we're invited to COME, DRINK AND INVITE.

I. COME:

A. I love the simplicity of this invitation. No list of qualifiers. No hoops you have to jump through. No baggage at all. Through one word, Jesus throws open the door and throws open the gate with one simple word: "Come"

If your thirsty, "Come"

If your hungry, "Come"

If your tired, "Come"

If your lonely, "Come"

If you just need a place to rest and recuperate, "Come"

If you're in hearing distance of this invitation, "Come"

If you're not then we're coming to find you to tell you Jesus says, "Come" The passage says, "Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift."

In that on word invitation, we hear and see the extraordinary, extravagant Grace of God, like the prodigal father who ran to greet his prodigal son whom he thought he had lost. Like the extravagant shepherd who left the rest of the flock because he couldn't stand to see one of his sheep missing. It wasn't economics, economics would have weighed the cost of that sheep against the possible profit and loss of losing more if he ventured out looking for one stupid sheep. It wasn't economics, it was love and concern for one individual sheep.

That's the extravagance of God. God's grace is not just amazing, it is extravagant to the point of being ridiculous. Those whose lives live by the check list of do's and don'ts can't possibly understand. It's not on the list. But if you've ever been denied love or only experienced conditional love then you understand fully what this extravagant grace is all about. Where nothing you ever did was right or garnered the love and affection you needed and desired, Now, God says, you are mine and if you honor and love me I will lavish more love on you than stink on a skunk.

That's extravagance. Now, I know Jesus said we have to enter through the narrow the gate, maybe that's so he can greet each of us personally, and not welcome us in a herd like the world does. Or maybe it's there at the narrow gate that Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats with a simple look.

Whatever the case, the invitation still stands. "COME HAVE A DRINK. COME."

II. DRINK:

A. And that is the Second part. DRINK.

Nancy Spiegelberg wrote a short poem: "Lord I crawled across the barrenness to you with my empty cup uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known you better I'd have come running with a bucket." (1)

This passage reminds us that we are invited to "COME AND TO DRINK."

The old saying, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink" isn't just true about horses. Sometimes we acts like horses, too. We're presented with every opportunity to drink and "take the water of life as a gift." But we don't. We hold back. Sometimes even when we're thirsty.

B. But drinking from the "water of life" is sort of like tuning your guitar. I was sitting there tuning my guitar the other day and kind of grumbling and wondering all at the same time at how my guitar could get out of tune just sitting in it's stand. That's always been a puzzle to me, but if you think about it, it shouldn't be. You see, the strings are under constant tension. That tension combined with the thickness of the string is what gives it it's tone. Even just sitting there, the tension can change depending upon the temperature and the humidity. A stringed instrument needs constant tuning because of the various tensions.

But you have to know how to tune it. And the best way to tune it is with a tuner or a piano so you can get the proper pitch and key. You can tune it by yourself and it will be in tune for you. But unless you have perfect pitch, it won't match anybody else's. It will be just a little off. It'll sound OK to you until you start to play with others. Then you hear the difference.

It's a lot like our spiritual lives. Our spiritual lives need constant tuning, too. If we tune them to our own hearing, they sound fine to us. But when we get with others, we'll sound off key. That's one of the reasons we need to "COME AND TO DRINK."

We are called to be "instruments of righteousness." As "instruments of righteousness," using our gifts and talents in creative ways to serve God, we need constant "tuning" or a constant refreshing of the Spirit to keep us in tune with the one who holds the perfect pitch, the perfect tone for us to match the music of our lives and souls to. And that, of course, is Jesus. But we have to answer the invitation to COME. And then we have to DRINK.

And when we drink our lives and our hearts and our spirits will never be thirsty again.

III. INVITE:

A. And as we "COME AND DRINK" we're also challenged to "INVITE." We're challenged to "INVITE" others to drink.

It doesn't have to be offensive, like some, or confrontational. It can even simply offer a place of rest and refreshment. It needs to help people find their way home.

I know I've told this before but it fits. A young man loaded down with popcorn and cokes slipped into the movie theater after the lights had dimmed. He paced up and down the aisle, back and forth, looking for the people he had come with. Finally just he stopped and asked loudly, "Does anybody here recognize me?"

One of the basic needs of humanity is to be known. Not famous, not a celebrity. We simply want to be known and to know that someone out there knows who we are and cares about us. (2) That's what this INVITATION is all about. Letting others know that we care and the Jesus cares.

B. Sometimes it's the simple things that make the most difference. The poet, Samuel Walter Foss was walking in New England one hot day. He had walked 24 miles and he was weary. The shade of a tree looked inviting and so did a sign hanging from one of its limbs. It said, "There is a spring of good water inside the fence. Drink if you are thirsty?"

Foss went in and drank. Then he saw another sign on a nearby bench. It said, "Sit down and rest if you are tired?" While resting, Foss saw a third sign on a basket of apples that said, "If you like apples, help yourself?"

An old man came along and Foss asked him about the signs. "Well?" said the old man, "we had the water going to waste and we thought it would be a good thing if we could get some thirsty travelers to drink a little of it. Then this is a pleasant spot to rest in and mother reminded me of this old bench that was doing nobody any good in our attic. So I brought it down here. We have more apples than we can eat at this time of year, and we thought that it would be a satisfaction to us if they could be used somehow. So we put up the signs, and they seem to be doing some little good?"

Foss thanked the man and went on his way, refreshed. At the end of the day he was inspired to write a poem that lives on in dozens of anthologies. It contains these words, familiar to most everyone over 40: "Let me live in a house by the side of the road, and be a friend to man?"

C. You never know what an INVITATION and a little water can do. In his book Try Giving Yourself Away, David Dunn tells about a woman in the lobby of the Union Depot in Cincinnati waiting for the train. She saw a young girl, about 15 years of age, sitting alone in the corner of the depot. As she watched, a mother with two crying children and an armload of packages entered the train station and sat down across from the young girl.

Before the mother could get settled into her seat, the teenage girl hopped up and went over to her. "Can I take care of your two children while you go out to get something to eat?" she asked. "You look a little tired and the next train isn't due for a while, so why don't you let me help you? I'm very good with children." Startled, the mother said, "Oh, thank you! That would be wonderful." And she left the two little girls in the care of this anonymous and generous baby sitter.

A little later the mother returned looking relaxed and refreshed. "Thank you so much," she said.

The teenage girl asked, "Are you catching the next train?"

"Yes," the woman replied, "as soon as I can get everything together."

"Let me help you." the young girl said and then she gathered all of the lady's packages and headed toward the train. After they boarded, she waved and said good-bye. Then she turned and went back into the train lobby and sat down.

She wasn't seated more than 10 minutes when she spotted another mother with children. She walked over and volunteered to baby-sit once again. After a while that mother boarded a train, and then this drifting helper found another mother and did the same thing. By this time the observer was puzzled enough to approach the youth and she said to her, "I'm curious. I've been watching you for an hour or so, and you've spent the entire time helping these young mothers and their children. Why are you doing this?"

"Oh," she said, "I was one of five children. My dad was in the Army and we were always moving from one place to another. My mom got so tired carrying the packages and suitcases and caring for all of us. I remember her saying to me, 'You are so good with children.'"

"My dad went to war and he never came back, so that left my mom alone. And she just recently died, so I thought that maybe I could do something for others in her memory because she said I was so good with kids. I thought there would be a lot of mothers who would be tired here, so that's why I come often to this depot. It makes me feel good, doing it for her. It really helps."

That young woman didn't just INVITE other people to drink from "the water of life" the "the water of life" sprang up like a fountain and flowed from her like an INVITATION to taste and see how Good God is. What a blessing.

CONCLUSION:

You and I are call to be that same kind of blessing in the world, today.

You have been given the greatest gift. A gift that many don't prize because it is free for the taking.

Many people have walked past it without thinking about the cost to God. Or the cost to Christ Jesus, his life, willingly given out of love for us. That gift is "the water of life."

All you're asked to do is COME, DRINK AND THEN INVITE OTHERS COME.

How will you share the gift? How will you share the water?

1. Edythe Draper, Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1992). Entry 4653.

2. Preaching-Vol. 2, #2.

3.

4.

www.SermonWriter.com (Copyright, Richard Niell Donovan, 2000)

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