Water bottles and Easter
The other day I was playing some disc golf, and when I returned to my truck I was very thirsty. After digging through my important junk on the backseat floorboard, I finally found a water bottle. The problem was, I didn’t know how long that water had been in there. My best recollection was that it was from our last disaster response trip to NC from quite a while ago. So I had a moment of pause. Does water go bad? Will it taste funny after being in that bottle for so long? Will it make me sick? Should I drink it or wait and pick up a bottle at the gas station?
Finally, I opened the cap, and took a whiff. It smelled OK; there wasn’t any kind of funky odor, so I drank it down. And then, on the way home I was wondering, “Does water ever go bad in a water bottle?” Can it last 40 days and 40 nights? Can it last for 40 years in the wilderness? So I decided to do a little research, and I discovered it depends on who you ask. Some say it never goes bad, others say it can stay in a BPA-free bottle for years, while others say you should not keep it over two weeks (that’s from a company selling water at the gas station).
And all of that brings me to Easter. We hear the same story every year. For over 2,000 years we have heard this amazing and powerful story over and over again every spring. And for me, it’s sort of like that water in a bottle – it never gets old. I know the story well, but I love hearing it again and again. I know how it ends, but I read it again anyway, like I’m on pins and needles. I’m pretty sure that when it comes time to sit down and craft a sermon for Easter, I’ll have that same thought: What can I point to this year that’s new and different from what I said in past years? And hopefully, I’ll remind myself that we really don’t need anything new and different – this same story that’s been retold every year for over 2,000 years is just fine on its own. Like old water in a bottle, it doesn’t go bad, and it still quenches our thirst for hope and peace.
Happy Easter,
Pastor Derek
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