Acts 2:1-21 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13 John 7:37-39 Psalm 104:25-35, 37

“Out of every believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.”

The Book of Genesis, as you well know, recounts our creation by God the Creator.  For six days, God moved progressively through the creation of our magnificent world – skies, land, and sea; moon and stars; plants bearing seed and trees bearing fruit; creatures of every kind – even Leviathan, which God made “for the sport of it” the Psalmist tells us; and, finally, humankind.  On the seventh day, God rested.

So, how should we interpret the “eighth day”?

Some define the “eighth day” as the end of the age, the day in which God will create the new heaven and the new earth about which the book of the Revelation speaks; the eighth day, then, would be the beginning of the eternal age – the time when God’s true and perfect reign throughout his kingdom would be realized.  But mostly, however, we recognize the eighth day as the day we take up our place, moving forward as God’s created and redeemed creatures living in relationship with all Creation.

The setting for our Gospel lesson, interestingly, is the eighth day – the last day of the Jewish Festival of Booths, otherwise known as the feast of Tabernacles. The Festival of Booths commemorates and celebrates God’s abiding care and guidance throughout Israel’s ancient sojourn in the Wilderness.   For the 40-year duration of their sojourn following their escape from Egypt, the people lived in tents or “booths;” hence, the connotation.  And, at its closing, the festival recognizes and celebrates the “end times” – the manifestation of God’s reign – the eighth day.

At the time of Jesus, the Festival of Booths was the most popular feast among the three pilgrimage feasts of Jewish tradition.  Faithful Jews from all over Palestine would make pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the celebration. Tabernacles, or booths, would be constructed to represent the temporary abodes of the Hebrew sojourn.

For seven days, the men celebrating the feast slept and ate meals in the tent-like booths, and the people danced by the light of the menorah to the singing of the Psalms.  Each morning of the seven days, the priests would lead a procession of singing Levites through the gathered crowd to the Pool of Siloam.  From the flowing waters of the pool, the priests would gather water in pitchers of gold, after which they would return, accompanied by the blasts of the shofer, to the Temple.

With much celebration and song, upon arriving in the Temple, this water from the Pool of Siloam and wine were poured to overflowing into two vessels that had been placed upon the altar in thanksgiving for God’s ever-flowing provision in the Wilderness and in anticipation of the gift of living water of the promised Messiah who was to come as foretold by the prophets.  Flowing “living” water has been a significant symbol of God’s ever-constant presence as expressed in the earliest prophecy and religious ritual continued still in our worship today.

Thus, daily, for seven days these rituals of the Feast of Booths were celebrated.  On the eighth day, great rejoicing and singing continued, but the rituals of water and light were ceased.

This last day of the festival, the eighth day, is referenced by the writer of John’s Gospel as “the great day.”  For, it is on this day that Jesus would stand in the Temple and proclaim, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” [Hold in your thoughts that, in the days following the festival, much to the consternation of the religious leaders, Jesus would heal the blind man by rubbing mud on his eyes and instructing him to go and wash in this very same Pool of Siloam from which the priests had so reverently gathered the symbolic living water].

The Eighth Day – the day of manifestation of God’s creation, the day of the proclamation of the Living Water of Jesus Christ in God’s Holy Temple.  Jesus is speaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit, which believers are to receive at the appointed time.  From the hearts of believers, Jesus said, “shall flow rivers of living water.”

As described in our lesson from Acts, the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus Christ is made manifest on the Day of Pentecost, another significant Jewish feast – the feast we celebrate today.  This particular Pentecost described in our lesson is a significant transition from Jewish tradition.  It takes place ten days after Jesus has ascended to be with the Father.

Our lesson tells us that devout Jews were gathered for the feast when, suddenly, there was the sound like a violent wind and divided tongues, as of fire, rested on each of the apostles.  Peter, responding to the accusation of being drunk, quotes the prophecy of Joel, ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.’ [Acts 2:17a] – all flesh, baptized into one body; and, as our Lord declares, from whom shall flow rivers of living water.

This Day of Pentecost is now the third major feast of the Church that we have celebrated in physical isolation.  Even so, this day subtitled the “Birthday of the Church” is the day we celebrate the Holy Spirit being poured into all flesh in the days following the resurrection and ascension of our Lord.  In a sense, it is our eighth day – the day that we reaffirm our place as believers in relationship with all God’s creation.  We have persevered, with God’s provision, in our wilderness journey.  With the coming of this day following the great 50 days of Easter, we are renewed once again in our faith in the Holy Spirit that flows as living water through each of us.

Take a moment to sense the rushing wind filling your entire house with the Holy Spirit; sense the living water flowing through your soul.  From this eighth day onward, from wherever you are, with great joy as if filled with new wine, let the rivers of living waters flow from your heart into all creation.