Living Waters

Water has been a hot topic lately. I am in a conversation, almost daily, in which water is discussed. Many of those conversations are something about the humidity or the amount of rain we have had this monsoon season. Sometimes, we talk about our desire for a return to the drier air that we are accustomed to here in the Sonoran Desert. Other times, we talk about how good it has been to have the continuous string of storms moving through the area. The impact of water on our lives is something that we feel pretty immediately living in the desert. The presence of water is a good thing until it gets to the point of too much of a good thing like many of our neighbors to the north have experienced with the floods from the burn scars in and around Flagstaff.

In The Episcopal Church, we draw from a myriad of liturgical resources to help us in structuring our worship services. The Book of Common Prayer is our main resource for structuring how we worship and how we pray. In addition to The Book of Common Prayer, we also have the Book of Occasional Services. When I was in seminary, our professor jokingly said that you always need a good BOS (Book of Occasional Services) when planning liturgy. Within this resource, we find worship services for different moments in our common life. From house blessings to Maundy Thursday foot-washing to church planting, the BOS has liturgies for these occasional moments in our common life and provides us with a familiar structure for praying through the occasional moments of life that elicit a prayerful response.

In the newest edition of the BOS, we find a section titled “Liturgical Materials for Honoring God in Creation.” Not so long ago, we might have no need of those resources for our common life in prayer. Today, however, it feels that the need for those same resources has become more urgent. Just this week, we heard news stories about new restrictions on water usage from the Colorado River. For Arizona, it hit close to home with a new restriction on our state: Arizona has to reduce its reliance on the Colorado River by 21 percent in 2023. Once again, the presence or lack of water is felt pretty quickly in our context.

The immediate reaction to the news was as expected from Arizona. It felt lop-sided for Arizona to bear the brunt of the reductions being called for by federal water authorities. However, I wonder if there is a deeper question within that for us as people of faith. Here, the material from the Book of Occasional Services might help to frame our thinking, and it just might help us prayerfully consider how we might respond to the water crisis as people of faith.

One of the propers (a collection of prayers and readings) for Honoring God in Creation is labeled “Called to be God’s partners in the care of the planet.” The opening collect for those propers reads:

“Bountiful God, you call us to labor with you in tending the earth: Where we lack love, open our hearts to the world; where we waste, give us discipline to conserve; where we neglect, awaken our minds and wills to insight and care. May we with all your creatures honor and serve you in all things for you live and reign with Christ, Redeemer of all, and with your Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” - Book of Occasional Services 2018, p. 291-2

Through this prayer, we are invited to see ourselves as co-laborers with God within God’s creation. We are shoulder to shoulder with God in tending the goodness of the earth and to shape our lives in such a way that we can join up with God’s work in continuing the goodness of the earth. It shifts us from the short-term thinking to a much bigger scope and invites us to be the people who are part of a bigger solution in response to caring for the earth. We are invited into the work as disciples of Christ who want to conserve the goodness of creation and who have a deep commitment to passing down the goodness of creation to generations to come. The work of caring for creation is understood as a faithful response to the Gospel.

In the same section of the Book of Occasional Services, we also find forms of Prayers of the People that can be used within the rites for Holy Eucharist. One of the petitions reads,

“For the waters of the earth; for their careful use and conservation, that we may have the will and the ability to keep them clean and pure, we pray: Merciful God, keep your planet and people in peace.” - Book of Occasional Services 2018, p. 292

From the prayers offered in The Book of Common Prayer and those available in the Book of Occasional Services, we are invited to hold on to a belief that all of creation is filled with God’s goodness and is therefore sacred. For the Anglican way of Christianity, the way we pray shapes the way we believe. If we are praying for creation out of an understanding that it is sacred, we will be shaped to believe and understand that truth as we pray it. In this way, our prayers are shaping us to be people of action out in the world caring for and tending the sacred beauty of God’s creation in order that creation will continue to sustain life and continue to produce living waters for the good of all God’s creatures.

Our response to the water crisis and the ongoing drought drying out the West might come in a series of questions. It might be that we begin to wrestle with an exploration of how we use water in our everyday lives. From showers to washing dishes to cooling our homes to watering our gardens to the very necessary act of consuming water ourselves, it will not take long for us to recognize the many ways that we are using water within our modern lives. We might continue with our questions to wrestle with where we might be able to give up water or to use less water as an act of individual conservation. We might also find ourselves asking how we could be part of larger efforts to cleanse and purify the waters around us in order that those lakes and rivers and streams continue to promote and support healthy ecosystems sustaining all sorts of life - including human life.

How does your reading of the Gospel inform your perception of creation? How does praying for creation shape your understanding of stewardship and care-taking?

In Christ,

Hunter+