Thought for the Day - A Mighty River

Olafur Eliasson's ‘Waterfall’ at Versailles, 2006

A Thought for the Day given at a lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Olave Hart Street, City of London on Tuesday 1st April 2025 based on Ezekiel 47.1-9, 12

The prophet Ezekiel was one of a group of Israelites taken captive by the Babylonian King after an attack on Jerusalem. Five years later, he spent his thirtieth birthday sitting on the banks of a canal. It was here that his dramatic visions began. First, he sees a dazzling image of God riding a chariot, driven by four unusual winged creatures. Perhaps most shocking for Ezekiel is the fact that God is not in the temple in Jerusalem, but here with him, by the canal in Babylon. Later he discovers why. The people who survived the attack have erected statues and begun to worship idols in the temple. God has left the building.

 

In the vision he tells Ezekiel that there will be a second attack on Jerusalem and that this time the city will fall and its temple will be destroyed, in judgement against its rebellious people. Ezekiel is sent to warn the Israelites in exile and those who remained in Judah of their impending fate. 

 

He is commanded to enact the destruction of Jerusalem using a scale model of the city. Then to shave off all his hair and cut it up with a sword. Then God commands him to lie on his side for a year and cook his food over human waste - a vile symbol of Israel’s imminent demise. A reluctant Ezekiel does all this - despite God telling him at the outset that nobody is going to pay the slightest bit of attention to what he says or does; their hearts hardened. 

 

Ezekiel goes on to make pronouncements about Gods judgement on Israel, the people of the region and on the temple itself. His language is colourful and vivid and includes the vision of a valley full of dry human bones returned to life - a powerful symbol of renewal and restoration of God’s people that has given hope to so many facing adversity.

 

We hear a similar passage today, from the end of the book, in which Ezekiel is given a guided tour of a new, greater and glorious temple, from which a spring emerges that gradually turns into a mighty river, bringing eternal life and healing wherever it flows - a new creation.  

 

This stream turning into a mighty river is a powerful image which might be seen as a symbol of the transformation of our own lives through the outpouring of God’s grace. 

 

Just as Ezekiel’s final vision begins with a trickle of water, our awareness of God’s presence may be in the form of small glimpses at first. Gradually these may build into a stream, gaining depth and width, flowing into a mighty river that brings the life and healing we yearn for and which flows from God himself. Ezekiel’s visions remind us that this torrent of grace and truth is always present, even though at times it can appear hidden. When we feel as though we are in a valley of dry bones. 

 

Lent is a time when we are called to reconnect with that mighty river of God’s love. Whose source we first encountered, like Jesus, at our baptism in water and spirit. Forming streams which become tributaries of one great and ever-flowing river. But those streams may have become covered, as our lives turned away from the path that Christ set before us. Just as so many of London’s rivers have been culverted yet still flow under foot. 

 

Some have likened our task in Lent - and throughout our lives as disciples - as one of slowly eroding the ground beneath our feet - through regular prayer, worship and study of the scriptures - tasks which may not seem to yield immediate results but which over time reveal the underground streams that flow into that great river.

 

To allow the torrent of its healing waters to bring new life to our own lives and to flow through us to touch the lives of others - so that all may bear fruit and flourish as God intended. 

 

As we walk to the altar once again today - and back into the streets of this City in prayer and with God’s blessing - may we be assured that in doing so we are revealing the streams of baptismal waters flowing beneath each of our feet. And may we come to know, like Ezekiel, that the mighty river of God’s love is never far away. 

Image : Olafur Eliasson's ‘Waterfall’ at Versailles, 2006

These prayers, written in 2020, were adapted as prayers of intercession.