Enhanced Particles in the Flow of Life Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard Sunday, December 28, 2014

Genesis 1-3 contrasts nicely with Revelation Similar images: trees, rivers...

Genesis 2:8-14 (The Message) 8-9 Then God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it. God made all kinds of trees grow from the ground, trees beautiful to look at and good to eat. The Tree-of-Life was in the middle of the garden, also the Tree-of-Knowledge-of-Good- and-Evil A river flows out of Eden to water the garden and from there divides into four rivers.

Revelation 21:1-5 (The Message) 1-5 Then the Angel showed me Water-of-Life River, crystal bright. It flowed from the Throne of God and the Lamb, right down the middle of the street. The Tree of Life was planted on each side of the River, producing twelve kinds of fruit, a ripe fruit each month. The leaves of the Tree are for healing the nations. Never again will anything be cursed.

Revelation 21:1-5 (The Message) The Throne of God and of the Lamb is at the center. His servants will offer God service— worshiping, they’ll look on his face, their foreheads mirroring God. Never again will there be any night. No one will need lamplight or sunlight. The shining of God, the Master, is all the light anyone needs. And they will rule with him age after age after age.

Sandra Richter (The Epic of Eden) “The people of God dwelling in the place of God with full access to the Presence of God” (think of the decorations in the Tabernacle and Temple—reminiscent of the Garden)

Ezekiel 47 Water flows from the “perfect picture” Temple It gets deeper and deeper, till it’s over Ezekiel’s head

Ezekiel 47:6-10 (The Message) 6-7 He said, “Son of man, have you had a good look?” Then he took me back to the riverbank. While sitting on the bank, I noticed a lot of trees on both sides of the river He told me, “This water flows east, descends to the Arabah and then into the sea, the sea of stagnant waters. When it empties into those waters, the sea will become fresh. Wherever the river flows, life will flourish—great schools of fish—because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water.

My question Can this concept provide a helpful picture for us of how to interact and participate with God? We are each formed by our own particular DNA, though we all share 99.9% of the same code And we are formed by our experiences and choices

On top of this... Our brains seem to develop patterns which can be helpful but sometimes aren’t We can be locked into certain ways of seeing things We can be locked into patterns of behaviour that deplete life

Static Pictures of God Often leave us feeling judged, unworthy We can’t imagine any real help from God unless it comes in a spectacular “shoot ‘em up” way

What about the River? “We’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden” (Joni) 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24, NASB)

Mercy is Flowing We can learn to participate with God in life It may help to think of His Presence flowing in and around us We can make room for interaction with Him by humility and dependence He is alive with creativity and welcome and love and mercy for all of us

Our Kind of Church Community Grew out of a form of evangelicalism Has influences that come from Christians who are charismatic, or contemplative, or followers of the Way of Jesus These can all get entangled and so can our language, confusing each other My opinion: we awaken to the reality of the particles of God’s Presence flowing in and around us—this gives us life and saves us from salt water