Do you remember the last time you were really thirsty? A nice drink of water or other beverage really tasted good, didn�ft it? Do you remember the last time you were spiritually thirsty? A nice drink of prayer, scripture, sacrament, and gospel really tasted good, didn�ft it?

When you have been out in the hot Okinawa sun for a while, you know you need water. So, would you try to quench your thirst by eating soda crackers or potato chips? That would just make you thirstier, wouldn�ft it? If you try to stick it out and not drink anything, you will get sick: heat stroke and cramps. It is the same with spiritual dryness. If we have been away from the church for too long, (that might be two weeks or two years), we need to get back to Jesus. At such a time, other things will not satisfy us, things like communion with nature or yoga or jogging or self-help books. They just make us drier. If you try to stick it out, you will get spiritually sick: easily fall into temptations and be separated from salvation and eternal life.

Jesus said, �gIf anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, �eOut of his heart will flow rivers of living water.�f�h Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. In other words, to quench our spiritual thirst, Jesus will give us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be in our hearts. The Holy Spirit will be like a faucet that is turned on full force and fills our hearts and our lives with the living water. This living water is faith. It is the joy of faith. It is the peace of faith.

Jesus knows our spiritual dryness. On the cross he said, �gI thirst.�h It was more than the thirst of a hot day. It was the thirst that sin put on Jesus. It was the thirst of our sin and our pain and our loneliness and our fear and disappointments and failures and weakness. Jesus felt this on the cross. He knows our needs. He knows our needs of both our body and soul, of our heart. He took that upon himself and died on the cross. He arose on the third day with healing and power to give us what we really need. He gave us eternal life. And he gave us the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is like living water, or the water of life. Let�fs explain it in this way: A seed needs water to grow. A dry seed seems to be dead. It can sit on the shelf for years and nothing will happen. You can put it in a pot of dry dirt, even give it good fertilizer, but nothing will happen unless you give it water. Then the seed will sprout. The root grows. The stem grows. And finally it will bear fruit. A person is the same. Without the Holy Spirit, a person is spiritually dead. You can set a child in a room full of Bibles, but without the Holy Spirit, nothing will happen. The Holy Spirit must have those Bible stories read to the child. A seed has to grow for weeks or months before it is time for the harvest. Often a person has to grow for weeks or months or even years before the fruit of faith and confession are seen. But the Holy Spirit is constantly working. The Holy Spirit is working faith in someone�fs heart, and so that person becomes holy, becomes saved.

Today we have the ceremony of confirmation. It is a celebration that the Holy Spirit has been like a river inside these people�fs hearts.

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. The Holy Spirit didn�ft come like a river of water on Pentecost, but like a mighty wind and fire. That wind and heat blazed in the hearts of those who heard the Word of God that day. They were convicted of their sin. They repented. And because of their faith, their burning hearts were given the cooling water of the Holy Spirit in Baptism.

This is the way the Holy Spirit works: As fire and water. As law and gospel. As warning and refuge. When our hearts and souls thirst for the living water of the Word of forgiveness and love, the Holy Spirit speaks that word. The Holy Spirit speaks through the Word of the Bible, the words of the preacher or Sunday school teacher, the words of parents and friends. Words of love, of forgiveness, of acceptance. And words of invitation. Jesus said, �gIf anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, �eOut of his heart will flow rivers of living water.�f�h Jesus says again to us, �gCome to me.�h And we answer:

Amen.

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