Murray Andrew Pura - Streams: Reflections on the Waters in Scripture

ZONDERVAN

Streams

Copyright 2010 by Murray Andrew Pura

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ePub Edition JANUARY 2010 ISBN: 978-0-310-39582-9

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pura, Murray, 1954

Streams: reflections on the waters in Scripture / Murray Andrew Pura. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Water in the Bible. 2. WaterReligious aspectsChristianity I. Title.

BS680.W26P87 2009

220.85537 dc22

2009032589

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked TNIV are taken from the Holy Bible, Todays New International Version, TNIV. Copyright 2001, 2005 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

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for John of the Rivers

T he revelation of Godwho God is and what God doesis given to us in the form of story. Not propositions of truth, not commands and rules, not definitions and explanations, not prohibitions and promises. None of that. Story. It is important to know this so we can receive and respond to the revelation on Gods terms, not on our terms. The revelation of God is story shaped; our lives are story shaped.

The Devil and his angels are employed full-time in effacing and distortingdestorying (destroying) this storied revelation. The strategy is to fragment the story into bits and pieces and get us to arrange the pieces however we like to make ourselves better or get ahead in the world or patch up our bruised and broken lives with splint and Band-Aids and do-it-yourself potions. The Devil doesnt bother with denying or sowing doubts on the truth of God as it is revealed in the Bible. He just wants to get rid of the story, the story that insists that creation and salvation take place in bodies, in the company of men and women, in families and neighborhoods, in communities where babies are born, children play, and eventually everyone dies. His strategy is to cut up all the verses in the Bible and hand them over to us to arrange however we like, picking out our favorites and dealing into the discard pile the ones we dont like or have no interest in. Jesus and other men and women in the biblical story end up as flat paper-doll figures that we are free to dress up any way we fancy and then use them to play religion.

Fortunate for us, there are a considerable number of men and women who energetically and skillfully are at work countering the diabolical strategy by reassembling the truths and commands, the promises and prohibitions, into stories. A lot of them are Christians. They make sure we understand the biblical revelation as a story of fully alivefeet-on-ground, flesh-and-blood, body-and-soulmen and women. And they make sure we understand ourselves as storied people whose lives have plot, character, and purpose. They do everything they can, and they can do a lot, to keep everything we think and do, love and hope and believe, personal, relational, local. Nothing abstract, nothing disembodied, nothing disconnected from life in the neighborhood.

Murray Pura is among our best storytellers on the Christian front. In Streams, he tells five biblical storiesusing rivers, oceans, and lakes as metaphorsin which all the action and presence of God is revealed in actual geography and weather, people and circumstances. Next to these biblical stories he jux-taposes contemporary storieshis and oursin which God is revealed among us in our lived humanity. As the stories come into proximity with one another, we begin to notice God revealed in our stories. These storiesthe Bible stories along with our storiesare not written to entertain or teach us a lesson. They pull us into the world of Gods presence and action as participants. We dont watch the action as spectators; we become the action.

Asked by one of his friends why he told stories, Jesus said he told them to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight (Matthew 13:13 The Message). Streams are stories told in this Jesus tradition.

Eugene Peterson, professor emeritus of spiritual theology, Regent College, Vancouver, BC, Canada, and translator of The Message

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

I t always happens.

Pick up a game trail in the forest, and eventually it will take you to water. Lost in trees and brush and rock by the sea and not sure how to find the beach? Get on any path, and one way or another it will make its way to the ocean. How to make it to a creek or river or stream? Find a path, even the most narrow, and step by step it will take you to the place where birds and deer and fox find their evening drink.

We took a path that wound down to the river. Not just any river. This was the mighty Fraser in British Columbia, Canada, and we werent sure what to expect, but we definitely wanted adventure. Two canoes. Two of us in each. For hours we didnt need to paddle as we moved south and west with the current. The bows hissed. We laid back and enjoyed the scenery.

We knew there were rapids somewhere ahead; we just didnt know what it would look like when we hit them. The moment suddenly came, and the hair rose on the back of my neckwhirlpools, waves, and whitewater. Paddle! my companion urged. I dipped and dug as though my life depended on it. I remember the eye of that whirlpool gazing at me as we were swept into its constrictionsthe eye had no life and no kindness. I strained with the strength that rises with adrenaline and fear. We chopped our way through the white swirls and snapping waves. Spit out on the other side, we saw our friends waiting for us in calmer waters and raised our paddles over our heads and gave two mighty roars of triumph.

A few hours later, we came around a bend in the river and saw not hundreds but thousands of Canada geese resting in gray, brown, white, and black splendor. It was autumn, and they were taking a break before heading further south. They let us paddle right among them without a honk or squawk or flapping of wings. It was amazing. Something out of some kind of heaven, a blessing that filled our hearts and delighted our eyes and turned us into four-year-olds again for ten or fifteen minutes. Our canoes glided quietly among them as we gazed in wonder. Then they heard a sound and rose swiftly as one. The air roared in our ears, and the sun vanished.