The Springs of Salvation

26th Sunday of Pentecost November 17, 2024

The texts for this sermon are Isaiah 12:2-5 and John 9:1-11

Remember from last week the significance of the Festival of Sukkot? The feast that acknowledges and celebrates the continuity of God’s presence and care?

Isaiah 12 references Ps 118 – one of the Psalms associated with the feast of Sukkot. Isaiah 12 follows the drama outlined in Is 1-11 wherein the prophet recites the sins of Judah, predicts the Assyrian invasion, then foresees the end of the Assyrian threat, and the beginning of deliverance and peace. Isaiah likens this deliverance to the deliverance from Egypt (i.e. the continuity of God’s presence).

This particular reference drawn from Ps 118 speaks to that moment when the Red Sea closed with the Egyptians on the far side and the Hebrews on the safe side and Miriam breaks out in song and leads the women in a jubilant song, celebrating God’s deliverance. Her song is known as the Song of the Sea.1 

Isaiah 12 uses the same language as the Song of the Sea, The Lord is my strength and my might and has become my salvation. Isaiah borrows another phrase from Psalm 118: God is my salvation. He also borrows from Psalm 105 another Psalm extoling the story of the Exodus when in verse 3 Isaiah says: Give thanks to the Lord, call on God’s name.

So Isaiah is telling his audience that though tragedy and upheaval and grave difficulty might be the norm and the future harkens only hardship and disappointment, do not despair! He’s telling his audience, God is our salvation:  salvation like unto our exodus from slavery to freedom from foreign land to promised land. We will sing of God’s greatness and salvation as did Miriam and Moses on the freedom side of the Red Sea.

But then Isaiah inserts a reference unknown in the Psalms when he says: You will draw water with joy from the springs of salvation.  Springs of salvation is a poetic reference to God’s power, love and care.2 

In Isaiah 8, the prophet described the Assyrian threat like mighty flood waters that would flood Judah; water representing chaos, disruption, uncertainty, devastation. But here, he offers a different image. Here he references the pool of Siloam—a quiet pool with life-giving water

in the heart of Jerusalem. The Talmud says that priests would draw water from it during Sukkot, then process with the water to the Temple where they poured it as an offering on the altar. The trumpets would blow and the congregation would raise a mighty chorus of praise.

If you’ve ever been in a worship service where the congregants sang a rousing hymn with full throat and lung you know what happens: it stirs one’s soul and fuels one’s own song. One singer ignites 

another. The singing becomes a vocal symphony of mutual elevation and encouragement.

So, can we not capture Isaiah’s message here? References to the Exodus? References to the Feast of Sukkot? To the recollection of God’s impossible act of salvation in the midst of a hopeless future?

To the acknowledgement of God’s continuity of salvation as celebrated by Sukkot? Isaiah is telling us there is a solid rock beneath our feet even if we think we’re in quicksand.

But he’s telling us something else as well. There’s a trajectory in this passage that speaks to how God’s salvation unfolds. We can’t see this in English but Isaiah uses the single form of “you” in verse 1.  You will say [you yourself will say]. You will speak of your own consolation and recognition

of God’s grace and salvation on that day when God’s rescue replaces your despair. This is like one believer speaking to another believer, telling her all will be well even though

at this moment she cannot see or feel it.

And do we, Cornelius United Methodist congregation, not know of this? Where one soul who is suffering is blessed with encouragement and hope grounded in the lived experience of another soul? Do we here not know the mutual blessing of one another’s testimonies?

So it is that in verse 4, Isaiah changes the singular “you” to the plural “you.” Here Isaiah declares that the community can hold hope because the hope of one ignites the hope of many and you all will draw water from the wells of Salvation, and you all will say “in that day—Give thanks to the Lord. Call on God’s name; the One who saves with power, love and care.

Oh but then, what comes next in that same sentence? Make known God’s deeds among the nations. This blessing: one to another and then many to each other is now to be telegraphed out to the world at large.

I like how Susan Olson of Yale Divinity School explicates this. She says

It is the task of those within the circle of thanksgiving to make these deeds known to the nations. The experience of thanksgiving is not an individual one, or even one kept within the safety of one’s faith community. It must be shared. 

And we should read “circle of thanksgiving” as another way of saying “circle of blessing”

for in our gratitude to God and the thanksgiving it prompts we are moved to bless.

It is the act of this sharing that the Salvation of God is unveiled. It is the act of this sharing that

those in despair can grasp hope. It is the act of this sharing that those who are floundering through life can discover the anchoring comfort of faith and the peace of Christ. It is the act of this sharing that chaos and division, and all manner of discord can be remedied by the God of our Salvation.

This is our privilege; our calling.

This is the gift we take to the world by the grace of God.

1 While the text cites Moses as the singer, he stands in Miriam’s and the women’s stead as the first singers of the song.  

The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol 1, p799.

2 Feasting on the Word, yr C, vol 4, p59