Don’t Drink the Water

By Rev. Tim Pauls

Ever drink a bucket of saltwater?

Don’t do it. If you’re in a lifeboat adrift at sea, it’s your worst nightmare. All that water, and none of it good to drink. You see, if you drink saltwater, you’re drinking salt. If you drink salt, you get thirsty and you want to drink more. The more salt you drink, the more your body overloads. Pretty soon, it all comes back up and out: a.k.a. “The feeding of the fish”, “The Technicolor yawn”. And then you’re thirstier, sicker and deader than you were before. That stuff will kill you. In the meantime, it’s enough to drive you mad; sometimes, a thirsty man will jump out of the boat and swim for a shore that isn’t there.

That’s why, when you’re in the lifeboat, you take good care of the water tank onboard. You make sure it stays pure, and that’s what you drink. You take care of the food locker, too. That stuff will keep you alive until you get home.

Ever lust? Ever get to feeling really proud about something? Ever get selfish? Sure. Show me someone who says no, and we’ll add “Ever lie?” to the list. They’re common sins, and they’re all a bucket of saltwater. The more you lust, the more you want to lust. The prouder you get, the less you want to be humble. The more selfish you become, the easier it gets—and the tougher it becomes to serve others.

The temptations go in and make you thirsty for more. But eventually what goes in must come out…maybe in Technicolor, definitely not pretty. Lust comes back out as an addiction to porn, an attraction to premarital sex, or as treating others as objects for your own sinful amusement.The prouder you get, the more you are driven to feel superior to everybody else. Selfishness comes back out as greed, suspicion and an unwillingness to help others. All of these can hurt your dreams. Some can destroy your body. All will eventually kill your faith. They start small, but they keep demanding more. Each one leaves you thirstier, sicker and deader than you were before.

Don’t drink out of these buckets. This stuff will kill you.

The problem is that you still want to drink. And it doesn’t help that you live in a world that says all these sins are virtues, not evils. It’s like you really are on a lifeboat, with saltwater sin in all directions, as far as the eye can see. Sometimes, that saltwater looks mighty tasty; you might even get angry with God that there are so many temptations out there that you stumble into. That sin comes back out too, and resenting God is a good way to destroy your faith. Makes you want to jump in and swim for a shore that isn’t there.

So instead of getting mad at God, consider this: You’re in the boat. You didn’t start that way. You were born dead in the water. Jesus died on the cross to get you out of the deep, to get you alive and into the boat. He dove in and hoisted you out of the water, and He had to drown with all the sin to do it.

Sometimes you’ll get mad because the boat seems small and stifling, but it’s keeping you out of the water that drowned you before. Not only that, but check out the supplies. There’s pure, living water there. There’s a locker full of bread and wine (and more!) to strengthen and preserve you unto live everlasting. There’s also a guy on the boat who keeps speaking, reminding you not to jump back in the water, telling you of the One who saved your life. And if you start to dip a cup over the side, or trail a hand in the wake, he or others are there to warn you; they irritate at times, keeping you in the boat like that, but the “in the boat” means “alive.” Even better, the One who drowned to save you is alive again; and even though you can’t see Him, He’s there, too. He’s present in those supplies and words to keep you alive and well.

You’ve figured out that I’m trying to make some analogy between the Church and a boat. Maybe it’s worth a look. After all, the part of the church building with the pews is called the nave, as in “navy”; when God brings you into His Church, He brings you into the boat. In fact, St. Peter tells us that Baptism brings us into the ark and saves us from the destructive flood (1 Peter 3:18-22).

So stay out of the ocean, and don’t drink its water; that stuff will kill you. You’re in the boat, and the One who drowned to get you there is alive and well and with you. He won’t run out of stores—His supply of life is eternal, and He’s going to get you home.

The Rev. Tim Pauls is Associate Pastor/Acting School Administrator at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Boise, Idaho.