The River of Life.

I read a very powerful sermon about this reading, in was a powerful warning to preachers everywhere. This preacher was preparing his sermon to preach to a congregation where he knew there were a couple of parents who were mourning the death of their infant son. He knew he could not preach any sort of sermon that made shallow promises about God’s provision in the face of despair. So he preached what I have heard many times from my Father. He preached about a God who knows brokenness and despair and travels with us into the face of death, and can yet bring life. This is a warning that we should not be tempted here or elsewhere to thing that this story is about a magic trick, it is about the presence of the divine and that is an entirely different kettle of fish.