A Prophetic Name

In our early days, we were simply a group of people who met together to praise the Lord and to grow spiritually.  We didn’t have a name or a particular identity.  We were not yet a community.  The along came Fr Duffy, who would pay regular visits, and each time would ask us if we’d chosen a name for ourselves yet.  He kept telling us how important a name was and how it should reflect our spirituality.  Without a name we were “not a people at all!”  So we began our search!
 

We had prayed about a name. Father Duffy kept saying, “The Lord wants to build community, the vision for church is community.”  He said we should ask the Lord what the name should be.

We prayed and fasted for a few days and thought of many names, but nothing stayed. One day, we decided we must have the name that day.  We prayed and offered a few names.
 

We were like parents of a newborn child, trying one name after another, with none seeming to fit!  We’d think of one, say it over and over and then, “No!  That doesn’t sound like us!”  Then the search would start all over. Until the day Kathleen, with her Bible in her hand, said, “How about Living Water?”  It was as if a light was turned on.  Immediately, we all said, yes. As we have grown over the last years, we could see the fulfillment of that prophetic name.

She read from John 7:37-38:
 

            “On the last day and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood there and cried out:

‘If any man is thirsty, let him come to me!  Let the man come and drink who believes in me!’  As scripture says, from his breast shall flow fountains of living water.”
 

We were Living Water.  God was calling us to come and drink from the fountain flowing from his heart, and then offer ourselves as conduits, so that the divine Water of Life could flow out through us over our land, bringing healing and renewal to all God’s people.  This scripture, and its counterpart in Ezekiel Ch. 47, has nourished and inspired our community over the past 25 years.  Constantly we have returned to our source and drawn life and strength from the words.  Over and over again, God has spoken to us in these passages, reminding us of who we are and what we are called to be.
 

As a tired and thirsty wayfarer seeks to drink and be refreshed, so that he can resume his journey, so too does the Community go to the fountain when the going gets rough and our spiritual legs grow tired.  Scripture tells us that God’s word does not return to him empty, without succeeding in what it was sent out to do (Is 55:10-11), and indeed we have experienced that truth time and again.  His Living Water has gushed forth through his human conduits, reviving drooping spirits, renewing wavering faith and bringing hope to a despairing world.  For Ezekiel 47:9 says:
 

            “Wherever the river flows, it brings life.”
 

Knowing our name has meant knowing ourselves and, most importantly, knowing the faithfulness and power of the One from whose heart flows the refreshing stream that gives life.
 

            “Once you were not a people at all and now you are the people of God….”

(1 Peter 2:10)