"Roots of Bitterness" and Water from the Sanctuary

  "Roots of Bitterness" and Water from the Sanctuary



Hebrews 12 14-15
Make every effort to live in peace with all men
 and to be holy; 
without holiness no one will see the Lord.
 ¹⁵See to it that no one misses the grace of God 
and that no bitter root grows up
 to cause trouble
 and defile many.


Here is a beautiful verse I have been thinking about for the last few weeks. 


Make every effort to live in peace with all men.


Interesting. Not "live in peace with all men," but "make every effort to live in peace with all men."


There is a time for confrontation when necessary. When? When someone else's sin is affecting you, for one. What about on a larger sphere, in a church, for instance, or an organization? Sometimes--and one needs to make doubly sure that this is indeed the case--one is picked to be the one to say something. By and large, the prophets in the Old Testament who were picked to say something could have done without the responsibility: Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, for instance. They were scared. So make every effort to live in peace with all men. When something is patently wrong, and everyone seems to be silent, IF you hear the Lord's voice telling you that you are the one to speak up, and see a change happen, then it would be disobedience not to speak.
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And to be HOLY. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
Holiness, a beautiful and old-fashioned word. Can one handle confrontation with holiness? Gosh, it's difficult, it's beautiful when one manages it, and one can only do with a lot of prayer.

 See to it that no bitter root grows up

 to cause trouble

 and defile many.

This is where we need to pray with David,

Search me, oh Lord,

And know my heart,

Try me and know my anxious thoughts,

See if there be any wicked way in me.

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My strong emotions, where are they coming from? Is there a bitter root beneath my anger? What is it?

Is there an unforgiven injury? Then I need to stop, drop everything, and forgive those who hurled me into a pit (to use the metaphor from Joseph) because standing over them, looking at me with sad eyes of love, stood One who saw, who allowed this to happen, because He had lessons to teach me, that I could only learn in the silence, solitude, obscurity, time for concentrated thought and prayer and the sensory deprivation of the pit. The pit was part of the blueprint all along. He permitted it. So I forgive, tear up the You-Owe-Me cheque, owed me by those who wilfully hurled me into the pit of suffering, because I am turning my eyes from them to Him who stood and watched, with sad, tear-filled eyes, and let it happen, because it was the only way the beautiful story he had outlined for me could be written.

                                                    * * * 

Bitter roots of unforgiveness not dealt with defile many.

                                                

I have been thinking of bitter roots because of a sad unfolding situation I have been observing in a community I belong to, with little filaments of bitterness  spreading and spreading. Two leaders publicly wronged another leader. The community took sides, most on the side of the individual who was, as far as one can tell, patently wronged (this is England, after all, and there is the great British tradition of fair play, and sympathy for the underdog). People who had been friends for years found their relationships strained as they took opposite sides. "Those who take the sword will perish by the sword, those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind"--these scriptural principles will work themselves out, sooner or later. Suddenly, many stories of similar spiritual and emotional abuse on the part of this duo spread around the community--reaching people who had never guessed at them,  me including me. Defilement spreads, for we might never again listen to these individuals or read their words with the same innocent spirit.

What is the Spirit saying to the Church? What are we to learn from this? What am I to learn? One thing is to recognize and deal with bitterness within oneself immediately, so that it does not spread and defile many. Who knows what the roots were of this sad action which has divided the community. Bitterness?

                                                        * * *

                                                     

And how does one change a bitter heart? How does one uproot bitterness from the deep and secret places of one's own heart?

I have one answer. Come with me to the sublime Ezekiel 47. The prophet, in a vision, sees water flowing from the sanctuary, steadily increasing in power, until it becomes a river that no one could cross. 

What is the water? Among other things, the Holy Spirit in an increasing revelation--both historically to the church, and individually in the lives of desperate seekers.

And it is magic water. It changes the chemical properties of the hearts it irrigates. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Wow, the sea, the epitome of saltiness, becomes fresh and sweet again. The bitter heart, the world-weary heart, the angry heart, the disappointed heart, the frustrated heart can again become fresh and sweet and childlike. Wow!!

Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows, everything will live. 

I have read this passage so many times this year, and it still makes me cry. It is so beautiful and so full of promise. 

 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” 

Creativity. Creativity that can only come from the Holy Spirit. Every month they will bear. Creativity from the Creator,  freed from the normal cycles of the seasons (bud-flowers-fruit). Creativity of the  fruitful trees whose leaves never wither, but are always green, and who never fail to bear fruit because they are planted in streams of living water, trees described in Psalm 1, and Jeremiah 17. Creativity that is God's gift, and the sign of his presence as in Aaron's rod which budded, blossomed and bore fruit, all in a night.

Come Holy Spirit, flood this heart. Let me walk in your ways. Let your waters make the salty waters of my heart fresh again. Let me bear fruit every month. And let the fruit serve for food, and the leaves for healing. Amen.