Living Waters - Dr. Catherine Cavanagh - September 13, 2026 - New Members Welcome Service

Ezekiel’s vision rises out of the grief of the Babylonian captivity, when Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was torn down, and the people of Judah were carried far from home. Psalm 137 carries that same sorrow: by the rivers of Babylon, displaced people wept for Zion. The Babylonian captivity also belongs to the story of many peoples who have known enslavement, colonization, and the pain of being unable to go home. Zion, however, can never become a word used to justify the oppression or slaughter of another people, because captivity teaches that all oppression is wrong.

Ezekiel’s book moves from despair toward possibility. Ezekiel refuses to let grief become the final word, and his later vision imagines clean water flowing from beneath the ruined temple in Jerusalem and bringing life to the whole world. The water does not belong only to one suffering people. The water reaches outward into creation itself. Those who have experienced injustice often see most clearly what a better world could look like, because loss teaches them not to take life, land, water, or home for granted.

Water beneath Jerusalem tells a real story as well as a holy one. The Struthian Pool, deep below the streets and ancient stone pavement of the city, held water that kept an arid place alive for centuries. Water is life. Baptism names that truth by reminding God’s people that belonging to God and belonging to the world are not two separate things. The relationship formed with God cannot be separated from the relationship formed with creation.

The water crisis reveals how badly those relationships are being damaged. Forest fires, flooding, melting glaciers, dying fish, unsafe drinking water, drought, data centers draining local sources, migration, and violence all show that everything is interconnected. Those with the least are often hit first and hardest, including Indigenous communities in Canada still without safe water. Lament has to be allowed its proper place, because truth matters and looking away cannot become a Christian response.

Baptism calls disciples to live with courage, integrity, and solidarity. Gratitude keeps creation beautiful rather than disposable. Truth calls people to educate themselves and speak out about water. Hope calls people to dream, as Aboriginal communities in Australia have used solar-powered technology to bring flowers back to dry land, and as the Great Green Wall and traditional harvesting have helped Lake Chad rise again.

Ezekiel’s water did not physically flow out from Jerusalem, but his vision saw a story that was not finished. Christ, the living water, sends truth, hope, commitment, work, voices, and love into the world. God’s love remains abundant like Ezekiel’s river, beautiful like sunlight on the Saint Moritz River, and endless beyond despair.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Captivity teaches that oppression is wrong. The Babylonian captivity gives language to people who have been driven from home, enslaved, or colonized. Zion cannot be claimed as a holy excuse for crushing another people, because the memory of exile condemns oppression rather than baptizing it. Suffering can deepen moral vision when it leads beyond self-protection toward justice for all. [28:45]
• 2. Baptism binds God, people, and creation. Water in baptism does more than mark an individual spiritual moment. It names a belonging that joins God’s people to one another and to the living world God loves. Carelessness toward rivers, creatures, and drinking water therefore damages more than the environment; it damages covenant relationship. [34:40]
• 3. Lament makes room for honest hope. The water crisis cannot be met by cheerful denial or spiritual escape. Lament tells the truth about fire, flood, drought, poisoned water, and the unequal burden carried by the poor. Ezekiel’s movement from grief to vision shows that hope is not pretending everything is fine, but refusing to believe devastation gets the last word. [38:09]
• 4. Truth must become public witness. Jesus names himself as the truth, and truth matters when water is scarce, polluted, privatized, or drained away. Education matters because indifference often grows where knowledge is absent. Christian faith calls for voices that speak plainly about the wounds carried by people and creation. [40:31]
• 5. Visions become faithful action. Ezekiel sees water where there is no natural river flowing out of Jerusalem. That holy imagination makes room for practical work, like restoring land, planting trees, protecting waterways, and building technologies that bring life back to dry places. Hope becomes credible when hands and voices join the dream.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [23:25] - The Babylonian Captivity
• [25:49] - Ezekiel and the Grief of Exile
• [26:25] - By the Rivers of Babylon
• [27:52] - Zion and the Wrong of Oppression
• [29:03] - Ezekiel’s Vision of Renewed Creation
• [31:24] - Water Beneath Jerusalem
• [34:20] - Baptism and Belonging to Creation
• [35:34] - The Global Water Crisis
• [38:28] - Living Baptism with Courage
• [40:50] - Dreaming New Possibilities
• [42:39] - Christ the Living Water

1. The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. [29:03]
2. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side.
3. As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep.
4. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep.
5. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist.
6. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross.
7. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river.
8. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river.
9. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. [31:24]
10. 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.
11. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea.
12. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.
13. 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 fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” [42:39]

1. By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. [26:25]
2. There on the poplars we hung our harps,
3. for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4. How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? [27:01]

1. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” [43:50]
2. “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
3. Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
4. Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
5. but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” [43:50]

1. “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” [41:02]

1. In Ezekiel’s vision, what changes as the water moves farther away from the temple, and what kinds of life appear along the river?
2. What losses do the people name in Psalm 137, and what are their captors demanding from them? [26:05]
3. What examples show how water problems affect both people and the rest of creation: forests, animals, food, migration, and relationships between communities? [35:43]
4. What practical signs of renewal are described in the examples from Australia and around Lake Chad? [41:16]

1. Ezekiel sees water flowing from the place where the temple had been destroyed and bringing life even to the Dead Sea. What does this suggest about God’s ability to bring renewal out of places marked by grief, ruin, or failure? [31:01]
2. Psalm 137 gives the people permission to weep rather than pretend they are joyful. Why might honest lament be necessary before a community can move toward real hope? [38:09]
3. If baptism joins people to God, one another, and creation, how does that change the meaning of caring for drinking water, rivers, animals, and land? [34:29]
4. Joel connects the Spirit with dreams and visions, while Ezekiel’s vision leads toward life and healing. What makes a hopeful vision more than wishful thinking, and how can it lead to faithful action? [40:41]

1. Where have you seen water treated as something disposable rather than as a gift that sustains life? What is one habit in your home, workplace, or community that you could reconsider with gratitude for water? [39:32]
2. The water crisis often harms people with the least resources first. How might you learn more about a water concern affecting Indigenous communities, your region, or a place connected to your church? What could faithful solidarity look like after learning? [37:29]
3. Is there a grief about the world, the environment, or injustice that you have been avoiding because it feels overwhelming? What might it look like to name that grief honestly before God and with trusted people? [38:18]
4. Truth matters when water is unsafe, scarce, polluted, or drained away. What is one reliable source, local group, or community conversation that could help you become better informed about water issues? [39:46]
5. What is one respectful way you could use your voice to speak about protecting water—for example, in a conversation, a letter, a community meeting, or support for a local organization? [40:31]
6. Ezekiel’s river brought food and healing wherever it flowed. Where do you see a small but real possibility for life and healing in your neighbourhood or wider community, and what step could you take to support it? [43:32]
7. Christ is living water, and God’s love is more abundant than despair. When concern for the world leaves you discouraged, what practices help you remain hopeful, connected, and ready to act with love? [43:50]