Season of Creation #1 – LIVING WATER
Reading: Ezekiel 47:1-12. Preacher: Rev Bill Thomas
This Sunday at 9am we begin our Season of Creation series, joining Christians around the world in reflecting on our shared calling to care for God’s creation. The 2026 theme is Living Water, inspired by Ezekiel’s vision of a river flowing from the temple and bringing life, healing and renewal wherever it goes.
Bill will be preaching from Ezekiel 47:1–12, helping us explore what this picture of living water might say to us today. We will also begin thinking about some practical ways we can respond—through prayer, action, advocacy and support for projects that help bring life and hope to others..
Reflection Questions
Exploring the Passage (Ezekiel 47:1-12)
- What do you notice about the way the river changes as it flows away from the temple—from a trickle to water deep enough to swim in? What might that suggest about the life and presence of God?
- Ezekiel describes the water bringing life to places that were previously barren or lifeless. Which images in the passage stand out most to you, and why?
- The river begins at the temple and then flows outward into the wider land. What might this say about the relationship between worship and the life of the world beyond the place of worship?
Pondering the Sermon Themes
- Bill described Ezekiel’s vision against the background of exile, loss and uncertainty. How does knowing that context change the way you hear this vision of renewal and hope?
- Bill suggested that climate scientists might be some of the “watchmen” of our own time, warning us about dangers ahead. How did you respond to that comparison?
- Bill spoke about the need to reconnect not only with our heads but also with our hearts, and shared his story of walking through the landscape at Wee Jasper with his son on his shoulders. Can you think of a time when you have felt especially connected with creation?
Going Deeper
- Bill asked whether we might in some ways have become “exiles on our own planet.” What do you think he meant by that? Are there ways in which modern life can separate us from the natural world?
- Ezekiel’s river enters the dead places rather than flowing around them. Where are some of the “dead” or damaged places in our world today where you long to see God’s healing and renewal?
- The sermon finished with Amos’ words, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” What might it look like for care for creation and concern for justice to belong together in the way we live our faith?
Ian Acworth has also written a bible study – you can access it here.
Sermon Text
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’
“How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.”
The voice of exiles. Ripped from their homeland and forcibly relocated to the land of their conquerors. Hear the despair and the longing for what had been lost, the bitterness of the taunting of their captors.
Among those exiles was the prophet Ezekiel. For the exiles whose cry of despair we hear in Psalm 137, the waters of Babylon would have been bitter waters.
Ezekiel’s vision is of a strange, transforming flow of water that turns bitterness into sweetness and death to life.
I wonder whether we have experienced exile. Perhaps if you were born in a different country, or born in a different town, or feel separated in some way from some important part of your life, that might be the experience of exile. Let’s hang on to that, because we’ll come to it.
A bit of background. We’re going to tell you some stories, and the first is the story of Yahweh or Marduk, because the people, when they found themselves taken from Jerusalem to Babylon, must have wondered: Has God deserted us? Has Yahweh, our God, been defeated by Marduk, the god of the Babylonians?
Under Saul and David and Solomon, the country of the Israelites grew and was strong, and that was their heyday. But when Solomon died, his kingdom was divided into two. North was Israel and south was Judah. Sometimes they helped each other, but often they didn’t.
They were divided and weak. They were small fish, and there were big sharks around.
The biggest shark at that time was Assyria. In 722 BC, Assyria overwhelmed Samaria, the northern kingdom, and the people of the Kingdom of Israel were taken into exile.
They were taken to a land they didn’t like, and their country was filled with people from other places.
Judah managed to escape that for a little while, but soon Assyria fell to Babylon and the Babylonians came knocking at the gates of Jerusalem.
In 598–597 BC there was a siege and finally they surrendered. The elite, the top people of Jerusalem, were taken into exile to Babylon. Ezekiel, being a priest, was amongst them.
Now, they left the city intact, but they took the king. Jehoiachin was taken into exile, and another king was put in place. But he was going to be a puppet king under the thumb of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.
Five years on, he formed an alliance with Egypt and rebelled against Babylon.
And then they came down like a ton of bricks.
That was King Zedekiah, and he paid very heavily personally for that, but so did Jerusalem. The walls were knocked down, the city destroyed and the Temple was destroyed. Many more people were taken in a large mass exile to Babylon, leaving only the very poor people there to look after the fields.
Ezekiel’s story and his vision are in that in-between period between the first and the second exile.
So Ezekiel is commissioned by God to speak to the people. Now he has an amazing vision. He sees a strange thing — it’s almost like a drone — coming out of a cloud.
It’s got weird creatures with various strange faces on them, but on the top of it is something which he calls “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.”
And he’s saying to himself, how come this likeness of the Lord, the glory of the Lord, which should be in Jerusalem, in the Temple, over the Ark of the Covenant — how come it’s here?
And the message we are gathering from that is that God has gone into exile with his people.
So Ezekiel is to be God’s watchman.
Now a watchman’s job is to go to the city and to watch out for any danger. If the watchman sees danger, he’s to warn the people. If the watchman doesn’t do that, if he sees the danger but doesn’t warn the people, then whatever happens is the fault of the watchman.
But if he does his job and the people ignore him, then that’s their problem.
Ezekiel was told he had to take a message of warning to the people.
He’s also told that no one is going to take any notice of him — the fate, I think, of most preachers!
And so he goes, and he uses all sorts of extraordinary acts, almost what you might call street theatre.
He lies down on his side for 40 days to symbolise the punishment of the people of Judah, and he lies on his other side for three hundred and something days to symbolise the punishment of the people of Israel.
He’s symbolising this stuff.
He does other things which surprise the people, but I think they guess he’s crazy and they take no notice.
He uses all sorts of extraordinary images to preach to the people, but they take no notice, and of course the downfall is certain.
But at the heart of Ezekiel’s message is God’s promise:
“Therefore tell the exiles, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Although I have scattered you in the countries of the world, I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile. I, the Sovereign Lord, will gather you back from the nations where you have been scattered, and I’ll give you the land of Israel again.”
So there is a promise of God.
Now that’s the background to this rather remarkable passage that was read to us.
What happens here is that Ezekiel is taken by a heavenly figure who shows him the rebuilding of the city and the rebuilding of the Temple.
This man is what he’s called, but he’s like a sort of angel, I guess, because he is God’s messenger.
And he gives him this vision of these waters that flow from the Temple.
You see how the water flows. First of all it’s a trickle, and as they walk into it, it’s ankle deep. They go a bit further and it’s knee deep, then it’s waist deep, and then it’s so deep you can’t cross it. You have to swim in it.
Perhaps to me that says something about being totally immersed in the goodness of God. We sort of become one with it. We’re like a fish swimming in water; we’re swimming in this wonderful beauty and graciousness of God.
And as it goes along, he sees that there are trees growing and there are beautiful plants coming up.
The water flows into the Dead Sea, which is all salt, and it becomes fresh because God’s love refreshes and renews and brings back to life those things that were dead.
You can probably recall another very famous story from Ezekiel about the Valley of the Dry Bones, where the skeletons are brought to life and come back to life again.
Another promise of God going to renew the people.
And in this renewed sea, where it now becomes like the Mediterranean with fish and sea creatures, we are reminded, of course, of the Garden of Eden.
That’s the image Ezekiel is trying to give to us. Like the Garden of Eden, everything is being renewed. What is dead can be brought back to life.
It will be able to support people. The fish will be there. They’ll be able to get food from the fish and from the plants. And the leaves of the plants have healing properties.
So all of these images are of renewal that come from this beautiful stream of water that’s flowing from the Temple.
The swamps remain salty, and that’s probably because salt is needed too. It was the practice in those times for swamps to be allowed to dry out and then people would collect the salt.
So some people may wonder why the little swamps didn’t become fresh as well. That’s the reason, I think.
“And the leaves,” it says, “will not wither, nor will their fruit fail, but will bear fresh fruit every month because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”
The stream of living water is the theme for Season of Creation, and I think it was suggested from the Pacific Island churches because they’re concerned about water.
And as Phil was mentioning before, we’ve got mixed feelings about water right now as we see the terrible events that are happening in Nepal.
I went yesterday up to the nursing home where my wife was and spoke with some lovely Nepalese people and checked how they and their families were.
They tell me they’re okay, but there are many people in Nepal whose families are not okay, and who have relatives living here. So if you know them, check them out, please.
Now I wonder who would be the watchman for today.
Who are today’s watchmen?
Ezekiel was God’s watchman.
I’m going to nominate climate scientists as the watchmen for today who are giving us warnings.
And it’s up to us: are we going to heed those warnings?
When Governor Phillip and his people arrived on the 26th of January 1788, there was a beautiful stream of water called the Tank Stream. They called it the Tank Stream because they built tanks, or little dams.
But that had been cared for for thousands of years by the Gadigal people.
Within a few short years, the Tank Stream was polluted.
The Murray-Darling system was an efficient water system, watering the whole of the eastern part of Australia.
Now we struggle with water levels, with overused water. We’ve seen the terrible fish kills that have happened in the Murray-Darling.
There are all sorts of warnings.
If we’re just looking at the water side, and the example of the events in Nepal, the glaciers are melting, contributing to these terrible events occurring.
The Himalayas are heating at twice the rate of the rest of the world. Don’t know why, but that’s a fact.
So I’m wondering whether we are exiles on our own planet.
Have we lost touch with creation?
Yesterday I went for a walk in the park, as I often do, to refresh my mind and to get some fresh air and just enjoy the sun and the trees.
I saw a man walking round and round and round the park, looking at his phone all the time.
I thought, why don’t you look at the beautiful things that are around you?
I think we’re becoming separated from creation.
We don’t see the stars anymore, do we, in Sydney?
It’s one of the things I miss from living in the Blue Mountains — apart from the fresh air and the beauty — seeing the stars.
We’re cut off.
Find ways to reconnect.
There are all sorts of things we can do, and you’ve got a sheet given to you today with all sorts of really great suggestions.
But you need to reconnect. Find not just that head connection, but that heart connection.
In 1973, I took my family on a holiday to Wee Jasper.
We didn’t have a lot of money for holidays, and so we stayed in National Park cabins. That’s all right.
It is the only time I ever saw a platypus in the wild, actually, at Wee Jasper on that holiday.
But, as often seemed to be the case when we went on holidays, it rained.
So there we were, in a cabin with four kids under the age of nine, and it was raining.
My aunt and her young son were in the next cabin, but we couldn’t swap the kids around because her boy, David, came down with chickenpox.
So there we were, marooned in this cabin.
But finally the rain stopped and the sun came out.
And I went out. I put Jeremy, the youngest boy — I think he was two — in the back of the car, and I just went off with Jeremy.
And, not being very sensible, I went through a bit of a flooded creek and got the distributor wet, and the car stopped.
So I had to manage to get up onto the edge of the bank and thought, “Okay, well, we’ll have to walk back to camp.”
So there I was.
His little legs got tired, so pretty soon he was on my shoulders.
Sometimes, when there’s been rain, the whole land has been washed clean.
Everything was fresh and beautiful and green.
And I could hear the magpies. I can still hear them.
And I thought, what could be better than walking through this beautiful place with my little boy on my shoulders?
That’s connecting with the heart to creation.
The last couple of weeks I’ve been, first of all, to Canberra for the Common Grace conference, and then last Monday and Tuesday to a Sydney Alliance training — two days of community development training.
At both those organisations they stressed the telling of stories.
If you’re going to make changes, you need to hear the stories of people’s experiences.
So maybe over your cup of tea today, you might like to share with somebody a story you have of a great encounter with creation.
Think about that.
Margaret Mead said:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
I’ll finish with another river message from the Bible, and it’s from Amos.
Amos was criticising the people who trample on the poor and take levies of grain from the poor, and take bribes and push the needy aside.
And Amos says:
“Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate.”
The people were very religious. They had wonderful religious ceremonies.
And Amos gives the words of God:
“Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Phil’s response
Thanks, Bill, for doing the hard work of the theological foundation of what we’re talking about here.
And I encourage you to continue to ponder some of that stuff.
We will have the reflection questions up very soon, as soon as I can relook at Bill’s stuff.
But I was also told that Ian Ackworth has written some Bible studies on this topic as well, and we’re hoping to get a copy of that and make it available for people, so that you can continue to reflect as well.
I know the band’s coming up, but I wanted to speak for another minute and a half because, as I said before, the committees that have been putting Season of Creation together have been saying: how do we help people respond?
We’ve got our own Social Justice Team here at Turramurra Uniting Church, and I asked them, and I also asked a few other people, “Can you give us some ideas of how we can help people respond?”
You see, for me, I use the prayer from Psalm 104:30 quite regularly when I think about these things, because I don’t know what to pray.
Psalm 104:30 says:
“When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.”
And there’s something about me just going, “Send your Spirit, God, so that we can renew the creation.”
But what’s our participation in the answer to that prayer?
And so here are just a few opportunities to respond.
In the conversations that I had, people came back with both advocacy ideas — things that we can do to advocate for this — and also some practical ideas.
Hopefully you would have got a sheet, which I failed to bring up the front here, but you should have it in front of you, with things that you could do.
So, in terms of advocacy, one of the things that the Uniting Church Assembly has asked us to do is to write to our members of Parliament, particularly with the upcoming COP31 conference coming in November, to say, “This is what we think as a nation we should be arguing for.”
If you’re not quite sure what to put in the letter, the Uniting Church has even given you a couple of paragraphs that you could read and either copy or write in your own words.
But I would encourage you: let’s put our voices out there and say, as we head to the COP31 conversations, “Here is what we think we as a nation should be pushing for.”
But there are also other things to do.
Bill said little things like simply using recycled toilet paper saves so much water — so much water.
There are a couple of good companies I’ve put on there that actually also do other things when you buy the toilet paper as well.
You could join the Uniting Climate Action Network. I think you receive their emails, don’t you, Bill? I receive their emails as well.
If you would like to know more about that, the website is there. Just go to them and you can register.
But I also, as I said at the beginning, encourage us to pray. To pray.
And I’ve written up some prayer points there.
But if you’re looking for some practical ways — what are some things that we can do to actually help with water issues? — we’ve got four there that have been suggested to us.
I asked Peter and Edwina, who have just recently been out to Zambia’s Child school, “Is there anything that we could do right now that would make a difference?”
Do you remember how Peter was saying that they’ve moved some of the wells around on the property?
They’ve got some pumps there, but apparently the pumps are solar powered because they’re nowhere near the other power on the site. Therefore they only run during sunlight. They don’t run at night-time.
So if you run out of water at night-time, unfortunately, that’s it.
Maybe we can help them solve that, either through batteries or getting power to those pumps.
Or we could help extend the irrigation system, which they’ve started but haven’t finished.
We could also go through two organisations that we regularly support — UnitingWorld and Tearfund. They both have ongoing projects that help with water.
One is helping people experiencing drought, and through UnitingWorld and Tearfund there are opportunities to help build wells where they are needed.
You don’t have to contribute all $1,900 towards a well.
What we’re doing — I talked to our treasurer, Rob — is that if you go to the website there at the bottom, all the money will come to the church, and when we reach that figure we’ll send it off to Tearfund, UnitingWorld or Zambia’s Child, if that makes sense.
But there are just some practical ways.
You don’t have to do any of this.
But we wanted to give people opportunities to respond.