You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's Hebrew Bible reading is here.
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.” What kind of way to live is this? Wouldn’t it just make us all doormats? And who could do this anyway?
Unless you’re Jesus Christ, it might seem impossible to be this giving, this forgiving, this grace-filled. But in our Hebrew Bible we have a story of someone who did just that: did good to those who hated him, blessed those who cursed him, gave to those who abused him. This Sunday we hear the tail end of the story of Joseph, the beloved eleventh son of Jacob; the dreamer so hated by his older brothers they threw him down a well, then sold him to slave traders and told their father he had been killed by a wild animal, showing off his blood-spattered “coat of many colors” as proof. Their actions not only hastened the decline of their father, but started a cycle of misery and abuse for their brother.
Taken to Egypt and sold into service, he suffered further misadventures, but ultimately came to the attention of Pharaoh, and ended up as Pharaoh’s senior advisor, managing the entire country. (Read the whole wonderfully written novella in Genesis 37,39-47.) Foreseeing a regional famine, Joseph is able to stockpile grain for Egypt. When the famine hits Israel, his brothers are sent to Egypt to buy food. They don’t recognize their brother when they come before him, but he knows them. He strings them along, perhaps exacting some emotional revenge, but ultimately we see the big “reveal” and forgiveness of a horrible trauma that not only imperiled his life, but left him cut off for decades from his family and beloved father. He blesses those who persecuted him, and forgives his abusers.
Of course, Joseph does this from a place of freedom and power – perhaps that makes it easier. But the power to forgive and bless is ours no matter where we sit. For someone under the thumb of oppression or captivity, it may be the only power, the only form of choice, the only freedom. Every person bound in chattel slavery or human trafficking; every one locked in an abusive relationship; even those held in cycles of addiction comes to recognize this. Making the choice to forgive, to release, also releases us.
For those privileged not to be in such circumstances, the urgency is no less real. Inability to forgive those who have hurt, betrayed or abused us leaves us tied to them and gives them “real estate” in our minds and psyches. Releasing people from the very real debts they owe us is turning the other check, for we may be inviting more mistreatment. The only difference is, now it is our choice, because we want to be free, and we want them to be free. That’s what praying for our abusers can yield – a desire that they be free. It doesn’t mean we don’t want them punished; it means we don’t need to do the punishing. And it doesn’t mean we stay in the relationship; it only means we’ve chosen freedom.
“For freedom Christ has set us free,” Paul wrote to the Galatians, who were slipping out of grace into a rigid legalism. Freedom is God’s desire for us, and for every child of God. Those who forgive and bless and release in Jesus’ name are not doormats; we are freedom fighters.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-20-25 - What Goes Around...
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Many “New Age” teachings assert that we make our own reality, form our own destiny, are fully in charge of our lives. While this is not the Christian understanding (I am relieved to know there is a loving God who has authority over my life, even as s/he allows me the freedom to make choices for good or ill), Jesus does suggest there is a connection between what we put out and what we receive: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
I have experienced this truth. In areas of my life where I am trusting and generous, I experience plenty. Where I am grudging, tight-fisted and judgmental, I see only paltry blessings. But I don't think Jesus is teaching karma, or suggesting that God punishes or withholds according to our attitudes. He is making a profound observation: only freedom can beget freedom, just as only love can beget love.
When we regard others with compassion rather than judgment or condemnation, we seek the best in them; such an outlook leads to more freedom. In fact, when I catch myself judging, I pray for the ability to see where that other person hurts. Compassion can break that cycle. (We need to practice this on ourselves too…).
When we are able to forgive people who have hurt us, and really release that debt, costly as it may be, we are set free and so are they. And when we give, our hands are open to receive. And not only our hands; our hearts, for giving makes us joyful, and joyful people are attractive. As we cultivate an attitude of giving, things get unjammed, and gifts flow to us as well as from us.
This teaching, “the measure you give will be the measure you get back,” is another way of saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Go through life pinched and puckered, that will likely be the way you experience the world. Go out in joy, sharing your gifts and your compassion, and just see how much blessing surrounds you.
Jesus uses such an exuberant image to describe the abundance God wants to pour on us – good measure, pressed down, shaken, running over into our laps. We need to affirm and forgive and give our little hearts out just to make room for all the blessing God desires for us to have. Are you ready?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Many “New Age” teachings assert that we make our own reality, form our own destiny, are fully in charge of our lives. While this is not the Christian understanding (I am relieved to know there is a loving God who has authority over my life, even as s/he allows me the freedom to make choices for good or ill), Jesus does suggest there is a connection between what we put out and what we receive: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
I have experienced this truth. In areas of my life where I am trusting and generous, I experience plenty. Where I am grudging, tight-fisted and judgmental, I see only paltry blessings. But I don't think Jesus is teaching karma, or suggesting that God punishes or withholds according to our attitudes. He is making a profound observation: only freedom can beget freedom, just as only love can beget love.
When we regard others with compassion rather than judgment or condemnation, we seek the best in them; such an outlook leads to more freedom. In fact, when I catch myself judging, I pray for the ability to see where that other person hurts. Compassion can break that cycle. (We need to practice this on ourselves too…).
When we are able to forgive people who have hurt us, and really release that debt, costly as it may be, we are set free and so are they. And when we give, our hands are open to receive. And not only our hands; our hearts, for giving makes us joyful, and joyful people are attractive. As we cultivate an attitude of giving, things get unjammed, and gifts flow to us as well as from us.
This teaching, “the measure you give will be the measure you get back,” is another way of saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” Go through life pinched and puckered, that will likely be the way you experience the world. Go out in joy, sharing your gifts and your compassion, and just see how much blessing surrounds you.
Jesus uses such an exuberant image to describe the abundance God wants to pour on us – good measure, pressed down, shaken, running over into our laps. We need to affirm and forgive and give our little hearts out just to make room for all the blessing God desires for us to have. Are you ready?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-19-25 - Let Them Steal?
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Can you imagine being robbed, learning the identity of the thief, and saying to them, “Oh, that’s okay, keep it?” Or walking down a busy sidewalk and giving to every panhandler you meet? Is that really what Jesus was asking of us when he said to his disciples: "Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you."
Whenever I study this passage in a group, I watch people turn themselves into pretzels trying to find the loopholes. “We’d go broke,” “Nowadays many beggars are addicts or con artists,” “I work hard for my stuff.” Is this message even for us, or was it only intended for Jesus’ first disciples, who were sent on mission forays with nothing, told to rely completely on the generosity of others? Are there meant to be some people who beg and others who give, or are we all either or both at different times?
As with most passages of scripture, we do best when we look at this as a whole rather than individual verses. We can start where Jesus ends up: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." If we were truly guided by this principle, known as the Golden Rule, all our interactions would flow better, from living with other people to co-existing with global neighbors. If you like to find the kitchen counters clean when you come to them, clean them for the next person. If you would like your citizens to thrive, help your neighbors’ citizens to thrive.
But do we have to let people steal from us? Perhaps Jesus is saying, “If you want people to accord you dignity and ultimate value as a human being, you need to extend that same regard to people who harm or steal from you” – which might mean valuing the thief more than the goods stolen. That’s a challenging thought – though it aligns with the Episcopal baptismal promise to “Respect the dignity of every human being.” And if we offer our plenty, it’s not being stolen. If we make a loan without expecting a return, we extend freedom both to ourselves and to our debtors.
It depends what angle you’re looking from. In cosmic terms, we come into this life with nothing. Everything we have is given to us by our loving God, even what we earn as a result of abilities or assets we’re born with. Should we hold quite so tightly to the fruits of God’s initial investment in us?
Who do you feel has taken something from you? What would help you release that obligation now, treating them as you would hope someone would treat you? Make it specific.
I am no better at living into this teaching of Jesus than most. I can start by identifying other people with myself. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you” sets up a comparison and a connection. And when we see ourselves as connected to other people, and they to us – by common humanity if nothing else – giving to them, even not quite voluntarily, isn’t such a stretch.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Can you imagine being robbed, learning the identity of the thief, and saying to them, “Oh, that’s okay, keep it?” Or walking down a busy sidewalk and giving to every panhandler you meet? Is that really what Jesus was asking of us when he said to his disciples: "Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you."
Whenever I study this passage in a group, I watch people turn themselves into pretzels trying to find the loopholes. “We’d go broke,” “Nowadays many beggars are addicts or con artists,” “I work hard for my stuff.” Is this message even for us, or was it only intended for Jesus’ first disciples, who were sent on mission forays with nothing, told to rely completely on the generosity of others? Are there meant to be some people who beg and others who give, or are we all either or both at different times?
As with most passages of scripture, we do best when we look at this as a whole rather than individual verses. We can start where Jesus ends up: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." If we were truly guided by this principle, known as the Golden Rule, all our interactions would flow better, from living with other people to co-existing with global neighbors. If you like to find the kitchen counters clean when you come to them, clean them for the next person. If you would like your citizens to thrive, help your neighbors’ citizens to thrive.
But do we have to let people steal from us? Perhaps Jesus is saying, “If you want people to accord you dignity and ultimate value as a human being, you need to extend that same regard to people who harm or steal from you” – which might mean valuing the thief more than the goods stolen. That’s a challenging thought – though it aligns with the Episcopal baptismal promise to “Respect the dignity of every human being.” And if we offer our plenty, it’s not being stolen. If we make a loan without expecting a return, we extend freedom both to ourselves and to our debtors.
It depends what angle you’re looking from. In cosmic terms, we come into this life with nothing. Everything we have is given to us by our loving God, even what we earn as a result of abilities or assets we’re born with. Should we hold quite so tightly to the fruits of God’s initial investment in us?
Who do you feel has taken something from you? What would help you release that obligation now, treating them as you would hope someone would treat you? Make it specific.
I am no better at living into this teaching of Jesus than most. I can start by identifying other people with myself. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you” sets up a comparison and a connection. And when we see ourselves as connected to other people, and they to us – by common humanity if nothing else – giving to them, even not quite voluntarily, isn’t such a stretch.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-18-25 - You Want Us To Love THEM?
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Of all the big "asks" that Jesus lays on his followers, perhaps the most extreme is this one: “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.”
It may be hard to see sometimes, but every human has some innate capacity for generosity, compassion, collaboration. Jesus asks these attributes of us. But to love your enemy and do good to someone who hates you? That runs counter to human nature and most cultural norms. How can we structure societies and kinship groups if we have to love our enemies the same as we love our friends and relations?
Jesus held kinship relationships very lightly – witness his dismissiveness of his mother and brothers. In fact, he redefined family altogether, saying, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21). And we can see what he thought of social and ethnic categories in his parable of the Good Samaritan, where the social outcast is the hero of the tale. But what about human nature? Are we not hard-wired to protect ourselves and those we love, as well as our possessions? How can we go around loving our enemies?
With only our human nature, I don’t believe we can. But we do not operate out of merely human nature. At our baptisms, God installs his operating system in us, and when we run on our God-nature, we access unimaginable power. Here’s how we can go about loving our enemies: Let God do it. Bring God into the triangle. Like it or not, there is a line running between us and our enemies – we are bound to them by mutual hatred/fear/ prejudice/anger/all of the above. It can be hard to pray along that axis, let alone open ourselves to communication or blessing. When I am unable to wish good for someone, I direct my prayers for her or him to God, and ask God to bless, forgive, heal and restore them. It is a powerful thing to ask God to bless someone you are unable to bless. We can’t know the effect it will have on the other person (though surprisingly often we see changes in their behavior…), but it releases something in us and changes us.
As we begin to be freed of our own fear and hatred, we become better able to imagine doing good to those who hate us. There is self-interest as well as altruism in ensuring that those who hate us have enough to eat, safe places to sleep and solid education. If we are victims of abuse from someone else, sometimes the only power we hold is to pray for the abuser, as we are able to do so. There is no downside to praying that a vile and evil human being be blessed and healed and restored to his or her full humanity. Such conversion can only help us and protect other victims. Think of John Newton, the slave-trader who came to see the evil he perpetuated, and wrote of his conviction and conversion in the hymn Amazing grace!
In these days of national divisions deeper than most of us have known, it’s not hard to imagine people who hate us, or even people we’d consider enemies. So we have no shortage of opportunities to practice Jesus’ biggest ask.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Of all the big "asks" that Jesus lays on his followers, perhaps the most extreme is this one: “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.”
It may be hard to see sometimes, but every human has some innate capacity for generosity, compassion, collaboration. Jesus asks these attributes of us. But to love your enemy and do good to someone who hates you? That runs counter to human nature and most cultural norms. How can we structure societies and kinship groups if we have to love our enemies the same as we love our friends and relations?
Jesus held kinship relationships very lightly – witness his dismissiveness of his mother and brothers. In fact, he redefined family altogether, saying, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21). And we can see what he thought of social and ethnic categories in his parable of the Good Samaritan, where the social outcast is the hero of the tale. But what about human nature? Are we not hard-wired to protect ourselves and those we love, as well as our possessions? How can we go around loving our enemies?
With only our human nature, I don’t believe we can. But we do not operate out of merely human nature. At our baptisms, God installs his operating system in us, and when we run on our God-nature, we access unimaginable power. Here’s how we can go about loving our enemies: Let God do it. Bring God into the triangle. Like it or not, there is a line running between us and our enemies – we are bound to them by mutual hatred/fear/ prejudice/anger/all of the above. It can be hard to pray along that axis, let alone open ourselves to communication or blessing. When I am unable to wish good for someone, I direct my prayers for her or him to God, and ask God to bless, forgive, heal and restore them. It is a powerful thing to ask God to bless someone you are unable to bless. We can’t know the effect it will have on the other person (though surprisingly often we see changes in their behavior…), but it releases something in us and changes us.
As we begin to be freed of our own fear and hatred, we become better able to imagine doing good to those who hate us. There is self-interest as well as altruism in ensuring that those who hate us have enough to eat, safe places to sleep and solid education. If we are victims of abuse from someone else, sometimes the only power we hold is to pray for the abuser, as we are able to do so. There is no downside to praying that a vile and evil human being be blessed and healed and restored to his or her full humanity. Such conversion can only help us and protect other victims. Think of John Newton, the slave-trader who came to see the evil he perpetuated, and wrote of his conviction and conversion in the hymn Amazing grace!
In these days of national divisions deeper than most of us have known, it’s not hard to imagine people who hate us, or even people we’d consider enemies. So we have no shortage of opportunities to practice Jesus’ biggest ask.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-17-25 - Unconditional Love
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Like many people, I’ve had my share of unrequited love, yearning for the regard and affection of someone either unavailable or uninterested. But it never occurred to me to see this as a spiritual virtue! Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
Of course, Jesus is talking not about romantic fixations, but friendship and favor. To merely return the love or generosity of someone is a low bar indeed. To love as God loves requires us to love when it’s challenging, when we do not get back in kind or volume what we've given, when we don’t even know we’re loved back. If this seems impossible, we need only flip the perspective and see ourselves as the often ungrateful, neglectful and grudging recipients of God’s unconditional love and grace. Jesus’ message starts to make more sense.
Every time we make the choice to love another person, especially in intimate relationships, we are in a sense making a loan. And if, as Jesus commands, we can extend loans without expectation of repayment, we’ll be a lot happier and love with more freedom. I’ve made more than a few loans that I’ve forgotten about. If the money is repaid, it’s a delightful surprise, but I’m not counting on it or disappointed if it is not repaid. It has never occurred to me to see my offers of love or friendship in the same light.
To love this open-handedly risks allowing people to take advantage of us. To love this open-heartedly leaves us vulnerable to pain, for it is human nature to desire love in return for love given, and to hurt when we don’t receive that. And if we’ve ever known the joy of mutual love, that can become the standard by which we judge all interactions. But if we measure that way, we might miss other gifts being offered by friends and lovers; they might seem like lesser gifts but they could be something we need to help us grow. And since our expectations are so often the root of our unhappiness, it wouldn’t hurt to take them off the table, and be set free to love without measure, as we have been loved.
Can you think of a relationship in which you feel you give more than you get? How does it change your perspective if you focus on your generosity more than on deprivation?
Just as our physical hearts have muscles which need to be exercised, so do our spiritual hearts – the more we love without expectation, the stronger our capacity for love grows. Unconditional love is a spiritual practice, as is giving without expectation of return. We need to practice it.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Like many people, I’ve had my share of unrequited love, yearning for the regard and affection of someone either unavailable or uninterested. But it never occurred to me to see this as a spiritual virtue! Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
Of course, Jesus is talking not about romantic fixations, but friendship and favor. To merely return the love or generosity of someone is a low bar indeed. To love as God loves requires us to love when it’s challenging, when we do not get back in kind or volume what we've given, when we don’t even know we’re loved back. If this seems impossible, we need only flip the perspective and see ourselves as the often ungrateful, neglectful and grudging recipients of God’s unconditional love and grace. Jesus’ message starts to make more sense.
Every time we make the choice to love another person, especially in intimate relationships, we are in a sense making a loan. And if, as Jesus commands, we can extend loans without expectation of repayment, we’ll be a lot happier and love with more freedom. I’ve made more than a few loans that I’ve forgotten about. If the money is repaid, it’s a delightful surprise, but I’m not counting on it or disappointed if it is not repaid. It has never occurred to me to see my offers of love or friendship in the same light.
To love this open-handedly risks allowing people to take advantage of us. To love this open-heartedly leaves us vulnerable to pain, for it is human nature to desire love in return for love given, and to hurt when we don’t receive that. And if we’ve ever known the joy of mutual love, that can become the standard by which we judge all interactions. But if we measure that way, we might miss other gifts being offered by friends and lovers; they might seem like lesser gifts but they could be something we need to help us grow. And since our expectations are so often the root of our unhappiness, it wouldn’t hurt to take them off the table, and be set free to love without measure, as we have been loved.
Can you think of a relationship in which you feel you give more than you get? How does it change your perspective if you focus on your generosity more than on deprivation?
Just as our physical hearts have muscles which need to be exercised, so do our spiritual hearts – the more we love without expectation, the stronger our capacity for love grows. Unconditional love is a spiritual practice, as is giving without expectation of return. We need to practice it.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-14-25 - Trees Planted By Water
You can listen to this reflection here.
Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, which we’ve explored this week, could be summed up this way: Don’t put your trust in prosperity or well-being or what people think of you. Your strength comes from God, your reward comes from God; keep your focus on God. As it happens, in one of our readings this Sunday the prophet Jeremiah is singing the same tune:
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. *
Years ago I went on retreat, and in prayer I asked Jesus what he wanted for me or from me. This answer formed in my mind: “I want you to let me water your roots every day.” That’s in part where the name Water Daily came from. Roots that dry up cannot sustain vibrant life in the plant. We need to stay close to the water of life flowing from the throne of God, and send our roots into that stream to soak up its nutrients. (We also need to drink more water each day – even mood issues can stem from dehydration…)
I was very taken with Suzanne Simard’s memoir Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. Her research has shown that “trees are a complex, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own.” This network “heals, feeds and sustains the other members of the forest.”
When I first heard of Simard’s book, and heard her interviewed (On Being), I thought, “This is what churches are meant to be: a powerful network that heals, feeds and sustains the other members of the forest.” The applications of her findings to human networks and particularly to the mission of Christ’s church are galvanizing.
Just imagine what a gift to our current climate we bring when we are “do not fear when heat comes,” when “our leaves stay green” (supple, vibrant), when we are not anxious no matter what is going on around us, no matter how many good reasons there are to be anxious. Just as hatred and anxiety can spread through communities, so can love and peace. We are to be conduits of God’s love and peace.
What is the best way you can think of to keep your spiritual roots watered? (I hope Water Daily is one of them!). Keep doing that, and you will not cease to bear fruit that transforms lives.
*I like this passage so much I set it to music – listen here.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, which we’ve explored this week, could be summed up this way: Don’t put your trust in prosperity or well-being or what people think of you. Your strength comes from God, your reward comes from God; keep your focus on God. As it happens, in one of our readings this Sunday the prophet Jeremiah is singing the same tune:
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. *
Years ago I went on retreat, and in prayer I asked Jesus what he wanted for me or from me. This answer formed in my mind: “I want you to let me water your roots every day.” That’s in part where the name Water Daily came from. Roots that dry up cannot sustain vibrant life in the plant. We need to stay close to the water of life flowing from the throne of God, and send our roots into that stream to soak up its nutrients. (We also need to drink more water each day – even mood issues can stem from dehydration…)
I was very taken with Suzanne Simard’s memoir Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. Her research has shown that “trees are a complex, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own.” This network “heals, feeds and sustains the other members of the forest.”
When I first heard of Simard’s book, and heard her interviewed (On Being), I thought, “This is what churches are meant to be: a powerful network that heals, feeds and sustains the other members of the forest.” The applications of her findings to human networks and particularly to the mission of Christ’s church are galvanizing.
Just imagine what a gift to our current climate we bring when we are “do not fear when heat comes,” when “our leaves stay green” (supple, vibrant), when we are not anxious no matter what is going on around us, no matter how many good reasons there are to be anxious. Just as hatred and anxiety can spread through communities, so can love and peace. We are to be conduits of God’s love and peace.
What is the best way you can think of to keep your spiritual roots watered? (I hope Water Daily is one of them!). Keep doing that, and you will not cease to bear fruit that transforms lives.
*I like this passage so much I set it to music – listen here.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-13-25 - Where's the Love?
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Tomorrow may be Valentines Day, but I find it hard to find the love in Jesus’ "sermon on the plain." ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets… ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’
It can be awfully tempting to take these words and say, “If everybody hates me, I must be doing something right!” Many a clergyperson (or despot…) wielding his or her will over a community has employed such false logic to justify themselves. “I’m just like Jesus, persecuted and holy!”
Let’s assume that is not what Jesus meant. Remember, this whole teaching is directed to his disciples, those who have already committed themselves to following him and the way of life and love he was teaching. That Way ran profoundly counter to the ways of culture, not to mention human nature. He is warning them that people won’t respond well to having their assumptions challenged, their power threatened, their worldview turned upside down. In his service, they will encounter exclusion, derision, persecution and worse. He cautions them not to let their value be determined by what others think about them, nor to adjust their teaching or actions according to their popularity.
Jesus wisely sets the rejection his followers would face into the framework of what happened to the prophets of old, many of whom persisted, despite persecution and punishment, in giving dire warnings that kings did not want to hear. Jesus wanted his followers to know that if they claim to speak for God, they should expect trouble.
And, of course, those who claim to speak for God better be certain that’s what they are doing. How can we know? We can always check our preaching and teaching against what we find in Scripture, the whole sweep of Scripture, that is, not just individual passages. And we need to ground our missional life in prayer, in that relationship into which God invites us daily. And we need to look for good fruit.
If people are coming to faith through our ministries, lives being transformed, and energy being released for mission, we know God is with us. We can withstand the discontent of those who disagree or feel left behind, and continually invite them to join in. But if the only fruit resulting from our teaching or actions is discord and hurt, it’s likely the Holy Spirit is not with us in what we’re doing.
The Holy Spirit is the key. Jesus did nothing without the Spirit, and neither should we. Not only does the Spirit empower our ministries and inspire our preaching, the Spirit is also called Advocate, one who stands with us against our accusers. Whether people speak ill of us or well is not all that important. If we are moving on the winds of the Spirit, we are aligned with God. And God delights in us.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Tomorrow may be Valentines Day, but I find it hard to find the love in Jesus’ "sermon on the plain." ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets… ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.’
It can be awfully tempting to take these words and say, “If everybody hates me, I must be doing something right!” Many a clergyperson (or despot…) wielding his or her will over a community has employed such false logic to justify themselves. “I’m just like Jesus, persecuted and holy!”
Let’s assume that is not what Jesus meant. Remember, this whole teaching is directed to his disciples, those who have already committed themselves to following him and the way of life and love he was teaching. That Way ran profoundly counter to the ways of culture, not to mention human nature. He is warning them that people won’t respond well to having their assumptions challenged, their power threatened, their worldview turned upside down. In his service, they will encounter exclusion, derision, persecution and worse. He cautions them not to let their value be determined by what others think about them, nor to adjust their teaching or actions according to their popularity.
Jesus wisely sets the rejection his followers would face into the framework of what happened to the prophets of old, many of whom persisted, despite persecution and punishment, in giving dire warnings that kings did not want to hear. Jesus wanted his followers to know that if they claim to speak for God, they should expect trouble.
And, of course, those who claim to speak for God better be certain that’s what they are doing. How can we know? We can always check our preaching and teaching against what we find in Scripture, the whole sweep of Scripture, that is, not just individual passages. And we need to ground our missional life in prayer, in that relationship into which God invites us daily. And we need to look for good fruit.
If people are coming to faith through our ministries, lives being transformed, and energy being released for mission, we know God is with us. We can withstand the discontent of those who disagree or feel left behind, and continually invite them to join in. But if the only fruit resulting from our teaching or actions is discord and hurt, it’s likely the Holy Spirit is not with us in what we’re doing.
The Holy Spirit is the key. Jesus did nothing without the Spirit, and neither should we. Not only does the Spirit empower our ministries and inspire our preaching, the Spirit is also called Advocate, one who stands with us against our accusers. Whether people speak ill of us or well is not all that important. If we are moving on the winds of the Spirit, we are aligned with God. And God delights in us.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-12-25 - Now or Later?
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
I often like gospel stories best the way Luke tells them – but his version of the Beatitudes troubles me. Using the words “Kingdom of heaven” to refer to the reign of God has had a negative effect on Christianity. This usage can distort our understanding of Jesus’ message, because we also use the word “heaven” to describe that place in which we will dwell with God for eternity. “Heaven” is a “there and later” place. The Realm of God, as Jesus proclaimed it, is here and now.
If we think the Good News is about what happens to us after we die, we become less invested as agents of transformation in this world, less engaged in naming and mediating God’s presence and peace and power in our earthly life. Too often, Christian proclamation has focused on salvation and not enough on incarnation, the Good News of God present with us in human flesh – physically in Jesus Christ, and now spiritually in us through his Holy Spirit.
This split has perhaps been reinforced by Jesus’ teaching as we read it in Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.” Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh… But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.”
Is it really a zero-sum game; if we’re full now, we’re sure to be hungry later; sad in this life, we’ll yuck it up in the next, and vice versa? This kind of “either/or” thinking leads to legalism and rigidity. Doesn’t Jesus proclaim a “both/and” realm, in which all things are possible?
Or have I misunderstood, thinking Jesus is speaking causally, when he is simply making an apt observation of human life? Take the “blessings” part of his discourse: it is full of wonderful promises, reminding us that poverty, hunger, and sadness do not represent God’s will for our lives, and are not permanent states. It doesn’t say the only place we’ll be blessed is after we’re dead. It just says, “Hold on, you have inherited the kingdom of God. Better things are coming.”
And the “Woes” which follow have always snagged me, because they suggest we’re punished for happiness in this life. But maybe Jesus is not speaking eschatologically about rewards or punishment, simply observing that wealth is its own consolation, which can keep us from putting our full trust in God. A full belly can dull our hunger for justice and righteousness. Joy can blind us to loss, but it’ll catch up with us eventually.
It is both/and… All at the same time we are blessed and full of woe, often in different areas of our lives. The Covid pandemic was a terrible woe, yet responding to it helped our churches thrive. The terrible challenges to peace and justice we are facing now may yield new ways to make God’s love visible in our world. We are at once full and hungry, rejoicing and grieving. If I understand the fullness of what Jesus said about this God we serve, consolations will abound, now and later.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
I often like gospel stories best the way Luke tells them – but his version of the Beatitudes troubles me. Using the words “Kingdom of heaven” to refer to the reign of God has had a negative effect on Christianity. This usage can distort our understanding of Jesus’ message, because we also use the word “heaven” to describe that place in which we will dwell with God for eternity. “Heaven” is a “there and later” place. The Realm of God, as Jesus proclaimed it, is here and now.
If we think the Good News is about what happens to us after we die, we become less invested as agents of transformation in this world, less engaged in naming and mediating God’s presence and peace and power in our earthly life. Too often, Christian proclamation has focused on salvation and not enough on incarnation, the Good News of God present with us in human flesh – physically in Jesus Christ, and now spiritually in us through his Holy Spirit.
This split has perhaps been reinforced by Jesus’ teaching as we read it in Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain.” Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh… But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.”
Is it really a zero-sum game; if we’re full now, we’re sure to be hungry later; sad in this life, we’ll yuck it up in the next, and vice versa? This kind of “either/or” thinking leads to legalism and rigidity. Doesn’t Jesus proclaim a “both/and” realm, in which all things are possible?
Or have I misunderstood, thinking Jesus is speaking causally, when he is simply making an apt observation of human life? Take the “blessings” part of his discourse: it is full of wonderful promises, reminding us that poverty, hunger, and sadness do not represent God’s will for our lives, and are not permanent states. It doesn’t say the only place we’ll be blessed is after we’re dead. It just says, “Hold on, you have inherited the kingdom of God. Better things are coming.”
And the “Woes” which follow have always snagged me, because they suggest we’re punished for happiness in this life. But maybe Jesus is not speaking eschatologically about rewards or punishment, simply observing that wealth is its own consolation, which can keep us from putting our full trust in God. A full belly can dull our hunger for justice and righteousness. Joy can blind us to loss, but it’ll catch up with us eventually.
It is both/and… All at the same time we are blessed and full of woe, often in different areas of our lives. The Covid pandemic was a terrible woe, yet responding to it helped our churches thrive. The terrible challenges to peace and justice we are facing now may yield new ways to make God’s love visible in our world. We are at once full and hungry, rejoicing and grieving. If I understand the fullness of what Jesus said about this God we serve, consolations will abound, now and later.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-11-25 - Christ the Transformer
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
When trying to come up with a name for a church newly formed out of two parishes, I knew I wanted “Christ” in it. People have heard of Christ, even if they’ve never been introduced. The rest of the name also needed to be something people could connect to, a word in use nowadays. “King” seemed too monarchical and male-centric; “Redeemer” not particularly relatable – these days we only redeem points and coupons. We ended up with “Christ the Healer,” which was great. But what I really wished we could have used was “Christ the Transformer.” They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Electric transformers take energy running on one current (say, that used in North America) and transform it so it can be used by appliances wired for a different current (such as in Europe or Africa). Jesus was a Transformer extraordinaire. He took the energy current that birthed the universe and translated, mediated, made it usable for God’s creatures in this earthly realm. More than once the gospel writers refer to Jesus’ power being something that people could feel, that came out of him. Here we see a whole crowd trying to touch him, just to get a dose of the power Jesus was mediating to the world. This bible passage, and others, suggests to me that God is pure energy, of a frequency we could not withstand were it not transformed for us.
That power coming through Jesus didn’t just “zap” people – it healed and restored. It cast out “unclean spirits,” whether demonic forces, or mental or physical diseases, or both. It forgave and released people. God’s power coming through Jesus transformed body, mind and spirit – and healed individuals become transformers in their communities.
We are called to be transformers as we grow into Christ's likeness and ministry. We receive the power of the heavens and transform it into a current that “runs appliances” – lifting up the lowly, feeding the forgotten, healing the infirm, forgiving the unforgivable, loving the unlovable. As we grow in faith, exercising the power of God in prayer and ministry, we become able to withstand and channel a higher and higher frequency, or voltage, of spiritual power. God’s power has not weakened from the time of Christ to now; it is as strong as the wiring able to carry it.
Every single time we exercise faith in the name of Christ we mediate the power of the heavens to bring transformation and life to the things and creatures and people of this world. The more we channel God's power and love, the stronger and deeper our capacity grows.
Christ the Transformer is alive and eager to work through us, his Body in the world. How much can your wiring take?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
When trying to come up with a name for a church newly formed out of two parishes, I knew I wanted “Christ” in it. People have heard of Christ, even if they’ve never been introduced. The rest of the name also needed to be something people could connect to, a word in use nowadays. “King” seemed too monarchical and male-centric; “Redeemer” not particularly relatable – these days we only redeem points and coupons. We ended up with “Christ the Healer,” which was great. But what I really wished we could have used was “Christ the Transformer.” They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Electric transformers take energy running on one current (say, that used in North America) and transform it so it can be used by appliances wired for a different current (such as in Europe or Africa). Jesus was a Transformer extraordinaire. He took the energy current that birthed the universe and translated, mediated, made it usable for God’s creatures in this earthly realm. More than once the gospel writers refer to Jesus’ power being something that people could feel, that came out of him. Here we see a whole crowd trying to touch him, just to get a dose of the power Jesus was mediating to the world. This bible passage, and others, suggests to me that God is pure energy, of a frequency we could not withstand were it not transformed for us.
That power coming through Jesus didn’t just “zap” people – it healed and restored. It cast out “unclean spirits,” whether demonic forces, or mental or physical diseases, or both. It forgave and released people. God’s power coming through Jesus transformed body, mind and spirit – and healed individuals become transformers in their communities.
We are called to be transformers as we grow into Christ's likeness and ministry. We receive the power of the heavens and transform it into a current that “runs appliances” – lifting up the lowly, feeding the forgotten, healing the infirm, forgiving the unforgivable, loving the unlovable. As we grow in faith, exercising the power of God in prayer and ministry, we become able to withstand and channel a higher and higher frequency, or voltage, of spiritual power. God’s power has not weakened from the time of Christ to now; it is as strong as the wiring able to carry it.
Every single time we exercise faith in the name of Christ we mediate the power of the heavens to bring transformation and life to the things and creatures and people of this world. The more we channel God's power and love, the stronger and deeper our capacity grows.
Christ the Transformer is alive and eager to work through us, his Body in the world. How much can your wiring take?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-10-25 - Hearing and Healing
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
We are coming to that part of Jesus’ story where we see his ministry gathering steam. Everywhere he goes he draws crowds – sometimes so many, he has to be creative about where to stand so he can be seen and heard. He has also come to the point of organizing his growing community of followers. In the story just before this one he spends the night on a mountain in prayer and chooses twelve men to be his closest disciples. Now he comes down and enters the fray once more: He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases..
People came from far and wide to see Jesus, Jews and Gentiles alike. They came both to hear him, and to be healed by him. Hearing and healing – such similar words, yet distinct activities we don’t always put together. But often Jesus spoke healing upon people. He didn’t always touch, and he rarely prayed; he just pronounced healing with his voice. Hearing was how the healing was received.
People also found healing in his teaching. He proclaimed the nearness of God, and God’s power to deliver them from captivity of every kind, captivity to poverty, power, demons, disease. No doubt hearing him awakened their faith and made them more receptive to healing and release. It’s no accident that every time Jesus sends his disciples out in mission he commands them to “proclaim the Gospel and heal the sick.” These two activities go hand in hand, the proclamation enabling the healing, the healing confirming the proclamation. A church that does not keep these ministries at equal strength weakens its ministry and undermines its effectiveness as an agent of the Good News.
Healing should be a regular and visible part of a congregation's life. And proclamation need be no more than people’s stories of God’s healing power and love. Our stories are how the Gospel spreads. Our stories of God’s activity quickens the faith of others – just read any of a number of excellent books on Christian healing (email me if you want a list), and see how reading those stories emboldens you to invite God to release his healing stream in your life.
People still want to hear from Jesus, the Jesus we meet in the Gospels. And they want to be whole. If we make both his Word and his Power known in our ministries, many will hear and to be healed.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
We are coming to that part of Jesus’ story where we see his ministry gathering steam. Everywhere he goes he draws crowds – sometimes so many, he has to be creative about where to stand so he can be seen and heard. He has also come to the point of organizing his growing community of followers. In the story just before this one he spends the night on a mountain in prayer and chooses twelve men to be his closest disciples. Now he comes down and enters the fray once more: He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases..
People came from far and wide to see Jesus, Jews and Gentiles alike. They came both to hear him, and to be healed by him. Hearing and healing – such similar words, yet distinct activities we don’t always put together. But often Jesus spoke healing upon people. He didn’t always touch, and he rarely prayed; he just pronounced healing with his voice. Hearing was how the healing was received.
People also found healing in his teaching. He proclaimed the nearness of God, and God’s power to deliver them from captivity of every kind, captivity to poverty, power, demons, disease. No doubt hearing him awakened their faith and made them more receptive to healing and release. It’s no accident that every time Jesus sends his disciples out in mission he commands them to “proclaim the Gospel and heal the sick.” These two activities go hand in hand, the proclamation enabling the healing, the healing confirming the proclamation. A church that does not keep these ministries at equal strength weakens its ministry and undermines its effectiveness as an agent of the Good News.
Healing should be a regular and visible part of a congregation's life. And proclamation need be no more than people’s stories of God’s healing power and love. Our stories are how the Gospel spreads. Our stories of God’s activity quickens the faith of others – just read any of a number of excellent books on Christian healing (email me if you want a list), and see how reading those stories emboldens you to invite God to release his healing stream in your life.
People still want to hear from Jesus, the Jesus we meet in the Gospels. And they want to be whole. If we make both his Word and his Power known in our ministries, many will hear and to be healed.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-7-25 - Leaving Everything
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
We have zoomed in this week on how Jesus’ actions on that fishing boat affected Simon, soon to be nicknamed “Peter.” Let’s widen our lens and take in all of this very public event – the throngs on the shore and the other fishermen in the water. This had a profound effect on them as well. After Simon’s profession of humility and repentance, we read: For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Jesus doesn’t reply to Simon’s plea, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” He just says, “Don't be afraid. I have plans for you. From now on, you will fish for people and catch them.” That’s all he says in the way of recruitment, and it’s a mighty odd offer. Yet after what they have just experienced with him, Peter and Andrew, and James and John in the next boat, haul their catch to shore, leave it all for others to sell, and set off to follow Jesus.
Who walks away from his business at its most successful moment? Who decides, when they’ve finally gotten what they most desired, that they will now seek something else? Someone who has encountered something better, something more powerful, more real, more engaging. That’s the only way I can account for the actions of these fishermen. The power and reality they encountered in Jesus, and maybe the love they detected, was sufficient to draw them away from all they knew and cared for, all their investments, and leave it behind to move forward on a mission they scarcely understood.
What would that look like for us? For you? Where are you most invested? What do you love to do? What are you good at? Is there some way that Jesus is calling you forward, to take with you the skills but leave the investment behind, to put your energies and passions into God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness in Christ? Or to stay where you are, but become more active in following Jesus, who invites us into an ever-deepening relationship, who is always moving forward, never back?
It isn’t always one decisive moment, but gradually we are invited to bring our boats – all that we rely on in this life – to shore, and leave them behind to walk with Jesus, trusting in his amazing power and love. That is the way of freedom. That is the Way of Love.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
We have zoomed in this week on how Jesus’ actions on that fishing boat affected Simon, soon to be nicknamed “Peter.” Let’s widen our lens and take in all of this very public event – the throngs on the shore and the other fishermen in the water. This had a profound effect on them as well. After Simon’s profession of humility and repentance, we read: For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Jesus doesn’t reply to Simon’s plea, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” He just says, “Don't be afraid. I have plans for you. From now on, you will fish for people and catch them.” That’s all he says in the way of recruitment, and it’s a mighty odd offer. Yet after what they have just experienced with him, Peter and Andrew, and James and John in the next boat, haul their catch to shore, leave it all for others to sell, and set off to follow Jesus.
Who walks away from his business at its most successful moment? Who decides, when they’ve finally gotten what they most desired, that they will now seek something else? Someone who has encountered something better, something more powerful, more real, more engaging. That’s the only way I can account for the actions of these fishermen. The power and reality they encountered in Jesus, and maybe the love they detected, was sufficient to draw them away from all they knew and cared for, all their investments, and leave it behind to move forward on a mission they scarcely understood.
What would that look like for us? For you? Where are you most invested? What do you love to do? What are you good at? Is there some way that Jesus is calling you forward, to take with you the skills but leave the investment behind, to put your energies and passions into God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness in Christ? Or to stay where you are, but become more active in following Jesus, who invites us into an ever-deepening relationship, who is always moving forward, never back?
It isn’t always one decisive moment, but gradually we are invited to bring our boats – all that we rely on in this life – to shore, and leave them behind to walk with Jesus, trusting in his amazing power and love. That is the way of freedom. That is the Way of Love.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-6-25 - Encountering the Holy
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
After Jesus’ fishing miracle, Simon Peter has an odd reaction to seeing his nets filled to the breaking point with fish. He doesn’t exult, or gleefully anticipate the profit ahead; he realizes his unworthiness: But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
The fancy spiritual word for what Peter was going through is “compunction,” when we become aware of our sinfulness or a particular area of sin in us. In this action, Jesus had revealed to Simon beyond a shadow of doubt that he was the Holy One – and Peter’s reaction to being in the presence of the holy was to become hyper-aware of his unholiness. Isaiah, in his vision in the temple (also a reading for Sunday) has the same reaction, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
In both instances, God redirects the repentance into mission. Isaiah hears, “Whom shall I send,” and answers, “Here am I! Send me!” Jesus, in that boat with Peter, says nothing about sin – he knows Peter will continue to struggle with those things that make him less than who God made him to be. Neither does he offer forgiveness – that is a given with Jesus. He simply says, “Do not be afraid. I have plans for you. From now on, you will fish for people and catch them.”
Has there been a time when you have felt the presence of Jesus with you? What effect did that have?
Was there ever a time when you felt filled with an awareness of your sinfulness? What inspired that?
Too often in prayer I trot out my sins and repentance – and find God seems little interested in them. God is not in the business of punishment; we do enough of that ourselves. We may go through times of chastening, but those are really boot camp for mission. God is in the business of transformation. All that we offer up in confession is met with an overwhelming love and grace that invites us into new ways of being. We can spend years and a lot of energy feeling guilty or ashamed for how we operate or things we’ve done – and discover that God is much more interested in calling us forward into mission in Christ.
We may not have an explosive experience like Peter did that day in the boat, but we can, anytime, anywhere, come into the presence of the Holy through prayer. And in that presence, the presence of pure Goodness, we can be real about who we are and experience a love we cannot manufacture. And then we can move beyond that encounter into relationship, as we follow Jesus and develop the capacity for more and more of his life in us.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
After Jesus’ fishing miracle, Simon Peter has an odd reaction to seeing his nets filled to the breaking point with fish. He doesn’t exult, or gleefully anticipate the profit ahead; he realizes his unworthiness: But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
The fancy spiritual word for what Peter was going through is “compunction,” when we become aware of our sinfulness or a particular area of sin in us. In this action, Jesus had revealed to Simon beyond a shadow of doubt that he was the Holy One – and Peter’s reaction to being in the presence of the holy was to become hyper-aware of his unholiness. Isaiah, in his vision in the temple (also a reading for Sunday) has the same reaction, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
In both instances, God redirects the repentance into mission. Isaiah hears, “Whom shall I send,” and answers, “Here am I! Send me!” Jesus, in that boat with Peter, says nothing about sin – he knows Peter will continue to struggle with those things that make him less than who God made him to be. Neither does he offer forgiveness – that is a given with Jesus. He simply says, “Do not be afraid. I have plans for you. From now on, you will fish for people and catch them.”
Has there been a time when you have felt the presence of Jesus with you? What effect did that have?
Was there ever a time when you felt filled with an awareness of your sinfulness? What inspired that?
Too often in prayer I trot out my sins and repentance – and find God seems little interested in them. God is not in the business of punishment; we do enough of that ourselves. We may go through times of chastening, but those are really boot camp for mission. God is in the business of transformation. All that we offer up in confession is met with an overwhelming love and grace that invites us into new ways of being. We can spend years and a lot of energy feeling guilty or ashamed for how we operate or things we’ve done – and discover that God is much more interested in calling us forward into mission in Christ.
We may not have an explosive experience like Peter did that day in the boat, but we can, anytime, anywhere, come into the presence of the Holy through prayer. And in that presence, the presence of pure Goodness, we can be real about who we are and experience a love we cannot manufacture. And then we can move beyond that encounter into relationship, as we follow Jesus and develop the capacity for more and more of his life in us.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-5-25 - So Many Fish
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Abundance is abundant in the Gospels. We saw it a few weeks ago in the story of the water turned to wine; we see it this week with the miraculous catch of fish. Abundance is a core principle of God-Life, one of the ways God most often shows her hand – when there is unexpectedly enough, and even too much. That is what Simon Peter and his fisher-friends experienced on the lake that morning, when Jesus said, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
I experienced abundance when I was heading to seminary at Yale and invited fellow congregants at my church to help me pay for it. I thought I might get a few hundred, maybe a thousand dollars to help defray the costs… and the money just kept rolling in, sometimes four figures at a time. In the end some $20,000 was given to support my theological education. Every time I expressed amazement, I could sense God laughing and saying, “See? Now do you believe me?”
If abundance is a principle of God’s realm on earth, why is there so much scarcity? In part, it’s because we’re more wired to see, to expect scarcity. We default to “not enough” – that’s what Jesus’ disciples saw when faced with the challenge of feeding a crowd of thousands. But God invites us to look beyond the “not enough” in front of us to the “what else?” all around us. God invites us to look beyond what we can see, period, and call God’s power to flow into situations of need.
Scarcity on a global level is due to human choices and to sin – greed, fear, and the damage to our planet which those forces wreak. The earth has the capacity to feed everyone on it, but some nations hoard food and water and play havoc with the environment. Most often the ruinous consequences like disease, famine and flooding fall upon the poorer nations. We can make better choices as people of prosperity – both because Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors, and from self-interest. Bono, the lead singer of U2, has written, “In the not-too-distant future, the rich world will invest in the education of the poor world, because it is our best protection against young minds being twisted by extremist ideologies - or growing up without any ideology at all, which could be worse. Nature abhors a vacuum; terrorism loves one.” We are still waiting for that day.
I have wandered far from our lakeshore and its boats sinking with the weight of such a large catch. That day in Galilee, the abundance was all from God. It was a sign to these fishermen in their own language that Jesus meant business, that this was what they could expect in a life in God – along with hardship and hunger. Over all, there would be enough, and often too much to handle.
This miraculous catch of fish was Jesus’ work. Yet it could not have been realized without the participation of the men on those boats. Abundance comes from God – and God always reveals it through people. Are you ready to haul in a boatload of fish?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Abundance is abundant in the Gospels. We saw it a few weeks ago in the story of the water turned to wine; we see it this week with the miraculous catch of fish. Abundance is a core principle of God-Life, one of the ways God most often shows her hand – when there is unexpectedly enough, and even too much. That is what Simon Peter and his fisher-friends experienced on the lake that morning, when Jesus said, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
I experienced abundance when I was heading to seminary at Yale and invited fellow congregants at my church to help me pay for it. I thought I might get a few hundred, maybe a thousand dollars to help defray the costs… and the money just kept rolling in, sometimes four figures at a time. In the end some $20,000 was given to support my theological education. Every time I expressed amazement, I could sense God laughing and saying, “See? Now do you believe me?”
If abundance is a principle of God’s realm on earth, why is there so much scarcity? In part, it’s because we’re more wired to see, to expect scarcity. We default to “not enough” – that’s what Jesus’ disciples saw when faced with the challenge of feeding a crowd of thousands. But God invites us to look beyond the “not enough” in front of us to the “what else?” all around us. God invites us to look beyond what we can see, period, and call God’s power to flow into situations of need.
Scarcity on a global level is due to human choices and to sin – greed, fear, and the damage to our planet which those forces wreak. The earth has the capacity to feed everyone on it, but some nations hoard food and water and play havoc with the environment. Most often the ruinous consequences like disease, famine and flooding fall upon the poorer nations. We can make better choices as people of prosperity – both because Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors, and from self-interest. Bono, the lead singer of U2, has written, “In the not-too-distant future, the rich world will invest in the education of the poor world, because it is our best protection against young minds being twisted by extremist ideologies - or growing up without any ideology at all, which could be worse. Nature abhors a vacuum; terrorism loves one.” We are still waiting for that day.
I have wandered far from our lakeshore and its boats sinking with the weight of such a large catch. That day in Galilee, the abundance was all from God. It was a sign to these fishermen in their own language that Jesus meant business, that this was what they could expect in a life in God – along with hardship and hunger. Over all, there would be enough, and often too much to handle.
This miraculous catch of fish was Jesus’ work. Yet it could not have been realized without the participation of the men on those boats. Abundance comes from God – and God always reveals it through people. Are you ready to haul in a boatload of fish?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-4-25 - Experts
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Would a Wall Street whiz take financial tips from a wizard? A maestro adopt singing techniques from a Zen master? An athlete take coaching from an ascetic? Why on earth would a lifelong fisherman who knows his home waters like his own face take angling advice from an itinerant rabbi?
Jesus got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
What exhaustion and exasperation Simon must have felt. When the fish aren’t biting, they’re not biting – or in this case, swimming into your nets. Try again tomorrow. They’d already come home, were already cleaning their nets. Why go out again now? And what does this guy know about it?
But Simon agrees. He calls Jesus “Master.” Is he already a follower of Jesus? The Gospel of John tells us that Simon’s brother Andrew met Jesus first, became convinced he was the long-awaited Messiah, and brought Simon to meet him. Perhaps a relationship is already growing; perhaps Jesus has set the bait and is just waiting for Simon to bite. Whether out of trust or politeness, Simon heads back out into the deep waters and lets down the nets.
Have you ever felt an instruction from Jesus, a Holy Spirit nudge? Did you act on it? What happened?
It can be hard to hear or respond when these nudges come in areas where we are experts. Even clergy, who are supposed to be moving on the winds of the Spirit all the time, can become so locked into our techniques and patterns that we are slow to respond in new ways, to even see that God is offering new opportunities, new places to set our nets. But everyone can find themselves working more effectively and grace-fully when we invite Jesus to be part of our work – teachers, doctors, actors, lawyers… God wants to work through us, especially where we are gifted and trained.
We have to be willing to listen, and we have to be willing to go back out when we’ve failed, if we sense Jesus inviting us to. Often we need to go to the deep water, where we can’t see the bottom, where the risk might be greater, where the outcome is unclear. The deep water also means going deep into our spirits, where we can dwell with God and be formed as Christ followers.
Going to the deep water requires us to let go and trust Jesus. When we let his Spirit work through us, instead of drawing on our own limited strength and insight, we soon find our nets full to bursting.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Would a Wall Street whiz take financial tips from a wizard? A maestro adopt singing techniques from a Zen master? An athlete take coaching from an ascetic? Why on earth would a lifelong fisherman who knows his home waters like his own face take angling advice from an itinerant rabbi?
Jesus got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
What exhaustion and exasperation Simon must have felt. When the fish aren’t biting, they’re not biting – or in this case, swimming into your nets. Try again tomorrow. They’d already come home, were already cleaning their nets. Why go out again now? And what does this guy know about it?
But Simon agrees. He calls Jesus “Master.” Is he already a follower of Jesus? The Gospel of John tells us that Simon’s brother Andrew met Jesus first, became convinced he was the long-awaited Messiah, and brought Simon to meet him. Perhaps a relationship is already growing; perhaps Jesus has set the bait and is just waiting for Simon to bite. Whether out of trust or politeness, Simon heads back out into the deep waters and lets down the nets.
Have you ever felt an instruction from Jesus, a Holy Spirit nudge? Did you act on it? What happened?
It can be hard to hear or respond when these nudges come in areas where we are experts. Even clergy, who are supposed to be moving on the winds of the Spirit all the time, can become so locked into our techniques and patterns that we are slow to respond in new ways, to even see that God is offering new opportunities, new places to set our nets. But everyone can find themselves working more effectively and grace-fully when we invite Jesus to be part of our work – teachers, doctors, actors, lawyers… God wants to work through us, especially where we are gifted and trained.
We have to be willing to listen, and we have to be willing to go back out when we’ve failed, if we sense Jesus inviting us to. Often we need to go to the deep water, where we can’t see the bottom, where the risk might be greater, where the outcome is unclear. The deep water also means going deep into our spirits, where we can dwell with God and be formed as Christ followers.
Going to the deep water requires us to let go and trust Jesus. When we let his Spirit work through us, instead of drawing on our own limited strength and insight, we soon find our nets full to bursting.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
2-3-25 - Hungry For the Word
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
This Friday I celebrate the 21st anniversary of my ordination as a priest. What a treat to find that the gospel for next Sunday is the one I chose for that blessed service. It tells the story of how Jesus baited, hooked and reeled in a fisherman, and made him a leader in God's’ mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness.
Yet in my ministry I have not encountered what Jesus did that day: so many people crowding in to hear the Word of God, they nearly pushed him into a lake: Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Has hunger for God’s word abated? To some extent, yes – prosperity and security can certainly dull a yearning for transcendent truth; anxiety and civic upheaval can sap our spiritual energy. And many people have only vaguely heard of Jesus. Yet there are churches with 25,000 people a weekend crowding in to hear about life in God. People are still hungry. How might we better feed them?
For one thing, churches can stop squabbling. I once had a vision in prayer of a crowd of agitated, ravenous people, facing upward, mouths open, like baby birds in a nest. And nearby stood a group of bakers, arguing about who had the best bread recipe. It was clear to me that this represented the church of our time. Conflict is not appealing.
And we need to get out more, to where people are, not expecting them to find us in the few hours on a Sunday morning we’re gathered in our church buildings. I know of a church in England that formed “mission-shaped communities,” groups of parishioners sent out to build relationships and host casual worship and prayer services among people to whom they felt called – young mothers, ex-cons, skate-boarders, bankers. The church implemented this strategy when a much-needed expansion of their sanctuary forced them out for eight months. During that time, so many people joined these mission-shaped communities, and then the church, that when the congregation got back into the expanded sanctuary, they were again short on space!
Might we try some version of that? How about outdoor “pop-up” spiritual events? Unity rallies? Online or in-person study or prayer groups people could drop into?
An even more basic strategy for those of us who have been “caught” in Jesus’ nets is to speak our love and joy and gratitude easily and often among those we know. Christian faith has never spread through lectures about theological concepts. It spreads by people talking about their experiences of God. What’s your story? And to whom will you tell it?
If we all speak more of our spiritual lives with people outside the church, we might start to see just how many people around us are hungry for the Word of God.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
This Friday I celebrate the 21st anniversary of my ordination as a priest. What a treat to find that the gospel for next Sunday is the one I chose for that blessed service. It tells the story of how Jesus baited, hooked and reeled in a fisherman, and made him a leader in God's’ mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation to wholeness.
Yet in my ministry I have not encountered what Jesus did that day: so many people crowding in to hear the Word of God, they nearly pushed him into a lake: Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Has hunger for God’s word abated? To some extent, yes – prosperity and security can certainly dull a yearning for transcendent truth; anxiety and civic upheaval can sap our spiritual energy. And many people have only vaguely heard of Jesus. Yet there are churches with 25,000 people a weekend crowding in to hear about life in God. People are still hungry. How might we better feed them?
For one thing, churches can stop squabbling. I once had a vision in prayer of a crowd of agitated, ravenous people, facing upward, mouths open, like baby birds in a nest. And nearby stood a group of bakers, arguing about who had the best bread recipe. It was clear to me that this represented the church of our time. Conflict is not appealing.
And we need to get out more, to where people are, not expecting them to find us in the few hours on a Sunday morning we’re gathered in our church buildings. I know of a church in England that formed “mission-shaped communities,” groups of parishioners sent out to build relationships and host casual worship and prayer services among people to whom they felt called – young mothers, ex-cons, skate-boarders, bankers. The church implemented this strategy when a much-needed expansion of their sanctuary forced them out for eight months. During that time, so many people joined these mission-shaped communities, and then the church, that when the congregation got back into the expanded sanctuary, they were again short on space!
Might we try some version of that? How about outdoor “pop-up” spiritual events? Unity rallies? Online or in-person study or prayer groups people could drop into?
An even more basic strategy for those of us who have been “caught” in Jesus’ nets is to speak our love and joy and gratitude easily and often among those we know. Christian faith has never spread through lectures about theological concepts. It spreads by people talking about their experiences of God. What’s your story? And to whom will you tell it?
If we all speak more of our spiritual lives with people outside the church, we might start to see just how many people around us are hungry for the Word of God.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-31-25 - Jesus, Presented
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Sunday is the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord. When feast days fall on Sundays they supersede the regular lectionary. So the gospel story on which we’ve spent our time this week may not be the one you hear in church. Today, let’s look at the one for this feast day.
Jesus’ parents bring him to the temple in accordance with the Mosaic law governing the offering of firstborn males to the Lord: When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
But much more happened that day than the prescribed rituals of purification and sacrifice. They encountered two elderly people who confirmed for them the message the angel Gabriel had given before Jesus’ birth. One of these was Simeon, a good and holy man who believed God had promised him he would not die before seeing “the salvation of Israel.”* We’re told that the Spirit guided him to the temple that day, a reminder that God will get us where God wants us to be as we’re open to being led. Simeon was – and as soon as he saw the infant, he somehow knew he was seeing the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior. Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
But that’s not all Simeon said – he also told Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” This was perhaps a helpful “heads up” for Jesus’ mother, but must also have increased her worry for her firstborn. It resonates for us when we hear Jesus say, “I have come to bring not peace but a sword,” indicating that the world would not accept him without conflict.
The holy family also encountered an elderly woman, Anna. We’re told she was a prophet –women were recognized as prophets – and that she had been widowed young and had lived in the temple courts since then. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
It must have been a blessing to Mary and Joseph to receive such confirmation of their own incredible revelations. And it must also have made them wary. Yet all we are told of their response is that they took their baby home to Nazareth and cared for him; no mention in Luke of the flight into Egypt and exile there that Matthew records. Rather, we are told only that, The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.
Jesus’ earthly parents did everything they could for him. The rest was up to God. The same is true for us.
* We are talking here about ancient Israel, not the modern nation state. They are not synonymous.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Sunday is the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord. When feast days fall on Sundays they supersede the regular lectionary. So the gospel story on which we’ve spent our time this week may not be the one you hear in church. Today, let’s look at the one for this feast day.
Jesus’ parents bring him to the temple in accordance with the Mosaic law governing the offering of firstborn males to the Lord: When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”
But much more happened that day than the prescribed rituals of purification and sacrifice. They encountered two elderly people who confirmed for them the message the angel Gabriel had given before Jesus’ birth. One of these was Simeon, a good and holy man who believed God had promised him he would not die before seeing “the salvation of Israel.”* We’re told that the Spirit guided him to the temple that day, a reminder that God will get us where God wants us to be as we’re open to being led. Simeon was – and as soon as he saw the infant, he somehow knew he was seeing the long-awaited Messiah, the Savior. Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
But that’s not all Simeon said – he also told Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” This was perhaps a helpful “heads up” for Jesus’ mother, but must also have increased her worry for her firstborn. It resonates for us when we hear Jesus say, “I have come to bring not peace but a sword,” indicating that the world would not accept him without conflict.
The holy family also encountered an elderly woman, Anna. We’re told she was a prophet –women were recognized as prophets – and that she had been widowed young and had lived in the temple courts since then. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
It must have been a blessing to Mary and Joseph to receive such confirmation of their own incredible revelations. And it must also have made them wary. Yet all we are told of their response is that they took their baby home to Nazareth and cared for him; no mention in Luke of the flight into Egypt and exile there that Matthew records. Rather, we are told only that, The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.
Jesus’ earthly parents did everything they could for him. The rest was up to God. The same is true for us.
* We are talking here about ancient Israel, not the modern nation state. They are not synonymous.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-30-25 - Just Passing Through
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Jesus pulls a serious Houdini move at the end of this week’s gospel story. We’ve watched the tension rise throughout this scene, as he makes his dramatic announcement in his hometown synagogue, which is met with amazement that soon turns to rage as his neighbors take offense at what he says next. This rage turns the crowd into a rampaging mob, ready to kill: When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Maybe we’re missing part of the story – it's hard to imagine how they got that mad that quickly, but ugly things happen when strong emotions sweep a crowd. Jesus had so flipped their expectations, so badly disappointed and insulted them, that they went berserk. And it can be an unfortunate human tendency to try to expel that which threatens your sense of security. Hence the push to the cliff’s edge.
But somehow Jesus is immune to their evil intent and impervious to their attack. He simply passes through their midst and goes on his way. Did they stop looking at him, caught up in their frenzy? Or did he somehow make himself invisible, or dematerialize the way he seemed to do a few times after his resurrection? We are not told.
This curious scene does suggest to me a way to pray about situations of mass rage, whether in a real-life mob or a media attack: to remember that Jesus is there, unseen, unnoticed, but present. We can pray his presence into those situations, pray that those who have eyes and ears will perceive him. We can ask him to protect the vulnerable. We can ask him to release peace into conflict and turmoil.
The incarnate Jesus was just passing through this world, and he transformed every situation he encountered, even his own suffering and death. The risen and ascended Jesus is still passing through this world through His Spirit, transforming situations, even among people calling for his blood or that of his followers. Now he can be everywhere, and anywhere we call upon his name in faith. We need only invoke his name and by faith release his power and love, and see what changes. They may never know he was there, but something will have changed.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Jesus pulls a serious Houdini move at the end of this week’s gospel story. We’ve watched the tension rise throughout this scene, as he makes his dramatic announcement in his hometown synagogue, which is met with amazement that soon turns to rage as his neighbors take offense at what he says next. This rage turns the crowd into a rampaging mob, ready to kill: When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Maybe we’re missing part of the story – it's hard to imagine how they got that mad that quickly, but ugly things happen when strong emotions sweep a crowd. Jesus had so flipped their expectations, so badly disappointed and insulted them, that they went berserk. And it can be an unfortunate human tendency to try to expel that which threatens your sense of security. Hence the push to the cliff’s edge.
But somehow Jesus is immune to their evil intent and impervious to their attack. He simply passes through their midst and goes on his way. Did they stop looking at him, caught up in their frenzy? Or did he somehow make himself invisible, or dematerialize the way he seemed to do a few times after his resurrection? We are not told.
This curious scene does suggest to me a way to pray about situations of mass rage, whether in a real-life mob or a media attack: to remember that Jesus is there, unseen, unnoticed, but present. We can pray his presence into those situations, pray that those who have eyes and ears will perceive him. We can ask him to protect the vulnerable. We can ask him to release peace into conflict and turmoil.
The incarnate Jesus was just passing through this world, and he transformed every situation he encountered, even his own suffering and death. The risen and ascended Jesus is still passing through this world through His Spirit, transforming situations, even among people calling for his blood or that of his followers. Now he can be everywhere, and anywhere we call upon his name in faith. We need only invoke his name and by faith release his power and love, and see what changes. They may never know he was there, but something will have changed.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-29-25 - Unpredictable God
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
If prayer were never answered in ways we can discern, chances are we’d be okay with it, though we might stop praying. What is challenging, often maddening and sometimes heart-breaking, is that sometimes we seem to see answers in ways we want, and sometimes it seems we do not. It’s the unpredictability more than the disappointments that inhibit our faith, I think.
The people of Nazareth, having heard reports of the wonders Jesus was doing, expected that he would do the same and more in his hometown. But he says it’s not that predictable: "And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
This sent them into a murderous rage. Was Jesus saying God is capricious? That God cares more for Gentiles than for the chosen people? Why was only one widow helped during the three-and-a-half year famine? Why only one foreign leper healed? Does God only intervene when there’s a larger purpose? Why does God interact at all with God’s creation?
If I knew the answers to that, I’d be much holier (and maybe richer…) than I am now. Why we discern responses in some cases and not in others continues to perplex us. And none of us has a very full data set from which to draw conclusions. We have some stories in the Bible, some experiences of our own or other people, but no one knows what God’s record is. We only know that when we pray, sometimes remarkable things happen, and sometimes they do not.
When remarkable things result, and we feel they’re connected to our prayer, we should give thanks and tell people about it. It helps increase our faith and builds that of others. And when it seems we have no response, or not the one we want, we should also talk about that – talk to God about it, and other people, because that’s one definition of faith: to believe despite "evidence" to the contrary.
The purpose of prayer is not to ask for things and see what we get. The purpose of prayer is to communicate openly with the God who made us and loves us and knows us better than we can know ourselves, and through that communicating to come to know God more fully. And God has invited us to allow God’s Spirit to pray through us; then we're praying for what God already intends to accomplish. God’s prayers have a 100% response rate. Let’s figure out how to join ours to God’s. It's as simple as "Come, Holy Spirit..."
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
If prayer were never answered in ways we can discern, chances are we’d be okay with it, though we might stop praying. What is challenging, often maddening and sometimes heart-breaking, is that sometimes we seem to see answers in ways we want, and sometimes it seems we do not. It’s the unpredictability more than the disappointments that inhibit our faith, I think.
The people of Nazareth, having heard reports of the wonders Jesus was doing, expected that he would do the same and more in his hometown. But he says it’s not that predictable: "And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”
This sent them into a murderous rage. Was Jesus saying God is capricious? That God cares more for Gentiles than for the chosen people? Why was only one widow helped during the three-and-a-half year famine? Why only one foreign leper healed? Does God only intervene when there’s a larger purpose? Why does God interact at all with God’s creation?
If I knew the answers to that, I’d be much holier (and maybe richer…) than I am now. Why we discern responses in some cases and not in others continues to perplex us. And none of us has a very full data set from which to draw conclusions. We have some stories in the Bible, some experiences of our own or other people, but no one knows what God’s record is. We only know that when we pray, sometimes remarkable things happen, and sometimes they do not.
When remarkable things result, and we feel they’re connected to our prayer, we should give thanks and tell people about it. It helps increase our faith and builds that of others. And when it seems we have no response, or not the one we want, we should also talk about that – talk to God about it, and other people, because that’s one definition of faith: to believe despite "evidence" to the contrary.
The purpose of prayer is not to ask for things and see what we get. The purpose of prayer is to communicate openly with the God who made us and loves us and knows us better than we can know ourselves, and through that communicating to come to know God more fully. And God has invited us to allow God’s Spirit to pray through us; then we're praying for what God already intends to accomplish. God’s prayers have a 100% response rate. Let’s figure out how to join ours to God’s. It's as simple as "Come, Holy Spirit..."
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-28-25 - Connections
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
I always feel a little more powerful when I know someone who can hook me up to things I need or people I should know. And I love being that person for others. Connections are how we get ahead. So imagine how excited Jesus’ neighbors in Nazareth were when their "homie" became a religious sensation, known not only for his wisdom but for his amazing miracles and works of power. This was the ultimate connection, someone who channeled the power of God! And he was one of them!
Then imagine their disappointment when he indicated he was unlikely to exercise much power in his own town: He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.”
He cited a few examples of prophets of old who were unable to address the needs of their own communities, yet could help outsiders. And man, did they not want to hear that. Their response was violent, probably more intense than if a stranger had said he couldn’t help them. No one expects too much from a stranger. But one of your own? You should be his first priority. How dare Jesus say he was not accepted there, that his powers would be somehow inhibited?
I find in their angry response an invitation for us to examine our own hearts when it comes to Jesus. I dare say anyone who has ever prayed fervently for something has experienced some disappointment in the outcome. If that disappointment is acute, or experienced too often, we can find ourselves angry. And since the church does not offer many outlets for expressing negative emotions about God, that anger can become pushed down and calcify into a polite estrangement. We don’t try to push Jesus off a cliff, but we may push him out of our lives, stop trusting or asking or hanging out with him.
If this has been your experience, it’s good to recognize that, and begin to process it in prayer and maybe in pastoral conversation. Not for nothing is the rite of repentance in our tradition called “Reconciliation.” The greatest damage done when we turn away from God is to that relationship itself.
God is always, like the father in Jesus’ story about the prodigal son, out there in the road waiting for us to return. Can we walk back to that place, walk back through the hurt we encountered, the anger we experienced, the loss we suffered? Is our relationship with God worth it to us?
We don’t need to seek out connections; we are already hooked into the most powerful network in the universe, the power and love that flow from the throne of God. If that connection needs strengthening, let’s put our time and energy into repairing that breach. The arms of love await us.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
I always feel a little more powerful when I know someone who can hook me up to things I need or people I should know. And I love being that person for others. Connections are how we get ahead. So imagine how excited Jesus’ neighbors in Nazareth were when their "homie" became a religious sensation, known not only for his wisdom but for his amazing miracles and works of power. This was the ultimate connection, someone who channeled the power of God! And he was one of them!
Then imagine their disappointment when he indicated he was unlikely to exercise much power in his own town: He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.”
He cited a few examples of prophets of old who were unable to address the needs of their own communities, yet could help outsiders. And man, did they not want to hear that. Their response was violent, probably more intense than if a stranger had said he couldn’t help them. No one expects too much from a stranger. But one of your own? You should be his first priority. How dare Jesus say he was not accepted there, that his powers would be somehow inhibited?
I find in their angry response an invitation for us to examine our own hearts when it comes to Jesus. I dare say anyone who has ever prayed fervently for something has experienced some disappointment in the outcome. If that disappointment is acute, or experienced too often, we can find ourselves angry. And since the church does not offer many outlets for expressing negative emotions about God, that anger can become pushed down and calcify into a polite estrangement. We don’t try to push Jesus off a cliff, but we may push him out of our lives, stop trusting or asking or hanging out with him.
If this has been your experience, it’s good to recognize that, and begin to process it in prayer and maybe in pastoral conversation. Not for nothing is the rite of repentance in our tradition called “Reconciliation.” The greatest damage done when we turn away from God is to that relationship itself.
God is always, like the father in Jesus’ story about the prodigal son, out there in the road waiting for us to return. Can we walk back to that place, walk back through the hurt we encountered, the anger we experienced, the loss we suffered? Is our relationship with God worth it to us?
We don’t need to seek out connections; we are already hooked into the most powerful network in the universe, the power and love that flow from the throne of God. If that connection needs strengthening, let’s put our time and energy into repairing that breach. The arms of love await us.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-27-25 - Hometown Hero
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
It can be disorienting when a celebrity comes back to the place they grew up – they have a new identity and influence, yet people see them through lenses formed long ago. Everyone grows up somewhere, goes to school, plays sports, makes friends – and enemies. For Jesus, that somewhere was Nazareth, where he and his family settled upon return from their time of refuge in Egypt once King Herod had died (Matthew 2:19-23). And his townspeople were pretty sure they knew him. Even as he manifested a very different skill set than one needed for carpentry, and as his fame grew, they were pretty sure they knew him: Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
Joseph’s son was how they knew him. Joseph’s son was familiar. But this man had another Father as well, and that paternity was now being revealed. When he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus was owning his divine identity, his messianic mission. That life would not prove so familiar.
Do we ever feel proud of Jesus? Do we feel we know him? It can be hard to feel gratitude or pride when we’re just so used to him being around. Those who have grown up in the church have heard about this guy our whole lives. We know his life story, his teachings, his miracles. He’s a stained glass window in the background. How can he surprise us?
Try this: Go back to the beginning. As many glimpses as I may have caught of Jesus over the years, I know I don’t have a clue. So I read the Gospels as though I’m being introduced to Jesus – who is he? I pray, “Let me know you, as you know me.” Occasionally I get words in my mind which I feel are him speaking; they reveal a little about him. I ask him for inspiration in ministry, and sometimes am flooded with ideas. That shows me a little about who he is. Prayer, study, ministry, worship – these are some of the best ways we have of getting to know Jesus. What's your strategy?
This Jesus, who lives in us and through us and around us, is not completely knowable in this life and yet is much more than a stained glass saint. “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened,” he promised (Luke 11:10). As we seek him, we find him - and find he isn’t anything like we expected.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
It can be disorienting when a celebrity comes back to the place they grew up – they have a new identity and influence, yet people see them through lenses formed long ago. Everyone grows up somewhere, goes to school, plays sports, makes friends – and enemies. For Jesus, that somewhere was Nazareth, where he and his family settled upon return from their time of refuge in Egypt once King Herod had died (Matthew 2:19-23). And his townspeople were pretty sure they knew him. Even as he manifested a very different skill set than one needed for carpentry, and as his fame grew, they were pretty sure they knew him: Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
Joseph’s son was how they knew him. Joseph’s son was familiar. But this man had another Father as well, and that paternity was now being revealed. When he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus was owning his divine identity, his messianic mission. That life would not prove so familiar.
Do we ever feel proud of Jesus? Do we feel we know him? It can be hard to feel gratitude or pride when we’re just so used to him being around. Those who have grown up in the church have heard about this guy our whole lives. We know his life story, his teachings, his miracles. He’s a stained glass window in the background. How can he surprise us?
Try this: Go back to the beginning. As many glimpses as I may have caught of Jesus over the years, I know I don’t have a clue. So I read the Gospels as though I’m being introduced to Jesus – who is he? I pray, “Let me know you, as you know me.” Occasionally I get words in my mind which I feel are him speaking; they reveal a little about him. I ask him for inspiration in ministry, and sometimes am flooded with ideas. That shows me a little about who he is. Prayer, study, ministry, worship – these are some of the best ways we have of getting to know Jesus. What's your strategy?
This Jesus, who lives in us and through us and around us, is not completely knowable in this life and yet is much more than a stained glass saint. “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened,” he promised (Luke 11:10). As we seek him, we find him - and find he isn’t anything like we expected.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-24-25 - Spirit-Filled
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
The gospels tell us that there were times when Jesus was “filled with the Spirit.” Were there times he was not? Or were there times when that anointing was stronger than others? Luke writes that, after Jesus' baptism and forty-day testing in the desert he was filled with holy power: Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.
If Jesus, whom we claim was at once fully divine and fully human, needed to be filled with the Spirit of God – his own Spirit – to be effective in ministry, what does that say about us? Too often I try to minister on my own steam. If you have a lot of energy and ideas, your own steam can take you a distance. But nothing like when you're powered by God-Spirit. I’m at my best when I realize “I got nothing” in the face of a given challenge, and invite God’s power and love to be realized through me.
How can we tell the difference? We all need to learn to discern that. We can start with, “Did I ask the Spirit to fill me, or guide me, or help me?” The Spirit of God blows where it will, Jesus said, but rarely seems to show up uninvited. When we develop the practice of inviting the Spirit into our ministries we will find ourselves empowered in a new way. We might even pray through our calendar at the beginning of each day or week, asking the Spirit to be present with us in the tasks ahead. (We can also pray that God remove obstacles to the free flow of Holy Spirit in us – that’s the work of repentance and healing.)
We can learn to attend to how we feel in our bodies when the Holy Spirit fills us. We might feel a discernible energy, sometimes an excited joy, sometimes a deep peace that clearly comes from beyond us. I feel it when I’m praying with someone for healing, often when I am singing, or when I’m preaching or leading worship. There can be an effect on our minds too – most of the time, if I pray, “God, I need an idea for…” an insight or idea pops into my mind almost immediately, almost as if dictated. Why I don’t always ask?!
Sometimes we know the Spirit's filling after the fact. I can feel incredibly energized, buzzy, especially when I know the Spirit has been present and people have felt more connected to God and each other. If I feel drained, I’m pretty sure I was working on my own steam. If I feel lifted up and full of joy, there’s a good chance God was working through me. Exhaustion may come later – we’re human – but we don’t feel drained.
And when it’s the Spirit, we know by the fruits. Lives are transformed. Systems are unjammed. Creativity and joy flow more fully. Some Sundays I am blessed that way, as I feel people connecting to God in worship, and responding to the world in outreach. A huge part of my ministry as a pastor is to increase my congregants’ capacity to be filled with the Spirit. For when the Body of Christ is filled with the power of the Spirit, you can be sure that reports about him will spread through all the surrounding country.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
The gospels tell us that there were times when Jesus was “filled with the Spirit.” Were there times he was not? Or were there times when that anointing was stronger than others? Luke writes that, after Jesus' baptism and forty-day testing in the desert he was filled with holy power: Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.
If Jesus, whom we claim was at once fully divine and fully human, needed to be filled with the Spirit of God – his own Spirit – to be effective in ministry, what does that say about us? Too often I try to minister on my own steam. If you have a lot of energy and ideas, your own steam can take you a distance. But nothing like when you're powered by God-Spirit. I’m at my best when I realize “I got nothing” in the face of a given challenge, and invite God’s power and love to be realized through me.
How can we tell the difference? We all need to learn to discern that. We can start with, “Did I ask the Spirit to fill me, or guide me, or help me?” The Spirit of God blows where it will, Jesus said, but rarely seems to show up uninvited. When we develop the practice of inviting the Spirit into our ministries we will find ourselves empowered in a new way. We might even pray through our calendar at the beginning of each day or week, asking the Spirit to be present with us in the tasks ahead. (We can also pray that God remove obstacles to the free flow of Holy Spirit in us – that’s the work of repentance and healing.)
We can learn to attend to how we feel in our bodies when the Holy Spirit fills us. We might feel a discernible energy, sometimes an excited joy, sometimes a deep peace that clearly comes from beyond us. I feel it when I’m praying with someone for healing, often when I am singing, or when I’m preaching or leading worship. There can be an effect on our minds too – most of the time, if I pray, “God, I need an idea for…” an insight or idea pops into my mind almost immediately, almost as if dictated. Why I don’t always ask?!
Sometimes we know the Spirit's filling after the fact. I can feel incredibly energized, buzzy, especially when I know the Spirit has been present and people have felt more connected to God and each other. If I feel drained, I’m pretty sure I was working on my own steam. If I feel lifted up and full of joy, there’s a good chance God was working through me. Exhaustion may come later – we’re human – but we don’t feel drained.
And when it’s the Spirit, we know by the fruits. Lives are transformed. Systems are unjammed. Creativity and joy flow more fully. Some Sundays I am blessed that way, as I feel people connecting to God in worship, and responding to the world in outreach. A huge part of my ministry as a pastor is to increase my congregants’ capacity to be filled with the Spirit. For when the Body of Christ is filled with the power of the Spirit, you can be sure that reports about him will spread through all the surrounding country.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-23-25 - Already Fulfilled?
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Many people have trouble understanding what they read in the Bible. Scholars have developed many lenses through which to approach the task of interpretation: who the writer or writers were; the people to whom they were writing; their historical and/or theological concerns and emphases; what was going on in the time and place in which the writing originated; the literary style used. And there are other layers, such as the concerns of the communities who collected these writings and included them in the canon of scripture; the angle taken by translators; it never ends.
And the “meaning” we draw out can vary according to the society in which the scripture is being read, its assumptions and preoccupations. We read passages on slavery or the role of women very differently than did communities one hundred or thousand years ago, or even today in some places. We don’t have those writers here to ask, “What did you mean by this?” We have to guess, using clues from history and theology, geography and archaeology, similar literature, and church tradition.
Among the most difficult parts of the Bible to comprehend are the writings attributed to the prophets. Some of these are very specific, dealing with historical events that have clearly come and gone – or have they? Others seem more cosmic and apocalyptic, dealing with the end of time and final judgment – or do they? There’s a lot of “eye of the beholder” in what we perceive when reading the prophets.
So imagine how shocking it must have been in the synagogue in Nazareth that day, when Jesus finished reading this part of Isaiah’s prophecy, sat down to comment on it, and said simply, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” A more definitive interpretation could not be. “This is what this meant, and now that I’m here, it has been fulfilled. No more waiting.” Did they find that good news?
How do we hear these words? As Good News, that redemption has been proclaimed, and secured in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? I hope so. And let's go deeper than the face value of these words, to the simple “Today this has been fulfilled.” That “Today” encompasses every day, the eternal present in which God lives and works. In fact, all of God’s promises have been fulfilled today, because they have been fulfilled in Christ, and their power is available to us through his Holy Spirit.
It requires faith to proclaim, in the face of injustice, that the promise of justice has been fulfilled; to believe, in the face of brutality, that evil has been vanquished; to claim, in the face of hunger, that enough has been provided; to declare, in the face of death, that life is ours forever. Yet that is what it means to live by faith – to live in the “already” future life of God that is all around us, and becomes more accessible the more we believe and proclaim it.
Today these promises have been fulfilled in our hearing. In one sense, that is the “correct” interpretation of any piece of Scripture. The promises of God are already revealed. It is up to us to help make them fully known.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Many people have trouble understanding what they read in the Bible. Scholars have developed many lenses through which to approach the task of interpretation: who the writer or writers were; the people to whom they were writing; their historical and/or theological concerns and emphases; what was going on in the time and place in which the writing originated; the literary style used. And there are other layers, such as the concerns of the communities who collected these writings and included them in the canon of scripture; the angle taken by translators; it never ends.
And the “meaning” we draw out can vary according to the society in which the scripture is being read, its assumptions and preoccupations. We read passages on slavery or the role of women very differently than did communities one hundred or thousand years ago, or even today in some places. We don’t have those writers here to ask, “What did you mean by this?” We have to guess, using clues from history and theology, geography and archaeology, similar literature, and church tradition.
Among the most difficult parts of the Bible to comprehend are the writings attributed to the prophets. Some of these are very specific, dealing with historical events that have clearly come and gone – or have they? Others seem more cosmic and apocalyptic, dealing with the end of time and final judgment – or do they? There’s a lot of “eye of the beholder” in what we perceive when reading the prophets.
So imagine how shocking it must have been in the synagogue in Nazareth that day, when Jesus finished reading this part of Isaiah’s prophecy, sat down to comment on it, and said simply, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” A more definitive interpretation could not be. “This is what this meant, and now that I’m here, it has been fulfilled. No more waiting.” Did they find that good news?
How do we hear these words? As Good News, that redemption has been proclaimed, and secured in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? I hope so. And let's go deeper than the face value of these words, to the simple “Today this has been fulfilled.” That “Today” encompasses every day, the eternal present in which God lives and works. In fact, all of God’s promises have been fulfilled today, because they have been fulfilled in Christ, and their power is available to us through his Holy Spirit.
It requires faith to proclaim, in the face of injustice, that the promise of justice has been fulfilled; to believe, in the face of brutality, that evil has been vanquished; to claim, in the face of hunger, that enough has been provided; to declare, in the face of death, that life is ours forever. Yet that is what it means to live by faith – to live in the “already” future life of God that is all around us, and becomes more accessible the more we believe and proclaim it.
Today these promises have been fulfilled in our hearing. In one sense, that is the “correct” interpretation of any piece of Scripture. The promises of God are already revealed. It is up to us to help make them fully known.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-22-25 - Hearing the Word
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Every week in Bible Study* I am reminded of why we need to hear the Word of God and not just read it. Different voices bring out different aspects of the text, lending it color and nuance and, yes, texture. The practice of reading Scripture in the assembly of the faithful goes back thousands of years – it was already a feature of weekly worship when Jesus began his ministry. In fact, he was a lector: When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.
We’ll leave for another day the shock of what he did after he read; today, let’s just focus on the act of reading scripture aloud. Hearing the Word read is yet one more way this Gift of God is mediated through human beings, which happens at each stage of scripture’s development. People were inspired by God; told and retold, shaped and reshaped stories about their encounters with God; wrote down those stories and received teachings; collected and shaped those writings; and translated those collections. Countless human beings were involved in each of those stages, which makes the Bible a rich tapestry of ideas and enthusiasms – and distortions.
And each time we hear a passage of Scripture read, it is mediated through the thinking and voice of another person, giving it new life and new ways to interpret it. Just try reading a passage, emphasizing the verbs and then read it again emphasizing the pronouns. You’ll get two very different readings.
And the Word of God comes through differently when we hear it rather than just reading it for ourselves. Read it aloud even when alone, just to hear the cadence of the words, the way the ideas go together or seem to clash, the wit and wisdom that are often to be found just below the surface. Just as can happen when we read poetry aloud, we often find scripture easier to understand when we hear it.
I tell lectors to read in church as if they're reading a story at bedtime. I’ve also heard the ministry of reading Scripture in church likened to being an aqueduct – a vessel carrying the Living Water to the people. That day in the synagogue, Jesus was the aqueduct as well as the Living Water. We get to carry him as we read his stories to each other.
*Join me for Bible Study online Wednesday at 7 pm EST - we're currently exploring “Fierce Femmes of the Bible.”
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Every week in Bible Study* I am reminded of why we need to hear the Word of God and not just read it. Different voices bring out different aspects of the text, lending it color and nuance and, yes, texture. The practice of reading Scripture in the assembly of the faithful goes back thousands of years – it was already a feature of weekly worship when Jesus began his ministry. In fact, he was a lector: When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.
We’ll leave for another day the shock of what he did after he read; today, let’s just focus on the act of reading scripture aloud. Hearing the Word read is yet one more way this Gift of God is mediated through human beings, which happens at each stage of scripture’s development. People were inspired by God; told and retold, shaped and reshaped stories about their encounters with God; wrote down those stories and received teachings; collected and shaped those writings; and translated those collections. Countless human beings were involved in each of those stages, which makes the Bible a rich tapestry of ideas and enthusiasms – and distortions.
And each time we hear a passage of Scripture read, it is mediated through the thinking and voice of another person, giving it new life and new ways to interpret it. Just try reading a passage, emphasizing the verbs and then read it again emphasizing the pronouns. You’ll get two very different readings.
And the Word of God comes through differently when we hear it rather than just reading it for ourselves. Read it aloud even when alone, just to hear the cadence of the words, the way the ideas go together or seem to clash, the wit and wisdom that are often to be found just below the surface. Just as can happen when we read poetry aloud, we often find scripture easier to understand when we hear it.
I tell lectors to read in church as if they're reading a story at bedtime. I’ve also heard the ministry of reading Scripture in church likened to being an aqueduct – a vessel carrying the Living Water to the people. That day in the synagogue, Jesus was the aqueduct as well as the Living Water. We get to carry him as we read his stories to each other.
*Join me for Bible Study online Wednesday at 7 pm EST - we're currently exploring “Fierce Femmes of the Bible.”
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-21-25 - Starting Strong
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
I remember those early days of ordained ministry, when looking at the readings for next week's sermon felt like unwrapping a gift; when people loved all my crazy ideas; when they wanted to nurture the “baby priest;” when I often felt filled with the power of the Spirit. Sigh! Was it like that for Jesus? Luke tells us that, after his baptism and forty days of testing in the desert, Jesus was doing great: Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
Jesus started his formal ministry in his home region. What he taught and the works of power he performed – healings, exorcisms, that water-into-wine trick – garnered him lots of attention and approval. But he knew better than to get hooked by all that affirmation. Had he been vulnerable to that, the devil would have bested him in the wilderness. Jesus was able to receive the adulation without counting on it. In his heart he must have known that his mission would prove controversial once people really understood his message: come close to God and follow God’s ways, putting all your trust in God – no matter what it costs you in human terms.
Sometimes our early days of faith can feel bracing, exciting, fulfilling. But as our sense of connection to God gets weaker through distraction or stress, as disappointments pile up, we can become spiritually complacent or stuck in routines. I suspect beneath most complacency is anger; anger that God has left us where we are, not blessed us in certain ways we deeply desired to be blessed. Our focus turns inward and we can lose sight of the blessing that is all around us, coming at us through other people, through the beauty of this earth and its creatures, through our own God-inspired creativity.
You may not feel this way; if you don’t, hallelujah. Chances are you may have at some point and worked and prayed your way out of it. That’s the path we’re given – to be honest with God about what we’re feeling, and what we’re not, and ask the Spirit to help open our spirits again.
It is easy to get hooked on the three “As” – Attention, Approval and Affirmation, but being praised by everyone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; sometimes it ends in crucifixion. Being adored by God is a gift that will never end.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
I remember those early days of ordained ministry, when looking at the readings for next week's sermon felt like unwrapping a gift; when people loved all my crazy ideas; when they wanted to nurture the “baby priest;” when I often felt filled with the power of the Spirit. Sigh! Was it like that for Jesus? Luke tells us that, after his baptism and forty days of testing in the desert, Jesus was doing great: Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
Jesus started his formal ministry in his home region. What he taught and the works of power he performed – healings, exorcisms, that water-into-wine trick – garnered him lots of attention and approval. But he knew better than to get hooked by all that affirmation. Had he been vulnerable to that, the devil would have bested him in the wilderness. Jesus was able to receive the adulation without counting on it. In his heart he must have known that his mission would prove controversial once people really understood his message: come close to God and follow God’s ways, putting all your trust in God – no matter what it costs you in human terms.
Sometimes our early days of faith can feel bracing, exciting, fulfilling. But as our sense of connection to God gets weaker through distraction or stress, as disappointments pile up, we can become spiritually complacent or stuck in routines. I suspect beneath most complacency is anger; anger that God has left us where we are, not blessed us in certain ways we deeply desired to be blessed. Our focus turns inward and we can lose sight of the blessing that is all around us, coming at us through other people, through the beauty of this earth and its creatures, through our own God-inspired creativity.
You may not feel this way; if you don’t, hallelujah. Chances are you may have at some point and worked and prayed your way out of it. That’s the path we’re given – to be honest with God about what we’re feeling, and what we’re not, and ask the Spirit to help open our spirits again.
It is easy to get hooked on the three “As” – Attention, Approval and Affirmation, but being praised by everyone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be; sometimes it ends in crucifixion. Being adored by God is a gift that will never end.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-20-25 - Anointed To Proclaim Freedom
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
When Jesus began his public ministry, full of the Holy Spirit, his reputation quickly spread as he went from synagogue to synagogue, teaching. And when he came to his home in Nazareth, he showed all his cards. Reading from Isaiah, he sat back and said, “This prophecy is fulfilled in me. Today.” He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Anointed to bring good news. To those most in need of it – the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed. This, he was saying, is what God is up to, has always been up to, is doing among us even now. Today. We who bear the name and life of Christ share in this anointing, whether or not we choose to live it out.
Today we celebrate the life and ministry of one who did not shirk that anointing, but embraced it, gave himself to it even unto death, in the footsteps of his Lord Jesus. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that the Good News hadn’t gotten around to everyone yet. There were still plenty of poor people who needed to hear it; plenty of people blinded by greed and power and lack of insight; plenty of people still oppressed by injustice and cruelty and the legacy of slavery; plenty of people held captive in systems of racism and white supremacy that hold resources and opportunities for the few – and withhold them from many.
And so he went with his anointing and preached Good News, not only proclaiming release but working tirelessly to bring it about. He worked and proclaimed and wept and dreamed until he was silenced. His dream is not fully realized – the last decade has made that abundantly clear. God’s dream is not yet fully realized in our world. We are invited to use our anointing to help bring it to fullness for all people.
Today read that prophecy of Isaiah that Jesus claimed in the synagogue so long ago, and ask the Spirit to renew this anointing in you, to allow the Spirit to work through you to bring to visible completion the Good News Jesus proclaimed and won for us. Can we open ourselves to God’s dream of wholeness for all of creation, blessing for every child of every race in every place?
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” Today this scripture is fulfilled in our hearing. Join Jesus in making it so.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
When Jesus began his public ministry, full of the Holy Spirit, his reputation quickly spread as he went from synagogue to synagogue, teaching. And when he came to his home in Nazareth, he showed all his cards. Reading from Isaiah, he sat back and said, “This prophecy is fulfilled in me. Today.” He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Anointed to bring good news. To those most in need of it – the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed. This, he was saying, is what God is up to, has always been up to, is doing among us even now. Today. We who bear the name and life of Christ share in this anointing, whether or not we choose to live it out.
Today we celebrate the life and ministry of one who did not shirk that anointing, but embraced it, gave himself to it even unto death, in the footsteps of his Lord Jesus. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that the Good News hadn’t gotten around to everyone yet. There were still plenty of poor people who needed to hear it; plenty of people blinded by greed and power and lack of insight; plenty of people still oppressed by injustice and cruelty and the legacy of slavery; plenty of people held captive in systems of racism and white supremacy that hold resources and opportunities for the few – and withhold them from many.
And so he went with his anointing and preached Good News, not only proclaiming release but working tirelessly to bring it about. He worked and proclaimed and wept and dreamed until he was silenced. His dream is not fully realized – the last decade has made that abundantly clear. God’s dream is not yet fully realized in our world. We are invited to use our anointing to help bring it to fullness for all people.
Today read that prophecy of Isaiah that Jesus claimed in the synagogue so long ago, and ask the Spirit to renew this anointing in you, to allow the Spirit to work through you to bring to visible completion the Good News Jesus proclaimed and won for us. Can we open ourselves to God’s dream of wholeness for all of creation, blessing for every child of every race in every place?
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” Today this scripture is fulfilled in our hearing. Join Jesus in making it so.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-17-25 - Transformed
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Should it surprise us that Jesus could cause vats of water to become wine of the finest order? No more than that he could walk on water or speak palsied limbs into wholeness. The One who made the molecules that we call matter can order and reorder them as s/he likes.
When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
This was the first BIG way that Jesus revealed the Life of the Kingdom he came to invite humankind into. This Life of God, a grand and cosmic reality, is also manifest on a sub-atomic, micro level. And one of its most fundamental principles is transformation. That is how God-Life becomes visible, wherever one thing is transformed into another.
In this story, we see water transformed into fine wine, the ordinary into the extraordinary. At our communion tables, we experience ordinary wine transformed into the blood of Christ. Whether or not molecules are altered in that transaction is immaterial (ba-dum-bum…).A spiritual transformation takes place that catalyzes an even deeper transformation: ordinary people are transformed into carriers of God’s Life. The Bread becomes the Body, and then the corporate Body becomes the bread broken again to be shared with the world.
As we allow this Life to take root in us, we experience the deep transformation of our spirits, being reshaped by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the One who took water, which is amazing and beautiful in itself, and made something else amazing and beautiful out of it. God does the same with us.
However you are feeling about yourself or your life today, remember this: Jesus has taken us at our best and our worst, our most faithful and most self-centered, our most creative and least inspired, and has already turned us into wine of rarest vintage to bring life and joy to the people around us. Let’s not only attend the party – let’s be the wine
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Should it surprise us that Jesus could cause vats of water to become wine of the finest order? No more than that he could walk on water or speak palsied limbs into wholeness. The One who made the molecules that we call matter can order and reorder them as s/he likes.
When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
This was the first BIG way that Jesus revealed the Life of the Kingdom he came to invite humankind into. This Life of God, a grand and cosmic reality, is also manifest on a sub-atomic, micro level. And one of its most fundamental principles is transformation. That is how God-Life becomes visible, wherever one thing is transformed into another.
In this story, we see water transformed into fine wine, the ordinary into the extraordinary. At our communion tables, we experience ordinary wine transformed into the blood of Christ. Whether or not molecules are altered in that transaction is immaterial (ba-dum-bum…).A spiritual transformation takes place that catalyzes an even deeper transformation: ordinary people are transformed into carriers of God’s Life. The Bread becomes the Body, and then the corporate Body becomes the bread broken again to be shared with the world.
As we allow this Life to take root in us, we experience the deep transformation of our spirits, being reshaped by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the One who took water, which is amazing and beautiful in itself, and made something else amazing and beautiful out of it. God does the same with us.
However you are feeling about yourself or your life today, remember this: Jesus has taken us at our best and our worst, our most faithful and most self-centered, our most creative and least inspired, and has already turned us into wine of rarest vintage to bring life and joy to the people around us. Let’s not only attend the party – let’s be the wine
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-16-25 - To the Brim
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Sometimes I wonder if God shakes his God-head at the tiny scope of my prayers. “Please, let me be on time!” “Heal this muscle ache.” “What shall I preach Sunday?” The Maker of Heaven and Earth invites us to pray for earthquakes to subside and wars to cease, and most of us don’t even dare to pray about cancer and injustice. Do we think God is finished doing the big things, or that we're only worth the small stuff?
If we based our prayer life on what we read in the gospels, we’d pray about big things all the time, because we see big responses – abundance beyond measure, even beyond need. Twelve baskets of leftovers, and here, in Jesus’ first public miracle, more wine of greatest excellence than the whole town of Cana could get through: Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
Did Jesus select those jars because of their size? Or because of their purpose, for ritual baths? Are we to make a link between purification and the wine that is to be manifest in these vessels? Those who go in for a more allegorical approach to biblical interpretation would say every detail, especially in the Fourth Gospel, is fair game. Today, let’s just focus on the size and capacity of these jars. Jesus wasn’t making only a little bit of table wine; he was crafting vats of the finest vintage. Because that’s how God rolls.
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap,” Jesus says later, exhorting his followers to generosity. (Luke 6:38). The Realm of God is not a place of just enough, though sometimes “just enough” is our experience. That experience can dampen our expectation of God’s radical abundant provision.
We need to recall those times when we’ve experienced more than enough, when the jars were filled to the brim, when the gift was completely out of proportion to our sense of deserving or ability to respond in kind. Remembering those times can help us raise our expectations of God’s power and love. Another thing that does that for me is hearing people's "God stories" and reading healing books. Those tales of God’s power transforming situations, sometimes against all natural hope, inspire me to greater boldness in my prayers, and bolder prayers lead to bolder participation in God’s mission.
The next time you feel the pinch of scarcity – or even just the fear of it – call to mind a large stone water jar, filled to the brim with water, a little sloshing over. And then realize it’s not water at all, but thousands of dollars worth of a precious liquid of your choice, all for the taking and sharing.
And then realize God wants to fill us to the brim with Life, transforming our dross into grace for the world. Are we vessels with enough capacity? There’s a prayer…
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Sometimes I wonder if God shakes his God-head at the tiny scope of my prayers. “Please, let me be on time!” “Heal this muscle ache.” “What shall I preach Sunday?” The Maker of Heaven and Earth invites us to pray for earthquakes to subside and wars to cease, and most of us don’t even dare to pray about cancer and injustice. Do we think God is finished doing the big things, or that we're only worth the small stuff?
If we based our prayer life on what we read in the gospels, we’d pray about big things all the time, because we see big responses – abundance beyond measure, even beyond need. Twelve baskets of leftovers, and here, in Jesus’ first public miracle, more wine of greatest excellence than the whole town of Cana could get through: Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
Did Jesus select those jars because of their size? Or because of their purpose, for ritual baths? Are we to make a link between purification and the wine that is to be manifest in these vessels? Those who go in for a more allegorical approach to biblical interpretation would say every detail, especially in the Fourth Gospel, is fair game. Today, let’s just focus on the size and capacity of these jars. Jesus wasn’t making only a little bit of table wine; he was crafting vats of the finest vintage. Because that’s how God rolls.
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap,” Jesus says later, exhorting his followers to generosity. (Luke 6:38). The Realm of God is not a place of just enough, though sometimes “just enough” is our experience. That experience can dampen our expectation of God’s radical abundant provision.
We need to recall those times when we’ve experienced more than enough, when the jars were filled to the brim, when the gift was completely out of proportion to our sense of deserving or ability to respond in kind. Remembering those times can help us raise our expectations of God’s power and love. Another thing that does that for me is hearing people's "God stories" and reading healing books. Those tales of God’s power transforming situations, sometimes against all natural hope, inspire me to greater boldness in my prayers, and bolder prayers lead to bolder participation in God’s mission.
The next time you feel the pinch of scarcity – or even just the fear of it – call to mind a large stone water jar, filled to the brim with water, a little sloshing over. And then realize it’s not water at all, but thousands of dollars worth of a precious liquid of your choice, all for the taking and sharing.
And then realize God wants to fill us to the brim with Life, transforming our dross into grace for the world. Are we vessels with enough capacity? There’s a prayer…
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
1-15-25 - Follow Instructions
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
In addition to its other charms, this story of the wedding feast and the wine gives us a glimpse into Jesus’ relationship with his mother. He had no problem saying “no” to her when she nudged him to use his super-powers to address the wine shortage – and she had no problem ignoring his “no.” When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Despite his demurral, Jesus does enlist the servants, and somehow storage jars filled with water become vats of finest wine. His instructions to the servants are two-fold: Fill the giant jars with water, and then draw some off and take it to the chief steward. Jesus works the miracle, but it is accomplished through ordinary servants who followed his instructions, as daft as they may have seemed.
When God is up to something in this world, something big and transformational, it is generally done through people like us. And often, the bigger the “something,” the whackier the instructions seem. Quit your job. Sell your house. Leave your country. Call that person. Join that movement. Raise thousands of dollars. Give away thousands of dollars.
Maybe God is always asking outrageous things of us, and we just aren’t getting the message. Or maybe these things happen rarely. I do know that the instructions usually come one at a time. We have to do the first thing before we find out what the next is. Fill the jars, all the jars. All the jars? With that much water? That’s crazy? But we have to do that before we get the next instruction: draw some off. And it’s only after the chief steward has tasted that we know just what a crazy thing God has just done.
Can you recall a time you felt prompted by the Spirit to do something odd, bold, even controversial? Did you do it? What happened? Are you receiving such promptings in your life now? What instruction are you being given?
God’s instructions to me haven’t been that wild – the most extreme I can think of were “Take on a boatload of debt to attend seminary” (and that was never the message; the message was just so clear I didn’t think twice about the debt…) and “Go to this little place called Charles County, Maryland and pastor two churches there. And then wait, and see if I don’t bless your socks off.”
If you draw a blank when asked that question, you might try asking God straight out: “Where do you want me to further your plans today? What purpose can I help fulfill?” Then pay attention and see what develops – and while you’re waiting, enjoy the party!
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
In addition to its other charms, this story of the wedding feast and the wine gives us a glimpse into Jesus’ relationship with his mother. He had no problem saying “no” to her when she nudged him to use his super-powers to address the wine shortage – and she had no problem ignoring his “no.” When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Despite his demurral, Jesus does enlist the servants, and somehow storage jars filled with water become vats of finest wine. His instructions to the servants are two-fold: Fill the giant jars with water, and then draw some off and take it to the chief steward. Jesus works the miracle, but it is accomplished through ordinary servants who followed his instructions, as daft as they may have seemed.
When God is up to something in this world, something big and transformational, it is generally done through people like us. And often, the bigger the “something,” the whackier the instructions seem. Quit your job. Sell your house. Leave your country. Call that person. Join that movement. Raise thousands of dollars. Give away thousands of dollars.
Maybe God is always asking outrageous things of us, and we just aren’t getting the message. Or maybe these things happen rarely. I do know that the instructions usually come one at a time. We have to do the first thing before we find out what the next is. Fill the jars, all the jars. All the jars? With that much water? That’s crazy? But we have to do that before we get the next instruction: draw some off. And it’s only after the chief steward has tasted that we know just what a crazy thing God has just done.
Can you recall a time you felt prompted by the Spirit to do something odd, bold, even controversial? Did you do it? What happened? Are you receiving such promptings in your life now? What instruction are you being given?
God’s instructions to me haven’t been that wild – the most extreme I can think of were “Take on a boatload of debt to attend seminary” (and that was never the message; the message was just so clear I didn’t think twice about the debt…) and “Go to this little place called Charles County, Maryland and pastor two churches there. And then wait, and see if I don’t bless your socks off.”
If you draw a blank when asked that question, you might try asking God straight out: “Where do you want me to further your plans today? What purpose can I help fulfill?” Then pay attention and see what develops – and while you’re waiting, enjoy the party!
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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