It has been sitting in a jar for fifty years.  It has been carried across continents.  It has been cherished and admired.  And it was given as a gift to my family; this holy and sacred water.

You see, this water was taken out of Jordan River over 50 years ago and it was given to me by a congregant, to be used in the baptism of my oldest son.  It is a special gift.  Water that symbolizes the grace of God, water from the river of Jesus’ baptism, water that reminds me of the immense, powerful, eternal love of my creator…Just this little bit of water means so very much.

            Over 50 years ago, this water flowed from the Sea of Galilee through the holy lands of Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.  It gave life to the region as the main source of fresh water.  In fact, the countries of Jordan and Israel are extremely dry, having not nearly enough water to sustain an industrialized nation.  The Jordan River is vital to the survival of its people.  So this water flowed through these holy lands, offering life and quenching the thirst of this very dry ground.

            This water, from the River Jordan, is part of the stream in which Jesus was baptized.  Two thousand years ago, this water flowed though a thirsty land, a land hungry for hope, for peace, for love.  This water blessed and began the ministry of Jesus Christ, who would offer that very hope, that very peace, that very love to the thirsty, hungry people.  When this water flows, it is extremely powerful: offering life to a thirsty land, offering hope to a hungry people, offering love to a suffering world.

            But in the fifty years since this water left its home, and in the thousands of years since Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the Jordan River has become dirty.  According to U.S. Water News, “At the Alumot Dam on the edge of Kibbutz Deganya, you can smell the Jordan River long before you see it.  Once there, two Jordan rivers come into view.  North of the dam, the water is calm and clean enough for swimming, and every year tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims flock to Yardenit, the picturesque baptism site on the Israeli side of the Jordan.  But South of the dam, the river is tainted with untreated and partially treated sewage, saline water and fish pond effluents that tumble from large drainage pipes built into the riverbed. The stench is choking.  This pollution, coupled with the diversion of much of the river's clean water by Israel, Syria and Jordan, is endangering the river to the point of extinction.”

"In the summer, the Lower Jordan River is dry in certain places, and this is a totally man-made problem," said Gidon Bromberg, an Israeli environmentalist, as he watched the toxic water drain menacingly into the river, which meanders another 200 kilometers from this junction.

"The Lower River is an open sewage canal, and the sad irony is that the sewage water is keeping the river flowing. Being baptized in the water below the dam -- something that takes place on the Jordanian side of the river -- cannot be too spiritually uplifting.”

Friends of the Earth Middle East, one of the few successful partnerships among Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians, recently stepped up its efforts to bring the Jordan River's sorry state to world attention. One July publicity stunt saw Jewish and Arab mayors from local municipalities jumping into the clean part of the river, hand in hand.

"Water can be a bridge for peace," Nader Khateeb, the organization's Palestinian director, declared. "The water resources are so scarce in the Middle East that we have to work together with our Israeli neighbors in order to help guarantee that we all together stop the pollution of the water resource."

When I think of this water, used in my son’s baptism, the Jordan River, used to baptize Jesus and countless other human beings, I think of the grace of God, visible in clear and sparkling and cleansing water.  I think of our scripture reading, Jesus coming up out of the flowing stream, the voice of God declaring love and joy and grace.  But when I think of the Jordan River now, I think of dirty grace.  Grace that we, as human beings, have polluted.

It is true not just of water, of course.  The earth itself is a gift of grace from God, intended to feed us, to house us, to inspire us.  In fact, a large portion of the Torah deals with the earth and how we treat it.  In today’s section, we ready about the Jubilee year; this Biblical requirement was meant not only to being freedom to captives, not only to release debtors from debts, but also to protect and sanctify the land.

Our scripture for today starts with the declaration that the land is not ours; it is borrowed from God.  And so, we are to treat it as such, treat it as something that we are borrowing.  In fact, the Jubilee year requires that every fifty years, all land is returned to its original owner.  What this does is eliminate any real form of land purchase; a person who buys the land is truly only leasing the land, because according to Jubilee laws, the land must be returned to its original owner when the Jubilee year occurs.

            In this portion of Leviticus, the Jubilee laws are spelled out: every seven years the land is to lie fallow, this is called a Sabbatical year – it is a Sabbath for the land to rest every seven years.  And then, when we get to seven times seven, or 49 years, we approach the Jubilee year.  In this year, all slaves are set free, all debts are canceled, the earth is allowed to rest, all land is returned to its original owner.  Jubilee laws, in fact, require that any purchase price for a piece of land take into account the number of years left until a Jubilee year.  So, if a parcel of land is purchased 30 years before the Jubilee year, it will be more expensive than a parcel of land purchased 10 years before the Jubilee year.  In essence, every land purchase is just a lease of fifty years of less.

Now, a lot of economists label these decrees utopian.  However, according to economist Michael Hudson, this legislation was eminently practical.  During the time of the formulation of these laws, Babylonian kings were dealing with the same problem: the tendency of debtors to become hopelessly in debt to their creditors, thus accumulating most of the arable land into the control of a wealthy few.

In Babylon during the second millennium BC, these “clean slate” decrees were occasionally issued for the cancellation of debts and the return of the lands.  However, these decrees were issued sporadically.  Therefore, the Jubilee legislation presented a significant advance in justice and the rights of the people. This was due to the "clean slates" now being codified into law, rather than relying on the whim of the king. 

Furthermore, the regular rhythm of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years meant that everyone would know when the next release was due, thereby giving fairness and equity to both creditor and debtor.  The Jubilee and Sabbatical laws were, in fact, practical; giving rest to the land, offering release to captives, setting debtors free, and reminding all Israelites that the land is only borrowed; it is, ultimately, God’s land.

Just a few verses before this section of Leviticus, we read these words, “Obey all the Lord’s laws and commands, so that you may live in safety in the land.  The land will produce its crops, and you will have all you want to eat and will live in safety.”

The land will produce its crops, we will have all we want to eat, and we will live in safety.  Doesn’t that sound wonderful?  Maybe, just maybe, if we treated this earth as if it were God’s, and not our own, that would, in fact, be the case.

We do not own the Jordan River; we do not own the land we purchase; it is all borrowed.  And how should we treat the things we borrow?  We do not own the earth or the water; it is a grace, a gift, from God.  And how should we treat the gifts we receive, the grace we are offered?  We have taken these gifts and we have made them dirty.  Dirty grace, dirty gifts, dirty water, dirty land.  If we were to return this land, if there were a Jubilee year, would we feel okay about the ways we have used that which we have borrowed?

            On a day like today, it may be easy for us to fool ourselves into believing that things really are okay.  After all, we have all the water we need.  Clean and pure and cold, it runs from our faucets, our showers, our hoses, our sprinklers, our drinking fountains.  But the water we waste comes at the expense of others, and the vast majority of clean water rest in the cups of the wealthy few.  Maybe we need a water jubilee.  The return of clean, safe water to those who need it.

The lack of safe drinking water has been called the silent humanitarian crisis.  Here are a few statistics to highlight the gravity of this issue: An estimated 1.1 billion people, 18 per cent of the world’s population, lack access to clean drinking water, and nearly 2 million people die each year due to waterborne-related disease.  Every week an estimated 42,000 people die from diseases related to low quality drinking water and lack of sanitation. Over 90 per cent of these deaths occur in children under the age of 5.  At any one time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from waterborne-related diseases.   Inadequate water and sanitation robs children of schooling and adults of earning power, due to poor health and the daily chore of traveling to collect water.

Water use increased six-fold during the 20th Century, more than twice the rate of population growth. In the United States, water use is 380 litres per capita per day.  In Germany, it is 129 litres per capita per day.  But in developing countries, 20-30 litres per capita per day are considered enough to meet basic human needs.  And even this small amount is very often unavailable.  This is just the sort of situation that demands a jubilee.  We need to figure out how to redistribute water consumption.

Today, 6,000 people will die due to a lack of safe drinking water and poor sanitation.  83 people will die in the time it takes me to deliver this sermon.  74 children under the age of 5 died because of dirty water, just in the 15 minutes it took me to deliver this sermon to you. 

            This year, Edgewood is focusing on clean water issues; we are sending a group to Nicaragua to install 100 water filtration systems in homes, to follow up on the 150 we have already installed.  We are continuing to learn, and advocate, for clean water.  So, today, please take the time to go to the environmental fair and find out what you can do.  We will have water videos in the Fireplace Room, a representative from Clean Water Action, an exhibit on cloth diapers, a demonstration on pharmaceutical water waste, and rain barrel collection systems.  In addition to these exhibitors, we will have many, many displays on a variety of environmental issues that demand our attention.  Please take the time not only to go to these booths, but to follow up, with actions for justice, for change, for a cleaner, safer, better earth.

This water is a sign of God’s grace.  And no one deserves dirty grace.  This land is a sign of God’s love.  And no one deserves polluted love.  So let’s renew our commitment to God’s land and to all of God’s children, that water might flow, like love, clean and abundant for all.

Amen.