Through all the generations, we have been farmers. Before coming to America, we were serfs in Europe. Once in this country, we have been small farm, foothill farmers in Kentucky.
Creeks were historically very important to foothill farmers. One way they showed their importance was in the saying, “If the Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise.”
My grandparents took the creek seriously. If I walked up the road to visit them, no doubt I would hear before I left, “If the Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise.”
As a child, all I heard in that saying was that my grandparents weren’t willing to say anything was for sure. “I’ll come see you next week,” I would say. “Well, honey, that’ll be good—if the Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise” would be the answer. “Guess what, I’m going to have a slumber party for my birthday!” I would announce. “That’ll be nice—if the Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise” would be the response.
What was not clear to me as a child was that the rising of the creek was historically critical to foothill people in the days before paved roads. In some places, the road was the creekbed for part of the way, and if the creek was up, you had to stay home. There were no bridges over the many foothill creeks. You crossed them safely when they were down. You stayed home or crossed in peril when they were up. In the foothills, even an ordinary summer thunderstorm could prevent travel for a day or so.
The rising of the creek was an important practical detail of life. Likewise, “God’s will.” If God didn’t want it, it wasn’t going to happen. Often, in the foothills, God spoke through the creek.
What Has This to Do with Today’s Scriptures?
In both the reading from 1 John and the reading from Matthew in this final week of the Christmas season, events in the world created changes which required adjustments.
In 1 John, the issue was the eruption of conflict and heresy in the middle of John’s Christian community. There were people coming into the community with what today we might call “fake news” or propaganda. People were being influenced. They divided up in factions—polarities.
In terms of my beginning story—the creek had risen. Spiritually and practically, the community was stranded. They couldn’t move past the controversy. John gives them advice to check their news sources and the agendas of the sources. “Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Not everyone who claimed to speak for God actually did so.
In today’s Gospel, the creek has risen, too. John the Baptist has been imprisoned. Hmm. Is Jesus stuck? No. He retreated to his familiar Galilee, but he didn’t stay home and quiet. “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.”
Both John and Jesus saw danger in “the creek rising,” but neither assumed that that meant it was “God’s will” to stay silent or with the status quo. They weren’t dependent on the creek.
How Do You Know It is a Spirit of God?
If something is of God, it is consistent with God. God is not divided against Himself. As John said it,
Beloved:
We receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And his commandment is this:
we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.
Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us
is from the Spirit whom he gave us.
Back to the Creek
The picture today is a picture of Elkhorn Creek at the ford on our farm. It was taken last summer when I could stand in the middle of it. Today, after heavy winter rains, it would not be safe to cross, even in a truck.
Between 1811 and 1837 the American government built the first “interstate”–unpaved and depending on creekbeds as it was. That National Road connected Cumberland, Maryland through the mountains into Ohio and west. A branch of it came south to Maysville, Kentucky, then on to Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky, before crossing the Ohio River again at the Falls to become another route to St. Louis and the settling of the Great Plains. Part of that road went across Elkhorn Creek on what would eventually be our farm.
As a child, stories of that road fascinated me. I wondered about the lives of people who traveled on horseback or in covered wagons to cross the creek and head West. Their journeys were tied to the creekbed.
The saying “If the Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise” did not make sense to me as a child, because by the time I was born, there were paved roads and bridges over Elkhorn Creek. The creek no longer represented God’s will.
When Jesus walked the roads of Galilee in the beginning of his active ministry, he expressed God’s will in new ways: calls to repent, curing the sick, casting out demons, keeping company with public sinners, and challenging the way faith at the time was lived. Sickness or even possession by demons no longer meant that a person was condemned by God. Religion no longer was practiced just in the temple or the synagogue. There was a new “Good News,” the Gospel of God’s love for all people and his call to join him in the new way of life which is the Kingdom of God.
When John wrote his letter, the appearance of a prophet in the community was no longer a guarantee that the person spoke for God. There was need of an objective standard. Some years after the Gospel, there was need for adjustment in the way revelation was perceived.
Concluding and Beginning
In conclusion, times changed, and the creek was no longer a criteria for whether something would happen or not—or of God’s will. Times changed, and the baptism of John became the healing/teaching ministry of Jesus. Times changed, and there needed to be objective measures for determining if something spoken came from God or not.
I have begun a serious personal study of Vatican II and papal documents, Part III of the Catholic Catechism-Life in Christ, and the Gospels. What do these expressions of the Word of God tell us about how we are to live as Catholic Christians in the world today?
COVID has changed the landscape. The creek has risen. Does that creek determine God’s will? Or are there roads with bridges now that can navigate the creek? What are the objective standards? Do we stay put or find new ways to be Catholic Christians and build the Kingdom of God?
I expect to be exploring all this through 2021. What are your questions for this year? Where is the creek for you? What is God’s will? Let’s explore together.
Prayer:
Does a new year mean a new road or new bridges or staying put? Lead me, guide me, Lord.
