Going from one place to another: by design, that’s what a boat does. It helps people cross water. There are ferries that take humans and cars across channels to homes or workplaces, and there are catamarans that catch the wind and tilt sideways, a kind of surfboard or skateboard on the water. There are paddlewheel boats that go downriver to towns located along a larger river heading toward the sea. There are fishing boats designed to carry the large load of fish when they turn home with their catch after persistently pursuing their schools registered on the sonar. Canoes, rafts, cruise ships, tugboats, dinghies, freighters, rowboats, ice cutters, rowboats!

We live near water, but we don’t live in water. We aren’t Jesus, so we can’t walk on it. Boats are needed to cross the ocean, lake or river before us. Yes, there are planes and bridges, too, but think of yourself today as a boat. The cargo each of us carries is the gospel of Jesus. Good news, not bad. Good!

A woman came to the bookstall last Sunday. She bought twenty copies of the same book, $3 each, $60 plus tax. It was a little book, so they all fit in one bag. She is planning to give them to her neighbors, a diversity of people from what she said when I asked about the purchase: different ethnicities, backgrounds, faiths, ages. I prayed with her for them. You are welcome to pray for them with us right now.

Going from one place to another—that’s what a boat does. What kind of boat am I called to be?

We can each be different kinds of boats, crossing all kinds of waterways to let people know that the God of everything was not content to stay far away and leave us to our folly: the ordinary day of sin, the days comfortably adding up until they’re all gone.

No, God left heaven, crossing over, crossing down onto the cross, traversing an incarnational ocean.

Sometimes for us it’s just as simple as taking the time to cross the street, not repaying evil for evil, taking the time to write a note, share a good word, gift a $3 book, offer a night or a meal or a willingness to listen, to talk, or a prayer, so many different little things that people might notice. These things stand out. More than we might imagine.

The Good News is not us. Phew. That’s a relief. Don’t look at me; look at him.

The Good News is Jesus. He came. He died. He rose. He lives and reigns.

We don’t have to wait for the holidays. What kind of boat are you today?

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word.

John 4:35-41