Exodus 17:1–7;
Romans 5:1–11; John 4:5–42
On the third stop along our Lenten
pilgrimage we find water. First, we join Moses in the wilderness, and then we
go to Sychar, in Samaria. Today, we find living water.
First, I want to make a comment on the
passage from Romans. Paul writes, “suffering
produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces
hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” As I was thinking about this sermon, I
realized that we at Hope are a bunch of characters!
Moses is with the Israelites in the
wilderness, and once again, they are complaining. This time, there is no water.
Since we all need water to live, it's a serious concern. Moses complains to
God, and God tells Moses to strike the rock. Water gushes from the rock, and
there is plenty of water for the people to drink and cook and wash. With the
gift of this water, the people now have water for living. They can see now that
God is present in the giving of the water, even though they had just struggled
to believe in God’s presence with them, ever.
… As we move on to the Gospel, a bit
of history will help us understand why Jews and Samaritans hated each other in Jesus’
time. When the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom -- Israel -- they took
the leaders out of the region and replaced them with people from other places.
The people who remained then formed their own religion based only on the Torah.
Their holy mountain was Mount Gerazim, and not Jerusalem on Mount Zion. As a
result of these religious and at the same time political reasons, the
Samaritans and the Jews did not trust or respect each other.
The
eastern border of Samaria was the Jordan River. Because of the enmity between
the groups, most Jews crossed the river to get from the Galilee in the north to
Jerusalem in the south, to avoid traveling through Samaria. Jesus chose this
time to not cross the river, and he and the disciples traveled through Samaria.
It's midday when they get to the well,
a time when there is usually no one there. Most women would go to the well in
the cooler weather of the morning or evening. Strangely, there is a woman there. She is
unnamed, but let's call her Hannah. It’s odd that she would be at the well in
midday. It must be to avoid other women and their ridicule. What is wrong with
her, we might wonder.
Jewish
men do not speak with women, either Jewish or Samaritan. Jews avoid Samaritans
so thoroughly, they do not even share drinking cups at the well in towns where
both Jews and Samaritans live together. But today, Jesus speaks with Hannah,
asking her for a drink.
Hannah is astounded that he would
speak with her, a woman and a Samaritan, and even be willing to share her
drinking cup. They have a conversation about water. As is common for the folks
who speak with Jesus in John's gospel, she takes his words literally instead of
metaphorically. She would love to have her own well in her own backyard! Just
think, she would never have to be shunned again!
But
Jesus means spiritual, living water. Everyone who drinks the living water will
never be thirsty again. She struggles to understand. Jesus changes the subject.
Go and get your husband, he tells her. I have no husband, she admits. Jesus
knows all about her: that's right, you don't. You have had five husbands, and
the man you are living with now is not your husband.
We don't know why she has had this
history with men. The frequent assumption is that she was a prostitute. But I
have a different idea. I think perhaps she was poor or somewhat disabled, and
old men married her out of pity. As one old man died, another married her.
Finally, no one would marry her, but the current man had her living with him as
a slave. At least she had a roof over her head! But she comes to the well in
midday, presumably to avoid all the other women and their sharp tongues. If we
let ourselves be sympathetic, we could think: How sad, how wounded she must be!
With the revelation that Jesus knows
her whole history, Hannah runs off, leaving her water jug. She no longer needs
well water: she is much more interested in living water. So, she runs into the
town that has consistently treated her poorly and tells them to come and meet Jesus.
He might just be the Messiah we have all been waiting for!
Now, it’s our turn. What is living
water? – a belief in God’s constant presence with us; a relationship with God,
knowing God loves and forgives our sins; a trust in God to provide us with everything
we need; a life of discipleship in which we put God first in all we do. Living
water is God’s love pouring out upon us like water in a river.
In the same way that we all need water –
literal, wet, thirst-quenching water – we also all need the living water of a
relationship with Jesus. Most of us know this, and we are so accustomed to
having living water that we forget how important it is in our lives. We forget
how important it is to tell others about it, especially those who do not have
it.
There’s a brief video I share with the
confirmation class each time we talk about baptism. It’s a video of a pastor baptizing
the youth in his congregation. They use a baptistery, for immersion baptism.
So, imagine a small pool, maybe 12’x12’, with water about waist-deep, and steps
leading down into it and back up out of it.
The pastor baptizes one boy, and sends
him on his way. He looks to his left, to help the next youth into the water. Suddenly,
the congregation gasps as the boy does a cannonball dive into the pool. The
pastor gasps, and says, “I’ve been a pastor for a number of years. This has
never happened before, and it will never happen again.” A minute or so later,
the pastor confesses that he had actually dared the boy to do the cannonball
into the pool, but never believed he would actually do it.
Certainly, our baptism is important;
it should be a joyful time in our lives. Our baptism is an occasion for making
promises that we will live forever in relationship with God. We Lutherans are
pretty sedate. We baptize most often with just a sprinkle of water. If we take
the time to remember our baptism, it is with a little candle.
What
would happen if we took a cannonball dive into living water as we remembered
our baptism, weekly, daily, hourly? What if we climbed out of the water with
our promises to Jesus renewed? What if we made a commitment to help other
people know Jesus and want to be baptized, too? What if we were so excited to
have living water we couldn’t wait to share it, and quench the thirst of those
who are thirsty for something more than a lot of money, a lot of power, a lot
of things, a lot of whatever they think will satisfy them, but never does?
This
week, how will you remember you are filled with living water? How will you
share some of that living water with those who are really thirsty for it?
Please
pray with me. God of Living Water, pour out your water upon us who are thirsty
for it. Fill us to over-flowing, so we can’t help but share it. Amen
