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It's In The Water
Lent III
March 27, 2011
John 4:5-26
The Samaritan woman came to Jacob's well and she was thirsty.
- It doesn't take long in the story before you understand that her thirst was not going to be satisfied by a bucket of water from Jacob's well.
- She was thirsty for a life that was better than the one she was living. If life is a continuum from being a person who is broken by the things that happen to you to being whole and confident for each day, this woman was living more on the broken side of life than on the whole side of life.
She had been married five times. As she thought about it, it seemed that she had a knack for making bad choices when it came to relationships. Life was a challenge for her and she felt alone. She was living with her new boyfriend and that was beginning to show signs of wear. Old patterns were re-emerging.
This woman was thirsty.
- She knew about empty promises and relationships that aren't life-giving.
- She knew that life can really be messy and the things that you hope for elude you.
- She knew what it was like to be used and abused.
- She knew what it is like to drive your life into the ditch.
Just last month she had gone to her local Barnes and Noble and she had spent a lot of time in the section that is marked self-improvement and self-help. It's a section of the book store that demands more and more shelf space each year... for people who want wholeness and experience a gnawing awareness that they have a ways to go before they can claim that wholeness.
She picked up books on how to be a good wife and a good mother. How to be successful in relationships. How to do what you love and the money will follow. She read all the books and even tried some of the exercises and she was still thirsty.
She went to the well to draw water and there she was found by Jesus who asked her for a drink.
- One thing you need to know at this point -- Jesus was breaking the law by talking to her. A man from Judah cannot speak to a Samaritan or touch anything that a Samaritan woman touches. It was part of their cleanliness laws. By talking to her and touching a cup from her hands Jesus became unclean.
- He was breaking the law because he knew how thirsty she was. Jesus will do anything to address the kind of thirst she had, the kind of thirst we have.
And as a Samaritan woman you know what these Judean men are like.
- They are condescending, judgmental and arrogant...self-righteous about their laws.
You know, she is somewhat cynical in her brokenness and so she gives Jesus some lip.
- Why doesn't he get his own water.
- He doesn't even have a bucket...but Jesus...is after her thirst.
Heavens you know about thirst.
- You've had your share of disappointments and empty promises, broken relationships.
Yet it hasn't stopped you from looking in odd places for things that will make you hopeful. That will satisfy your thirst...or at the least make you forget about your thirst and how empty your cup is.
I grew up in Chicago...on the North side and even though I have been gone from that city for 44 years I still hope that the Cubs will be in the series and that the Bears will win the super bowl. They bring me to the brink and then let me down and leave me thirsty for more.
If only it was as funny as being for the wrong team. We thirst for so much more. I hope that this president or that senator, this court or that judge or this session of congress with be truthful, full of light, will be bread of life. I hope that we can put aside partisanship and really care about this country and stop dividing people with polarizing speech.
But there are lobbyists, interest groups that are only interested in themselves, election polls, and almost cynical disregard of promises that are made.
We so hope that there will be something that will satisfy our deep thirst for things that are life-giving. And because we thirst we are truly a vulnerable people.
We thirst for the latest development in science, sociology, education or counseling.
And if that doesn't work, maybe the new product line by Guess, Gap or American Eagle.
If only I have the right look...
- The right age
- The right weight and height
- The right job, house, neighborhood or even family
Then maybe I wouldn't be thirsty all the time for something that I can't seem to define.
The woman was like me and I am like her.
The woman is like you and you are like her.
So she asks Jesus -- where is your bucket? You don't even have a bucket and the well is deep. Not only is it deep, it has a history that is also deep. And she could have added ... but for me, it is also full of empty promises.
Now it's Jesus' turn with us in this text.
The water I give is living water.
- It isn't water that you can neatly pour into a pitcher or cup. My water splashes all over the place.
- It splashes all over your life until you are wet -- soaked -- dripping in God's Spirit.
- A Spring of water -- gushing up -- I mean out of control on to eternal life.
Do you hear that? Jesus is absolutely confident about this living water. About its ability to satisfy the thirst that has been driving us crazy.
Jesus is so confident that he is pouring it out over this room, pouring out of our baptismal font and down the aisles and into your lives, relationships, hopes and dreams, the places where you hurt.
This living water first poured into your lives in your baptisms, is pouring out the door as you leave this sanctuary this morning. This water is a Spring that I am going to put within you, gushing up with life.
- It is pouring into your cars and homes and workplaces. I mean it is gushing. Underline that word in your bulletins and in your bibles. It is gushing and it is carrying you in its surge and flow.
- It is more than a desire for self-improvement and making life just a little better. It is God's presence in your lives...now...today...carrying you in the power of this gushing, living water.
Whatever the promises are that have claimed your lives -- if they aren't in Christ they don't have what this Living Water has.
So the woman said to Jesus, Give me this water so that I may never be thirsty again. And he gave it to her.
Amen.
Rev. Glenn Taibl,
Interim Senior Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota
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