The Gospel according to John. [Glory to you O Lord]
5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." 15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."
16Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." 17The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" 19The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." 21Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." 26Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."
27Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?"28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he? 30They left the city and were on their way to him.
31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" 34Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."
39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
The Gospel of the Lord. [Praise to you O Christ].
Thirsty.
Grace, Peace and Freedom are yours from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Thirsty.
When was the last time you were thirsty?
Can you tell the difference between thirst and hunger? I googled this on Thursday and I was shocked to see how many blogs had an entry on this very subject. I wish I had bottles of water to hand out to all of you right now because I bet you’d finish them before the end of this sermon.
The Spiritual discipline I chose this Lent was to fast from sweets. I have a huge sweet tooth, some of you know this well. Though usually I find sweets a nice treat to bring a little sweetness to life, recently I felt as if sugar was taking away life. I mean that every 90 minutes I was searching around for something else sweet to eat.
So I figured that Lent was my invitation to put in place a fast. If I have become obsessed, maybe even addicted, to something, even something seemingly innoculous and innocent as butterscotch disks, if I am getting distracted by where my next soda is going to come from… Then, as ridiculous as it sounds, that’s coming first in my life. Commandment number one: “You will have no other god’s before me” – broken by the pastor.
And this fasting experience has been fascinating. First – it has been hard. And I should say, this is not my first time doing this. I used to fast from sugar every Lent for maybe 10 years? But I haven’t done so recently. So it’s hard. The first few days were no problem, but around day 10 I was ready to give it up. Scrounging the cupboards for a good fake-sugar substitutes and eating every bit of dried fruit in the house.
And it took until day 15 for me learn something from all this. To get closer to what God wants for my life… I learned that, maybe, when I’m craving sweets… I’m really just thirsty. I’m thirsty for water to moisturize my sandpaper hands and relieve the tightness in my temples. I’m learning what thirsty feels like. Sweet water that can actually quench my cravings and calm my belly.
And I think it goes further. I don’t just substitute bubbly sugary boosts for the drink that feeds my cells. But I also drink up messages about how I should look or parent or landscape, or keep house, or whatever just like it’s a caffine-sugar fix to any unease in my life.
It all comes back to water.
"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
Jesus starts out this story thirsty. And though we never hear whether he got a drink from the well, he clearly got some kind of satisfaction from the exchange he had with this woman, for he ends up in a different place.
He has been out in the open by a well in the midday sun, and when the disciples ask him if he’s had anything to eat, he says to them, No need… “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.” Has Jesus just been fed by doing his Father’s will? Has Jesus’ thirst been quenched, as ours can be, by not just drinking of this living water but by being the very wellspring gushing up to eternal life? Being a well of living water for those who need to hear, to know what God has in store for them?
This unnamed woman needed to hear that eternal life was a promise made by God that included her. And Nicodemus came seeking it last week.
Last week we were urged and pushed along with Nicodeums to go again through the birth canal, to be born of water and spirit. To live a real, new, life, a life in God. A life that doesn’t come from knowing how to be good religious folk, but comes only through this water right here. Comes only by knowing more deeply who Jesus is, what Jesus says
and by becoming his followers.
This was a new birth that Nicodemus wasn’t sure he could go through. But our nameless woman today dives right in. He comes at night, lurking in the darkness. He is a man with status, used to being “in the know.” She comes to a well for her daily water, her identity obscured by markers of her exclusion. As a Samaritan she is counted outside of the Jews, though they share much heritage, including this very well. As a woman, she is an untouchable, another man’s property. Men who have not treated her kindly, likely divorcing her for barenness. “She may live in the shadows of her marginality, but she speaks to Jesus under the sweltering heat of a midday sun.” (working preacher.org)
She is thirsty for that living water. And she jumps on the chance for a drink.
I have been talking with a few of you about an opportunity for a small group Bible study. High-commitment. A chance to really dive deeply into the living water that God gives us through Scripture and prayer. If you’d like to join me on this kind of adventure, let me know. I know that when we did the cottage meetings a year and a half ago now, there was some interest in Bible study. Yet, nothing has really come to the forefront on this yet. We can only cram so much into a two hour block on Sunday mornings, it’s our time to worship, to really grow in relationship with other another and to deepen our fellowship as the Body of Christ. So I’m talking about an invitation on some other night or day of the week to go through the whole of scriptures, to really get a sense of what God is up to in these books of the Bible… to drink deeply from this living water, the word made flesh that comes to us in scripture.
The Confirmation students and Tom and I just finished the “Echo the Story” curriculum. Our students got an overview of the Bible in 12 sessions, key stories in the scriptures that help us to start to “get” the big picture of what God is up to. How amazing it was to see those youth ask the hard questions about the Bible, to start to challenge themselves and God, to engage seriously with their faith – to begin to carry inside of them a living water for those desert moments.
And yesterday I was with 5 even younger people with their parents, learning about communion. We read the stories of the Passover and The Last Supper, and these kids drank from the same well, along with their parents. We sipped at the story of God’s people, who were enslaved, to be released by God’s great act of power at the Passover and through the parted waters of the sea, as we sipped the wine at the last supper with Jesus, a bittersweet cup for us. We remembered that we are people who walk wet. Who receive forgiveness and grace through the living water of baptism and remember the same each time we feast at this table with Jesus.
How about you? Do you know if you are thirsty?
If you are like me, and most Americans, you are far more thirsty than you realize. Drinking far too little water.
Today, and every day, Jesus offers us living water. Drink up! Here in this community, Here at this table, Here at this fount of living water. Satisfy your thirst with me. I need it so much I’m here every week. (smile/wink). And I’m still thirsty.
I invite you to consider what a commitment to Bible study and prayer would look like for you. How might you drink from this wellspring that is Jesus? Are you ready to dive right in – like this high commitement study - or is there a way to setup a drip irrigation system to keep you watered? Like the daily devos books we have out in the narthex? Or a daily bible verse app on your phone?
And remember that Jesus says today… as we are watered we become the well for others.
Today, when you come up for communion I invite you again to remember how wet you really are. To take Jesus up on the invitation to live into this water. Water the roots you are growing this Lent. Take water from the font, mark yourself on your forehead, or cross your body. Use words, or don’t, the action suffices to remember. Remember that you have the water of life, and you are the water of life for others.
Amen.
