Rev. Debbie Cato
John 4:5-42 |
Exodus 17:1-7
Fairfield Community Church
March 12 , 2023
God of conversation, We come to you today thirsty— thirsty for hope, thirsty for good news, thirsty for a glimpse of you. So today we pray, that you would move in these words like a current. Give us the courage to wade into your story with open eyes & open hearts. Give us the courage to drink this moment in. We are listening. We are grateful. Amen.
Will You Give Me A Drink?
“You may be dehydrated right now but not know it.” Bradley P. Holt
begins his book Thirsty for
God: A Brief History of Christian Spirituality with these words, explaining that the first signals our body gives us
that we need water are not immediate and strong. We might feel uneasy or tired
and head to the refrigerator for a snack when what we really need is a tall
glass of water.[1]
The same is true of our spiritual thirst, Holt continues. We may feel
restless, anxious or depressed and try to satisfy our needs with retail
therapy, a chocolate fix, or unhealthy intimate relationships when what we
really need is to know that we are loved, that we belong, that we are not
wandering the wilderness of our lives alone and without resources, that God is
with us.[2]
The lectionary passages of this third Sunday in Lent are characterized by people who are thirsty. In Exodus 17, the wilderness wandering Israelites have camped in Rephidim, only to discover there is no water. “Is the Lord among us or not?” they ask. In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the well whose thirst for love and belonging was so intense she responds to Jesus’ offer of living water with an emphatic, “Sir, give me this water.”
These stories present us with opportunities to give voice to our deepest fears: “Is Yahweh among us or not?[3] Will God quench my thirst? What am I really thirsty for?
The Israelite people seem to continue to doubt and misunderstand who has brought them out of Egypt and who is in charge. They continue to identify with Moses and think it was he who brought them out of Egypt and Moses who is in charge. Easy to understand. He’s the one in front of them. He’s the one they are physically following. But, they have yet to figure out that it is Yahweh – God himself who brought them out of slavery; God himself who is keeping them safe and cared for as they travel through the wilderness. They haven’t realized that it is God who is in charge and Moses is just his human spokesperson. They haven’t figured out that God chose them. That God loves them unconditionally. That they are God’s chosen people. That God will always be among them. He will never abandon them.
When we have a problem, it is much easier to blame someone than to think through the problem carefully and spiritually. In this situation Israel could have thought, “We are in a desert; it’s not surprising there isn’t much water here. We need to look to God to meet this need.” Instead they blame Moses and do nothing to help with the problem.[4]
“Give us a drink,” the Israelites ask. God hears them, readily responds, and calls Moses to bring forth water from a rock. But do the people know what they really thirst for? In the seasons of our lives, we all have felt frustrated and lost in the wilderness. During these times, our fear gets the better of us. Survival mode reigns. Sometimes our focus on survival is so loud we miss the cry underneath: “God, have you abandoned me?”
What
would it have looked like, I wonder, if the Israelites had instead cried out
for God’s assurance? “Show us you’re still with us, God,” they could have
prayed with open hearts. “We feel alone and unanchored.” Where could the water
have come from, if the question had come from a softer place than the rock of
our human defenses? [5]
God chooses to bring water — and the life it symbolizes - out of something that appears to be lifeless, a rock. The dry rock flows with water. God brings water — and with it, life — to the arid wilderness. Out of Egypt and out of the wilderness, God will find ways to make life flow in unexpected ways. But it will require a certain amount of trust from the people, from us, a willingness to put faith in a God who seems not to do things in the typical way.[6]
Many years later, Jesus asks this same question of a Samaritan woman at a well. He risks everything by speaking with her—crossing cultural, religious, and social lines—demonstrating his willingness to be vulnerable. When he asks for what he needs, a drink of water - he shows that even he cannot make it alone. What a risk for the Son of God to be so openly human. And yet, it is this question—and his willingness to ask —that leads to this woman’s transformation.
So Jesus is headed back to Galilee and to get there goes through Samaria. He doesn’t have to. There is another route. But going through Samaria is shorter and going through Samaria doesn’t bother Jesus – although it certainly would other Jews. There were religious differences between the Samaritans and other Jews as well as cultural and social differences. Jews and Samaritans did not interact, and they certainly did not socialize; they hated each other. Once again, Jesus breaks rules and boundaries by stopping in Samaria at the well and speaking to the woman. And then, just to make a point, he stays for two days and eats and talks with the townspeople.
We actually don’t know if Jesus ever gets his drink of water. He was thirsty from traveling. But the woman who came for water that day, got more than she hoped for. She was spiritually thirsty – alth0ugh she may not have known that. Jesus knew all about her. He didn’t judge her. He just stated the facts. She had been married five times before and was currently living with a man she was not married to. Had all her previous husbands died? We don’t know. Had they divorced her? Remember that men could divorce their wives, but wives could not divorce their husbands. We don’t know that either. It doesn’t matter. She had been married five times and currently lived with a man she was not married to. We get the impression she wanted to be loved. She wanted to belong. Jesus knew all this about her, although he had just met her. She must have been stunned.
Jesus offers her something new. Something eternal. Something that will satisfy her thirst not for an hour, or a day, or a week. Something that will satisfy her thirst forever. He offers himself. “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” I am the Christ. I am the Messiah. You are loved. You belong. I can imagine the woman thinking, “It wasn’t the water he came for, it was me.” For me.
Do you feel like God is traveling with you, or do you feel as if He
has abandoned you? Do you believe that
God can and will quench your thirst? Jesus
is here for each of us. He knows all about you. What are you thirsty for? Perhaps you are thirsty for healing; maybe your heart is thirsty for hope. Maybe you
thirst for relief from the stress of your job.
Maybe you are swallowed up by grief from the loss of a loved one. Maybe you are numb to the hurt of a broken or
damaged marriage. Maybe you are thirsty
for rest from being a working mom. Maybe your drinking has gotten out of
control. Maybe the thirst for alcohol disguises the reasons you turned to drink
in the first place. Thirsty for a
miracle or just a sign that God is showing up in your life. The
consequences of our lives often leave us thirsty, questioning whether God is
real — and if God’s promises include us.
What are you thirsty for?
You won’t find the word “Lent” in the Bible. This 40-day season that we
are in the midst of has been marked by the church to encourage Christians to
focus on our life of faith and honestly assess our relationship with God.
Many Lenten rituals can and should be practiced alone — prayer,
confession, and meditating on Scripture. These solitary practices are necessary
to help us identify our true thirsts and how we seek to satisfy them with things
that are not from God. Then, each Sunday of Lent, we are invited to a break
from our solitary wilderness wandering to come to church – a sort of
resurrection gathering, reminding us that we are not alone. We rub shoulders
with people in the pews who understand how thirsty our lives can leave us.
Gathered in Christ’s name, we also rub shoulders with the One who suffered as
we suffer, the One who meets us at the well. In this communion, we are offered
Christ’s living water. In this community, we are offered the hope that we are
not alone. We are not wandering this wilderness of life without
thirst-quenching resources.[7]
I think the woman at the well was amazed that a Jewish man would stop and speak to her. Amazed that he knew all about her. Amazed he was so kind. Amazed at his words. What he said to her and how he said it completely transformed her. She was never the same again. She left her water jar and went back to the city and told all the people what she had learned. And because of her, we are told that “many Samaritans believed in Jesus.” Jesus stayed two more days in Samaria and even more believed. She wasn’t the only one who was thirsty. “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,” they said.
The question for us this Lent is not only whether we would extend a drink; it’s whether we will be brave enough to ask God for one when we need it. What are you thirsty for? Amen.
[1]https://pres-outlook.org/2023/02/third-sunday-of-lent-march-12-2023/ Teri McDowell-Ott
[2] https://pres-outlook.org/2023/02/third-sunday-of-lent-march-12-2023/ Teri McDowell-Ott
[3] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-26/commentary-on-exodus-171-7-2
[4] https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/exodus-17/
[5] Rev. Danielle Shroyer.
Sanctified Art 2023
[6]
https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-26/commentary-on-exodus-171-7-2
[7]
https://pres-outlook.org/2023/02/third-sunday-of-lent-march-12-2023/ Teri McDowell-Ott
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