We Live in a Thirsty World: A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent

 

I was away last week to do some of my continuing education hours as a massage therapist. And it was a fantastic experience to be back on the campus in Gainesville, Florida, and enjoying bodywork... both giving and receiving. It was also fortutious as it gave me a lot to think about for this Sunday as we encountered a lectionary chock full of water in the lessons! 

Here we go!

Texts: Exodus 17:1-7; Ps. 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42

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I never appreciated the importance of water until I moved to Florida.

And I moved to Florida in late August 1990…so I picked a fine time to drive into the Sunshine State and unload and haul boxes and furniture up to a second-floor apartment.

Whenever people come to visit from another part of the country… I am always conscious to remind them to drink plenty of water.

It’s really the only way to survive down here.

If we didn’t have clean potable water to drink… I think we’d all pass out and die… and melt into a puddle of proteins under the hot sun.

Water is an essential element for human life.

Our bodies are about 60-percent water.

The water in our bodies helps to build tissue…form saliva… lubricate our joints… and protect vital organs like our heart and our brain.

When we find ourselves feeling sluggish and low-energy… it’s probably because we haven’t taken in enough water into our bodies.

And if we’re thirsty… that’s a sign that we’re severely dehydrated.

Water… and the need to take in water…plays a dominant theme in our lessons this morning.

From the Israelites grumbling in the wilderness… screaming at Moses to “Give us water to drink” to the Jewish Jesus asking a woman… a Samaritan woman… to “give me a drink” from Jacob’s well…we hear there’s a thirst for water.

This thirst is not just about satisfying a physical thirst of the body…but a thirst in the soul.

The Israelites…wandering around in the wilderness of Sin… are turning on Moses.

This is one of the many times in the Scriptures we hear them quarreling with Moses.

Why did you bring us out here?

Why isn’t there water to drink?

We should’ve just stayed in Egypt…because at least there was water!

How quickly they’ve forgotten how hard and unforgiving their lives were in Egypt.

Sure… they had water.

But at what cost to their humanity?

As much as they might be physically thirsty…there is a river of feelings running underneath their complaining.

They’re scared.

The fact that they could imagine their lives of doing hard and punishing labor as a more preferable existence is a sign that they’ve internalized their oppression.

Now… in that wilderness… they thirst…not just for water… but for assurance that they will be OK.

It’s a soul thirst.

They’re asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?
If we think about it, we’re not that far removed from our complaining biblical ancestors.

It’s at the times when we feel ourselves in the wilderness… when we’re living in our own personal hell… that we start wondering if God is anywhere to be found.

Like the Israelites… our thirst is not just for water to renourish our tired bodies. We thirst for that blessed assurance of God’s loving kindness as we feel the world around us collapsing.

One of the commentaries I was looking at brought up Mother Teresa and her times of feeling as though she was in some dark moment of the soul.

The much-heralded tiny nun lived and served among the poorest of the poor in Calcutta.

It was hard for her to face what seemed like a hopeless ministry day in and day out.

Even Teresa wondered at times, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Thinking about that… and then turning to John’s Gospel story… we can hear and see a some more of that soul thirst.

This is an ironic situation.

Jesus asks the unnamed Samaritan woman for a drink.

Jesus is thirsty under the noon day sun. And when he asks for a drink… the woman assumes he’s talking about drinking water from the well.

I mean, he’s a guy sitting there at the well with no bucket asking for a drink.

Any reasonable person would assume that he wants a cup of water.

But this seemingly simple request takes us on a journey deep into the soul of both the Samaritan woman and the Jewish Jesus who asks for water.

So deep… that this is the longest conversation that our Evangelists recorded Jesus having with any one person.

Because behind this conversation…one that Jesus starts with the woman… is a need to dip deep into this well of living water.

The hurt and brokenness… the misogyny of societal norms… and ancient riffs must be addressed.

The connective tissue of humanity needs living water to heal.

The Samaritan Jews and the Jews of the Temple in Jerusalem… which is Jesus tribe… hated each other.

In the dominant culture… the gender norms wouldn’t have allowed for this sort of intimate exchange between a man and a woman who were strangers.

So there is already some radical things occurring right off the bat.

And as the conversation moves on… Jesus’ words go deeper and deeper into the depths of who this woman is… everything she has been or ever done… or believed.

Now… she could have thrown her bucket down and run away.

I mean, there is a certain creep factor in having a stranger and one who isn’t one of “her people” talking to her in this way.

But remember that Jesus is “the light that has come into the world.”

Rather than panic and running… this woman enters more deeply into the conversation as her dark night of the soul begins to experience what it is to have the light shine in.

Her prejudice… her fear… her mistrust… is met with love and mercy.

Perhaps… for the first time in her life… she is being seen… in all her messiness and imperfection… and Jesus is still saying, “You are loved by a God who doesn’t care about mountain tops or temples. This God wants to dwell in your temple… your body… and continuously give you the water to sustain your living cells.”

This is the deepest… most life-giving drink of water…this woman has ever had.

Having her parched soul quenched with these living waters… she can’t contain herself. She has to share it with the other Samaritans.

I wish we knew her name because I bet she told her people one heck of a story… and became as much as an evangelist as Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

This water… this living water she received through an encounter with Jesus… is still flowing… through our prayers… through our sacraments… in that baptismal font… today.

This same water is there for us… in our tempest-tossed lives… in our quarrelsome moments… and also in our times of seeking the quiet confidence to get out of bed and face the world each day.

There isn’t a person in this room who hasn’t had found themselves thirsty… not just for a nice cold drink on a hot summer day in South Georgia… but in that deeper soul thirst for that reassurance that God hasn’t forgotten us in our times where we’re in our wilderness.

The offer is there for us to drink from this well… and let it go deep into our bodies… and then share it with those around us.

We live in a thirsty world.

And there are people still asking if the Lord is among us or not.

May our presence and our cups be filled up so that we can share with others that yes, indeed, God is with us now and always.

In the name of God… F/S/HS.