Living Water For The Journey (Lent 4)

John 4: 5-30 & 39-42

Roger Lynn

March 31, 2019

4th Sunday in Lent

(click here for the audio for this sermon)
(the video for this sermon is unavailable this week)

I think it was Tulsa in 1991, but I could be mistaken about the date. What I remember is that it was the opening day of the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and thousands of us were gathering from all over the country. The opening worship was scheduled to begin that evening, so many of us had arrived sometime that afternoon. There was just one problem – apparently no one had informed the local restaurants we were coming. There we were in a strange city, wandering the streets in search of food. We traveled in small groups – friends who hadn’t seen each other in two years. Occasionally our paths would cross with another group on the same quest. We would share what information we had – “there’s nothing down this street for several blocks” or “we just met a group a few minutes ago who told us about a restaurant up this way.” As far as I know, no one died of hunger and thirst that night, and no one was lost forever in the wilderness of the empty city. But it was an interesting lesson in what it means to share good news about a precious resource with those who are also seeking to find it. “The woman said to the people of the city, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’” (John 4:28-29)

Water is one of the basic ingredients necessary for life as we know it. Every living thing needs water to live, and every living thing is made of at least some water. I’ve heard it said that the human body is two-thirds water. Without water we die. The biblical writers may not have understood the science, but they certainly understood the reality. In the hot, arid climate of the Middle East, it is easy to understand how water came to serve as such a powerful image with which to speak of the life which is made possible by God’s love.

Jesus offers living water to those who are thirsty. What he offered was something other than H20, but the image of life-giving, refreshing water was still appropriate to use. He offered the woman he met at the well a relationship with God which would transform her life.

What we see revealed in this story is that the apparent needs are not necessarily the same as the deeper needs. The woman at the well needed water. That is why she had come to the well. What she didn’t recognize was her deeper need to be connected – to God and to those around her. She was living her life behind multiple barriers which had been erected by her culture, her community, and even herself. And then in her encounter with Jesus she discovered the freedom and new life which comes when those barriers are removed. According to all the rules which had been set in place, both officially and unofficially, her conversation with Jesus should never have taken place. She was a woman and he was a man – such open, public interaction simply wasn’t done. She was a Samaritan and he was a Jew – Samaritans were viewed with deep disdain by most Jews of that day. She was apparently a woman with a reputation – there was a reason she was at the well by herself at noon rather than in the morning with the other women of the city. But none of that stopped Jesus from engaging her in direct and personal interaction. And as a result, not only was her life dramatically changed forever, but so were the lives of many others in the city. They received living water which not only quenched their deep thirst, but also broke down the walls which would otherwise have prevented them from helping each other find such refreshment in the future.

Water satisfies our thirst, but it is also a powerful force which can reshape the world. In central Washington there is a place called Dry Falls. Today it is a big hole in the ground with a small stream running through the middle of it. But it was originally formed back at the end of the last ice age by the powerful force of water which came rushing out of the great inland sea located in what is now western Montana when the ice dam holding back the water finally gave way. They say that when the water came rushing down its course, the sound could be heard as far away as Oregon. And when the flood was finished, the land had been forever reshaped. That is also what God’s living water does. It reshapes and transforms us through the power of God’s love.

And so the living water of God is offered to us – to quench the thirst of our deep needs and to break down the walls which separate us from each other and from God. But like the woman at the well, it is important for us to reflect on our deep needs and how God is seeking to satisfy them? Where do we find God’s life-giving love at work in our lives, and are we open to such a gift or do we resist? Who else could benefit from such living water and what are the barriers preventing us from sharing such good news?

Perhaps our deep needs include loneliness and God’s living water for us is coming in the form of the quiet friendship being tentatively offered by someone we just met. And perhaps we, in turn, are being called to share that living water of friendship with the co-worker who is Muslim, or the new neighbors who are gay. Or perhaps our deep needs include a longing for peace and justice in our world and God’s living water for us is coming in the form of the various groups in our community which actively work to make such peace and justice a living reality. Or maybe our deep needs include a longing for more spiritual vitality and God’s living water for us is coming in the form of the Tuesday Bible Study, or the Wednesday Faithful Conversations class. It is possible we are being called to share that living water of spiritual vitality by inviting our neighbor to come with us to church, or volunteering to lead a small group, or simply praying with a friend who has been sick. 

If you spend some time reflecting on it and praying about it, you will begin to recognize the deep needs in your life which are crying out for God’s living water. And you will also begin to recognize the ways in which God is already seeking to pour that living water into your life and the many ways you can reach out to share that living water with those around you. May we continue to be God’s refreshed, transformed, and transforming people, sharing God’s love with the world.