"Living Water"
John 4:5-29;39-42
So, we begin the summer sermon series with the requested topic of the story of the woman at the well and how it may apply to us today. The following is a retelling of the story we've just heard read in the Gospel of John. I used it a few years ago when I last preached on this passage.
What must it have been like to be the woman who met Jesus at the well? Who was she? We know that she wasn't wealthy, for no one of status went to draw water from a well in those days. She must've used the same dusty road each day to get to the well of Jacob. On her way out of Sychar, did she draw stares from others? Whispers about her sordid lifestyle? She'd probably heard it all before – "Go ahead, Stare," she may've thought. "It isn't like any of you really care about me anyway." This day was just like all the other days, heading out of town, enduring the looks and cold shoulders, walking on the hot, dusty road to get water for the day. This day was just like all the other days that had come before and like all those that would follow.
On her way to the well, she met a group of strange men- Jewish men who looked at her with anger. She was a Samaritan, an ages-old enemy. It was one more hard look thrown at her, like all the other looks she had gotten from the townsfolk. She said nothing as she passed the 12 men and went on her way to the well. She thought about how Samaritans and Jews had hated each other for centuries. She thought about how an army of Jews had destroyed their place of worship on Mt. Gerazim almost 100 years ago and about how they had been looked down upon as a people because they had mixed with other races, other religious groups. "So much energy and emotion, so much hostility and fighting, all for what?" She thought to herself. This was one of many sore spots for her emotionally, and so she tried to think about something else.
When she finally arrived at Jacob's well, a stranger was there, a Jewish man of all people, at this well of her ancestors. "So much for thinking about something else," she thought to herself. Her heart raced, and she hoped he didn't want to cause trouble. She just needed to get the water and head back to town. But there was something different about this man. She found herself drawn to him. As she came closer, she could see by his dress he was a rabbi. "Give me a drink of water," he said. "How is it that you, a Jew, would speak to me a woman and ask me to give you a drink?" she said. Then she thought- "How is it that you, a rabbi, would even talk to a woman out in broad daylight?" - Clearly, this was beginning to be a day unlike any other she had experienced.
Then he said something about how if she really knew who she was talking to, she would ask him for a drink, a drink "of living water." "How can you get water for me? You have nothing to draw the water with? Are you claiming to be better than our father, Jacob?" She wondered out loud. The stranger said - "You misunderstand. I'm talking about a different kind of water - living water, that if you drink of it, you will never be spiritually thirsty again. This living water leads to eternal life."
"Sounds good to me!" She said. Then the rabbi changed the subject. "Go and call your man, then come back here." The rabbi hit a sore spot in her life, a place that was spiritually dry as the desert. "I have no man," she said. "This is true, for you really have been with five men, and the man you are with now is really someone else's man, isn't that true?" She knew she was in the presence of a prophet, one who spoke for God. His words were true, and yet, somehow, they didn't cut her deeply like all those others who talked about her in town. "Sir, I detect that you are a prophet," she said. This was her chance to talk with a rabbi who was more than just a teacher, who spoke directly for God, so she asked about the main issue that had kept Samaritans and Jews apart for hundreds of years. "Our ancestors worshiped at this mountain for many centuries. ("until your people destroyed it," she thought to herself) Yet your people say that Jerusalem is where God lives. Which is true?"
"Neither one," replied the prophet. "A new way to worship is now here - worship in spirit and truth. You do not need temple sacrifice anymore, for what I will do will make a new way. The spirit of God is upon me, and I will be the one you worship". She became excited as she considered his answer. For so long, her people had waited for messiah. This man was no ordinary prophet. Could it be...? "I know that one day, Messiah will come, and when he comes, he will show us all things." Her heart raced as she waited for his reply. The man said, "I am the one, the messiah of which you speak."
Suddenly, her heart was full. She understood that living water was not normal water. It nourished the parched, dry spirit inside her, and she found new hope and meaning. She felt joy inside for the first time since, well, since she could remember.
The group of 12 men she had passed earlier showed up at the well, once again staring at her, but this time, perplexed that she was now talking out in the open with a rabbi, whom they seemed to know. Although their eyes were as wide as saucers, they said nothing.
She knew what she had to do - She needed to run back into town and tell others that their wait for messiah, their wait for hope, was over. She left quickly, so quickly, that she forgot her water jar. This errand was more important even than getting water for the house- She was on a mission to tell others about the living water she had just experienced.
She ran into town, down to the center of the main street, and said, "Come and see a man who knows everything about me. He has told me all about everything I have ever done! This man, he could be the messiah!" At first, the townsfolk were skeptical. How could she know anything about something holy, especially with her lifestyle? But they saw the excitement in her eyes. They knew something profound must have happened. Some believed her right on the spot and knew that messiah had come. Others weren't so sure. A big crowd followed her out to Jacob's well. They came running and stopped when they saw Jesus and his followers. Some had heard stories of a miracle man, someone who had changed water into wine at a wedding in Cana. Could this be the man? He began to teach them, and they too experienced the living water. They asked him to stay in their village, and he was with them for two days, teaching them about this living water. When they saw her in the street, their mocking looks were gone, replaced with ones of admiration. "Your words brought some of us to believe, but now we have heard for ourselves this man, and we now know that he is the one we have been waiting for - he is the savior of the world.."
The woman was never the same. She had found what she was looking for - she found a way to fill the void that was in her soul - the void she had tried to fill with poor relationships and poor choices. People in the town treated her differently now. She had found living water, and her soul would never be thirsty again.
So ends the retelling of our story for today. What does it tell us? How might it apply to us here this morning?
First - Jesus' ministry was all about breaking down barriers between people. Although he and the disciples went to Samaria in part to avoid the Pharisees, who were now paying attention to Jesus because he had a much larger following than John the Baptist, Jesus had other ideas as well. John 4:4 says that Jesus "had to go through Samaria." Jews normally avoided contact (and contamination by that contact) with their Samaritan neighbors by traveling other, longer routes. What so compelled Jesus that he "had to" travel through Samaria? It looks like he intentionally sought an opportunity to speak to Samaritans. On other occasions, Jesus made a point of choosing to confront or especially single out people who had great need - the woman with the issue of blood, the ruler of the synagogue (Jairus) whose daughter was deathly ill, the blind beggar by the side of the road, Zacchaeus, etc. It was time to tear down this wall of hostility between Israel and Samaria. Here was a woman who was an enemy of the Jews, and Jesus struck up a conversation. That Jesus would begin this breaking down of barriers by focusing on the Samaritans was one thing - that he would begin his outreach to a hated enemy by speaking with a woman was quite another.
Historically and traditionally, Jewish men did not speak in public to women, even their own wives. For a rabbi, this would have been an even greater restriction. Women were not publicly taught the Law. A woman's place in that society was not even remotely similar to today. You may have noticed in my retelling of this story that I used the word "man" instead of husband. The word from the Greek translated as "husband" here really does mean "man." It is likely that she was not married. Jesus spoke out in the open to a woman of low moral standing in her society. But Jesus never did the expected. He never sought out the perfect moral people to spread his message. He never treated women in the expected ways of his culture. He talked with them. He taught them. He expected and trusted them to be able to proclaim the Good News. He told stories using women as his characters. He even gave an illustration of what God was like using the image of the woman searching for the Lost Coin. Jesus acted and spoke as if women and men were equal before God.
Not only did Jesus begin to heal two groups of people, but he also broke down the societal walls that had kept women from power and standing.
Where do we see walls of division, walls that separate? Walls that denigrate or oppress others? Christ is our example today to break walls down rather than build them up.
In addition to breaking down barriers, Jesus spoke of living water. We know, of course, he was speaking of something spiritual, not physical. Why did he use the analogy of water? Water covers 80% of the surface of our planet, yet less than 1% of that water is drinkable. The vast majority of the earth's water is seawater, which is too salty to consume without expensive treatment. Water makes up 2/3 of our bodies, and we cannot go more than three days without it. Throughout history, safe water has determined where people live, with the vast majority of the world's population living near an ocean, lake, or river. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that in the United States, 168 gallons of water per person is used each day. Water is so central to our lives.
All of us here in southern Oregon are concerned about the continuing drought. Our Building and Grounds Committee met last week and discussed the continuing stress many of the trees on our property are facing due to less rainfall and a lowering water table. Somehow, we need to figure out how to keep our trees alive without overusing water on campus.
It takes less than a 1% deficiency in our body's water to make us thirsty. A 5% deficiency causes a slight fever. An 8% shortage causes the glands to stop producing saliva and the skin to turn blue. A person cannot walk with a 10% deficiency, and a 12% deficiency brings death. Bread might be the staff of life, but water is the very foundation of life. Water both sustains our bodies and cleanses them. We can go for a longer period without bread than we can without water. Little wonder that water takes on symbolic significance in the Bible. What did Jesus mean about this living water?
Living water is the word of God. It is hope for the world in the midst of hopelessness. It is water that quenches the thirst in the depth of our very souls.
Where do we see spirits dry as dust? Where do we see parched places that Jesus can pour living water?
There are many desperate parched places in need of living water these days. We are hearing it in those heart-aching prayer pleas at the prayer post. People who are depressed and anxious due to this ongoing pandemic, stressed over trying to make ends meet, and concerned over the racial and political divide. These people in our neighborhood are in need of living water. Wells were gathering places for essential survival back in Biblical times. For people outside the city limits where you can drill wells, they continue to be.
Perhaps our own church could be thought of as a well? I hope you find living water - hope, faith, and wisdom when you experience worship. We can experience that same living water in fellowship. We are even working on a new outreach program called "At the Well." We've postponed it a couple of times due to Covid but hope to have something launched this fall to help people who do not describe themselves as religious experience living water. Consider that there are many sub-groups with very similar goals as the woman: meet essential needs, connect and be heard, practice peace and reconciliation, overcome violence, and find community. All persons have both a part of us who is a wounded woman and a stranger who wants to help and fix and heal.
Sam Alvord recently said, "If our church is going to survive long-term, we must break down the barriers which make Christendom a "Keep Out" sign." I agree with him. By continuing to reach out to neighbors through things like the Little Free Pantry, the prayer box, offering neighborhood covid vaccine clinics, inviting the neighborhood to free Easter and Advent events, reinstituting Jazz Vespers once it is safe to do so, and helping those in need with food vouchers and bus tokens, keeping people housed by helping pay their utility bills, "Keep Out" is replaced by "Come on in!"
Living water is the very foundation of our spiritual life and what this dry, parched, drought-filled valley full of thirsty souls needs most. May we go from this place today, having worshipped God, having our vessels filled and spirits quenched, that we might break down societal walls and bring the water of life by welcoming others through the many ministries of this church. Alleluia! Amen.
