LIVING WATER
John 4:7-15 John 7:37-38
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
The longest conversation Jesus had with anyone reported anywhere in the Bible is with a Samaritan woman... at a well. Jesus was tired and thirsty from his journey. He stopped and sat at a well in the Samaritan city of Sychar, in the heat of the noonday sun.
This morning’s Gospel lesson is just the very beginning of the story (I encourage you to read on in your Bible at home). Even in these few verses, there are so many things to consider. The multiple ways Jesus and this woman cross boundaries: A man and a woman talking in public? ... a Jew and a Samaritan? Jews and Samaritans were divided by a history of blame and discrimination, differences in religion and ethnicity, conflict over where God is to be worshipped.
Even these verses encourage us to date to cross society’s boundaries to look at so-called strangers, or enemies, with Gospel eyes.
Yesterday afternoon in this sanctuary, we celebrated the life of Martha Kridle. I shared this story about Martha... recruited from the hills of West Virginia into the WAVES during World War II. She was stationed in SF, decoding messages about movement of ships. One day a message came in that German POWS were being transported. She and co-workers went down to the pier to see the evil enemy, and instead, Martha saw “poor, bewildered, young boys” – life-changing experience – Formed the conviction that -- if we know each other, we will not kill each other...Devoted her life to fostering – friendship and understanding, justice and peace. She led tours to China for the U.S. China Peoples Friendship Association. Seeing the enemy led Martha to wage peace.
“Living water” is available to everyone ... within anyone.
Jesus was tired and thirsty and sat at the well. When a local woman ... a Samaritan ... came to the well to draw water, Jesus said to her “Give me a drink.” Most women came to the well in the cool of the morning. Perhaps this woman came at noon out of urgent necessity or perhaps because she wanted to avoid encountering others at the well. We do not know. We do not know her name. We learn later that she has a “complicated” history and and conflicted present reality, perhaps reflecting the colonized history of the Samaritan people. Jesus asks her for water to quench his human thirst. Jesus offers her living waters to quench her holy thirst for fullness of life and love.
Biblical scholar Dr. Angela Bauer writes of Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well and insists that the living water offered and sought is what mystics call “one-ness”, what others may call “wholeness.” It is the life sustaining and life changing power of love.
Dorothee Solle said, “this one-ness with God is needed for the work of the Spirit in the world. It is the power that makes true resistance possible.”
After Jesus tells the woman the truth of her own life ... she left her water jar and ran to invite others into the encounter... She said: “Come and see this man who told me everything I’d ever done ... He can’t be the Messiah, can he?” ... She was the very first evangelist and she led with a question! With uncertainty! With an invitation to conversation! Scripture tells us that Jesus stays 2 days in this Samaritan city.
What makes this woman memorable is that she was open to this encounter; that she was willing to be vulnerable enough to face the truths of her life; and that even without certainty, she invited others to come and see.
Dr. Bauer suggests that one essential requirement in the thirst for wholeness, or one-ness is “a sense of dis-satisfaction.” ... “knowing that what appears to be all cannot be enough.” John Wesley called this prevenient grace, in our thirsting, yearning, dissatisfaction, God’s Holy Spirit is at work in us.
This morning my husband Jim will be delivering the Eulogy at the Memorial Service for Bishop Melvin Wheatley in Los Angeles. Mel Wheatley was a life long friend. He co-officiated at our wedding. He has a significant place in the history of the UMC and the social history of this country for his early, solitary and powerful witness for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender persons in all levels of church and society. (*) He refused to turn human beings into “issues”, refused to refuse to see the image of God, the Living Waters of God within all the children of God.
Years ago, Bishop Wheatley delivered a sermon titled, “Why Whole Religion is So Hard to Sell.” In it he said, “(Whole) Christianity is never satisfied with people who are satisfied with themselves. The very wholeness of the life which (Christianity) espouses is intended to stir up in all of us a sense of divine discontent with ... the fragmentations in our lives.”
“Living water” ... stirs up a sense of “divine discontent” with the fragmentations in our lives. Healing and restoring and sustaining love transforms us as discontent opens our hearts.
The Gospel of Solentiname is a remarkable four-volume record of the conversations and commentaries on biblical passages from Nicaraguan peasant leaders. It was recorded in the late 1970’s by Ernesto Cardenal when Somoza was still in power. I’ve been re-reading these volumes since our return from Nicaragua. The real thirst and truth and questions these people bring to the Gospel transforms Bible study. One of our hosts in Nicaragua was from Solentiname. His brother is quoted frequently in these gospel volumes, but later was killed by the contras in the war.
In their conversation about the story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman two people, speak about the verse in which Jesus says, “For the water that I shall give them will gush forth like a spring within them to give hem eternal life.”
Olivia says “He says the water he will give will gush forth inside of you. He gives it but it’s born from us. It’s God’s very life that he’ll give us, which is love, and that’s what he calls eternal life, because it’s God’s life. But it’s going to come out of us, it won’t be stagnant; it’ll be a fountain, a fountain of life.”
Elvis responds: “All those people who are struggling for freedom are carrying the water of life everywhere like a fountain. Freedom is like a river of life for humanity that empties into eternal life.”
Carrying the water of life everywhere like a fountain.
Today, March 22nd, is World Water Day, initiated by the United Nations in 1992. This decade the World Council of Churches and nations and organizations throughout the world are educating and advocating for clean, accessible, sustainable water for all God’s children. We are learning about this during Lent in classes and small groups. Today, let every taste and touch of water be a call to divine dis-satisfaction in us ... let it stir up the fragmentations of our lives... Let every taste and touch and sight and sound of water be a call to vulnerability to explore the truth of our lives and our world. Let living waters flow from deep within – “without bounds, without fear, to face and embrace the constant difficulties of living Love in this world.” (Bauer)
Erich Fried, a late 20th century German poet wrote a verse titled simply “What It Is.”
It is nonsense, says reason
It is what it is, says love
It is a disaster, says calculation
It is nothing but pain, says fear
It is futile, says discernment
It is what it is, says love
It is ridiculous, says pride
It is careless, says caution
It is impossible, says experience
It is what it is, says love!
So be it.
|
