March 12 - "Seeking: Will You Give Me a Drink?"

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First United Presbyterian Church

“Seeking: Will You Give Me a Drink?”

Rev. Amy Morgan

March 12, 2023

Exodus 17:1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarrelled with Moses, and said, ‘Give us water to drink.’ Moses said to them, ‘Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?’ But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?’ So Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.’ The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.’ Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’

John 4:5-42

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, ‘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 Saviour of the world.’ 

 

“You have no bucket, and the well is deep.”

The well was deep for Terri Logan after she gave birth to her first daughter, who was born two months premature. Medical debt piled up, and she had no bucket of funds to pay it. She thirsted for peace of mind as she suffered panic attacks for years when the collection letters and calls arrived. 

The well was deep for Mr. James, who, at 80 years old, saw his rent go up $400 a month. And he had no bucket of income to pay this additional amount. So he had to come out of retirement and work on his feet 8 hours a day as a custodian at a Texas high school. He thirsted for the rest and joy of retirement after many years of labor. 

The well was deep for Devonte Gardner, a waiter at the Waffle House, who had to move his family into a hotel because their apartment became unsafe to live in. He had to walk to work each day because he couldn’t afford a car. And he had no bucket of resources to help get his family into a better living situation. He thirsted for stability and safety for his young daughters. 

The well is deep for a lot of us. Not just because our financial buckets may not be big enough. The well is deep for those who thirst for connection and belonging in a world where loneliness is an epidemic. The well is deep for those who thirst for a hopeful and secure future in a world permeated with messages of fear and despair. The well is deep for those who thirst for meaning and purpose in a world of junk food values. We need buckets to reach into the deep wells of emotional resources, time, energy, hope, and civility to quench our thirsts. Our souls are parched, and the well is deep, and we have no bucket. 

And we may find ourselves asking, like the Israelites in the wilderness, “Is the Lord among us or not?” When medical debt drains millions of people’s bank accounts, when 80-year-olds must do manual labor to survive, when families don’t have safe places to live - it feels like we are wandering in a parched and barren wilderness. When we feel friendless and unloved, when all we hear is more bad news, when no one seems to care about the big and important questions in our lives – it feels like we are going to die out here. There are times when we wish things could be like they were in some former time, when the world made sense and people were civil and our future was hopeful and secure. 

But we forget that those former times were also filled with divisions and uncertainty, that we were prisoners to other dysfunctions and injustices. There are times when the slavery of our past feels more secure than the wilderness wanderings of the present. Especially when we can’t see what God is up to, especially when we feel God’s absence more than God’s provision. 

But that is why God became incarnate in Jesus Christ. God became human and experienced our human thirst. Jesus exposed his human vulnerability in asking for a drink of water. In Jesus, God knows what it feels like when the well is deep, and you have no bucket. 

Not only does God know what this feels like, God provides a solution. Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he can provide her with “living water.” It sounds pretty good. Water that will make you never thirst again, so she doesn’t have to continue the arduous work of walking to the well with heavy jugs, pulling the water up from the deep well to fill them, and carrying them back home, every day. What a relief!

But this isn’t what living water does. It doesn’t make our lives easier, more comfortable. Instead, Jesus engages the woman in a conversation that changes her life. He develops a personal relationship with her by demonstrating that he truly sees her. He engages her questions and talks about the things that really matter to her. And he provides hope for her future that goes beyond satisfying physical thirst. The living water Jesus provides offers relationship and belonging, meaning and hope. 

Terri Logan received this living water through an organization call RIP Medical Debt. The organization has wiped out more than $6.7 billion in medical debt for individuals. For Terri, this meant she could attend to her relationships with her daughters and students without the specter of anxiety hanging over her. She could have the self-confidence to do things she loved, like make music again. She could have a more hopeful and secure future. 

Mr. James received living water in the form of a GoFundMe set up by three students at the high school where he worked. Their intention was to raise $10,000 so Mr. James could comfortably retire. Within days, the account had more than $100,000 in it, and the students had to end the campaign before it got too out-of-hand. Mr. James felt the love and support of all those who donated. He could spend his time with family and enjoyable activities and not worry about making ends meet. He knew his future was hopeful and secure. 

Devonte Gardner received living water through an 8-year-old named Kayzen Hunter. Kayzen’s family dined at the Waffle House almost every weekend, and Devonte had become Kayzen’s favorite waiter. When Kayzen learned of Devonte’s housing and transportation struggles, he wanted to help. With his mom’s assistance, he set up a fundraising campaign that resulted in a safe home for Devonte and his family and a reliable car to get him to work. Devonte is thankful for his relationship with Kayzen, and Kayzen continues to see Devonte as a light in the world, full of joy and positivity. Devonte trusts that he and his family have a more hopeful and secure future. 

Journalist Johann Hari, in his book Lost Connections, argues that three of the factors contributing to depression and anxiety are loss of relationships or a sense of belonging, loss of meaning values, and loss of a hopeful and secure future. At their retreat last fall, your elders selected these three lost connections as things they felt our church is called to address.

What we see in Jesus’s encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, and throughout the gospels, is that re-connecting humanity with relationships and belonging, meaningful values, and a hopeful and secure future is part of the Christian mission, it is living water. It quenches a thirst that we all have – to be loved and known, to have purpose and make sense of our lives, and to trust that there is goodness and light on the road ahead of us. 

There is no miracle that occurs in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. He doesn’t provide her with magical water that keeps her jugs full every morning or eliminates her human need for water. Living water is not magical or miraculous. Living water is providing a bucket to draw water that quenches the thirst of our souls. It may not make our physical, practical lives any easier. But it will make them easier to bear. 

When there is a death in our church family, there are many things we cannot do, many things we cannot provide, to make the lives of those who grieve any easier. But by gathering to remember and celebrate a life, by being present with those who mourn, and by providing simple refreshment and space to share stories, we make that grief easier to bear. We provide living water. 

When people are living outside and in need of a meal, we can’t provide them with the ability to never be hungry or cold. But, as we serve them just one meal, we can give them the living water of being seen as beloved children of God. We can talk with them about their questions and values. We can share resources that may connect them with a more hopeful and secure future. We can provide living water, just by serving in a soup kitchen once a month. 

In the past month, our MEND fund has supplied living water to neighbors in need by providing transportation for a woman escaping an abusive relationship and assisting two people with keeping or securing stable housing. Our online Ash Wednesday service offered to more than 60 participants the living water of connecting to the meaning of our lives in the face of our mortality. At the potluck for our Annual Meeting in January, we celebrated the people and ministry of this community that provides living water to so many of our neighbors all the time. 

Providing living water does not necessarily mean raising thousands of dollars for someone in need. Anything that restores human relationship, connects us to meaningful values, and offers a more hopeful and secure future can be living water for our neighbors. And all of us who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all of us who try to stumble after the Messiah from Galilee, all of us who bring our thirst and longing to this place again and again – all of us have living water to share. 

Nothing changed about the circumstances of the Samaritan woman’s life. Whatever chaos led to her story of numerous husbands and current martial vulnerability, those factors where still there. She would still have to come to the deep well every day to collect water to drink. She would still have to live in her own life. 

But she ran back to her village and shared living water with anyone who would listen to her. She brought people to Jesus so they could receive the living water he had provided to her. Her life wasn’t practically any different or better. But she had been given living water, and she shared it with her neighbors. 

Right now, you may be feeling parched. You may feel so spiritually, emotionally, or physically depleted and dehydrated that you believe you have nothing to give, nothing to share. The living water of Jesus Christ may not change your practical situation. It may not improve your health or your marriage. It may not replenish your bank account or keep your loved ones safe. We still have to live our own, human lives. 

But we do not have to live without the love and comfort of God in Jesus Christ. God knows that the well is deep and we have no bucket. God sent Jesus to provide us with belonging, meaning, and hope, even and maybe especially in those times in our lives when we are feeling desperately parched. Living water is not a magical cure-all. But it does change our lives to be seen and known, to have space for our deep questions and wonderings, and to get a glimpse of the possibility for a hopeful future. 

We have been given living water, friends. And we can share it with our neighbors. We can share it as individuals, and as part of this community of faith. This was Jesus’s mission in the world, and it has been entrusted to us. 

The well is deep, but living water is never out of reach. 

To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.