Sermon - "Living Water"

John 4:5-42

RLD

(3 March 2002 - 3rd Sunday of Lent)

Focus (What does the text say?): Jesus promises unending life to those

who ask it of him. The excitement of realizing who Jesus is seems to be

contagious.

Function (How will the text affect its listeners?): To realize the

exciting implications of following Christ. In a world that is often

confused, we have a clarity of mission. In a world of sickness and

hunger and death, we have eternal nourishment. In a world of broken

relationships and loneliness, we have eternal communion with our Creator

and our fellow humans.

Introduction - Water in Texas

We have an advantage as we try to understand this reading, since we

live in Texas. Like the woman at the well, we are always in need of

water. When I garden, I cannot seem to ever get enough water to my

plants to keep them going through the summer.

This is like life. When we start a job or a relationship, it is like

springtime. The growth comes easily. But as time goes by, the cool

spring weather is replaced by the heat of summer. And instead of new

growth, we merely struggle for survival. If we cannot get the ôliving

waterö we dry up and wither away.

In this reading, this woman has had a series of husbands and apparently

has given up on the idea of marriage. But this woman whose life has

been marked by broken relationships is offered an eternal relationship.

And not only that but she is able to bring many more people to a similar

encounter with Jesus. We too can exchange our failures and broken

dreams for a new and eternal and good life.

Being Hungry and Thirsty

A few weeks ago we read the beatitudes from Matthew. One of them said,

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Why, we

often wonder, would someone be considered blessed because they lack

something? Perhaps they are blessed because they can be truly thankful

when the thing for which they hunger and thirst is given to them.

This woman at the well receives JesusÆ message with excitement. She

shares that message and brings others to learn from Jesus. However, in

the next chapter of John, we learn that other people, when seeing Jesus

heal a lame man, do not welcome Jesus, instead they get angry. These

people, unlike the woman at the well, are comfortable in life, they have

a respected place in society. They are satisfied with the life they

have built for themselves. And because they no longer hunger and thirst

for something more, they do not welcome Jesus.

And so . . . maybe we can learn to hunger and thirst in a way that

leaves us ready to receive GodÆs blessing. Maybe the disappointments in

our lives can be used to steer us towards God. Alcoholics Anonymous is

an organization in which people who know what it is to be an alcoholic

reach out to help people whose lives are under the control of alcohol.

Their experience is that people who have felt the unique pain of

alcoholism are uniquely equipped to help others regain control of life,

with GodÆs help.

Perhaps our thirst for something is one way God calls us in life. Take

time to think about the things you long for. Not too long ago, an

opportunity was given to our congregation to begin a tutoring program in

our local elementary school. When we began to talk about this, many

people realized they felt a yearning to help kids, but had never known

how. This program made it very simple and very organized. That magical

combination of organization and spiritual yearning has developed into a

mentoring program that is a very important part of our ministry and a

very important part of our local elementary school. There are 20 kids

who were struggling in school, who now have something to look forward to

in school each week. And there are Church members who may have felt

somewhat disconnected with our community, who are now an important part

of the schools and community. There is an excitement about this

mentoring program that arises from faithfully answering GodÆs call to

us.

Conclusion

This faithful following Christ does indeed give us life, like living

water falling on a parched land. In a world that is often confused, we

have a clarity of mission. In a world of sickness and hunger and death,

we have eternal nourishment. In a world of broken relationships and

loneliness, we have eternal communion with our Creator and our fellow

humans. Let us keep on searching for ways to share this living water

with those around us. Amen.