PARCHED LIPS AND AN EMPTY BUCKET

March 3, 2002

John 4: 5-26

It says on the container, "Mountain Spring Water." "Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water comes from protected springs high in the Southern and Northern California mountains. ‘It’s better up here!" The other bottle I had at home reads: "Aquafina. Enjoy the crisp, refreshing taste of Aquafina. Our state of the art reverse osmosis purification system ensures consistently great tasting Aquafina in every bottle." Bottled water; a symbol of the post modern culture in which we live.

We don’t have to go to the stream any more; it comes to us. We don’t have to go to the well or even to the kitchen sink or drinking fountain. We can buy water in throwaway plastic containers that has been purified by a "reverse osmosis purification system" to taste wonderful. The mountains stream water comes to us. Pure. Fresh. Clean. Having tasted some of the lake water in Denton, Texas last year visiting our son, I can understand why people thrive on bottled water.

Whether it is an aging loved one longing for the relief of a dry mouth or parched lips, or a child tugging on mommy’s leg as she stands at the kitchen sink, or a farmer finishing a long, hot day in the field, our bodies cry out for water. Or a hiker in the mountains on a warm summer day, our bodies cry out for water.

It must have been a hot day in Samaria – that forbidden land that lay between Judah and Galilee. Jesus decided to take the shortcut from Jerusalem to Nazareth; that meant walking through Samaria, a people that were long time enemies of the Jews. They tolerated each other, and that was about it.

Jesus asked a woman who appeared at Jacob’s well for a drink of water. We think nothing of that today, but in that context, Jesus was breaking down long held customs and nationalistic viewpoints. The simple asking for some water broke two big cultural customs. First, Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans, and even more radical, he talked openly with a strange woman. A rabbis’ reputation would have been ruined in such an encounter. It just wasn’t done.

Yet, it is the breaking out of confining customs that frequently brings new life and growth. It is the opening ourselves to new understandings of God where we find exciting and fulfilling life. We find ourselves stale and empty from doing the same thing day in and day out and fail to realize that God is doing something new. It is in taking with Moslems that we realize they are much like us; it is in getting to know Hispanic people that we find out that their dreams are just like ours. It is in working side by side with African Americans that we realize the fears and prejudices held by so many have no validity. Jesus’ action toward the Samaritan woman was God’s love in action toward the world, breaking down barriers that held people at a distance.

Jesus asked for water to quench his parched throat since he had no bucket. The woman had the bucket, but she soon realized that she was the one who was thirsty, and he was the one who had the water. And she didn’t know it at the time. Jesus called it "living water." As is typical in John, the woman thought of water in physical terms and Jesus had moved to a different level. She didn’t understand at the time. The Nicodemus story in John 3 is the same.

Jesus offers life-giving water, not just for the body, yet, how often we search for this water at the wrong watering hole or carry it around in a disposable bottle. There is a spiritual dimension to life that can only be satisfied with spiritual drink but we frequently try to drown that thirst with physical substances that only destroy and become addictive in negative ways. We look for physical substances to substitute for the craving in our lives that we fail to recognize as spiritual. We fill our homes with gadgets believing that more will be better. We fill our children’s lives with more things than they can use believing that this brings happiness. We max out our credit cards enjoying now and paying later thinking that this American dream is the ultimate, when, in reality, some "living water" is what really gives life.

This discussion between Jesus and the woman moved from water to worship but the underlying theme was the same. Instead of the age-old battle as to who had the true worship, Jesus cuts that down and lays it aside. Whether you worship in Jerusalem or Garizim doesn’t really matter; the name over the door is of no importance as long as you spend time in worship. You can worship in the mountains, you can worship on the seashore, you can worship in front of your television set at home, but ultimately worship means being together with God’s people, joining together as the Body of Christ in genuine worship of the heart and soul. Don’t make the place as important as the need to gather together.

I really appreciate the way Eugene Peterson paraphrased the words of Jesus as they were read to you earlier. "It’s who you are and the way you live that counts before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people God is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before God in their worship. God is sheer being itself – spirit. Those who worship God must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration." Our true worship is the honest longing and searching of our soul. It is the thirsting of our spirit to find that living water.

The Psalmist put it this way many years ago, "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." (Psalm 42; 1,2) I often wonder if the natural longing of the soul for God is lost or overshadowed in the pursuit of physical things. It is easier to grasp physical possessions; there is security in surrounding ourselves with things. Yet there is a longing of the soul that cannot be quenched by things of this world.

It is as our spirit seeks to engage the Spirit of Life that we find wholeness. It is as we become honest with ourselves at the very core of our being that we can grasp the fullness of life in God. How shallow we often think; how superficially we often act. How worship becomes entertaining in order to avoid deep encounters with God that may move us and change us. It is just hype and energy with little depth. How relationships remain at a surface level to avoid revealing who we really are: our fears, our insecurities and our dreams. How frequently we avoid discussions on sensitive topics because we want to avoid conflict. We can keep our prejudices that way and avoid learning a new thing.

William Barclay commented that, "True worship is when we attain friendship and intimacy with God." That takes time and being vulnerable. St. Augustine put it in a prayer that I have often used, "Our God, our hearts are restless until they find rest in thee." Sometimes we may not even know that we are thirsty, yet we are. Sometimes society encourages us to drown our thirst in that which only makes us thirstier or disguises it in something that seems appealing, yet the full life begins in recognizing the thirst for what it is.

Standing at the foot of the hospital bed I quietly observed a daughter tending to her dying mother. She gently took a little stick with a small pink rippled sponge on the top of it, dipped it in the cup of water. With one hand holding her mother’s head, she lovingly took that small sponge and painted the parched lips of that loving face. The mother automatically opened her mouth to receive the water, moved her tongue around to moisten her lips and mouth. In a whisper barely audible and without opening her eyes, she said, "More." The daughter took that small pink sponge and once again dipped it in the cup and gently pressed it to her mother’s mouth as the tears of love flowed down her cheeks.

Jesus offers us water - the water of eternal life for our parched lips and souls. Have you tasted that water? Have you drank from the well? If you have, would you tell someone else? You can’t find it in a bottle at the store; you find it in a relationship with the Living Water.