Living waters.
“Where do you get that living water?” asked the woman at the well.
The living water is a symbol of so much.
v The living water as the rain that waters our thirsty desert land these days and in return gives us sprouts of growth and greens. We need living waters.
v The living water as the water in our pipes that secure our wellbeing as we daily depend on clean water and clean resources. We just recently witnessed how clean water could devastate a complete community and city when the water was contaminated in Flint Michigan. We need clean living waters.
v These days as we struggle to deal with the concerns and cautions related to COVID 19 – Corona Virus, and you probably also have witnessed people carry cases and cases and cases of water… and then loads of toilet papers… from Costco, Stater Bros or Albertsons. Living water for a health crisis and a pandemic. We need clean stocked and shared living waters.
v This bottle is called LIFE WATER and this one is SMART WATER, but they both contain Living waters that can quench our thirst and gives our bodies what we need. All water is life water, living water, smart water – and we need living waters.
v We use the water to wash our hands, more diligently and thoroughly these Corona Virus stricken days! We wash our hands with soap and water – and we wash our souls with spirit and water at the baptismal font, as the living water from God that we truly need in our lives.
Living water is a biblical phrase for water that participates in the great cycles of life: falling as rain, bubbling from springs, and flowing through streams and lakes.
Living water is as a biblical phrase an essential ingredient to life on Earth. It is the living water that God’s spirit hovered and moved over at the creation, and that flows through the Garden of Eden. It is the living water that gushes from the rock to sustain the weary Hebrew people in the dry desert, and it is the living water that Jesus promises to give to the woman at the well in todays gospel.
That is what is at stake in todays gospel: the living water. And there is so much going on in this Gospel today. Wells of water, lifechanging conversations, moving meetings, critical concerns, eternal enlightenment and risky relations. Today’s gospel is full of living waters.
Everything in the Gospel this morning is somewhat wrong, and that makes it all right. When we listen to the story told by John, it is a good story with so many layers:
· Jews like Jesus did not talk to Samaritans.
· Women did not come to the well all alone in the middle of the day.
· Men did not talk to women they were not related to.
· Men most certainly did not speak to a woman who have had 5 husbands like the woman at the well confides.
· Jesus looks at her with compassion and mercy, as he sees her brokenness and possible alienation in society. Instead of all the cold shoulders of contempt and cruel gossip, she is offered to lean on his shoulder for comfort and compassion.
Jesus broke through all these common barriers of the time and of the traditions to share the promise of living water.
Some weeks ago, when we heard the story about Jesus being tempted in the desert, we heard Jesus rebuke the tempter saying “ Man does not life by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
This is mirrored in today’s Gospel. As we do not live by bread alone, we do not only quench our thirst with water from the well or the bottle, - we also long for living waters in a more symbolic way.
We live by the relations that might heal our brokenness. We live by the words that might forgive our failures and shortcomings. We live by the warm shoulders to lean that might encourage us to keep believing. We live by the eyes that truly do see us as just as we are and still loves us. We live by the fellowship we feel among friends and families. We live by the bond we share with our communities and churches. We live by living waters that flows like a stream between human beings, and as a loving forgiving stream of grace from God.
In these days of uncertainty and health crisis, in these days of fear, we long to sit at the well and be offered the Living Waters by Christ. The living Waters of hope, love and faith. The living waters of Grace.
Once again, I was reminded of one of the most beautiful speeches ever given in great Literature. The Danish Author, Karen Blixen alias Isaak Dinesen, wrote her beautiful novel Babette’s Feast and the marvelous notable speech delivered by the elegant and wise General Loewenhielm at the table of feast, faith and forgiveness, could be the closing worlds of today
“Mercy and truth, mu friends, have met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.
Man, my friends, is frail and foolish. We have all of us been told that grace is to be found in the universe. But in our human foolishness and short sightedness we imagine divine grace to be finite. For this reason, we tremble
We tremble before making our choice in life, and after having made it again tremble in fear of having chosen wrong. But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite.
Grace, my friend, s demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. Grace, brothers, makes no conditions and singles out none of us; grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty. See! That which we have chosen is given us, ant that which we have refused is, also and at the same time, granted us. Ay, that which we have rejected is poured upon us abundantly. For mercy and truth have met and righteousness and bliss have kissed one another.”
Grace and righteousness met that day at the well.
Grace and righteousness met that day we were baptized at the font.
Grace and righteousness meet whenever we let the living waters flow freely into our veins and into our lives.
Grace and righteousness meet when we show compassion and care in time of a crisis like now. When we are living waters in each other’s lives.
Please listen to and remember Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky wise words:
“Every hand that we don't shake must become a phone call that we place.
Every embrace that we avoid must become a verbal expression of warmth and concern."
Every inch and every foot that we physically place between ourselves and another, must become a thought as to how we might be of help to that other, should the need arise."
Grace and righteousness have met. Thanks be to God. AMEN.