Living Water
Sermon
The Spirit's Tether
Sermons For Pentecost (First Third)
To call it a "wilderness" is not strong enough, not descriptive enough. That land surrounding the Dead Sea is a wild part of earth, burned by the sun of day and frozen by the winds of night. The rocks of this terrible terrain between the depths of Jericho and the heights of Jerusalem are jagged and upended. It is eternally dry.
Jarib had foolishly set out from the Jordan River banks without enough water. The animal skin was only half full as he began his journey. His travel to the high Jerusalem was taking much longer than he expected. The path he followed, instead of always climbing up, was snaking through rock valleys and over rock cliffs and down into rock ravines. Some of the ravines were now dark in shadow. The sun was lowering more quickly than he had expected. His water gone, Jarib was exhausted. Yet, he dared not stop to rest. He stumbled more with each hour. His tongue was swollen, he thought. He licked the sweat from his arm, knowing that he shouldn't. The cold was beginning to blow with the night air, coming up from the dark ravines in the rock. On he walked, and stumbled. His sheepskin water container had long since been thrown aside. As had his heavy cloak.
If only he could find water. If only a spring would bubble up at his feet. If only a tracing of water could be found on the rock surfaces that surrounded his path. His thirst was overpowering now. He could hear the water just ahead. But it wasn't. Only more rock. Just a handful of water was all he wanted - all he needed. In the increasing darkness he was sure a fast flowing stream was just a few steps ahead. Jarib hurried now - only to step into a darkness that dropped 50 feet. He did not rise when he stopped falling. Nor was there any water in that dry gully miles from Jerusalem's walls.
It is terrible to thirst and not have the thirst quenched!
And, of course, our thirsting in this life is for more than water. You and I may thirst for all sorts of things and conditions and relationships. Thirst can be for money, more money. Thirst can be for power. Thirst can be for success - success in one's chosen profession, or success in family life, success in just being a well-rounded human being! We all thirst. That is not the issue. The issue is how the thirst is quenched!
Our Lord spoke of this universal need to have one's thirst quenched. His invitation was to find those needs met by coming close to him, learning from him.
"On the last day of the feast," when Jesus spoke his message, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink," I wonder if he was remembering back to the time he traveled through Samaria? (John 4) Jews did not like to travel through Samaria - it was half-breed country - but he made that trip. In the travel he stopped to rest by Jacob's well. There, according to Jewish Law, he did a terrible thing. He talked to a woman, a woman who happened to be a Samaritan, a Samaritan woman who was, to put it politely, a "loose woman." She had had five husbands and was now living with a sixth man. In that conversation by the ancient well, Jesus announced himself as "living water," and he invited that loose Samaritan woman to drink deeply of the spiritual water that Jesus offered - the sort of water that can deal with the many thirsts in life, the sort of refreshment that moves on to eternal life. It was an image that was easily appreciated in that dry land of Judea and Samaria.
It is an image that conveys urgency, too. We can get along without food for many weeks. We cannot live longer than one week without water. Biologically, this is our most fundamental need! It is said that at the last, when we are dying, it is the final thing to be thirsty. One of our last powers is to drink. Civilization rests on the ability to have or control water. James Michner's novel, The Source, is the moving story of human life through 35 centuries at a single source of water. His story is drawn from the Megiddo dig in northern Israel today. To desire water, to be thirsty, is universal!
That means it involves each of us.
And Jesus takes this universal need, lifting it to the spiritual realm, saying that he can quench our thirst. "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37) As I read the scriptures, Jesus says that as we come to him, as he controls our lives, the thirsts that work upon us are quenched! Christ is our Lord. Christ is our Master. Christ is our Friend. Christ is our Teacher. Christ is our Savior. With Christ in control of our life then our thirsts are satisfied!
Do you have moral questions? Is there a thirsting toward marital infidelity, or a thirsting to try drugs or to steal from the company, or lie to protect an image? Is there a thirsting that weakens you with regard to those treasured family values? Do you have a thirst for money, at all costs? Much of our society today is built out of that thirst. Henry Ford, rumored to be the world's most wealthy man, was asked, "How much money is enough?" He replied, "Just a little more." Is getting money a thirst? Power, money, possessions!
To drink of that Living Water says, "What would Jesus do?" How does his example shape my behavior?
Do you have faith questions? Is there a thirsting for specific belief; a thirst to know with a certainty that cannot be picked away with continual doubt, or cynicism? In our scientific culture we like to have everything tied up in careful packages. But some things just do not package so carefully!
To drink of that Living Water says, "Jesus' trust of his Heavenly Father did not depend on all the answers." His garden prayer, for one. And his cry from the cross.
Do you have a fear of the future? Is there a thirst to have a claim to an eternal home? For some persons this becomes an all-consuming thirst.
To drink of that Living Water says, "Jesus saw all of life - earthly and eternally - in God's good care." Jesus shared his own belief in that "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Dr. George Buttrick, in his printed sermons while chaplain at Harvard University, wrote: "Whoever lives with Christ has in his heart a spring of water, perennial and inexhaustible; a peace that passes understanding, a joy deeper than all passing joys, a life more abundant than any other life, a power that meets any and all troubles, a perpetual fountain, clean and clear, cool and refreshing."
We have stood where Jesus talked with that Samaritan woman, promising to quench those drives that were for her a loose destruction. We have dipped our hand into the cool waters lifted from Jacob's well, the very well from which she pulled water on that day long ago. And I drank the water, much to the chagrin of a nurse nearby. It was a drink to quench an afternoon thirst. But it brought to mind the larger question of deeper thirst in life. We all have them. And the Christian says that Christ is the one to quench the thirsting.
In the opening story, Jarib did not know where to find the water that he so desperately needed. Through the scriptures, Jesus Christ invites everyone to come to him - spiritually, emotionally, with commitment of mind and heart - and in that tie to discover the "living water" that we so desperately need. By his example, through trust as he lived trust, and in hope we do find our thirsts quenched.
Jarib had foolishly set out from the Jordan River banks without enough water. The animal skin was only half full as he began his journey. His travel to the high Jerusalem was taking much longer than he expected. The path he followed, instead of always climbing up, was snaking through rock valleys and over rock cliffs and down into rock ravines. Some of the ravines were now dark in shadow. The sun was lowering more quickly than he had expected. His water gone, Jarib was exhausted. Yet, he dared not stop to rest. He stumbled more with each hour. His tongue was swollen, he thought. He licked the sweat from his arm, knowing that he shouldn't. The cold was beginning to blow with the night air, coming up from the dark ravines in the rock. On he walked, and stumbled. His sheepskin water container had long since been thrown aside. As had his heavy cloak.
If only he could find water. If only a spring would bubble up at his feet. If only a tracing of water could be found on the rock surfaces that surrounded his path. His thirst was overpowering now. He could hear the water just ahead. But it wasn't. Only more rock. Just a handful of water was all he wanted - all he needed. In the increasing darkness he was sure a fast flowing stream was just a few steps ahead. Jarib hurried now - only to step into a darkness that dropped 50 feet. He did not rise when he stopped falling. Nor was there any water in that dry gully miles from Jerusalem's walls.
It is terrible to thirst and not have the thirst quenched!
And, of course, our thirsting in this life is for more than water. You and I may thirst for all sorts of things and conditions and relationships. Thirst can be for money, more money. Thirst can be for power. Thirst can be for success - success in one's chosen profession, or success in family life, success in just being a well-rounded human being! We all thirst. That is not the issue. The issue is how the thirst is quenched!
Our Lord spoke of this universal need to have one's thirst quenched. His invitation was to find those needs met by coming close to him, learning from him.
"On the last day of the feast," when Jesus spoke his message, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink," I wonder if he was remembering back to the time he traveled through Samaria? (John 4) Jews did not like to travel through Samaria - it was half-breed country - but he made that trip. In the travel he stopped to rest by Jacob's well. There, according to Jewish Law, he did a terrible thing. He talked to a woman, a woman who happened to be a Samaritan, a Samaritan woman who was, to put it politely, a "loose woman." She had had five husbands and was now living with a sixth man. In that conversation by the ancient well, Jesus announced himself as "living water," and he invited that loose Samaritan woman to drink deeply of the spiritual water that Jesus offered - the sort of water that can deal with the many thirsts in life, the sort of refreshment that moves on to eternal life. It was an image that was easily appreciated in that dry land of Judea and Samaria.
It is an image that conveys urgency, too. We can get along without food for many weeks. We cannot live longer than one week without water. Biologically, this is our most fundamental need! It is said that at the last, when we are dying, it is the final thing to be thirsty. One of our last powers is to drink. Civilization rests on the ability to have or control water. James Michner's novel, The Source, is the moving story of human life through 35 centuries at a single source of water. His story is drawn from the Megiddo dig in northern Israel today. To desire water, to be thirsty, is universal!
That means it involves each of us.
And Jesus takes this universal need, lifting it to the spiritual realm, saying that he can quench our thirst. "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink." (John 7:37) As I read the scriptures, Jesus says that as we come to him, as he controls our lives, the thirsts that work upon us are quenched! Christ is our Lord. Christ is our Master. Christ is our Friend. Christ is our Teacher. Christ is our Savior. With Christ in control of our life then our thirsts are satisfied!
Do you have moral questions? Is there a thirsting toward marital infidelity, or a thirsting to try drugs or to steal from the company, or lie to protect an image? Is there a thirsting that weakens you with regard to those treasured family values? Do you have a thirst for money, at all costs? Much of our society today is built out of that thirst. Henry Ford, rumored to be the world's most wealthy man, was asked, "How much money is enough?" He replied, "Just a little more." Is getting money a thirst? Power, money, possessions!
To drink of that Living Water says, "What would Jesus do?" How does his example shape my behavior?
Do you have faith questions? Is there a thirsting for specific belief; a thirst to know with a certainty that cannot be picked away with continual doubt, or cynicism? In our scientific culture we like to have everything tied up in careful packages. But some things just do not package so carefully!
To drink of that Living Water says, "Jesus' trust of his Heavenly Father did not depend on all the answers." His garden prayer, for one. And his cry from the cross.
Do you have a fear of the future? Is there a thirst to have a claim to an eternal home? For some persons this becomes an all-consuming thirst.
To drink of that Living Water says, "Jesus saw all of life - earthly and eternally - in God's good care." Jesus shared his own belief in that "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Dr. George Buttrick, in his printed sermons while chaplain at Harvard University, wrote: "Whoever lives with Christ has in his heart a spring of water, perennial and inexhaustible; a peace that passes understanding, a joy deeper than all passing joys, a life more abundant than any other life, a power that meets any and all troubles, a perpetual fountain, clean and clear, cool and refreshing."
We have stood where Jesus talked with that Samaritan woman, promising to quench those drives that were for her a loose destruction. We have dipped our hand into the cool waters lifted from Jacob's well, the very well from which she pulled water on that day long ago. And I drank the water, much to the chagrin of a nurse nearby. It was a drink to quench an afternoon thirst. But it brought to mind the larger question of deeper thirst in life. We all have them. And the Christian says that Christ is the one to quench the thirsting.
In the opening story, Jarib did not know where to find the water that he so desperately needed. Through the scriptures, Jesus Christ invites everyone to come to him - spiritually, emotionally, with commitment of mind and heart - and in that tie to discover the "living water" that we so desperately need. By his example, through trust as he lived trust, and in hope we do find our thirsts quenched.
