Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42
It seems that many Americans aren’t satisfied with the water that flows from their taps at a cost of less than half a penny per gallon. Instead they seek out bottled water at a cost of one to four dollars per gallon. To get that water they have to go to the "well." They have to go to ShopRite, Weiss, Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, or their local convenience store. Or they have to arrange to have the "well" come to them by having bottled water delivered to their home.
In today’s gospel we hear about a woman who came to a real well seeking to have her thirst quenched. What she got was more than she could ever have imagined.
The scene begins as Jesus arrives, tired and thirsty, at Jacob’s well located in Sychar in the heart of Samaria. It’s noon—the hottest, most sun-scorched time of the day. And there at the well is a Samaritan woman, going about her daily routine of drawing water. She went alone at noon, not the usual time for seeking water. But the woman was not the usual kind of woman one would find in the village. She had been married five times and was now living with a man who would not give her the benefit of a marriage ceremony. This Shady Lady of Sychar was rejected by men and shunned by women.
Driven by thirst she comes to the well. There she encounters Jesus, not the usual Jew she was used to meeting. This Jewish man breaks the taboos of his day by addressing a Samaritan and by publicly speaking with a woman.
It’s a bizarre conversation that they have. At first it seems that they’re having two different and disconnected conversations. He speaks of living water and she thinks of physical water. He tells her that if she has this water it will quench her thirst forever. Jesus is talking about her soul, her spiritual life, and she’s thinking of her body. And of all people—a woman, an enemy despised by the Jews, an adulteress—of all people to her Jesus gives that living water. This journey of faith, which began with an innocent and harmless request for a drink of water, radically changed the woman’s life. Jesus goes from asking her for a drink, to offering her living water, the living water of acceptance and a relationship with God—things for which this scorned woman had been thirsting.
For what do you thirst? For what do you really yearn in our culture of such great excess and unmeasured need? What, down deep in Your heart and soul, do you really want?
For what do you thirst? Jesus said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness. They will be satisfied” What is the liquid diet that you feed yourself on? If you drink in love and truth, mercy and compassion, gentleness and sincerity, honesty and charity, humility and simplicity, we have Jesus’ pledge that we will have our fill.
For what do you thirst? Did you ever realize that just thinking about being thirsty can make you thirsty? For all too many, the choice is to satisfy thirst by drinking from the sugary fountains of the world around us. We dip our 16 ounce cups into the streams of modern life – we try to quench our thirst with pleasure, power, prestige, possessions, popularity, pornography, and perversion. Well as they say, you are what you eat, (or in this case, what you drink).
For what do you thirst? In today’s gospel, Jesus says, “I am the living water. Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.” Each of us has the choice to draw only H2O from the well every day or to also accept the living water that Jesus offers us. What is this living water? Put simply we could describe this living water as the very life and love of God, poured into us—grace. As the water we drink becomes one with our bodies, so God becomes one with us. This water never goes dry. This water is never withheld from those who seek. This water cannot be constrained. But if we don’t receive this living water from Jesus every day, we will look for satisfaction in ways that will never please, never satisfy, never nourish.
Lent is a special season of grace in the Church each year to enable us to drink more and more of this living water that Jesus offers us. And so, this Lent, let us draw from the WELL OF PRAYER. The Living Water which we are invited to drink at this well is one that quenches. It satisfies; for through prayer we deepen our relationship with the God who will never disappoint, the God who knows us better than we know ourselves, the God who accepts us as we are, but encourages us to be more than we are. Only this water can satisfy our thirsting, longing, craving, to get to know him better. The water from the well of prayer is a water that nourishes. It makes us stronger to face all that the world throws our way.
This Lent, let us also draw from the WELL OF FASTING, SACRIFICE & PENANCE. Through imbibing in its life-giving water, we will find ourselves satisfied and full, for it disciplines our bodies from the desire for the carbonated soft drinks of self-indulgence and lust that leave us with empty calories that are ultimately both unsatisfying and unhealthy. And through its purity, we will be cleansed, reconciled and made worthy recipients of the salvation won for us through Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.
And this Lent, let us draw water from the WELL OF CHARITY & ALMSGIVING. Through it, we will be satiated with the love of Christ, inebriated by a sense of service to those who are in need, giddy by the opportunity to give all in his name. We who have tasted of this lively water must in turn become an abundant, excessive, overflowing fountain to others. As we hear Jesus say in the Gospel of John, three chapters after today’s gospel passage, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38)
Streams of living water... That’s what the Son of God offered the Samaritan woman at the well and that’s what he offers us as well: life giving, life renewing, life refreshing water that can satisfy those who drink so that we will never thirst again—Living water that satisfies our longings in life. Living water that nourishes our innermost selves. Living water that promises to give life to our faith. Living water that supplies us with an endless source of strength and encouragement no matter what we face in life. Living waters! That’s what we need and that’s what Jesus offers us this morning. That’s what Jesus invites us to drink – right here and always.
