Water

Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: hey have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water. ~ Jeremiah 2:12-13
So (Jesus) came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans). Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ ~ John 4:5-14
Love is the water of life. Jump into this water. ~ Rumi

Former president Jimmy Carter was involved through his foundation in work to eliminate the "Guinea Worm."  This parasite infected those in many countries who have no access to clean drinking water. The eggs of the worm live in stagnant - you might say dead! - water and when a person drinks, they become infected with the worm that within a year can grow to be 30 inches long inside of them.

The topic of "living water" is still one that we struggle with today, both literally and metaphorically.  There are far too many people in the world without access to clean springs of flowing, living, life-giving water.

And there are also ways in which we turn toward other forms of "life."  Other gods you might even say.  Gods we can control and see.

Gods that are not the source of living water that Jesus offers the Samaritan woman.

Water is something these days we probably take for granted.  And because of the ease in which we can get it, perhaps it is harder to see the metaphorical implications of life giving water.  But for so many in this world, water is a prize above all others.  For the Israelites it certainly was.  And yet, they still turned to other gods.

God still offers us life giving water.  Offers us life.  And hopes we live fully to share it with others. In other texts God said it simply as this: "Choose life."  Can we share both God's living water and water that gives life?




Gracious God you offer us the water of life and give us the good news.  Help us to drink fully from the cup of life and to share your life giving promises with others.  And Lord, let us not forget your children who need clean, fresh, life giving water and not rest until their thirst is quenched.  Amen.


Thoughts for engagement:

- Are there ways we take water for granted?
- Read the story of the Woman at the Well. What is Jesus offering her?
- How do we share living water with each other at a time when we don't see each other face to face?

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