Sermon

Sermon # 1034
March 27, 2011
Exodus 17:1-7
John 4:5-15
Dr. Ed Pettus

“A Thirst for Living Water”

Israel spent a lot of time in the proverbial middle of nowhere. Forty years in the wilderness following Moses – following God. The wilderness is a place of threat because the wilderness does not supply the needs for life. The wilderness has no food, no shelter, and in the case of Exodus 17, no water. No water means death to Israel. No water means they have risked everything following Moses out of Egypt. The wilderness is a place of trust where Israel learns to trust God for what they need, but Israel is slow in learning that trust and they question God.
Our text today comes to us during the season of Lent. Lent is a time to reflect on our own wilderness, a wilderness of sin, a wilderness of social and cultural change, a wilderness wherein we, like Israel, may learn to trust God for our life. God has given us water for life, water to sustain us physically and water that quenches all our thirsts in the wilderness of life. Our journey begins with baptism, a journey through the water, just as Israel’s journey began through the waters of the sea. Sometimes our journey leads us to places without water, without resources, without trust.
Our life text intersects with other texts. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at a well, a place to gather water for life, but Jesus offers her a new kind of water – one she desires so that she will never thirst again. Her thirst runs deep like that of the Israelites in the wilderness, but her thirst is for more than water from a well, but water from a Savior.

I. We thirst for the water God supplies, water for our physical and spiritual well-being.
Exodus 17 presents a story of lack. There is no water to drink and Israel complains: Where will they get water? They complain to Moses, “Give us water to drink.” I guess they thought Moses knew where a well was located. Perhaps they are asking Moses because he stands between them and God. Perhaps they are asking God for water. Moses asks them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”
It seems like a legitimate request. They are thirsty and they will die without water. Walter Brueggemann writes: “The focus is upon their deep need and upon the way is which the deepest question of faith is connected to the deepest material reality of life” (Inscribing the Text p.137). There is a connection between the material and the spiritual that cannot be severed. The lack of water to drink raises questions of God’s presence. Moses even names the places of Israel’s question of God. He names Massah meaning “test,” and Meribah meaning “find fault.” They lacked water to drink and so they asked: “Is God among us or not?” The absence of water triggered the question of God’s presence. They test God. They find fault with God. They question God’s presence.

Is not that the way it goes with us? I was thinking about the latest natural disaster and the problems of water shortage in Japan. There is always a shortage of water with a natural disaster whether it is drinking water or water to cool a nuclear reactor, water is a key element for life. On occasion we might have a water pipe break and we are told that we should boil our water, but imagine if the water just stopped and all the shelves at the grocery store were empty. When we lack what we need or even what we want, sometimes we question God. We know, as well as Israel knows, that our physical well-being is tied to God’s presence. Without God we will have nothing. With God, we have all we need.
So God tells Moses to take some elders with him and to strike a rock with his staff and water will come out so that the people will be able to drink. God provides them what they need to survive. God provides for us what we need even when the wilderness threatens us with thirst or even death.

II. We thirst for living water, the water Christ gives that enables us to never thirst again.

In another wilderness story Jesus meets a woman at a well and he asks her for water to drink. Jesus is thirsty. She is amazed that a Jew would speak to her, a Samaritan woman – no Jew would speak to the Samaritans because they believed them to be impure. Jesus quickly turns the conversation around and tells the woman - ‘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’ (John 4:10).
Now the physical need for water is connected with the spiritual need for living water. Water becomes the metaphor for new life in Christ, as Jesus says, “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Good news has come in the living water, just as good news came for Israel when Moses struck the rock. Water for which we thirst has become the symbol for new life in Christ and the power of God’s Spirit. God’s provision for our thirst is now the sign of life with God in Christ. And the waters of baptism connect us with the God who gives us water for drinking and living water for new life. All our physical and spiritual needs are met and we will never thirst again.

III. We thirst for the living God, Psalm 42:1-2; 63:1-8.
Two other texts add to our word from the Lord: First is Psalm 42:1-2 – “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” The true thirst is not for a drink of water, but in the thirst of our soul. The promise is that God will give us the living water that quenches our thirst for God – living water that quenches our thirst. Israel thirsted for water but their thirst would never be satisfied until they tasted of God – trusted in God.
Another Psalm, Psalm 63:1-8 says, “O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”
Our thirst for God is like thirsting in a dry and weary land, like a people wandering the wilderness in search of water and like the Samaritan woman who comes to well to get water that sustains life. Our souls are parched and the living water is the only water that can quench our thirst. We look elsewhere – to the world, to work, to entertainment, to riches, we look in all kinds of places to find satisfaction, but none will satisfy. Remember the Rolling Stones song, “I can’t get no satisfaction?” The reason the Rolling Stones could get no satisfaction was because they were looking in all the wrong places. All of our thirsts and hungers and yearnings and desires are, at root, a thirst for God! But we will go everywhere else, we will look to other sources to try and satisfy that thirst…until…until we trust in God. We will look in all the wrong places to quench our thirst until we come to see that God is truly with us and that God is truly giving us living water in Jesus Christ.
IV. Lent is a time to spend in the wilderness opening awareness of our thirsts.

The season of Lent is a perfect time for us to seek the One who satisfies. Through the waters of baptism we are called into the wilderness of Lent. Just as Jesus was called out of the Jordan after his baptism into the wilderness, so we are called from the waters to trust in God – to trust that God will give us abundant water to drink and abundant living water to satisfy.
But, we also hear these words from the prophet Isaiah: Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant…Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
This is the call for our practice of Lent – Come to the waters; come to the source; come drink and eat; come to God. Let us forsake wickedness and return to the Lord. Let us recognize that our thirst, even our thirst for water, is a thirst for God – a thirst for the living water of Jesus Christ. Amen.