We as a church, we as a town, we as a country, and we as a world find ourselves this morning in an uncharted wilderness. In this desert fact, fiction, and hysteria are mixed together in a stressful cocktail. Those things we took for granted such as running to the store to pick up some toilet paper are gone. Schools are closed for weeks in March without a single snowflake. And truly, like the Samaritan Woman way back when, we thirst, we thirst for answers, we thirst for knowledge, we thirst for comfort, and as seen by the plethora of people buying bottled water at BJs yesterday, we just thirst. However, as that woman by the well found out, the reality of the matter is we thirst for something else; we thirst for the eternal, we thirst for a peace which passes understanding, we thirst for an encounter with the Great Physician, and we thirst for the assurance that God is with us no matter what. We thirst for living water, the Spirit if you will, which continually satisfies our deepest concerns and our deepest fears. So come my friends and drink, drink of the living water, and be satisfied.
However, sometimes there are things that get in the way of drinking from this water. I am reminded of being terribly thirsty after playing basketball at the beach, seeing the huge ocean before me, and knowing that I could not drink one drop of the salt water. The first thing, as seen by the Samaritan woman is the bottle cap on sin. The lady, it appears, was perhaps living a life of sin, and Jesus pointed this out, so she could fully partake of the needed living water. Sin, as I said is the emergency brakes of your faith journey, but it is also the bottle cap preventing us from fully partaking of the living water Jesus provides. So, just like removing a bottle cap to drink water is critical for your thirst, confession is critical to partake of the living water. Perhaps we need to think about that individually, corporately, and nationally. Furthermore, did you notice that John very carefully points out that the person Jesus was talking to was a woman and a Samaritan? These are critical for any good Jewish Rabbi would never “cross the tracks” and talk with a woman and a Samaritan. That is almost like an Eagles fan talking with a Cowboys fan and sharing a beer together. Banish the thought! That is like a Wake Forest fan drinking sweet tea with a University of North Carolina fan. Bless their hearts. But you see Jesus crossed those barriers, Jesus crossed those lines, to provide the living water. Makes sense considering he did say, love your neighbor as yourself, right? Guess he meant it. So my question, my wrestling if you will, is what barriers do we need to cross to provide living water to folks, and what barriers do we need to cross to partake of the living water? Hard, but critical questions, right? The interesting thing is many times in my life when I’ve crossed those barriers the living water of the Spirit gushed. There was the barrier of fear when we thought about going to Zambia. In my mind I saw spiders the size of a baseball mitt, lions everywhere, and the country moving to a horrible revolution. None of these happened, but instead the living water of the spirit overwhelmed me to a point where all I could do is sit, weep, and worship. What barriers are in your way? Is fear of the Coronavirus one?
So, the Samaritan woman drew water for Jesus and herself from a well, one apparently that was quite deep at 100 feet. We all would like to drink of the living water Jesus talks about so, where is the well. The first place to draw this water from is the well of scripture where we read God’s promises, God’s love, and God’s assurances of protection and continued presence. Read the Gospels or Psalms, drink deep of God’s word, and partake of the living water Jesus promised. A second well is that of prayer where in our lives we communicate with the one providing the living water. Take time to let God know what you are concerned about, where you are thirsty, and listen for the response; a engulfing response where you feel the living water of God feeding the very core of your being. Another well is what we are doing, worshipping where we as a body, or we individually, lift up the name of God in worship. And again the living water falls upon us like the rain from a thunderstorm. Pray, worship, and read scripture are all wells where you can partake of the living water Christ promises.
Yes, friends, we are in a wilderness, a wilderness prompted by something we can’t see called Coronavirus. However, there is something else we can’t see which is the living water of Jesus the eternal drawing out the temporary. So as you seek hand sanitizer, seek the living water. As you drink from battled water, drink of the living water of Jesus. And as you start to feel fearful as you see folks in stores panicking take time to drink from the living water of Jesus in prayer. For this wilderness will come and go unlike the living water of Jesus which is eternal.
