Sir Give Me This Water

Grace and Peace to all of you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many years ago, when I was living and working in the Washington DC area, I worked in communications for an association that represented all the major health insurance providers in America. As part of our public relations efforts, we would partner with foundations and organizations that work to advance research to combat chronic illness and, in some cases, catastrophic injuries.

One of the foundations and organizations I had a brief chance to work with was the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which sought to advance research into reversing paralysis and catastrophic spinal cord injuries.

Many of you will remember Christopher Reeve for his acting credits, such as Somewhere in Time, and, of course, his portrayal of Superman. At that time, Mr. Reeves had just directed an A&E movie, about a young girl, Brook Ellison, who suffered a catastrophic spinal injury while on her way home from school one day, when she was struck by a vehicle. At age eleven, she was paralyzed from the neck down.

He made the film to tell her story and to raise awareness of the need for more research in this area. Instead of a Hollywood premiere, his foundation held one on Capitol Hill, right in front of decision-makers, in hopes of influencing them to allocate more resources to combat the problem.

Brooke, her mother, and her father would be in attendance, and it was my job to take the family out to dinner the night before the premiere and look after their comforts.

The restaurant we ate at was intimate and quiet, with just Brooke, her mom, her dad, and me. Over the course of that dinner, I learned quite a bit about the family, Brooke’s college aspirations, and her hopes for the future. Her mom and dad told me their story about the day their lives changed forever.

I will never forget what her father said to me over that dinner. As scary as something catastrophic happening to your child is, and all the things that you think about what you could have done, or would have done differently that day, he said, “I do not believe in coincidences, and I don't see what happened to our daughter as an accident.”

He put his trust in God. There was a greater meaning and purpose for all of this, and that their suffering had produced some enduring hope, not just for themselves but for others.

He did not grumble about their problems or struggles, but seemed to rejoice in the peace that there was greater meaning, even if he didn’t fully understand what it was, and that God would help in times of need.

I was moved by that sentiment, and it apprehended my faith to the point where I have held to it to this very day.

His words and hope serve as a reminder that, from our mouths, can flow both grumbling and praise, whether during times of great stress or significant change.

As we learn in our first lesson today, the Israelites, who had come out of Egypt, were beginning to get thirsty and began fighting with Moses, saying, “Give us water to drink.” “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:2-3).

It's hard to imagine ourselves in their shoes—being freed from slavery in Egypt—and then suddenly complaining about God or longing to go back to their oppressors. Despite witnessing all the signs and miracles and singing songs of praise after the sea was parted and they walked through, they still questioned, whether aloud or in their hearts, whether God was really with them.

But if we're honest with ourselves, we tend to grumble a bit, maybe even more than a bit, in the course of our day, and we, like the Israelites, need God to pour out his grace and mercy by breaking the Rock, that we would drink from the cup of salvation that He has to give us and live.

That He would remind us all the days of our lives that “He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of His hand. (Psalm 95:7)

In our gospel lesson, we are once again put in the midst of a very personal encounter with Jesus. We are invited into another meeting, similar to that evening meeting Jesus had with Nicodemus, where Jesus reveals the Father's plan for salvation through his Son, not to great crowds, mind you, but to a single person. That they might hear and believe, or put as the psalmist says, “that they would hearken to his voice.”

But unlike that first meeting, this time it is with Jesus and a Samaritan woman. I remind you that Jews and Samaritans were openly hostile towards each other. They disliked one another, with a history of conflicts over political and religious issues. These tensions often resulted in violence, as documented in both scripture and the Jewish historian Josephus.

By Jesus’ time, Jews simply had no dealings with the Samaritans, which makes this meeting at the well even more interesting.

The woman at the well isn’t a ruler among her own people, like Nicodemus was. She was not a person with any political or religious clout. She is not a woman of high standing or, seemingly, of any importance to her own people. We know very little about her; we do not even know her name!

But Jesus knew her. He knew everything about her. Unlike our friend Nicodemus, who came under the cover of darkness seeking Jesus, Jesus comes in the light of day to a well to seek the Samaritan.

Jesus is not bothered by the first century conventions and social barriers that kept Jews and Samaritans from interacting with civility and peace. He is not concerned with their differences in worship. He is not constrained by the fact that he is a Rabbi meeting with a woman in the absence of her husband, or that she has had five husbands. Her past sin is not a barrier for Jesus.

Jesus is not bothered by these barriers because he has come to break them down, and make known the Father's plan for salvation, that all humans are in need of divine grace, regardless of their social status.

It was not by accident or coincidence that Jesus was at the well that day. He was there to seek and save the lost. “For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17)

Jesus came to reveal to the woman at the well that the promised Messiah had indeed come, and she was in His presence, and the old ways were over; God was doing something new, and her eyes and ears would be among the first to see and hear this in Samaria.

Worship of the Father would not be limited to specific places. The Kingdom of God that is being established is not about nationality, DNA, or geographic origin. Instead, God is calling the entire world to Himself to worship in spirit and truth—faith!

Christ has come to make a way for the sinner, not because we have made ourselves worthy, but because of God’s own mercy and grace. As Paul reminds us in this morning's epistle, “Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1-2)

We have peace with God through Christ Jesus, and that peace is not a peace that the world gives. It is a peace that may sustain us in our sufferings, that can quiet storms that rage within us with a word from the mouth of Jesus. It is a peace that produces within the heart and mind of the believer an endurance, a character, and a hope, which does not put us to shame, but lifts us out of it. It is a peace that produces confident hope in Christ, who quenches our parched mouths from our grumblings, from our sin, and brings us to the fount of true eternal blessing where He says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment….I will be his God and he will be my son.” (Revelation 21:6-7)

Jesus apprehends the grumbling sinner, knows our every deed, and offers living water that pours forth from Himself and from His cross, so that we may live and survive this wilderness, and that we are never thirsty again.

That we, like the Samaritan woman, ask of Jesus daily, “sir give me this water,” that we too would have no need of deep wells that cannot satisfy or sustain us. He offers this life-giving spirit in His word and sacrament, when you hear this is my body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin. He bids us come and drink and receive His peace, mercy, and grace! - Amen

Our Gospel Hymn is “When Peace Like a River” #346 in your Hymnals