This weekend in worship, our theme question from our Seeking Lenten theme from A Sanctified Art is “Will you give me a drink?” We’ll look at two stories–one from the Old Testament narrative of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, and one about an encounter Jesus has with a woman at a well–and explore how when we admit our vulnerability before God, God meets our needs with eternal living water.
Today’s Scripture readings are Exodus 17:1-7 and John 4:5-42. I found helpful this article from William Flippin in Living Lutheran. Here’s the worship livestream from Living Hope and the sermon audio from Christ the King.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
Before I get into today’s stories, I want to let you know that today brings up some weird memories.
We follow a three-year lectionary, so the last time we heard these readings was March 15, 2020. That was the weekend covid lockdowns started—remember that weekend?
We heard these stories at the last quote-on-quote “regular” worship service we had for quite a while. Three years later, here we are again in Lent, looking at two stories of people asking for water to drink.
First, Exodus. Here’s where we are in the story: The people of Israel, God’s people, had been enslaved in Egypt. God sent Moses to rescue them, there were a bunch of plagues, but eventually Pharaoh gave in and let them go.
Exodus chapter 14, Moses parts the Red Sea and the people walk across on dry land. Chapter 15, they all sing a song of praise to God, but already by the end of the chapter, the Israelites are grumbling. In Egypt, we used to have food to eat, but there’s nothing out here in the desert. So, God gives them manna and quail, miraculously providing for them.
And then here we are in chapter 17, and the Israelites are traveling through what must be my favorite place name in the Bible, the “Wilderness of Sin.”
“Sin” here has nothing to do with the English word sin—it’s a Hebrew name, likely related to the name of Mount Sinai—but what a great metaphor for the Israelite’s complaining!
Despite miracle after miracle, they seem incapable of trusting God’s going to take care of them. God has a plan for them. God’s provided food for them, but they’re still complaining. Now they’re concerned about water.
Verse 3: “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” This is a frustrated leader. Leading God’s people can be like herding grumpy cats!
But of course, God provides. God is much more patient than Moses is. God is much more patient and loving and caring than you or I will ever be. God gives them the drink they need, and just to make it more obvious that it’s God who’s providing, the water comes out of a rock.
Of course, the point of this story is not really the water. Our question for today is “Will you give me a drink?” but that’s only the surface level question of what the Israelites are asking.
As Pastor Danielle Shroyer points out (in the Sanctified Art commetnary), the real question they’re asking is whether God has abandoned them, whether God is still with them, still caring for them. Those are much deeper, more vulnerable questions to ask.
Micah hasn’t gotten to this stage, but it’s not unusual for children to act out, to be naughty and push boundaries to test how much parents care for them. “If I do this, will you still love me? Can I go too far, and you’ll give up on me?”
Especially after experiencing trauma, children need reassurance. I think that’s a bit of what’s going on here. The Israelites are wandering in the wilderness, unsure of their place in the world. When they were enslaved, their situation was terrible, but they knew where they fit. Now everything feels uncertain, so they test God.
Pastor Shroyer wonders, what would it have looked like if the Israelites had been able to be more honest, and cried out directly for God’s assurance? “‘Show us you’re still with us, God,’ they could have prayed with open hearts. ‘We feel alone and unmoored.’ Where could the water have come from, if the question had come from a softer place than the rock of our human defenses?”
She continues, “This is the way Jesus himself taught us to pray. He gave us full permission to ask for what we needed, to request of God our daily bread. He knew, I think, that it’s also a prayer for God to walk with us. It’s an honest admission that none of us rely only on ourselves. We need God. We need each other.”
Fast-forward a few thousand years, to the Gospel story. In this story Jesus seeks out one of the most vulnerable members of society, and makes himself vulnerable to her. There are a few unusual things happening here.
First, notice where Jesus is: He’s in a Samaritan city. You know the Samaritans from the story Jesus tells about the Good Samaritan, but there are a few more things you should know, some historical context.
Hundreds of years earlier, the Assyrians and then the Babylonians had invaded Israel and taken the Jewish people away into exile. They deported all the elites, the educated people, the rulers, the religious leaders, the wealthy, everyone with power.
All those people—and then their children—spent about 40 years in exile in Babylon. That’s where Bible stories like Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come from.
In exile, they worried about forgetting who they were as God’s chosen people. Much of the Bible was written down during this time, because they were worried about how they were going to pass on their sacred stories to their children. But then, after 40 years, God rescued them and they returned back to Israel.
And when they got back, they discovered there were still people living there. Remember, only the elites got deported. Many of the poor people were left behind. They still believed in God, but the exiles didn’t trust them. I mean, who knows what they’ve been doing while we’ve been away? We’ve worked so hard to stay faithful, but they’ve intermarried with foreigners and they just can’t be trusted.
The people who stayed behind became known as the Samaritans, and still in Jesus’ day, the good Jewish people didn’t trust them. They don’t talk to them, or interact with them. This woman who comes to draw water is a Samaritan, so she’s got that going against her.
But not only that, notice when she comes—it’s the middle of the day, the hottest time to be outdoors. You draw water in the cool early hours of the morning, or in the evening, not midday. This woman is on the outskirts of society.
It’s not as obvious without the cultural context, but Jesus is doing something dramatic here. As Pastor Chana Tetzlaff says, this woman is “other” in every way to Jesus. Everything about her separates her from Jesus and even from her own society: Her gender, her religion, her social habits—as comes out in her conversation with Jesus, her personal history, and her lifestyle. In the eyes of the world, she is a nobody.
Yet Jesus notices her. He meets her in her isolation and loneliness, not at a distance, but up close and personal. Rather than shunning her and turning away, he talks to her. John doesn’t give us her name, but I have to imagine Jesus asked her for it.
He sees her as someone worthy of God’s care and attention, worthy of God’s salvation. He demonstrates how we are to see our neighbors, crossing boundaries to care for those God loves.
And Jesus asks the woman for a drink. He makes himself vulnerable; he expresses a need. The Son of God models for us what it looks like to be vulnerable, to not have it all together. And his vulnerability with her opens up a conversation, and in turn, she drops her guard and is honest with Jesus.
Again, the story is not about literal H2O. It’s also not about food, although there is a great bit there where Jesus’ disciples are concerned that he hasn’t had lunch. But the point of the story is not about earthly food, but about eternal sustenance.
In response to the woman’s request, Jesus offers living water. Not just the physical substance we rely on for earthly life, but the spiritual promise of God’s presence, the refreshment of knowing God is with us.
Once the woman understands what is happening here, once she realizes what Jesus has to offer, she goes back to her community, back to the same people she was avoiding, and she shares the hope she has found.
There’s vulnerability there too, right? In order to testify that the hole in her life has been filled, she has to admit there was a hole in her life. She extends to others the living water she has received. And many believed because of her testimony.
When you find yourself in the wilderness, when you find yourself in need of a drink, be vulnerable. Ask God for help. Pastor Shroyer concludes her commentary by saying, “The question for us this Lent is not only whether we would extend a drink; it’s whether we will be brave enough to ask God for one when we need it.”
Will we be honest, admitting our need for God? Will we confess that we are are still seeking, that we don’t have all the answers?
Will we go to the One who is the answer to our seeking? And when we are filled with living water, will we allow it to spill over onto those around us?
Amen