“Water on a Thirsty Land”
a sermon by Rev. Hilary J. Barrett
Pleasantville United Church of Christ, July 4, 2010
Psalm 1; Jeremiah17:5-10; John 4:7-15

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 
He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
(Jeremiah 17:7-8)

The Pleasantville Adult Day Fellowship asked me to share my slides of Israel with them recently.  It had been years since I had revisited those pictures.  I know some of you will relate to this experience.  I was absolutely astonished to realize that more than 25 years had passed since I took that trip to the Holy Land.  I’m sure that things have vastly changed in the quarter century since the summer I lived in Tel Aviv and worked on a Kibbutz in the Upper Galilee.  But there are some things that simply don’t change in 25 years, and one of them would be the vast landscape to the east of Jerusalem known as the Judean Desert.

Though many years have passed, that landscape remains fixed in my memory.  Lying east and south of the city of Jerusalem, the Judean desert is sandwiched between the low mountain ranges of Israel and Jordan.  Its features are stark and dramatic.  Rocky limestone is swept bare by winds and flash floods, leaving this place resembling a moonscape.  White rock -- the whitest I have ever seen, reflect and magnify the rays of the sun.  At the height of mid-day one is truly blinded by the brightness.  There is something about the heat and the light that is unique; something almost paralyzing in its intensity.  Desert wildernesses remind you of how easy it would be to become lost in such a place.  They remind you of how easy it would to die in such a place.  There is something about the desert which reminds you that you are only human.  And that can be a frightening and unwelcome reminder indeed.

This summer we have joined the children of our church school in their focus on biblical images of water.  Being a holiday weekend, there is no church school today, but we are continuing our reflection here in worship nonetheless – this time focusing upon the essential life-giving nature of water which is a common theme and image in the biblical literature.  Our holy texts come to us from people who know what living in or near a desert are like.  As a result they are rich with images that remind us of how dangerous it can be to thirst in dry places; how fortunate we are if we dwell by springs of water; and what it means spiritually to either run dry or to be well watered.

Listen to this part of our text from the prophet Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord:  Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.  They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes.  They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land (Jer. 17:5-6)

If you have ever traveled in the desert then you know what an oasis is.  You know what life springs forth from the smallest amount of water.  In the Judean desert, wherever a bit of water percolates down through the limestone, finding its way out through some crack or crevice, there is likely to be a sudden burst of life: wild mint and vegetation of all kinds flourish wherever the water gives life to the desert soil. 

But in this text from Jeremiah, we are given different imagery: "They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes."  It’s an interesting line: to be not only like a vulnerable shrub in the desert, but also to be insensible of when water is nearby.  It’s almost impossible to imagine that any creature living in the desert could be insensible to the presence of life-giving water.  And yet, that is the image the prophet invites us to ponder.

Water in a desert is a pretty important commodity.  Water to desert people is probably the most important commodity.  So it is understandable that the scriptures equate God’s presence, God’s favor and God’s spirit with the importance of water to people who will simply die without it.

I know I have shared this story with some of you before, but it’s the best personal story I can share about how important water is and how stupid some people can be (that would be me) when it comes to the obvious.

During the summer of my travels in Israel, one of my adventures took me to En Gedi and the Dead Sea.  I was traveling by myself, by bus, with precious little money and far too little heeded advice.  I arrived at the youth hostel in En Gedi in the heat of the day.  After the bus departed I learned that the hostel was closed.  Everything was closed for several hours during mid-day...particularly in the desert.  Israeli’s, and other sensible people living in hot climates around the world, know how to survive in blistering heat.  They go home in late morning, enjoy a relaxed mid-day meal, take a restful nap, and when the sun is past its peak they return to the activities of the day.  Since it was 106 degrees Fahrenheit that day there was good reason to adopt such a schedule.

But, being an American, I was determined not to lose any time, so I set out on my own to explore.  I could see the Dead Sea from where I stood, and I had heard that there was a pleasant beach not too far down the road.  So off I went.  There was just one problem.  I didn’t have any water.

Hiking down the road in the middle of the desert, in the noon-day sun, with a hat or sunglasses or water in 106 degrees was not a good idea.  It doesn’t take long to learn that you’re only human.  And pretty soon, you’ll begin to feel ‘like a shrub in the desert, which is so tired and hot that you simply do not see when relief comes.’  Forgetting what is most important can easily get you into some serious trouble.

I’m not so different from other people, I think.  People often set off on journeys and forget something important.  It’s easy to get confused about what is important.  Into our luggage go the hair dryer, and the extra sweater, the three books and two crafts projects we’ve been meaning to get to.  But, meanwhile, we forget our underwear or the medication that we’re supposed to take every day of our lives.  It’s easy to get confused about what’s important.

Most of the time, our forgetfulness can be fairly easily remedied: underwear can be bought and new prescriptions obtained.  But sometimes our oversights are more than foolish miscalculations: they can be deadly errors.  Forgetting what is essential in our lives is a dangerous thing.

There once was a woman who got confused about what was essential.  She was thirsty for inner peace.  She longed for the feeling she had at the beginning of a love affair: the euphoria; feeling beautiful and worthy and loved; feeling that anything was possible.  So she began to believe that love would quench her thirst for inner peace.  And love would.  But she was looking for love in all the wrong places.

One after another, the relationships that she hoped would fill her emptiness failed.  One after another.  Eventually the euphoria would wear off, and she would have to face herself again.  No matter how much it seemed that this relationship would be the answer to all her prayers, it never was -- and the pain and the loneliness and the fearfulness returned.  Until finally, there had been so many men in her life that she thought it would be better to draw water from the village well in the hot middle-of-the-day when she could avoid people; when the people who might scorn her wouldn’t be there. 

This is this is the story of the Woman at the Well – from which our final scripture reading comes today.  The scriptures are full of stories about people who got confused about what was essential.  They are full of stories like that because, it is a very easy thing to do – to forget what matters most.

We commit ourselves to a life with Christ at the center and then we forget to pray; we forget to give thanks; we forget to notice all the ways that God’s hand has been at work in our lives and we fall back into our old patterns.

We have an experience that reminds us how blessed we are, how much better our lives are when we recognize the presence of God, and then we start to take it all for granted again, and we begin to think that we are self-sufficient; that we do not, in fact, need God.  That everything we have we have achieved by our own hand.

It is so easy to forget what we really need; what is really essential.  It is the most common of all spiritual ailments, in fact.

This woman at the well had gotten confused about what was essential.  She was thirsty for something important.  That she knew.  But it was like she kept going back to an empty well over and over again, expecting to find water there -- but it just kept on being empty.  It’s easy enough to do.

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 4:14-15)

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, he saw her for who she was.  He knew that she had become confused; he knew she had a habit of going to the empty well expecting to find water there, and coming up dry time after time.  But even seeing her with all her faults, Jesus still reached out in love to her, showing her how valuable she was in the eyes of God; showing her the path to a well that would never run dry; offering her living water so she would never be thirsty again.

We are not so different from her.  It is easy enough to see how we could get confused about the things which are essential; it is easy enough to see how we could keep going to the wrong places for the one thing which will truly sustain us all our days.

We are thirsty people, living in a thirsty world and we cast about for things that we hope will quench our thirst.  We hunger and thirst for something which cannot be satisfied by standard fare.  We hunger and thirst for something that no amount of food, or drink, drug, accomplishment, or human relationship can fill. 

We hunger for something that will renew our strength, quench our thirst, and keep us on the path of faithful living. 

We hunger for living water: the revelation of Jesus Christ who offers us healing and forgiveness, binding our wounds and embracing us in love that knows no bounds.

And once we are done chasing after the things that will never satisfy, Jesus reaches out his arms and says to us:

“The water that I will give will become…a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

The prophet Jeremiah says:

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord.  They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.  It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The psalmist says:

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.  They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.

Jesus of Nazareth says:

“those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.”

When we are in right-relationship with our God, we remember what is most important.  When our spiritual selves are in the right place, we remember what is most essential.  And when those things are in place we remember that we belong to a loving and faithful God and we are like those who carry great jugs of water into the desert.  We are like trees planted by stream of water, which yield fruit and do not wither.

This world of ours can be as arid and unforgiving as a desert.  And it can be easy to forget what is most important.  It is easy to be seduced by things that do not last; things that provide no real peace.  Some will live in a thirsty land so long they won’t even recognize relief when it comes.

But the scriptures tell us that for people of faith, our life with God is like water in a desert.  Trusting in God is like being planted by a stream that never runs dry.  While all around us things may wither and fail and dry up and produce no fruit, if we sink our roots deep into our relationship with God, then we will produce fruit no matter what is going on around us.

Come, all who are thirsty.  Come to water.  Come to the place where the living water is found.  And in Him you will find rest.  Amen.