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Sermon for Sunday, February 24, 2008
Pastor Sara Kay Olson-Smith
Third Sunday in Lent
Texts: Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42
Grace to you and peace, from God our creator and from Christ Jesus, our living water, poured out for all this thirsting world.
There is a story, which perhaps you’ve heard, about a water man from India who carried two water pots, handing on the two ends of his yoke, which he hung across his shoulder. One of the water pots was cracked, the other was not. As the man walked from the long distance from the spring, the good water pot would bring home a full pot of water, and the cracked one would leak out most of its water and bring back only half the water.
After many years of this, while the good pot felt great and proud of its achievements, the cracked pot was embarrassed and ashamed of its imperfections, and apologized to the water man. The water man asked why the cracked pot needed to apologize. The pot said, “For all these years, I could only bring half the water from the spring to the house. I have failed you. The other pot did so well, but I leaked out all that water.”
The water man told the water pot to pay attention to the path on the next day, as they made the long journey back from the spring. And as the pot paid attention, he saw that all along it’s side of the path were beautiful flowers, blossoming and blooming. As they walked, the water man told the pot, “Do you notice those flowers there, but not along the other side? I’ve always been aware of your imperfections and took use of them. I planted these seed along your side, and every day, when we walk from the spring, you water them. Your cracks have brought great beauty to this world.”
In our gospel reading this Sunday, we hear the story of the Samaritan woman, a woman with a great many cracks. She was a Samaritan, a centuries old enemy of the Jewish people in Palestine - a relationship similar to the discord between the Protestant and Catholics in Ireland. And not only that - she was a woman - another strike against her in that world. Since she showed up at the well at the middle of the day, unlike the early morning when the respectable women were there, she was most likely an outcast in her community as well. And yet, Jesus starts to talk with her, asks her for water. This is a strange sight indeed - a respectable Jewish rabbi, speaking to a questionable Samaritan woman.
At the well, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he can give her living water. Thinking in earthly terms (a bit like Nicodemus last week), she wonders how Jesus can get water without a water pot. Jesus says, “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.” As their conversation continues, as this woman listens and asks questions, she talks about the Messiah. Jesus says, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” At this moment, as the disciples return, the woman at the well realizes who this man is, has this moment of clarity and faith and transformation. The writer of the fourth gospel writes, “and the woman left her water jar and went back into the city.”
She left her jar - this thing upon which she depended for life, this important and crucial element of her life. She left it behind! I believe she left it behind because she no longer needed it. She realized that she had become the water jar. Through Jesus, she became a vessel into which the living water was poured. She knew she was the vessel to carry that water into the world. She began to tell the city about this man Jesus. She witnessed to the truth of Jesus. This outcast Samaritan woman became a witness to Jesus. This woman was chosen, and responded to the call of Jesus.
Having experienced and been transformed by the living water of Jesus, the Samaritan woman left behind her pot, and boldly told the story of this man who changed her life. She left behind her water jar, and became a cracked jar that spread the living water throughout the city. At the end of this story, we read that “they said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.’”
We, too, like the Samaritan woman, have been chosen by God. In our baptism, God has poured out God’s living water into our lives, chosen us, and sent us into the world. God has poured God’s love into us like living water, pouring out God’s love into us, even us, with all of our cracks and imperfections and failures. God has chosen us, unprepared and weary though we may be, to be witnesses to the Living Water which has been poured into our world in Jesus.
In our baptisms, we have been called and sent into the world, in our words and in our actions to tell of this living water which has quenched our thirst, which has filled our emptiness, which has revived us on our journey, which has healed us, which has transformed us from being imperfect cracked pots, into being God’s partners in healing this broken and thirsting world. We become vessels to carry the life giving water into the world.
As Paul wrote in Romans, “We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Eugene Petersen, in his translation of this reading, translates the last verse as: “ In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary - we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!”
God is generously and abundantly pouring Godself into our lives through the Spirit. We will never be emptied of it. It will never run out. God could fill even the emptiest of us! God has generously poured out Godself in the life death and resurrection of Jesus. The more we give, the more we receive, the more we pour out, the more that is poured in. As vessels carrying God’s love to the world, we are continually refilled. In the waters of baptism, in this meal of bread and wine, we are filled with the promises of God, and sent out, without excuses and imperfect as we are, to share that love with the world.
God pours God’s love into our lives as ever flowing living water, and God has chosen us to be vessels, carrying this living water to all our thirsting world.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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