Thirst

Third Sunday in Lent
John 4:5-42

"Thirst"

Hydration is a critical part of our lives, as water provides fuel for living. And while I was out in Colorado on vacation, I had a firsthand experience of just how important hydration can be. When I first went up to Denver, I understood that I needed to stay hydrated, so I started drink a goodly amount of water, going through those plastic water bottles at a steady rate. The additional water intake helped me to acclimate, to adjust to the higher altitude. (If you've been to Denver or other higher-altitude locations, you've probably felt that the air there is generally drier and thinner than what we're used to down here in the DC area.) So there I was, drinking my water, feeling pretty good, getting used to the change in my environment. But then, something happened. I don't know if it was due to the cold that I had before I left on vacation, or the close-quarters on the flight to Colorado, or the nasty flu bugs that were going around Denver, but I came down with a fever. In response to this new condition, I upgraded and started drinking ever greater quantities of water, draining one-liter bottles at an even faster pace. Water's a great way to flush out your system when you're ill. It gives your body the fuel that it needs as it fights off infection and to get back into balance. By God's grace, the fever passed, and I got well enough so that we could go up to the mountains and I could go snowboarding as I'd been hoping. When I did actually get up on the slopes and started exerting myself - at even higher altitude - I upgraded my water supply yet again and broke out the Camelbak. If you're not familiar with these things, a Camelbak is a type of hydration pack, a backpack that contains a reservoir or bladder that you can fill with water or Gatorade or whatever you'd use to stay hydrated. The tube and valve system that runs from the reservoir allows you to keep drinking, regardless of what you're doing - snowboarding, skiing, mounting biking, running, or whatever - without even having to stop. Hydration is so important that Camelbak's motto is "Hydrate or die!"

We call out need for water "thirst." Thirst isn't a bad thing. It reminds us that we need to stay hydrated, that our bodies need that fuel for living that water provides. It's part of our physical design, our physiology. And thirst is a part of our spiritual physiology, too. We have this inbuilt longing for something greater than ourselves. We have been designed to be in relationship with God, the One who created us.

But where do we turn to quench our thirst? Physically, we can do what Jesus did: go to the watering hole. Jesus is truly God, but he's also truly a man. Tired by his journey through the arid land and the midday heat, he stops for a drink of water. This is the same well where the Samaritan woman comes to fill her jar. We don't know why she came in the middle of the day, trying to skip the early morning or evening "rush hour" of townsfolk drawing water, or if she hoped to avoid unwanted attention from people who might know of her past - Scripture doesn't say. However, we often try to quench our bodily thirst with things that don't really do much to hydrate us. We might try drinking something like a nice, cool bottle of Diet Coke with Lime. And although Coke is a fine and tasty product, it's not going to give us what we need when we're thirsty. Coke, like coffee and many other things, contains caffeine, which is a diuretic - it actually flushes water out of your system! We turn to things like Coke to quench our thirst, we can end up thirstier than when we began.

How often do we turn to spiritual "Coke" to try to address our thirst for God? We may try to seek it in relationships with people around us, only to find them wanting. We may go looking for the mystical and spiritual "solutions" that the world proposes, promising to fulfill our need for something deeper, for purpose and direction. And if we try to quench our spiritual thirst with these means, we wind up thirstier than when we began, yet again. But God offers us something that really will address our thirst: living water.

What is this living water that Jesus is talking about? The woman at the well hears about "living water" and immediately misunderstands. She's thinking of physical water, something of great value in this arid land, where you depend on the rains to come and fill up the cistern so that you'll have water when you need it. She would no longer have to lug her jar out to this well to fill it up. She would love to have a spring of fresh, active water, bubbling up from the ground to assure her of plentiful supply in dry seasons. But the living water that Jesus offers isn't for quenching physical thirst. It's something much greater: the gift of eternal life, delivered to us by the Holy Spirit. If you heard last week's sermon, you'll recall that our Gospel text told us of Nicodemus, who heard from Jesus that man needed to be born "of water and the Spirit." This is that water, that new life that comes as God's free gift. Translating the Greek of today's Gospel lesson more literally, it would say that those who drink of the water that Jesus gives "will never be thirsty forever." This isn't because our thirst - our need to be in relationship with God - goes away; it's because God is there. He comes to us. He stands with us. He fills that hole in our lives.

But who is this Jesus, that he can give this gift of living water. From the perspective of the woman at the well, she first sees a stranger, a foreigner, a Jewish man sitting by the well. That, in and of itself, is odd enough. But then, he talks to her! He initiates a conversation. And the longer the conversation continues, the more she begins to perceive that this man is a prophet. He knows things, things about her life -maybe, he knows things about deeper questions. She begins inquiring of this unusual man, as might many of us. When talking about our faith with someone else, might start bringing up points where we differ: "Well, I believe this, and you believe that. Who's right?" But Jesus again points the woman to something greater than she'd expected. She goes off, leaving her water jar behind, to tell the rest of the town about Jesus. Could he be the Teacher, the promised one that the Samaritans believed would come after Moses? Is he, in fact, the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the one for whom the Jews waited? The people of the town come to realize that he is all these, and more: this Jesus is the savior of the world.

To whom is this gift of living water given? To the people who deserve it? No - it's given to us! Just like the woman at the well, we are people who have (and often still do!) try to quench our thirst outside of the means that God has given to us. We don't always turn to God's Word or come into the fellowship of His Church to experience that which can fill the hole in our lives. The living water that Jesus gives does not come to us out of our worthiness. Rather, as St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus died so that we might live, that we might drink of the living water which he freely gives.

When we have those days that just seem to drag on, when our energy seems to be evaporating, where can we turn? Where will we find the fuel that we need to live? "Coke?" The promises of this world? No. We can go to God's Word in the Bible, wherein we find the spring of living water! In all the situations of this life, we may turn to Scripture for renewal, for fuel for the journey - in Lent and in life. Drinking in God's living water, our lives begin to change. Our families, experiencing the new life that springs forth from this great gift, are renewed. Husbands and wives, parents and children, gathered together in the study of God's Word, open up to one another, showing the love that Christ has shown them. This living water changes our relationships with the people around us, people in our faith community, people in our workplaces and schools. We do not need to turn to them to quench our thirst for something greater, expecting the impossible of them. We do not need to act in anger or seek revenge against them. We can share the gift that Jesus has given, forgiving one another.

Camelbak gets it right with their slogan: "Hydrate or die!" Thanks be to God that He has given us living water, through which we may never be thirsty - forever.

Amen.