But Not a Drop To Drink

You can go for many days without food, but your body needs to be hydrated–that is, to drink water. Much of the world’s population is spiritually dry; readings to be heard on the upcoming weekend address this lack of fluid, whether it be a personal faith-crisis or perhaps just ignorance of the availability of Living Water.

EXODUS 17:1-7 recalls the thirst of the desert wanderers under Moses. The people cursed Moses for bringing them out of fertile(?) Egypt into the desert: they were thirsty. But God told Moses to strike the rock of Mt. Horeb with his staff, and sure enough, water poured out! This was before the rag-tag group became the Covenant People; they were still wandering about, trying to discern who they were. The people in the pews hearing this story may well project it onto themselves: “Where in this rocky place will we ever discover Living Water?” Only by God’s intercession, I guess.

The Epistle lesson is from ROMANS 5:1-11. The verse that springs out at me is number 5, “…because love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Here again is a reference to the Living Water which God provides, in the image of the Holy Spirit as a hose or channel pouring, not sprinkling, spiritual graces directly into our hearts/bodily centers. “This generosity of God is worth holding up and affirming…..We need to have it poured. We need to drink it in, freely, eagerly, over and over again in order for our lives to move” from suffering to fulfilling hope. (Laird J. Stuart, in FEASTING on the WORD, A 2:90)

You probably know the story of the Woman at the Well, JOHN 4:5-19. Jesus & Company had stopped at Jacob’s Well in Samaria, near Mt. Gerazim. While the group went on into town to buy lunch, Jesus remained at the well, where he was accosted by a local woman. “Give me a drink,” he asked her–a highly unusual experience for a single man to address a woman, especially. a Samaritan. In the ensuing dialogue, Jesus told the woman that if she’d asked HIM, he would’ve given her some Living Water. He said that through him, Living Water would “become in [them] a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” John tells a good story, this one like so many involving the hearer in knowing the holiness of Jesus. The woman, of course, was converted–and asked to receive the Living Water always…

These occasions can be mere Biblical trivia–unless the hearers in the pews try to put themselves into the picture. Be as it may, the reading of such texts will provide a gulp of freshness to those struggling in their own deserts.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come join me every Tuesday as we’re confronted by Scriptural lections assigned to the upcoming weekend: at horacebrownking.com.