Fr. Tommy Thompson
Lent 3A
19 March 2017
In the Name of the living God: the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the last chapter of the book of Zechariah, an apocalyptic
vision of the future glory of Jerusalem is revealed. The people of God who are currently in exile
are given hope through a glimpse into the future. What is revealed is the future promise when the
God of Israel will become king over all earth.
“On that day there shall not be either cold or frost. And
there shall be continuous day (it is known to the Lord), not day and not
night, for at evening time there shall be light. On that day living waters
shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them
to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter.”
It wasn’t only Zechariah who gave such a foretaste of living
waters flowing from Jerusalem and into the world.
In Ezekiel, a more fulsome picture water is painted for us:
Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there,
water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple towards the east (for
the temple faced east); and the water was flowing down from below the south end
of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out
by way of the north gate, and led me round on the outside to the outer gate
that faces towards the east; and the water was coming out on the south
side.
Going on eastwards with a cord in his hand, the man
measured one thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was
ankle-deep. Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water;
and it was knee-deep. Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the
water; and it was up to the waist. Again he measured one thousand, and it
was a river that I could not cross, for the water had risen; it was deep enough
to swim in, a river that could not be crossed.He said to me, ‘Mortal, have you
seen this?’
Then he led me back along the bank of the river. As I
came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on one side and on
the other. He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes
down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters,
the water will become fresh. Wherever the river goes, every living
creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these
waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the
river goes. People will stand fishing beside the sea from En-gedi to
En-eglaim; it will be a place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a
great many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. But its swamps and
marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. On the banks,
on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their
leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit
every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit
will be for food, and their leaves for healing.’
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Living water flowing from the temple of God into the world
bringing about new creation. This is the
hope for which the Old Covenant or Old Testament leaves the people of God yearning.
In a hot and arid land, Jewish apocalypses picture paradise as a lush garden
with streams and rivers. The God who brought forth the lush, vibrant creation
in the very beginning is working to renew the face of the earth and bring about
new creation. All that has been undone
by sin and death will be restored through the living water that will flow from
the place where heaven and earth meet: the temple of God.
In the Gospel lesson for today, we get a new image of the
living water flowing wherever it wishes.
The people of God may imagine the path of that future stream … we might
imagine it flowing straight to where we are…and there are certain paths we
would never imagine the living water flowing.
No Jewish rabbi would ever journey through Sychar. No, they take the long trek around. Jews and Samaritans do not like each
other. It is reminiscent of going the
safe way into town and avoiding those dark places…if you do go down those
roads, you make sure windows are up and the doors are locked, white knucling
the steering wheel until you’ve passed through that part of town.
I’ve been there. I’ve
drank water from Jacob’s well where Jesus met the Samaritan woman. I remember being warned by our guide – this is
not a good place. Watch yourselves. I
also remember it being hot and arid. A
place in need of flowing, living water.
And this is exactly why Jesus does not go around but
straight into this hot and arid land. He
stops at Jacob’s well and meets a woman – not just any woman, a Samaritan
woman. He doesn’t just see her, but he
engages her. He asks her for a drink of
water. On the surface this may seem a
bit harmless. Imagine a black woman
walking into a ‘white’ restaurant in Mississippi in 1955 and asking a white man
to share his water with her. The
situation in which Jesus finds himself is not too different. R.
Alan Culpepper from Mercer Divinity School notes, “The tension between Jesus
and the Samaritan woman crosses four levels: gender, nationality, race, and
religion. In the course of the conversation,
all four barriers are crossed and community is created” (The Gospel and Letters of John, 139).
You see, the Samaritans are “those people,” to the first
century Jew. They worship wrongly, they
believe wrongly – they are wrong. But you cannot dam up such a mighty stream of
living water. The water flows and goes where the water wishes…much like the way
Jesus explained the Spirit to Nicodemus in last week’s Gospel. It goes where it wishes, and whatever the
water touches, new life springs forth into existence. The conversation goes from the basic need of
water to the offer of living water that truly satisfies. Jesus speaks into her life – he knows
everything about her and yet offers her living water. The disciples show up perplexed. “Why are you talking to her?!” They ask. Meanwhile the woman has raced back to her
village…and she left her water jar behind!
Her ultimate thirst is finally quenched.
She no longer even thinks of the need of water from the well. And the water’s current grows mightier and
she testifies about Jesus, the living water and ultimately, many Samaritans
from that city believed because of her testimony.
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The living water – the eschatological water that the Old
covenant eagerly anticipated has burst forth from the well of God’s love and is
flowing throughout God’s world. Jesus is
the new temple – the meeting place of God and man…and from him flows forth the
cleansing and healing flood to change the course of creation – he will finally
truly quench the thirst of humankind. The
water keeps flowing through the testimony of the Samaritan woman and through
every soul it’s cleansing tide reaches.
We cannot help but to go and testify of the Living Water that has made
us brand new so that more and more might become one with the living water’s
current for a thirsty world. Jesus will continue
to flow in this world. If you ride his
current, you will learn that he is going to places you might have never
expected, and he will not stop until the world is as it is described in the
last book of our Scripture. Hear these
words from the twenty-second chapter of The Revelation to St. John, as the
images of both Zechariah and Ezekiel come together in Jesus, the Living Water
that is making all things new:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of
life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through
the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree
of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month;
and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing
accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb
will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his
face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more
night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light,
and they will reign for ever and ever. And
he said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of
the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what
must soon take place.’ ‘See, I am coming soon!’
Let the river flow.
In the Name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
