Third Sunday in Lent, 2011 Immanuel Chapel, Exodus 17-1-7
Exodus 17:7, “Is the Lord among us or not?” John 4:26, “I who speak to you am he.”
Some here may remember the Sons of the Pioneers singing,
All day I face the barren waste
Without a drink of water, cool water.
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry
And souls that cry for water, cool, clear water.
Water, we need water, not as a luxury, but as an essential element of our life. In our gospel lesson Jesus, wearied from his journey, waited at a well for someone to give him a drink. Every living thing, including our Savior, needs water.
Water is what the Israelites lacked as they moved through the desert directed by God’s command. They had passed through the waters of the Red Sea to freedom from slavery in Egypt. They were headed to the Promised Land under the care of God and leadership of Moses. But the Promised Land was still, who knew how far off. As they traveled between promise and fulfillment, they lived with the cares and responsibilities of keeping their families and their livestock alive in a barren waste.
We too have passed through the waters in our baptism. We were freed from bondage and slavery to sin. Through the often barren waste of this world we travel toward the Promised Land of eternal life with God. God’s promise, which we heard and believed through the gospel of salvation, is guaranteed in the gift of the Holy Spirit. We too travel through life between promise and fulfillment in Christ’s return. We too still have essential daily needs, one of which is that we grow thirsty. And when those essential needs are not met we too grumble and complain. In fact, we grumble and complain when the weather turns on us or the price of gas goes up or we are forced to do something that we don’t want to do. Or if we are young people, our parents won’t let us do what we want to do. None of these are going to kill us, though we sometimes act as if they will.
So we ought not to come down too hard on the Israelites when they became upset over the lack of water. The text tells us, “All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on…according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.” Their need was real. They asked Moses, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” Their obedience to God had led them to a “barren waste without a drink of water, cool clear water.” It happens that even under God’s leading we encounter and have to pass through conditions which we never anticipated.
Their questioning is serious, “Is the Lord, among us or not?” They wanted God to prove himself by doing something to show that He was still around. They had seen the work of the Lord at the Red Sea when Moses struck the water and they crossed on dry land to safety and salvation. God had already provided them with sweet water on another occasion. When they arose every morning there was an abundant supply of sweet tasting flakes they called manna. We have experienced the work of the lord both in daily meeting our needs and in bringing us through the waters of baptism to the victory of life in Christ and salvation. There is no need for us to ask, “Is the Lord, among us or not?” Still, sometimes we wonder.
Do you ever get exasperated with your fellow believers in Christ? I know you do because sometimes I hear about it. Well, Moses was at the end of his rope. He cried to the Lord. The Lord’s the one to cry out to when you are at the end of your rope. “What shall I do with this people?” Notice how he separates himself from “this people”? We do that by using the word “they” as in “they want to do this or that.” Moses adds, just in case God hadn’t noticed, “They are almost ready to stone me.” What does God do to this people who threaten Moses and challenge God to prove himself? We answered that question at the beginning of the service, “But with You there is forgiveness.” God shows them his grace. He doesn’t wait for them to put their stones back on the ground. He doesn’t say, “First confess then sins, then we’ll think about water.” He tells Moses to bring his staff and go to a certain rock outcropping. The Lord will stand on the rock while Moses strikes it with his staff. Moses did so, and water gushed out and the people and their children and their livestock drank and lived. A barren waste became a place of grace.
Paul wrote of grace in the epistle lesson. We have been put right with God by trusting what Jesus Christ did for us; therefore, we have peace with God. We stand in a relationship of grace with God. We are able to rejoice in the time of suffering. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts (like water) through the Holy Spirit... For while we were still weak…Christ died for the ungodly…God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The gospel lesson shows us how grace works. While an exhausted Jesus sat by Jacob’s well in the noonday sun, Samaritan woman arrived. She is surprised that a Jew would ask her to give him a drink. Jews held a prejudice against Samaritans that dated back 500 years. What Jews said about Samaritan women shouldn’t be talked about in polite company. During a sometimes testy conversation Jesus revealed that he knew the woman’s life was a mess. She is the example that proves the rule about Samaritan women. Her life was a barren waste. What does Jesus do? He doesn’t tell her to go back home and get her life in order and then come back. He offers her the gift of the water of life. “The water I will give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Later he will say, “Whoever believes in me… ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” The Holy Spirit flows out of the believer into the lives of other people as WE speak of God’s love in Jesus Christ. The Samaritan woman came to draw water in order to quench her thirst and that of her household. She had an even greater thirst quenched, the thirst to be put right with God. And she went back home an evangelist. Her words led many in that village to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
Our hope in Jesus Christ is summed up by St. Paul (2 Cor. 4:14), “He who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and bring us into his presence.” For 500 years Samaritans had been barred from the water of life. Christ bars no one. In Revelation we read, “Come!” say the Spirit and the Bride. “Come!” let each hearer reply. Let the thirsty come; let whoever wishes accept the water of life as a gift. “As grace extends to more and more people it (will) increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”(2 Cor. 4:15) Is the Lord among us or not? Jesus says, “I who speak to you am he.” Thus every barren waste can be a place of grace.
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