"A Meeting at the Well"

A sermon preached on Third Sunday of Lent, February 24, 2008, at Edgemont Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) by the Rev. Christopher E. Yopp. The sermon is based on Exodus 17:1-7 and John 4:5-42.

Sylvia Chidi has written a rather amusing, yet truthful poem about the importance of water. It’s titled; The Essence of Water. It reads:

"Water is the key to survive
The treasured sea of pure life
We bath and we use water
Or risk emitting a nasty odor
Like one emerging from the gutter
When we are thirsty, we drink water
Otherwise sooner commit the do-it-yourself murder
While we cook, we introduce and include water
Whether we use temperatures that are colder or hotter
Everywhere you can see its presence
Glittering with an air of essence
When I am sad, I cry water
When it rains, it pours water
When I clean, I employ water
When I play, I apply water
When I am sick, I pee water
And I look at the sea and see water
Put together all men, women and children
In no chronological order
Water is still much stronger
In its simple form of oxygen and hydrogen."

Without a doubt, water is one of life’s most precious commodities. Without it, we die! And certainly, water was essential to the people of Israel.

You can go to Israel today and take a journey to Samaria to the town of Sychar. A place the passage of time seems to have forgotten. In fact, the population today of Sychar is only about 300, and they still consider themselves Samaritans. Interestingly enough, the primary structure in Sychar is a kind of cellar, which houses a well, the only source of water for miles. Archeologists estimate it dates upwards of 4,000 years. Weary travelers have quenched their thirst there since the time of Jacob. But even more fascinating than its archeological significance is the fact that this place historically validates for us the precise location where the Samaritan woman had an encounter with Christ. It's hard to believe, but the authenticity of the well is undisputed. Samaritans, Muslims, Christians, and Jews all agree that this is the place where our Gospel Lesson would have taken place.

We are told by John that it was noonday in Sychar. The disciples went on into the village to purchase food for themselves and Jesus. Someone has suggested that they were seeking out the stores that gave the clergy discounts. I don’t know if there are any such stores, but it would be nice. But when Jesus stopped at the well, a woman from the village walked up to retrieve some water. And Jesus says to her, sort of nonchalantly; "Give me a drink." Obviously, she was taken back. I mean, first of all, men did not speak to women in public; and secondly, she was a Samaritan, and Jews had no dealings with Samaritans.Jesus, by addressing this woman, had crossed both a gender and a racial line. She replied: "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of water from me, a woman of Samaria?" Jesus ignores her question, ignores the racial issue, and gets to the heart of the matter. He said: "If you had known who was asking you for water you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Jesus was, once again, speaking spiritually, as he did with Nicodemus. But I love her sarcastic response. She said; "But this well is deep and you haven't even got a bucket."

I find it interesting, that Jesus’ conversation here is his longest conversation with one person recorded in the gospels.

Now, keep in mind, the hatred that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans was fierce and long-standing. It dated back to the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.E. You may recall, that the Assyrians after defeating the Northern Kingdom deported twenty-thousand Israelites, mostly from the upper classes, and replaced them with settlers from Babylon, and Syria, and several other nations. These foreigners introduced pagan idols and intermarried with the existing Hebrews, creating an ethnically mixed population. Later when the Jews of Judah, who had remained a pure race, returned from Babylonian captivity, they met resistance from the Samaritans as they tried to rebuild the temple and the rest of their society. They looked down on their northern cousins because of their mixed marriages and idolatry. And soon permanent walls of hostility and bitterness had been erected by both sides. To make matters worse, the Samaritans built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim. And this was what the woman was referring to, in our Gospel Lesson, when she said to Jesus; "Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you," referring to the Jews, "say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." And then Jesus reminds her that God is omnipresent - that is to say, God is not limited to time nor space. We can worship and commune with God anywhere, at anytime. In fact, Paul reminds us that we are the very temple of God.

I find it interesting that as this conversation progresses, this woman’s eyes of faith are opened. She realizes that Jesus knew her better than she knew herself. Jesus knew what she was lacking; what she really needed. She begins by addressing Jesus, as "teacher," and then it is "prophet" and finally, as we come to the closing of the story, she refers to Jesus as "the Christ" - the Messiah - the Promised One of God.

Our First Reading this morning from the book of Exodus takes place in Rephidim, which was an Israelite encampment in the Wilderness of Sin, which was located at the foot of Mount Horeb. Interestingly enough, Sin in Hebrew means "refreshment," even though, as we read, there was no water there for the people to drink. However, God provided water by having Moses strike a rock. Moses then renamed the place Massah, which in Hebrew means "tested" or "tempted" and he also called the place Meribah, which means "rebellion," or "strife" or "contention," because of the Israelites grumbling, and complaining and their lack of trust and faith in God. Interestingly enough, 40 years later, we read in the 20th chapter of the book of Numbers that the Israelites repeat the same mistake.

On Thursday evenings we have been studying the Typical Principle and looking at the various typologies that are found within the Old Testament. Those of you who have been joining us, probably couldn’t help but notice how our two readings parallel one another.

Moses is a type of Christ who leads us - the New Israel - the Church, out of the slavery of sin and violence to the promised land of the new earth. But in this story the typology is more specific: when the people are dying of thirst, what do they do? They complain against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’" And Moses cried out to the Lord, he functions here as a mediator who speaks to God on behalf of the people and who on God’s behalf provides the people with water to keep them alive. As such, Moses is a type of Christ the Mediator who speaks to God on behalf of his people and who on God’s behalf provides people with living water to keep them alive spiritually.

The Apostle Paul had no trouble making this connection. He reminds us in his letter to the Corinthians that Christ is the Rock out of which comes living water - spiritual water. And that Moses’ striking the rock was a picture or a type of Christ’s crucifixion, from which comes new life.

In his book, Living Faith, former President Jimmy Carter talks about the barriers that divide people and give them a false sense of identity. Having grown up in the South during the time of racial segregation, he had many African-American friends. When his parents were away, he would stay with his black neighbors, Jack and Rachel Clark. He played with black friends, went fishing with them, plowed side by side with them, and played on the same baseball team. But when he carried water to people working the field, he thought that it was unthinkable that black workers and white workers, despite the segregation, would drink from the same dipper. He said that for him this was a picture of life in God's kingdom - where we all drink from the same dipper.

The season of Lent is a reminder that we too must confront the reality of who we are - that we must knock down the walls and barriers that exist between us and God, as well as one another. This is a season in which we are invited to the Christ - the well, to re-evaluate our spiritual lives, our relationship with God, and to be refreshed and quenched by the living water of God’s Spirit that we might go forth, just like the woman that Jesus met at the well, to bring refreshment to others - to tell and show others where they might find living water.

Jesus reminds us that we are here to be companions. The wonderful word "companion," comes the Latin words cum panis, which literally means "with bread." In this respect, companion could also be translated cum aqua - "with water". And so, it is, that we are called to share the bread of life and the living water with others. Therefore, let us prepare our hearts to come to the Table of the Lord where our hungers are fed and our thirsts are quench that we might in turn feed others.