"I Need a Drink"

Pastor Ray
02/27/2005

I Need a Drink
In case you missed the focus of today’s lessons, they’re about water. I need a drink. And so do you.
As you would guess there’s more to this story than just water and more than just needing a drink of it. The story of God began a long, long time ago. God would take us way back…to the days of Moses. We find the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness, and struggling to find their way. As my Debbie would say, you can tell they were led by a man… lost because he refused to ask for directions. And, for the people of the wilderness, there’s some truth to that.
Trying to be so self-sufficient, they failed again and again. God kept providing for their needs, but stubborn people that they were, they kept on getting lost. And now, today, we find God’s children, lost, hot and thirsty. They needed a drink, and none was to be found.
It may have been generations ago, but the Israelites behaved no differently than we do when we find ourselves in a mess. Forgetting about God’s past protection and His promises, they grumbled and fussed. They found someone to blame.
Moses, it’s all your fault. You brought us out of Egypt only to die of thirst in this desert! You took us from the waters of the Pharaoh, and now we’re stuck out here. We were better off with Pharaoh. Now, putting yourself into the story, what would you have said in response to these complaints? How do you move forward … when you don’t know where to turn or what to do? Do you ask for guidance, or do you rely on your own sense of direction?
Because he was man enough to pull over and ask for help, Moses turned to God. Frustrated, and frightened he said, … God, you got me in this mess, and I’m not man enough to get us out of it. Help! Please. These people are ready to stone me. If this were a drama or a play, this would be the end of scene one.
How do you think scene two would have opened? Now the Lord God could have fussed Moses. You should have asked for directions. You should have stopped by the grocery store and bought supplies. You should have prepared for emergencies. But the Lord God patiently provided for His children.
Moses, trust me. Moses, have faith. Let me draw you a map -- Moses take the stick I gave you, the very same one you used to strike the Nile and I will provide. I will take away your thirst… and save your neck all at the same time. And Moses obeyed. And God provided. And all was well… for a day or two until someone found something else to whine about. And so goes the fall of man.
When we get prideful, when we get arrogant, when we become so self-reliant that we forget to seek God’s wisdom…. we fall and we fall hard, man or woman. Don’t believe me? Then turn from the Old Testament lesson turn to scene three…. to the Gospel lesson. Here we find another thirsty soul. This time it’s a woman, a woman at the well. In this familiar scene from the Bible we encounter a woman whose life was a mess… she had thrown away the directions for life, and even though she didn’t seem to realize it, she was lost deep, deep in the wilderness. She thought she had found happiness in the arms of a man, actually the arms of a number of men. But once Jesus came to her, she quickly discovered just how thirsty she was and recognized the emptiness of her life. It’s so very common to be thirsty for more out of life, isn’t it?
If we have someone to hold on to. If we have the right clothes to wear. If we have the right car to drive. If we have the right friends and eat at the right fancy places. If we …., well, regardless of how you fill in the blank, you will get thirsty. Worldly things cannot fill our deepest needs.
One day Jesus came met a woman who was very empty…deep, deep inside that is. She had water to drink. It was life itself that was empty. It’s important to note how the story unfolds. – scene four
Jesus, was returning from a long, hard journey. He was hot. He was tired. He was thirsty for some water. And more important than we tend to acknowledge, He was far from home… in the land of Samaria. In order to appreciate the drama that unfolds, you have to remember that the Samaritans and the Jews didn’t like each other very much. In fact, they didn’t like each other at all. Plus, the times were different back then when it came to a strange man speaking to a strange woman. Jesus was about to do the unthinkable – talk to a stranger, a Samaritan stranger, a Samaritan stranger who was female. You have no idea… what a big deal that was… to approach a strange woman in a foreign land and ask a favor of her. “Give me a drink,” Jesus asked. Are you talking to me?... she wondered. A Jewish man speaking to a Samaritan woman? Yes. I asked for something to drink. And if you only knew… you’d be asking me for something to drink. Sir, you don’t even have a bucket. You’re so thirsty you’ve lost your mind.
Jesus didn’t give up. What if I could fill your soul so that you’d never be empty again. I’d like that kind of water. Where do I find it? The curtain drops, and the set quickly prepares us for scene four.
Jesus responds, Then Go and call your husband and I’ll give you both this gift. Oops… Sir, that’s not possible. Yes, I know, explains Jesus. I know how empty your life is and how you thought it could be filled… and you were wrong. Turn to the Messiah and worship him. Yes, even a Samaritan knows that. Sir, show him to me and I will. When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us. And didn’t I just do that? Did I not just tell you what you have done wrong? And her eyes were opened.
With generations of experience between us and this woman, we can clearly see what just happened. She drank from the well that has no bottom. Looking back we see the miracle at the well. She not only drank from this eternal well, she told everybody she could about it… and about the Messiah. He told me everything I have ever done. He accepted me right where I was, but refused to leave me there. He filled my heart and my soul. And because of her faith, many Samaritans came to believe. They too wanted something to drink. Today I wonder how many around us are thirsty… and deep, deep within…. empty. I wonder how many have tried to fill their emptiness with worldly diversions.
This is one of the questions of Lent -- Why are we so empty? Maybe you’ve asked the same thing, but framed it very differently. Why don’t we find happiness that lasts forever? Why do we keep searching and searching? Why have I failed to get life right? At least nobody knows my failures… Then Jesus says, I know all that you have done, and I still offer you something to drink.
That’s the good news that God brings to us – that regardless of what’s gone wrong in our lives, God offers us a drink… and new life. God may invite us to walk through the season of Lent and the questions of Lent, but God points us to Easter and to Resurrection promises of new life. Need something to drink? We do, if we are human. We do, if we admit our sinfulness. We do, if we admit that we’re a lot emptier deep inside than we want to confess.
This journey through Lent toward the joy of Easter is about new life. God offers us all a new life, a better life, a richer life. This journey is about confessing that without Christ … our lives are empty. We are a thirsty people who need to turn to Jesus as the source of living water and of new life.
Why are you thirsty? I may not know, but God does. Why has life fallen so far from where it should be? I may not know, but God does. Why are you so loved by your God in spite of your failures? I may not know, but God does. I don’t even attempt to tell you how God changed the life of this woman, because I do not know the details. But this we do know, that the woman who met her Lord at the well, was not the same woman who walked away… Her Savior had offered her something to drink that filled her heart and her soul.
What if Jesus had not been willing to meet her at the well?