Drip,
Drip, Drip
Exodus 17:1-7 and John 4: 5-42 March 23, 2014
Tomorrow is my mother’s birthday; she would have been
78 years old. She died in the fall of
2012 of metastasized breast cancer which had moved into her liver. My mother was a strong independent woman who
loved her life, loved her children and grandchildren, loved her husband, loved
to travel, loved to read, loved her friends.
Most of her life was well lived – but stuff happened, and things shifted
and when she was entering her 50’s about the same age I am now – she developed Rheumatoid
Arthritis, she learned to live with this new reality as painful as it was and transformed
her life so that she accommodated her illness, and was able to still travel, still
entertain, still work, still spend time quality time with family, and still
read and was engaged in the world. But
as she aged and over time as the heavy duty drugs began to take their toll,
life had no choice but to change – and what was once easy and simple became
difficult and painful. Eventually my
mother developed breast cancer and diabetes.
Life became smaller and harder and much more painful – she underwent
chemo, began measuring her blood sugar daily – and moved into a desert as her
time between life and death became shorter – and the quality of my mother’s
life decreased until it was confined to the couch, and needed someone with her
at all time to help her with her personal care.
But into this desert of my mother’s life – of my mother’s death – came this
stream of living water in the flow of friends that came and shared time, in the
ripple of the grandchildren’s voices sharing special moments, in the cascade of
laughter shared with daughters and husband in the celebration of the daily ups
and downs of life. We were in the desert
and we were dry and parched and yet – drip – my mother’s love filled the house
and drip my mother’s faith comforted us
in knowing that she was not afraid to die and drip as we journeyed as a family
to her death our lives where filled with hope because we knew that she would
always be in our hearts – drip, drip, drip.
The people of Israel are literally living in a desert –
the air is hot and dry and so is the ground – covered with sand, and bracken –
very few plants are able to survive in this harsh climate. Food is scarce and so is water – they have
complained to Moses about their circumstances and he has spoken to God, And God
is provided manna – a daily scattering of a flakey substance that they are able
to gather up and bake into bread. But the
people wandering in this desert remember what it used to be like when they were
slaves in Egypt – for
· there
they had food
· there
they had all the water they could drink
· there
they knew what each day held
· there
they understood the order of things
· there
they had the same place to lay their head each night – in short – in Egypt
although they were slaves, life was predictable which made it safer than what
they were living now!
Now they were wandering in the desert with no real destination,
following a man with a stick, who is reminding them of God’s promises but they
seem pretty hollow when you are so thirsty you can’t think straight. This desert wandering, manna eating, no water
anywhere is sight is not what they signed up for when they agreed to follow
Moses to the promise land. But here they
are – nevertheless – and as the people in the desert reflect on where they have
been and have no real understanding of where they are going, they begin to
grumble, and the grumbling gets louder and begins to sound like complaining
which gets louder and begins to sound like hostility and resentment – and soon into
this angry mob of thirsty desert wanders is a new sound – and it becomes the
only sound that can be heard –THWAK! Moses takes that stick – and lands it not
upside that heads of the complaining people but instead – Moses does as God
directs him and hits the rock right in the midst of the people – and before the
people understand what is happening long enough to stop complaining – water gushes
out of the rock – cool, sweet, thirst quenching water –
· water
enough to assuage even the most deepest this thrist
· water
enough to remember what the journey you are on is about and that it is with God
And that this God – your God has released them from
bondage, and saved them from tyranny, and parted the sea that now separated them
from their enemies and protects yourthem returning to slavery and also it is this
God that provided them with food and meat – this God, your God that quenches their
thirst, quenches our thirst. Drip, drip,
drip.
In the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun the main
character Francis at the beginning of the movie discovers that the life she has
been leading has shifted. The marriage
she thought was stable is over. Her
world comes crashing down around her ears and everything in her life changes –
her life becomes smaller and dries up and she moves into a time of desert. The life she knew ceased to exist and she
becomes unable to figure out how to get back on track. She is given a trip to Tusconny, Italy by her
best friend. While there, on some sort
of strange impulse she does not understand, she purchases an old Italian villa
and moves her life to Italy. In the
front foyer of the house there is a water tap, she does not even see it the
first time, she only discovers it because she bumps into it and scratches her
arm. She turns it on – but aside from
some creaking and groaning of old pipes nothing happens – not a drop of water
comes from the spigot. And so her
journey begins – her new life in Italy, becomes about the restoration of this
villa, and simultaneously becomes about the restoration of Francis’ life as
well. As she develops relationships with
her neighbours, her Polish contractors, her best friend – drip, drip, drip –
slowly throughout the scenes – the facet begins to leak water. First it is only a drip – then a bigger drip
and a bucket is required to catch the water so the floor does not become too
wet. As Francis’ life changes and as she
is releasing the life she used to have and embracing this new life, the flow of
water increases and increases so that by the end of the movie, the tap is
pouring forth water all over the floor. A
cascade of life and love, friendship and food, joy and blessing – water flowing
from the villa – drip, drip, drip – living water.
Our lives get dry at times; our souls get parched and
dried out. There are so many reasons we
enter into desert spaces. Sometimes it
is because we
· have
lost a relationship with someone we have loved due to death, divorce, or
estrangement
· we
have lost a beloved parent, or spouse or child
· we
have lost our independence due to aging
· we
have lost our health due to disease or accident
· we
have lost our dreams or our hopes or our vision of the future
· we
have lost our financial stability
· we
have lost ourselves in the midst of confusing times or strange circumstances
There are many ways to lose what we know and find
ourselves in the place where we never wanted to be, living a life we never
wanted to live, coping in the dry drab and dreary desert. Sometimes we do not know how to cope, how to
do much more than put one foot in front of the other and go on because that is
all that the only direction that is possible to move in this desert time. We have all been there –or we will all get
there at some point in our life, because that is the way of things, this is
what it is to be human – life is full of ups and downs – joys and sorrow – life
and death - deserts and oasis.
Like the woman in today’s gospel story our lives
sometimes get to that place of dryness, where the decisions that we have made
for our lives are dry and barren, and life sucking instead of life giving. How many of us have made choices that have
led to dead ends or dry places where we were just getting by in the same old
same old…
Sometimes we make a career choice or a relationship
choice or a lifestyle choice that may have appeared to be the right one when
the choice was made but over time we reach a point where we just function and
we are not sure what do – where to go –
or how to change… but when we get to that place – that dry desert place of
knowing that something needs to shift – that our direction needs to change –
drip, drip, drip – Jesus comes and has a conversation with us – about God and
life and hope and choice and decisions and newness and drip, drip, drip – the living
water begins to flow.
Jesus comes as he came to the woman – when she was
least expecting to have an encounter with God – Jesus came, and from the simple
request of providing him a drink, this woman’s life took on a new purpose, a new
direction, a new hope and a new calling.
Jesus came and challenged the direction she was going – and her ability
to look at her life honestly and to accept that she had to change directions.
What, I wonder, holds us back from living into the future God has prepared for us and sharing the news of what God has done? What, that is, are the jars we would like to leave behind, trading our past tragedies and present challenges for the living water Jesus offers?”[1]
In a moment we are about to engage in a ritual that offers to you a promise of support, care and nourishment in the bread and the cup. This sacred food that we will be partaking in, offers to us not only nourishment for our bodies – but also our souls, our spirits. It too is living water – a moment of grace offered to you to consume to remind you that the gifts that was received by the woman at the well – are our gifts as well, and are offered to us to support and sustain us through even the driest desert.
Drip, drip, drip – the living water is offered to
you. Drip, drip, drip, living water is
producing new ideas, inspiration and insights…drip, drip, drip – living water
is offering new opportunities, choices you did not see before….drip, drip, drip
– living water is offering you a new direction, a road less traveled but
fulfilling and satifiing…drip, drip, drip – living water and what was once dull
and dreary is being transformed and what was once dry and parched floods into
our lives, our souls and the world.
Living water, this symbol of life, this symbol of blessing, this symbol
of grace, this living water that drips
into our lives in the midst of despair, reminds us that God is always with us
and we are never alone. This living
water that comes THWACK out of stone hit by a stick is ours to quench our thirst,
to nourish our souls to revive and re-invigorate us for the journey that we go
on with our God. Remember, the drip,
drip, drip of grace is eternal and ever present and life giving and can assuage
even the driest of deserts and quench even the deepest of thirsts – Thanks be
to God. Amen
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