Sermon for Lent III-Year A 2017 A Bucket of Living Water In my basement, I have a big blue plastic bucket that we fill with water and some kind of soap to wash the windows or wash my car. It s been part of the household objects for some time and is a little worse for the wear but at least we have a bucket. Most people have a bucket in their house somewhere. Buckets have many uses. They hold things. They help you clean, garden, and water. If you were thirsty and standing by a well, you would need a bucket if you hoped to get a drink of water out of the well. On certain occasions, the bucket has come in very handy to catch leaking water from pipes. If I didn't have a bucket, well, I couldn t get certain chores done. What would hold the soap and water when things need washing up? If I didn t have a bucket, how could I keep leaking water from running all over the basement floor? The woman at the well knows the value of a bucket. When she says, "You have no bucket and the well is deep," she is making an accurate assessment of the situation on the basis of appearances. She is saying, in effect, "The task is monumental and you do not have the means to accomplish it." I hear her voice often when I am standing next to a deep well with no bucket, when I am facing a situation that exceeds my human abilities alone to address. 1
Maybe you have just been given more responsibility at home or at work and wonder how you are possibly going to be able to fulfill these obligations. The well is deep and you have no bucket. Maybe a loved one is struggling with an addiction and you feel helpless in the face of its power over them. The well is deep and you have no bucket. We may feel this way in the face of the suffering of loved ones, of people in our own communities and in the world, children undergoing abuse or caught in the middle of war, people without healthcare, the homeless who live a hidden existence even in affluent communities. The well is deep and we have no bucket. "You have no bucket and the well is deep," says the woman at the well, as Jesus, the one who alone can quench the thirst within her, sits next to the well. This conversation between this woman and Jesus puts me in mind of a song I learned long ago in elementary school perhaps you know it: There s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, dear, Liza There s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, a hole. Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry. Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry fix it. With what shall I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza, dear Liza, With what shall I fix it, dear Liza, with what? The song describes a deadlock situation: Henry has a leaky bucket, and Liza tells him to repair it. But to fix the leaky bucket, he needs straw. 2
To cut the straw, he needs an axe. To sharpen the axe, he needs to wet the sharpening stone. To wet the stone, he needs water. However, when Henry asks how to get the water, Liza's answer is "with a bucket, dear Henry... And there, in a children s song, it has always seemed to me, we have a view of our human condition certainly when we don t seem to have what we need to fix things. True, the bucket the woman brings to the well is sound it has no hole in it which needs to be fixed. Nevertheless, her life, her human condition, is not completely sound it is in need of fixing. But with what shall she fix such a deep well of need? What is it that she truly needs to be whole and well? Another deadlock situation. "You have no bucket and the well is deep," says the woman at the well, as Jesus, the one who alone can quench the thirst within her, sits next to the well. In the Gospel of John, Jesus' identity is revealed through a series of episodes that one NT scholar has called "recognition scenes." There are many such encounter scenes in the Gospel. Jesus has interchanges with a royal official, an invalid at Bethzatha, the crowds, the disciples (both individually and as a group), a woman caught in adultery, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, the High Priest and even Pilate. 3
These encounters are all opportunities for people to recognize Jesus as the Son of God, the Word made flesh, and to share the good news with others. Some do, like the woman in this scene who goes and tells her neighbors about Jesus. Some don't, like the High Priest and the crowds. Others recognize him but do not have the courage to make a public witness, like Nicodemus (at first) and, perhaps even Pilate who insists on Jesus innocence and who insists on naming him King of the Jews. It seems that what stands in the way of people recognizing Jesus in these encounters in John s Gospel is their tendency to look only as deep as appearances, to stay at the literal level rather than go deeper with Jesus to the spiritual level. Last Sunday, we noted the literal questions asked by Nicodemus. "How can a person enter back into the womb and be born again?" Nicodemus asks, even as he is standing before Jesus, the one who brings new birth. In the next encounter after meeting the woman at the well we hear: "I have no one to put me in the water when the water is stirred up " says the invalid at the pool of Bethseida, while Jesus, the source of healing stands next to him. "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep," says the woman at the well. With Nicodemus, Jesus is talking about the new birth of the inner person through the Holy Spirit. 4
With the invalid by the pool, Jesus is talking about the healing and wholeness that comes only from God, not the sporadic bubbling of a hot spring that legend attributes to angelic activity. With the woman at the well, Jesus is talking about spiritual sustenance, the living water that you don't need a bucket to receive, just a healed heart and soul with which to hold it. That sustenance is available on any occasion when we stand next to a deep well with no bucket. This woman is entangled in a situation, personally and in relation to the community, which she cannot solve or harmonize. She has no means to gain dignity or community. Such a task is too large for her. If it had ever been possible, that chance was a thing of the past. With what shall I fix it...? Her life is in a deadlock situation. She is reduced to seeking her sustenance, drawing water, at the hottest time of day to avoid the derision of others who might be at the well. She has three strikes against her with regard to being spoken to, much less respected, by a Jewish male. She is female; she has a sketchy relationship history; and she is a Samaritan. Still Jesus speaks to her and offers her living water a relationship with God through him that restores her to dignity and community. Jesus recognizes her limitations and weaknesses and still gives her living water. 5
We have no bucket, and the well is deep. With what shall we fix it? Jesus always stands beside us. He sits by the deepest well. He places himself at our side in the most monumental tasks and the most hopeless situations, He is in the encounters in the Gospel of John and in our lives the living water, the bread of life, the light of the world, the gate, the Good Shepherd, the way, the truth and the life, the true vine, and the resurrection and the life. All of these titles tell us not just who Jesus is for us, but who God is for us. The love of God in Jesus Christ is an abounding, deep well of grace, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and joy not dependent on circumstances or happenstance. Jesus is right next to us, in the heat of the day and at the height of our fatigue. As we stand beside a deep well with no bucket, our spiritual sustenance, our remedy, is not a far-off prize to be earned, but a close resource, around us and within us and available in each passing moment to release us from our deadlocked condition and situations. 6
African-American educator Booker T. Washington was fond of telling a kind of deadlock story about how a vessel in the South Atlantic Ocean signaled for help from another vessel not far off: "Help! Save us, or we perish for lack of water!" The captain of the other vessel's reply was "Cast down your buckets where you are." Supposing that the second captain had not gotten the message accurately, the troubled ship signaled yet again. "Help! Save us, or we perish for lack of water!" Again the nearby ship signaled back, "Cast down your buckets where you are!" This exchange went on until the first ship, in desperation, decided it had nothing to lose by following this outlandish advice. When crew members cast down their buckets, they drew them up filled with clear, cool, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon. They had not realized that the powerful current of the Amazon River carried fresh water from the South American rain forests many miles out in to the South Atlantic. A deadlocked situation released by trusting the testimony of others who knew a deeper truth beyond appearances. The woman's prayer is our prayer: "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water. It is a prayer that has been answered before it is even uttered, it is a prayer that was answered in the promises you received when you were baptized. 7
As you stand at your deep well with no bucket, remember the words Jesus said in this encounter: Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. Jesus himself is the manifestation of a deeper reality. He provides water for the soul as well as the body He alone can quench our thirst for the living God. Jesus alone can fix what we cannot. He releases us from our deadlock condition and situations. Let us pray. Merciful God, we thank you for making us your own by water and the Word in baptism. You have called us to yourself, enlightened us with the gifts of your Spirit, and nourished us in the community of faith. Uphold us, your servants, in the gifts and promises of baptism, and unite the hearts of all whom you have brought to new birth. We ask this in the name of Christ. Amen. 8