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Choose the Living Water                        John 4: 5-15                      February 24, 2008

The River of Dreams is my favorite Billy Joel song. It is, I think, the most spiritual of all of his compositions. It is close to being a hymn, rather than a pop song. The lyrics are haunting:

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
From the mountains of faith
To the river so deep
I must be lookin' for something
Something sacred I lost
But the river is wide
And it's too hard to cross

Even though I know the river is wide
I walk down every evening and stand on the shore
I try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find what I've been looking for

I've been searching for something
Taken out of my soul
Something I'd never lose
Something somebody stole

I don't know why I go walking at night
But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore
I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is I've been looking for

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the jungle of doubt
To the river so deep
I know I'm searching for something
Something so undefined
That it can only be seen
By the eyes of the blind
In the middle of the night.

I must tell you that I'm not a big fan of music videos. I was one of those people who thought MTV would never catch on. After all, why would anyone want to "watch" music? Now, there's a great example of one out of the long list of my opinions that turned out to be dead wrong.

But notwithstanding my opinion about music videos, the video of The River of Dreams is one I've watched over and over again. I highly recommend it. If you have access to the Internet, you can watch it on "You Tube." Or, if you like, you can watch it after the service today. I'll be happy to play it for you.

Aside from the fact that it is played to one of my favorite songs, I like this video because it makes great use of water: Water for baptism, water for fishing, water for swimming - cleansing, refreshing, renewing water.

In the video, water becomes the thing that the singer is looking for in the middle of the night. The thing that can only be seen by the eyes of the blind.

It's not particularly surprising that Billy Joel uses water so freely in the most spiritual of his songs. Water has been the symbol of spiritual renewal since the beginning of time.

Again, no surprise, here.

Nearly three quarters of the earth is covered with water.

Roughly 70% of the human body is water.

We can't survive for more than a few days without it.

And from Greek mythology to modern literature, water has captured the imagination of poets and writers and composers alike.

Water references are literally everywhere in the Bible - 722 of them, to be precise.

The first mention of water in scripture is found in the Bible's first chapter, Genesis 1, and the last mention is found in its last chapter, Revelation 22.

The first reference to water in the Bible is a familiar one:

"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters."

The final reference, in the last chapter of Revelation, isn't so familiar, but probably should be:

"Let everyone who is thirsty come," the author writes, "Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift."

In between those two, water is used by God to keep the Egyptian army from preventing the people of Israel from escaping t heir bondage;

It is used by the Prophet Amos to eloquently describe the Day of the Lord, "When Justice rolls down like water, righteousness like an overflowing stream;"

And it is the means by which John the Baptist symbolizes forgiveness of sins.

In Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus - the one we focused on last Sunday - he used water to symbolize birth.

And in today's Gospel reading Jesus uses water again - in his encounter, at the town well, with the Samaritan woman.

This is one of the greatest stories in the Bible. In also happens to be the longest recorded conversation Jesus has with anyone. Longer than any he has with any of his disciples, longer than any he has with his accusers, longer than any has with anyone from his own family.

The setting is a well in the middle of a Samaritan city.

Under the midday sun, a local Samaritan woman comes to draw water. She is most likely a mature woman, but she is isolated from the other women in her community, who would normally have come to the well in the morning or evening to avoid the heat. One author suggests that her choice of watering hour is deliberate-she may very well have grown tired of the gossip of the younger women, particularly since er lifestyle was, as we will soon learn, such that she is sometimes the subject of that gossip.

Hot and tired, sitting beside the well, Jesus asks her for water, violating at least two cultural and religious norms by asking a woman, who is also a Samaritan, for a drink.

You and I may not be surprised by Jesus' actions. We have the benefit of having read about the many other times he exposed the foolishness of the accepted norms by ignoring them. But if you put yourself in the position of the Samaritan woman, you can imagine how shocked she was.

She knows well what a Jewish man would normally think of her. She also knows that she is vulnerable to accusation, or even physical assault. Cultural and religious boundaries define her life, and she cannot act as if they do not exist-to do so would be foolish at least and perhaps even dangerous.

So, quite naturally, she resists. At which point Jesus turns things upside-down and offers to give the woman water, which evidently sparks her interest, because she risks talking to him. "Sir," she asks, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?"

"If you knew who I am," Jesus responds, "you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you living water."

Thinking Jesus was referring to fresh water, as opposed to water that had already been drawn from the well, the woman says "Living water! Where are you going to get this living water? You don't even have a bucket."

To which Jesus answers, "Everyone who drinks from this well water will become thirsty again. The water I can give you is different. Those who drink my living water will never be thirsty."

You know the rest of the story. After the woman responds, once more, with "Sir, give me this water so I won't ever get thirsty, and won't ever have to come back to this well again," Jesus begins to push her to reveal the truth of her own life. She responds to his request that she fetch her husband with the truthful yet incomplete declaration that she "has no husband," and Jesus tells her - matter of factly, with no hint of judgment - that she, in fact, had five husbands and the one she is now living with is not her husband at all.

After her conversation with Jesus, the woman goes back to her village and tells the people, "Come, see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?"

The story, you'll recall, ends on this note: Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony: "He told me everything I had ever done." And, after Jesus had stayed there with them two more days, many more believed because of his word. The villagers said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

This Samaritan woman is the first outsider to guess who Jesus is and then go and tell others. She was longing for something that could quench her thirst forever and when she found it, she couldn't contain herself. She told everyone she knew. In essence, she becomes the first evangelist, and her testimony brings many to faith.

In the lyrics from his hymn-like song, The River of Dreams the lyrics that I read for you when I began today, Billy Joel points to that same kind of longing. A longing for something sacred.

"I've been searching for something," he sings. "Something so undefined that it can only be seen by the eyes of the blind."

What a great image. Something so undefined that it can only be seen by the eyes of the blind.

He may not know it, but what the singer of that song is searching for is the Spirit. The Spirit of God. The same spirit that makes the water Jesus gives "Living Water."

Jesus offered his Spirit to the thirsty Samaritan Women that day at the well. And he also offers it to us. We too are thirsty. And all we need do is drink.

When you and I walk down the water aisle in our local supermarket we have dozens of choices. Spring water, filtered water, designer water - even water with caffeine in it.

So many choices.

That day in Samaria, the women at the well didn't have as many water choices, for sure, but, like us, she had the all-important choice that faces every one of us. Will I drink the Living Water that Jesus offers or not? The choice was hers. The choice is ours.

At some level, after all, life is all about choices. And once we admit that we're thirsty and choose the Living Water, that choice affects all of our other choices. Choices we make in our family life, choices we make in our workplaces, choices we make at the ballot box and choices we make when we allocate our finite resources to the things that matter to us.

Jesus offers us living water. He invites us to drink deeply. And then he calls us to follow the lead of the Samaritan woman who, you remember, simply couldn't stop talking about her experience. Her life would never be the same, and everyone who knew her couldn't help but notice.

"Come, and see a man who told me everything I have ever done," she said. "Come, and see a man who told me everything I have ever done."

May those words ring out from this place today as we follow her example - for the rest of the season of Lent and for the rest of our lives.

                                                                             AMEN