Third Sunday in Lent (Year A), Feb. 27, 2005
BCP: Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95 or 95:6-11; Rom. 5:1-11; John 4:5-26(27-38)39-42
RCL: Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Rom. 5:1-11; John 4:5-42
“We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water” (BCP, p. 306). So the celebrant prays at every baptismal liturgy.
Many of us are unaccustomed to thinking of water as God’s gift. We take it for granted. We turn on the tap, and there it is. We’re annoyed when a faucet has a spring inside, and we don’t get all we want with a single push. And we find anyone issuing “arbitrary” restrictions on lawn watering to be utterly beyond the pale. We’re entitled to all the water we want — it’s as simple as that.
Water, however, can’t be taken for granted by a large part of the human family. Islands abound around the world where the only fresh water available is that which is caught from the rain. Agricultural practices in Asia and in Africa assure that ever-increasing areas are reduced to desert. And our own propensity to use lakes and rivers as chemical dumps makes clean water increasingly problematic, even for us.
All of us can live without food for several weeks, yet we’ll certainly die if we’re deprived of water for more than a few days. It’s death from dehydration which threatens the people in today’s reading from Exodus. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt,” they ask Moses, “to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” (17:3). But the Lord, the giver of life, intervenes. “Strike the rock,” he directs, “and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink” (17:6). And so they live.
In today’s gospel, a woman comes to a well to draw water. Jesus meets her there. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,” he tells her, “but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty” (John 4:13). Jesus offers her something more than mere physical sustenance. He offers the saving water of baptism.
Although we take water for granted, it is God’s special gift to sustain our lives. Most of us take our baptism for granted, as well. Yet through its waters we have become heirs of eternal life. We do well to give thanks for the gift of water, by which we have both life and life in its fullness.
Look It Up
Where in the Old Testament do Christians see allusions to the new life which is ours through the waters of baptism? (Gen. 1:1-5; Exodus 14:26-31)
Think About It
How might we honor God through our use of water in our own homes? In our churches?
Next Sunday
Fourth Sunday in Lent (Year A), March 6, 2005
BCP: 1 Sam. 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Eph. 5:(1-7)8-14; John 9:1-13(14-27)28-38
RCL: 1 Sam. 16:1-13; Psalm 23; Eph. 5:8-14; John 9:1-41
