There is a place in Ethiopia called the Benishangul-Gumuz Region. I wonder if anyone here knows what is significant about the Benishangul-Gumuz region? I’ll give you a clue, the Blue Nile flows through this region. Since 2011 there has been a dam under construction in this area that will, when it is complete be part of the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa. The Ethiopian government hope that the project will provide energy security for the country, be a revenue generator as electrical energy is exported to surrounding countries in rainy periods, and that the associated reservoir will be a buffer for irrigation in seasons of drought.
The project has not been without controversy, with down stream country Egypt particularly concerned at the potential effects on the flow of the Nile through its territory. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the geopolitics, a country that has experienced some of the worst that can happen when water is scarce is looking to the transformative power of water for its future. It’s not just national economies that water can transform. You only have to water a plant that’s been left dry a bit too long and see it perk up, or watch a time lapse sequence of the blooming of a desert following the rains, or drink a glass of water on a hot and thirsty day to witness the transformative power of water.
Let’s plunge straight into our reading from John’s eye witness account of Jesus’ life. What do we find in the middle of this encounter between Jesus and the woman? – “the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” That is some transformation – a spring of water welling up to eternal life, right in the centre of everything, water flowing out from that centre, soaking through the whole encounter with transformative power.
It is this water that transforms the relationship between Jew and Samaritan, that transforms the relationship between a woman and her community, and, most significantly, the relationship between humanity and God, expressed in worship.
How do we imagine the relationship between Jews and Samaritans at this time? Was it a tribal hatred? Was it a racist resentment? Was it a fear of the other? How did it show itself in practice? Was it an active antagonism, was it a passive avoidance, or was it a habitual contempt, handed down from generation to generation with no real understanding of the roots of it. Whatever combination of these it was, it was a real part of life which we glimpse in that little phrase “For Jews do not associate with Samaritans” or as the footnote puts it, in a better translation, “do not use dishes Samaritans have used”. The relationship between the two peoples was so broken that Jewish people would not even eat from a dish that a Samaritan had used previously. And Jesus transforms it, by reaching out, by engaging in conversation, by ignoring the rules of society, by loving the person in front of him rather than being distracted by prejudices against race, nationality, or religion. This is the water of life springing up, flowing out of Jesus, transforming the relationship between Jew and Samaritan. As the New Testament unfolds so we see more and more of these barriers broken down as this water springs up in more and more people, until at last Paul can write,
“Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
I wonder what divisions in the community of Wellington we are being called to cross and to heal as we are sent to be closer to others. I wonder what the water springing up is going to transform as we choose to reach out with love across racial, religious, ethnic divides to treat people as people rather than as representatives of the other.
And what about the relationship between the woman and her community. Here we have to read between the lines a little bit. The first clue is that is noon, when the sun is at its highest, not a good time for hauling water. Why is the woman coming now? The second thing is that she’s coming alone – that sounds unusual, wouldn’t she be with a friend or a group of women coming to get water together? And then, the big reveal, she has been married five times, and the man she is with now is not her husband. Much of the interpretation of this insight of Jesus has understood this as revealing the sinfulness of the woman. However, there are some commentators who suggest a different reading of this, a reading that seems to me to make more sense. Let’s just think for a moment about how this woman could have ended up in this situation. One explanation is that she’s been married five times, each time the husband has died, and that she has given up on marriage. Even given the lack of modern medicine this seems unlikely. Another explanation is that she is a serial adulteress, in the middle of yet another affair. This is possible, but given the heavy penalties for adultery (Jesus was invited to join in a stoning of someone caught in adultery), also seems unlikely to me. A third possible reason, and to me the most likely, is that she was infertile. She had been married off repeatedly by her father, but each time she didn’t conceive she was returned, just as barren livestock would be. Her father had finally got her off his hands to another man willing to feed and keep, but not marry, her. And of course, in that culture to be infertile was to be cursed by God. No wonder none of the other women would be with her. No wonder that she did not want to join the throng of young mums at dawn as they went to collect water in the cool of the day.
Jesus meets her in the heat of the day, in the middle of her brokenness and curse and water springs up out of him and transforms it all. As he speaks, she knows that she is seen and loved for who she is, not written off or despised for something she has no control over. And then she goes and shares this with the rest of the community, and they listen to her and follow her. No longer is she the curse of the town, but the source of blessing to the town. The one who could not bring a child to birth is bringing a whole town to new birth. The relationship has been transformed.
I wonder what relationships Jesus is looking to transform for us. Perhaps between members of the church, perhaps between us and work colleagues, or parts of the family. Perhaps relationships in which someone has become a symbol of all that can go wrong, or has been made a scape goat. The living water that springs up in us does so to transform these relationships with love, grace, and new life.
The old systems and patterns of worship are being swept away. The Jews had had Jerusalem as their focus of worship for centuries, ever since King David had brought the Ark of the Covenant to it and Solomon had built the first temple there. Through exile and dispersion, despite invasion and subjugation, the temple had always been there, had been the place where God’s presence was believed to be, had been the place that prayers were heard, was the place that sacrifices were offered. For the Samaritans, the holy mountain had fulfilled a similar role. They didn’t have the history or the understanding of the Jews, but they reached out for God in a way that seemed right to them. It was all going to be swept away by the flood pouring out of Jesus. The curtain of the temple would be torn as he died, inviting everyone into God’s presence. The final sacrifice was made as he died, there was no need for any more sacrifices. The Holy Spirit was poured out on all who believe, the presence of God in every heart. No more religious systems – God is on the hunt for worshippers in Spirit and truth. That’s not two different things, in Spirit and in truth, like some people worship in Spirit and other people worship in truth but God’s looking for people who worship in Spirit and in truth. No – I don’t often say this, but this is a poor translation. It is one, complete thing, worshipping in Spirit and truth. It is the worship that pours out in abandon, without reservation or pride, knowing that the one being worshipped is worthy of all that we are.
The water springs up in us. For what? For eternal life. This is the ultimate transformation. No longer are we bound by the limits of this life which ends in death, but we have within us the source of life – not just of longer duration but of far richer quality – life in all its fulness. Life which transforms the relationships we live in now, which brings life to them and does away with the death of prejudice, curse, hatred, dislike, disdain, mistrust by transforming them with the fresh water of openness, blessing, love, affection, respect and faith. Life which is caught up in worship of God – worship which doesn’t depend on a holy mountain or a temple, but which is expressed in every word and action, every thought and intention, as we live whole and authentic lives that overflow with worship in spirit and truth.
Hear the words of Jesus,
“Those who drink the water that I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come and drink.”
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