living water

No One Speaks

Posted on by Betsy

Do you remember the iconic line shouted by Jack Nicholson in the movie “A Few Good Men”? He was sitting in the witness chair under cross examination by Lt. Daniel Kaffee, who was trying to uncover the truth about the death of a young Marine at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Kaffee believed that the death was a result of severe hazing of the young man, and he uncovered evidence that there was a cover-up that was directed by Col. Jessup, played by Nicholson. As Kaffee pressed harder and harder, Jessup became more and more agitated until he finally exploded and yelled, “You can’t handle the truth!”

This scene came to mind this morning as I read the 7th Chapter of John. Jesus addressed a large crowd with the truth of who he was, but most of them couldn’t handle the truth. The truth was that Jesus was the Living Water. The crowd was divided. The truth was obscured, but look for the guards’ reaction:

John 7 (Common English Bible)

37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted,

“All who are thirsty should come to me!
38     All who believe in me should drink!
    As the scriptures said concerning me,
        Rivers of living water will flow out from within him.”

39 Jesus said this concerning the Spirit. Those who believed in him would soon receive the Spirit, but they hadn’t experienced the Spirit yet since Jesus hadn’t yet been glorified.

40 When some in the crowd heard these words, they said, “This man is truly the prophet.” 41 Others said, “He’s the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ can’t come from Galilee, can he? 42 Didn’t the scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s family and from Bethlehem, David’s village?” 43 So the crowd was divided over Jesus. 44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one grabbed him.

So the people understood the prophecies about the Messiah’s origins and knew that he would be born of David’s lineage in the town of Bethlehem. They get 5 points for knowing their scripture. But nobody realized that even though Jesus had recently come from Galilee, he was exactly who the prophets said he would be. Nobody thought to ask Jesus where he had been born.

45 The guards returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

46 The guards answered, “No one has ever spoken the way he does.”

The guards got it right, didn’t t they? They listened intently to Jesus’ preaching and were convicted that he was who he said he was. They were able to see the truth while the rest of the crowd murmured and dithered. And of course the pious Pharisees had to weigh in on the subject, putting themselves as the experts much like Col. Jessup, who thought he was invincible. Notice that they put the fact that no Pharisee had believed Jesus was the messiah as proof of the absolute truth of the matter, as though that alone was evidence to dismiss Jesus’ claims. They even went so far as to say that the crowd was under God’s curse, since they weren’t the elite Pharisees. Their opinion didn’t matter.

47 The Pharisees replied, “Have you too been deceived? 48 Have any of the leaders believed in him? Has any Pharisee? 49 No, only this crowd, which doesn’t know the Law. And they are under God’s curse!”

50 Nicodemus, who was one of them and had come to Jesus earlier, said,51 “Our Law doesn’t judge someone without first hearing him and learning what he is doing, does it?”

Nicodemus was the Lt. Kaffee in this trial, using the law to support his position. He was looking for the truth and wanted to hear and learn from Jesus himself about the matter.

52 They answered him, “You are not from Galilee too, are you? Look it up and you will see that the prophet doesn’t come from Galilee.”

So in the end, the Pharisees used an untruth to silence the crowd. Yes, the messiah won’t come from Galilee, but neither did Jesus. They conveniently overlooked this truth because frankly, they couldn’t handle the truth.

Are there truths about Jesus that you struggle to handle? Is the Holy Spirit convicting you today to embrace a truth about God’s mission and vision for his people that you prefer to overlook? Would accepting the truth mean you have to leave your comfort zone, your prejudices, or your way of life?

No one has ever spoken like Jesus. May we have ears to hear and a heart to follow whatever he says to do.

I Have Decided to Follow Jesus by Dustin Daniels

Come Home, Rebel

Posted on by Betsy

Today’s reading takes us into the mind of Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet who was tasked with an impossible job: to preach to a rebellious people saying things they would not hear or heed. Have you ever had to deliver a harsh word to people you love? If so, you can feel his pain. This passage is a little long, but hang in there.

Jeremiah 2:5-13, 29-32 (New Revised Standard Version)

5 Thus says the LORD:  What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?  6 They did not say, “Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that no one passes through, where no one lives?”  7 I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.  8 The priests did not say, “Where is the LORD?” Those who handle the law did not know me; the rulers transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.  

9 Therefore, once more, I accuse you, says the Lord, and I accuse your children’s children.  10 Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has ever been such a thing.  11 Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?  But my people have changed their glory for something that does not profit.  12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this, Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD, be shocked, be utterly desolate, says the LORD, 13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

29 Why do you complain against me? You have all rebelled against me, says the LORD.  30 In vain I have struck down your children; they accepted no correction.  Your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.  31 And you, O generation, behold the word of the LORD!  Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness?  Why then do my people say, “We are free, we will come to you no more”?  32 Can a girl forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?  Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.

 If this is your first time reading Jeremiah, you might be feeling like you just took a sip of water out of a fire hydrant. It’s a lot to take in! Jeremiah was a prophet in a time of great apostasy, when the entire nation of Israel had turned their backs on God in every possible way. Having been safely brought out of slavery in Egypt and delivered into the lushness of the Promised Land, they now worshiped the false gods of their pagan neighbors and turned to Baal for divine guidance.

Did you pick up on the “living water” reference in verse 13? What a beautiful tie-in with Wednesday’s reading, where Jesus offered himself to the world as the Living Water that so completes us, we will never thirst again. In this passage, God described the living water he faithfully offered Israel, only to be rejected. People had chosen to dig out cracked cisterns for themselves that hold no water.

 Why do we make things so hard for ourselves? Why not just open our mouths wide and drink in living water? Yet we demand our own way and labor at the unprofitable task of grunting and digging out a useless and broken cistern of secularism and world things that can’t possibly sustain us.

 When we chase after the ungodly, when we follow the dictates of the secular world in pursuing what is popular, cool, admired, sought after (status, wealth, beauty, celebrity, material things, inappropriate relationships, etc.), we turn our backs on God and bow down to false gods.

Where have you rejected God? Where has something been so tempting, so appealing, that you lost your mind and flew after it, forsaking the One who brought you out of your own desert?

Come home, rebel. Come back to God. Remember who you are.

Come to the Waters by Michelle Robertson

A Touch of the Bubbly

Posted on by Betsy

I have a friend who is best described as “bubbly.” Her demeanor is always positive, glass-half-full, and joyful. I don’t know how she does it, as I know that she has had tragedy in her life and things haven’t always been easy. But the bubbles well up in her and escape, infusing their celebration into every encounter. She is a woman of deep faith, and I think that is why.

Today we read about woman who encountered water that was so lively, it ended up being bubbly:

John 4:1-26 (New Revised Standard Version)

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John”— 2 although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized—3 he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but 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.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

 In fancy restaurants in Europe, the first question you are asked upon being seated is, “Still, or gas?” This startled me in Italy, as I don’t ever want gas from a meal. (!) But of course they are offering two different types of water: still, which is flat, or gas, which is bubbly and effervescent. The still water is what comes out of the tap. It is the mundane, ordinary alternative to the sparkling exuberance of gas water.

 Jesus is the latter. He is lively and brings life. Once uncorked, he explodes onto a scene and changes it for the better. Remember his first miracle at the wedding at Cana of Galilee? He transformed still, flat water into the best wine ever served. I wonder if, in keeping with his nature, it was actually a sparkling rose, or a lovely Prosecco….

Jesus is the essence of life, and he is necessary for life, but not just in the way he sustains it. Rather, he brings effervescent joy to your life. Living water is ours to indulge in whenever we open ourselves wide and take it in. He reminds us that he came to give life, and the life he gives is “abundant life.”

This is a cause for reflection if you find yourself today in a state that is joyless and lacking in that abundance that Jesus promised. Sometimes life situations can knock you off your pins and bring sadness, doubt, anxiety, depression, and ennui. When that happens, it is good to remember that there is a time for every season and every matter under the sun, as we read in Ecclesiastes 3. This reminds us that God is the master Timekeeper, and those low places are under his control just as surely as the high places are. If you are low today, know that you are not alone. Jesus has walked the lonely valley and he walks with you in your desert, too. The psalmist reminds us that joy comes in the morning, but sometimes it is a very long night.

 Your challenge today is to find a moment of pure, abundant, sparkling life, even if you are feeling a little down. Perhaps the best way to find it is to give it to someone else. So go ye therefore and sparkle up someone’s day! Be the abundant joy for someone else, and see what effervescence comes back to you.

Living Water by Michelle Robertson

Saved by Water

Posted on by Betsy

The rain on the OBX has given us a one-day reprieve as we read again about the saving of Noah’s family from the flood. I haven’t seen the surface of my street for days and I am beginning to envy the passengers on the Ark. They didn’t get their feet wet everyday. But did you ever stop to think about the many times we are not only saved FROM water, but saved BY water?

Our United Methodist baptism liturgy has this beautiful section:

Eternal Father:
When nothing existed but chaos,
you swept across the dark waters
and brought forth light.
In the days of Noah
you saved those on the ark through water.
After the flood you set in the clouds a rainbow.
When you saw your people as slaves in Egypt,
you led them to freedom through the sea.
Their children you brought through the Jordan
to the land which you promised

In the fullness of time you sent Jesus,
nurtured in the water of a womb.
He was baptized by John and anointed by your Spirit.
He called his disciples
to share in the baptism of his death and resurrection
and to make disciples of all nations.

In our lectionary passage today, we see echos of “saved by water” in 1 Peter 3:

1 Peter 3 (Contemporary English Version)

Christ died once for our sins.
An innocent person died
    for those who are guilty.
Christ did this
    to bring you to God,
when his body
    was put to death
and his spirit
    was made alive.

19 Christ then preached to the spirits that were being kept in prison. 20 They had disobeyed God while Noah was building the boat, but God had been patient with them. Eight people went into that boat and were brought safely through the flood.

It is understood that the imprisoned spirits referred to are demons. Note that God’s patience extends even to them.

21 Those flood waters were like baptism that now saves you. But baptism is more than just washing your body. It means turning to God with a clear conscience, because Jesus Christ was raised from death. 22 Christ is now in heaven, where he sits at the right side of God. All angels, authorities, and powers are under his control.

Baptism is indeed more than just washing your body. It means your conscience is washed clean through the shed blood of the atonement. It means that your heart is made ready through the confession of sins and the clean slate offered to you by the Redeemer. It means you are welcomed home by the God of second chances.

Christ did all this to bring you to God. Today you are invited to wash again, turn to God, and bask in the waters of salvation and hope.

Come to the Water by Kathy Schumacher

Quenchable Thirst

Posted on by Betsy

Have you ever been thirsty? Like, really, really thirsty, where your mouth is sticking together for lack of hydration? If you’ve had surgery, you might remember that the first sensation upon coming out of anesthesia is thirst. Nurses are talking to you and giving you all kinds of instructions, and all you can think is “WHERE IS MY MOUNTAIN DEW, WOMAN??”

Our souls thirst in the same way. God created us with a “lack-mechanism” where we experience a pervasive feeling of lacking for something. C.S. Lewis once said that he created us with a hole in our hearts that only he can fill. God wants us to feel a need for him. This lack-mechanism prompts us to go out and find what we need to quench our soul-thirst.

Too often we try to quench it with worldly ”sody-pop.” The first bottle of empty sugar and fizz that we find is consumed in great quantities. Sometimes sody-pop comes in the form of alcohol or drugs. Sometimes it comes dressed in heels or the well-cut suit of someone we aren’t married to. Maybe it comes in the form of “retail therapy.” Often it comes through your screen as you greedily binge a full weekend away in a sugar coma of Netflix distraction. But it’s like your grandma told you…sody-pop is not good for you. It is too easy to get addicted to sugary fizz, and before you know it, months or years have passed since you had a good drink of real living water.

John 4 (The Message)

4-6 Jesus came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.

7-8 A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)

9 The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”

A couple of footnotes before we go on.

1. Jesus stopped his journey in a Samaritan village, a place where Jews such as himself were not welcome. He was in the middle of going somewhere else when this beautiful exchange happened.

2. It was noon. The village ladies all drew their water together in the early morning so that they could visit and gossip. This lady came alone at noon, indicating that she lived a life of too much sody-pop.

3. Jesus asked her to draw water for him with her bucket. Her bucket was unclean for a Jew. It would be like asking a coronavirus patient to share their glass of water with you.

13-14 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”

15 The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”

The water that Jesus offered her that day, and offers us as well, is the gushing artesian spring of endless life. It is the forgiveness, hope, reconciliation, and peace that comes from finally finding that thing that satisfies our lack-mechanism, and we are sated for once and for all.

The water he offers is effervescent. It bubbles. It jumps from the glass and tickles your nose. It is so filled with joy that you can’t stop drinking it until you are full enough to never want sody-pop again.

So drink. Drink again and again and again. Drink in Jesus until your thirst is quenched. His well is deep and endless, so fill up your bucket and LIVE.

Living Water by Kathy Schumacher