|
“Living
Water”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: John 4:5-42
“If
you knew the gift of God, and who it is saying to you, ‘Give me a
drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living
water.”
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS in this time of the church’s year, named
Lent, repentance and certain applications of self-discipline are often
given a good amount of attention with the hope that this will prepare us
for a deeper revelation of Easter.
We have heard the words from Jesus speaking of “living water”, and
as we dive into understanding it as it points to the main important
revelation of God given to us, we will talk about it in contexts of
repentance and self-discipline.
Human beings in their attempt to use and apply their minds in defining
God, which certainly is not a bad thing, know that God is not like us.
So when we look at ourselves, we see that we are not in control
of everything, so God must be. We do not have a comprehensive intellectual understanding of
this world, so God must. We
are certainly refined to the actual place and time where we live our
lives. God must not have
these limitations. We as
individuals, and even as nations, are not always the most powerful in
this world. So,
obliviously, by this way of thinking, God must be.
In theology classes the concepts which we just mentioned are defined in
sophisticated words such as sovereignty, omniscience, omnipresence,
omnipotence. “Omni”
means “universal.” God
knows all, God analyses all, God is present everywhere, and God is more
powerful than any other being.
Here’s one way we may repent; let’s not make what we as humans have
decided about God to be our number one important belief about God.
Let us allow what God is revealing to us to be the greatest
meaning in our belief about God.
One of the first and most fascinating statements in the Holy Scriptures
about the nature of God and the nature of us is in Genesis5:1, “When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God.”
One of the basic aspects of who we are as humans is that we truly
discover who we are as we are in relationships with others.
There is a sense in which “being in relationship” is the
likeness of God in which we were created.
The likeness of God that we bear is not simply some character
which we notice in ourselves, and then think that that is the nature of
God. Humans do not possess
the likeness of God; humans are in the likeness of God. Okay, what does
this mean? It means that the most important nature of God that God is
revealing to us is that God is personal relationships.
One of our favorite verses about God is the simple statement, “God is love.” Love is
not God. And God as love is
not just some generic statement. God
is the personal love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. God is personal.
That is a true way that we may repent, to change our major ideas of God.
Believe that the most important thing that God wants you to know
is that God is personally in love with you.
I’ve lately been reading a biography of Mother Teresa. This book has many letters which she wrote to her priest, her
bishops, and even the Pope. She
often sent literal prayers she had made.
And she often quoted Jesus responding to her as his spouse.
Whatever we may think of this, we can at least see that Mother Teresa
related to Christ in a most personal way.
This has made me start thinking, and believing, that I am not
simple some guy who has been born from above; I am the brother and one
of the best friends of Jesus, and I am a child of God the Father.
This is exactly the same truth about you.
You are a sibling of Jesus, one of his best friends, and a child
of God the Father in the living water, or, I guess I should say, God the
Holy Spirit.
Last Sunday and today we are seeing Jesus being discovered as the
Messiah or the Christ of God. But
look at how this is being done personally.
And the personhood of Jesus is not just his humanity; it is the
love of God in him.
Last Sunday we saw how Jesus personally talked with Nicodemus who was a
Pharisee, whom Jesus knew was the organization trying to destroy him.
But he also personally knew this man’s heart, and how to talk
to him in a way to lead Nicodemus into his personal love.
Now this morning we have read about Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman.
The Jews were very prejudice against the Samaritans, and a Jewish
man was not allowed to speak personally, one on one, individually to a
Samaritan woman. And I bet
before Nicodemus came to faith in Christ, and maybe even at this time
when he was starting to believe, he would have still not want anyone,
even Jesus, to personally communicate with a woman who has been married
five times, along with the fact that the man she now lives with is not
her husband.
Jesus loved this woman the way her mother might have. He wasn’t judging her; he was leading her to see who the
great love in her life was. These
stories are revealing the personal love Jesus has for these people, and
for you and for me, and each and every one of us.
You probably know, I’m sure, that words evolve. The very English word
“superchurch” is a word that evolved and became an official word in
the 1990s.
I think this next story is absolutely fascinating. We have been talking about Jesus Christ, the love of God, and
the most important characteristic of God with words like “personal”
and “person.” And we
use those words all the time. “I
think my wife Caroline is a beautiful person.”
“What kind of persons do you think will vote for Barack Obama?” We use the word “person” all the time.
The very word “person” evolved and became an official word when the
early church in the 300s and 400s, after birth of Jesus, were asking and
answering the question, “Who is Jesus?”
Jesus is fully God and fully human.
And then the most important doctrine of God was authorized by the
church: “There is one God who is three persons, God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”
That was the first time in history that the word “person” was
ever used. And it was used
defining the true nature of God.
How can we discipline ourselves in a new way during this time in Lent?
The most important truth that we should believe in, and seek to
understand better, and actually act upon about God is that God loves us
and relates to us personally.
When Jesus told that women that he would give her LIVING WATER, what he was implying to her was that his gifts to her
are so personal that they will really transform her heart.
Again, what can we do in this Lent time that may be repentance or
self-discipline? Simply
this: when we pray, when we contemplate, when we read the Bible, when we
go to Sunday School, when we attend worship, when we talk to friends
about faith, when we reach out to others, the most important aspect in
all of this is to think and learn about our personal relationship with
God and the presence of God’s love in our personal relationships with
other people.
Let us pray …
Amen.
|