Scripture: John 4:13-14; Jeremiah 17:5-7; Jeremiah 17:13; John 3:16-17 Series: 2022
Part of a ‘Survival’ series, this sermon uses the preacher’s Appalachian Trail experience of learning to distinguish good from bad water sources to explore Jesus’ offer of living water in John 4. Just as the body continually needs water, the soul continually needs the spring of eternal life God provides. Bad spiritual water, chiefly trusting only in oneself (Jeremiah 17), runs dry and harms; Jesus, alluding to Jeremiah’s fountain of living water, offers the ever-flowing presence of the Lord. The church discerns together to keep drinking the true water, and the invitation is to return again and again to God’s inexhaustible source and begin new life right here and now.
Illustrations: appalachian-trail-water-filter, giardia-parasite, dead-moose-at-spring, big-bend-boot-canyon-spring, kids-water-bottles, nicodemus-born-again, samaritan-woman-at-the-well, shrub-in-the-desert
July 3
Water
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.” John 4:13-14
Last week, I talked about how I brought a tent with me when I started hiking on the Appalachian trail. I didn’t really need it. I only used it a few times because of all of the shelters everywhere. There was another tool I brought with me hiking that I eventually sent home, but one which I should have kept. It was a water filter. As a boy scout growing up, I knew about the importance of treating water in the wild. About the different bacteria present as well as the parasites, like Giardia, which are odorless and tasteless but can be deadly or debilitating. When I got started hiking, I would filter the water I came across. It was a time consuming process, but I gladly did. Then I would see some people go to a spring while I was in the process of filtering. They would fill their bottle, and move on while I staid there another ten minutes pumping.
Growing up in Texas, I had never seen a good water source before. We have small rivers and mostly man made lakes and aquifers that are chugging along. I had been to Barton Springs but you don’t see the source there. I had never in my life come across water source emerging from the mountain. I’d been to Big Bend many times, but I had never seen the boot canyon spring active. It was always just this pipe sticking out of a wall.
After a week of filtering water on the Trail, I started to develop a sense of the difference between a good and a bad water source and I took the jump and stopped filtering. I was fully cognizant that it could go bad, so some of the things I would look for were 1) do I see the water come directly out of the mountain? If yes. Great. If not, no. 2) are there any animal markings or droppings above the water source? If yes, then I would avoid it, an easy one. For instance, in Maine I came across a dead moose at a spring. That one was not for me. I am not recommending this practice. Don’t go off drinking anything you find because the preacher did it when he was 21. There are many things I did at that age I would not recommend. For instance, not calling your mother when you are in college. I don’t recommend it. One of the reasons why every single wilderness book or survival book or park ranger recommends at least boiling water is not because all water sources are bad but bad water can really knock you out. We need water. Whether you’re in the wild or not, you need water to live. You need a good source of water. My friends, we are continuing our series on Survival on looking about how to live in the wild, but also how to live in the brokenness of this world. How some of the skills to survive in the wild can be applied to the survival of our souls and what God offers us in this world. The reading today comes from the gospel of John. It is after the famous passage, in John 3, where Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the night and asks him, “what must I do to be saved?” Jesus says, “you must be born again.” And then Nicodemus asks, “does that mean I need to go back inside my mother’s belly” Jesus doesn’t laugh at him. He says, “no, you were born once of the flesh. And then once of the spirit.” This then gets us to that great passage of John 3:16-17.
In John 4, Jesus is walking along Samaria. He is thirsty and comes across Jacob’s well. There’s a Samaritan woman there and he asks her for a drink of water. She is surprised by this because she doesn’t know why he had asked her, a Samaritan, for water. According to the Jews, Samaritans are unclean. She’s unclean. Then he says, if you had known who I am, if you had known, who was asking you, you would ask for living water. Her response is, “that sounds awesome. How do I get that? And that’s when we get to the passage I read earlier, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again.
Again, we need water as humans to survive. We continuously need it. There’s never a maximum point where we don’t need water anymore. We will always need water. Whether you’re in the wild or here on Spicewood, you will need this water. How much water people drink is something people have started focusing on a lot more in the last few years. Not getting enough water is a problem. I notice myself that sometimes when I am tired in the afternoon, it is because I am dehydrated. Most of us have started becoming more intentional about how much water we drink, how often we drink it, making sure to drink more water and not as soda or not too much alcohol or too many other things that can get in the way of our health. I see a lot more water bottles around and kids actually drinking from the water bottles. I could not imagine children of my generation walking around with water bottles. It was only coke or sprite or mega sugar apple juice. It’s a really good improvement for society to realize that we do need water to live. We don’t need fancy water from across the world. Just water. Even still, if you drink enough water today, you will need it again tomorrow. What is this living water of which Jesus speaks?
What Jesus offers is not just a sip of water, but a spring, a healthy and flowing spring, inside of you. A spring from which will well up eternal life. A spring that will not run dry. Jesus is showing us what new life is about: it is something totally new. It is different from the life before. And when you have it, you don’t need to seek the same things you used to seek anymore. When you have it, you don’t need to do the same things you used to do anymore. As a father responsible for others, I always filter and boil water when hiking. We went to Big Bend a few years ago and boot canyon was amazing. It’s still one of the most indescribable feelings in the world to go up to a spring and to fill your water there. But I boiled the water. I used it for cleaning and cooking and not just to fill the water to drink because there are bad sources of water, Jesus gives you the grace of eternal life. The water that comes again and again and again to which you are no longer thirsty that you are satisfied. But there are also sources of spiritual water that are bad. That will make you sick. There are spirits. You can return to again and again. They will harm you in order to destroy you and deceive you. One of harshest spiritual waters is trusting only in yourself. The prophet Jeremiah lays this out in stark terms in chapter 17.
“Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “ Jeremiah 17:5-7 ESV
Like a shrub in the desert, or in the hill country, that is the person who trusts in their own strength. Sure, it rains sometimes, but when the droughts come, what do you have?
Jeremiah continues.
“O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.” Jeremiah 17:13 ESV
Jesus is clearly alluding to Jeremiah when he speaks of living water. In offering living water, Jesus offers the Lord. The Lord, present and full and flowing.
God calls us together, as the church, to discern together, to make sure that we are drinking the water life, that we are drinking of the truth and goodness and beauty of Jesus Christ. The word made flesh, the eternal son of the father, just like you can drink mountain Springs all your life. And then you have one less cup and filled with a Giardia. And that parasite just eats you way.
If your only spiritual water is found in yourself and your strength, it will run dry.
This day, for us as individuals, for the church, we need to, again and again, return to the spring that God has given us. God has given you a source of water that will not run dry. It’s not in the mountains of Tibet. It’s not even in the mountains of Appalachia or Big Bend. It is right here. It is the living water of the Lord, God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, given to you by Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
You don’t have to go across the world. God loves you here and now and offers you living water. You don’t have to become someone you’re not in order to find God’s love. You don’t have to lose 20 pounds in order to find God’s love. Here and now, we are God’s children. What we shall be has not yet been revealed. But the living water of new life is already here and offered for you. The good source that will not run dry is here offered for you. This day you can choose to follow Jesus. This day you can choose to seek the water. This day you can start a new life.
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, thank you for offering us the living water of new life. Remind us to return to the source of your love. Protect us from bad sources that harm us and our neighbor and which draw us closer to you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.