Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. David Inglis John 4:1-15

May 8, 2005

“Opening the Dams”

We have been exploring Jesus’ words: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Today we look at, “I am the life.” What does that mean, for Jesus to be “the life?”

Let’s start by thinking about what life means to you and me. You don’t have to hang around this world very long to realize how fragile life is. All it takes is chest pains or a close call on the road to bring us face to face with the truth of that. And what would it take to make the life you have carefully constructed teeter and creek and maybe and fall down around you? A pink slip at work, a debilitating accident, your kids getting into serious trouble, your spouse stepping out on you, a person you deeply love suddenly dying. That’s how far away we are from our life going from comfort into anguish, from security into turmoil. So we take out extra insurance, work harder to please the boss, keep close tabs on our kids, watch our rear end, take care of our health, and avoid accidents. And we enhance our lives with comforts and pleasures to create the sense that we’re safe, we’re secure, we’re in control. And when we succeed at that, we say we’re “living the good life.”

It’s only human nature to protect and secure and enhance this precious thing called life. But then we remember Jesus’ words, “What does it profit a person to gain their life if they lose their soul?” If we begin mistaking a comfortable existence for Life, then we’re in danger of missing out on the most important thing. According to the statistics I’ve seen, no matter how careful or controlled or clever we are, “the good life” still has a 100% mortality rate.

When the Bible talks about “life,” it has something more in mind than existence or what we call “the good life.” John starts his gospel by saying that the Word, the divine creative ordering force of the universe, became flesh–became embodied by Christ. And John said, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all people” (John. 1:4). Jesus himself said, “I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly” (John. 10:10). He said, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life (not “will have,” but “has”), and. . .has passed from death to life” (John. 5:24). He said, “ It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John. 3:63).

Jesus is trying to open our eyes to the truth about our life. He wants us to know the depth of it, the grandeur of it, the spiritual power that courses through it. Life isn’t just about survival or security or comfort. It’s about being in touch with the awesome, creative, life-giving eternal power of God.

So how do we make the move from insulated existence to abundant Life? Let’s look at this “living water” that Jesus offered the Samaritan woman at the well. “Living water” was a term that referred to flowing water, like in a stream. This was opposed to the water in most of the wells in the Middle East, that are not fed by springs but by water slowly percolating into them from the ground and then sitting stagnant in the bottom. Living water was always preferable to well water.

One thing living water needs is a clear, open connection to its source. At my extended family’s vacation spot in Colorado, we have a little mountain stream that is very much like living water to us. Not only does it bring us the water that we need, but also the sound of it gurgling past the cabin is very refreshing. It’s like your brain is constantly being cleansed by this living water. But this stream needs tending. Several times a summer, someone has to walk up to the source of the stream and clear out the dead branches, pine needles and debris that have fallen in and clogged it up. The water is plentiful, but the channel has to be kept clear and open for us to receive it.

Life in the biblical sense is like that. By nature, it’s abundant. God longs for living water of spiritual energy to flow through us, as love, peace, grace, healing, hope, and joy. To receive this living water abundantly, we have to keep our channels open to the Source, trust it, and give thanks for it as it flows through us. What constricts its flow? Anxiety, worry and stress certainly can. Feeling unworthy or ashamed. Carrying unhealed wounds or unresolved resentments or unrepented guilt. Yet these can all be washed away if we loosen them and release them into God’s mercy stream. We can feel so clean and free and new when those living waters flow through us freely again.

But living water not only needs a clear, open connection to its source. It also needs an open outlet. Otherwise the water grows still and stagnant. We’ve all heard of an example of dead water that the people in Bible times were also familiar with. The Dead Sea has no life in it at all, because it has no outlet. It receives water, but it doesn’t let any out. And so it can’t support life.

Here’s where we get misled by all the messages our society gives us. Receiving abundant life is not the same as grabbing it, fearfully clinging to it, or hoarding it for ourselves. Living water has to flow. The more we try to hold onto love or joy or peace or happiness and keep them for ourselves, the more the life goes out of them.

Our egos will always try to control and hold onto what we receive. But our spirits always thirst for living water, because we were created for Life to course through us freely. This Life the Bible talks about is stronger than death. That’s why Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. . . . Those who live and believe in me, though they die, yet shall they live.” The living Jesus is talking about isn’t just our human existence extended ad infinitum. It’s the Spirit of God coursing through us as love, light, peace, truth, generosity, and joy that we can experience now and that can fill completely and carry us home to God when we are through with this life. But if our spiritual channel isn’t open to that eternal Life Force now, how will we be open to it when our bodies fall away?

You may have heard about the men who shared a hospital room patients who illustrate this choice we all make about how to live our lives. Ralph was in the end stages of lung disease. The nurses put him into his chair twice a day to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other patient, Jim, had his legs in traction, and had to spend all his time in bed.

The men talked back and forth through the curtain, though Ralph had to take a breath after each phrase. Jim said he was going crazy being in one position with nothing to look at but the ceiling and the walls. So Ralph said, “Would you like me (breath) to tell you what’s going on (breath) outside the window?” “Sure.” So every time Ralph sat in his chair, he described breath by breath the activity and the color of the world outside the drab hospital room.

Jim began to live for those descriptions of the children going home from school, the lovers holding hands, the worried couples coming into the hospital, the happy couples carrying their babies to their cars.

One night as Jim was drifting in and out of sleep, he heard a strange gurgling sound coming from Ralph. “Ralph? Ralph?” There was no response. He reached for the call button. But then he hesitated. Ralph was going to die sooner or later. When Ralph died, then he could request the bed by the window. He knew his recovery would be enhanced if he had that view to look at all day. So he gently put the call button down. Eventually he fell back to sleep.

Early the next morning, the nurse discovered Ralph’s lifeless body. When his body had been removed, Jim asked if he could be moved next to the window. This was done, and he put his bed up enough to look out the window. To his suprise, the window just faced a wall and a flat roof. There was no view whatsoever. Jim asked the nurse what could have compelled Ralph to describe in such detail all those scenes outside the window. She said, “Maybe he just wanted to help you the only way he could.”

Two men, and two approaches to life. For Ralph, life’s gifts were to share, even if he had to create them from his imagination. For Jim, life’s gifts were to take and keep for himself. Whose life was flowing with living water? “What does it profit a person to gain their life and lose their soul?” asked Jesus.

I’m going to play a recording my daughter made of that mountain stream of living water that flows by our family’s cabin. As you listen to it, hear Jesus saying to you, “If you ask, I will give you living water” It’s the water of abundant love, healing grace, deep peace, indomitable hope, guiding wisdom, bubbling joy.

Be aware of any dams or constrictions that keep you from freely receiving this living water. As you become aware of them, feel yourself releasing those blockages of worry or stress, unworthiness or shame, unhealed wounds, unresolved resentments, or guilt that needs releasing to God. Let them be carried away by God’s stream of mercy...

And now be aware of places that constrict the flow of abundant life from you out to others. Can you release those places that want to control other people, withhold from people, win out over others, or that drive you to make your main life occupation building up yourself, padding your own nest, taking care of #1?

Christ offers you living water–the full flowing of Life, love, guidance, grace, hope, and joy coursing through you moment by moment. Receive it. Be washed in it. Share it. . . .

Jesus said, “Those who drink of the water 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.” Drink deeply, my friends. There is no end to its supply.