Overflowing Joy !

 I am the youngest child in my family. This means that growing up I had a brother and sister to advise me. It turns out that not everything they told me was true. Anyway, I remember a place in Chard where we used to stay. It was a house in which there were toys including toy boats. I was very little and my brother showed me that if you put enough water in the sink you could sail one of these boats. I liked the idea and later on decided to have a go myself. Then we all went out for the day. When we got back there was water everywhere. I had turned the tap on to play, but I hadn’t turned the tap off. 

I thought of that because we have come across overflowing and everlasting water in our readings today.

In the reading from Exodus (17:1-7) we heard of the people complaining as they travelled with Moses to the land that they had been promised. They were thirsty, so perhaps this seems fair enough.

After hearing this, Moses appealed to God, who used him to perform a miracle. By using a staff he was able to strike a stone and water came out. The place was named Massah and Meribah because the people had argued and questioned if God was with them.

In the Psalm (95) we heard of another theme in the readings this morning which is rejoicing because of all the good things God has done. I rather like the salutary warning that remembered Massah and Meribah. It is almost a warning to behave better, keep rejoicing because otherwise you will be known as arguing and complaining.

Keeping this idea of rejoicing in the letter to the Romans (5:1-11) we were reminded of the fact that because of what Jesus has done for us we can boast in His goodness. It is wonderful, my favourite verse is in this passage, “God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

It’s amazing and worth rejoicing in the fact that before God even knew if we would accept Him, He died for us. 

So far, there is a feeling of joy and hope in the readings. Hope in terms of a warning not to argue as bad things can happen. Joy that God helped the people and gave them another chance, joy in celebrating all that God has done and then as if that wasn’t enough we have the joy and reassurance that Jesus died for us. 

The gospel reading (John 4:5-42) reminds us that God loves us and wants to bring us all new life. I always picture the woman at the well running around afterwards and telling everyone about her encounter with someone who told her everything she ever knew about herself.  She wondered if He was the Messiah, the One promised by God who would help them.  After all, Jesus told her that she would gain new life and could receive more than water from the well, she could have everlasting life. 

We are offered this as well. God provides new life, and He promises that this life is everlasting. 

This is another need for us to rejoice, because just as Jesus did for the woman so He does for us. Jesus brings life, and everlasting water to us and all those for whom we pray.

In the reading from the gospel of John we did not hear just about a woman at the well but a non Jewish woman. Jesus a Jewish man speaking to a non Jewish woman would have been  scandalous.

Jesus was never bound by tradition, and he was never prepared to accept that people couldn’t reconcile their differences with God and with other people. He showed that God’s transforming love, grace and mercy are available to all. 

A while ago my husband and I went to Rome. We went to the Trevi fountain on Valentine’s Day. Our female friends were cross with their husbands that they hadn’t thought of something so romantic. The husbands breathed sighs of relief when they discovered that we were really going to watch the rugby !! 

Anyway in Rome there are many famous fountains at which people have their photos taken, and throw their coins in as they make a wish, but something that is not so well known is that these fountains also all have perfectly clean drinking water, and that’s what they were originally designed for. Water was a scarce commodity at one time in the city, and clean water was almost impossible to get, and so the authorities built the fountains. 

And in many places fountains or wells became the centre of a community, and even today this is still the case in some of the poorest parts of the world. People come to get their water, they share the local news and gossip, they chat to people about friends and family, they even discuss the local politics and so on.

The wells were a hugely important place where people found not just physical water, but met with people with whom they could discuss spiritual or physical needs or problems, as well as just those little bits of news which helped to keep communities going. 

They were a place of living water, and yet Jesus was saying that he was offering something even better ! And that is still what he is offering us today. He is calling us to look at ourselves, and to spend some time reflecting on who we are and what we are really called to do.  

Jesus saw potential in this woman, and he sees potential in every one of us. 

Jesus gives us that living water… An unnamed woman who was not a Jew, in spite of her hesitation and misgivings, she was drawn to the well to encounter Jesus, who gave her that drink of living water. So we also are drawn to encounter Jesus, that we too might drink of living water and never thirst again. We are called to rejoice, not to complain. God showed His love for the people on their journey by miraculously giving them water, they rejoiced, He died for us and He is always there to give us the living water. The water that is the best ever. 

I think that perhaps rather than thinking of water overflowing, we should be full of overflowing joy. Amen.