About Water

Greetings,

      First, just a clarification from yesterday’s Memorial Day- Again e-mail: the discussion over the President being in Chicago rather than the traditional ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day was not from this year, but previously.  The point, however, remains the same.

      Second, the recent rains and the great need for rain due to the very dry winter, led to a discussion about water.  We are aware that most bottled water is simply tap water or water which does not meet the standards of most tap water, yet it is priced at 4 times, or even 20 times the cost of tap water.  One of the things homeless people want most is water.  When we are truly thirsty, nothing satisfies as well as water. 

      Beyond the obvious that most of us take the availability of water for granted, we also talked about the meaning and symbolism of water.  I was reminded of Song of Songs 4:15 – You are a garden fountain, a well of water flowing fresh from Lebanon.

      Behold, God is my salvation;

      I will trust, and will not be afraid;

      for the LORD God is my strength and my song,

            and has become my salvation.

            With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

                                                                                        Isaiah 12:2

      Part of the Rule of Taizé says:

            Love the dispossessed, all those who, living amid human injustice, thirst after justice.  Jesus had special concern for them.  Have no fear of being disturbed by them.

      Helen Keller, in talking about the great breakthrough which set her free from her deafness and blindness, says: 

      Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout.  As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly.  I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers.  Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten- a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.  I know that w-a-t-e-r meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand.  That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free.

      For many years I had taught and preached Matthew 25:31-46, that giving a cup of water to one of the least of these, was giving a cup of water to Jesus.  Then one day I finally made the connection between that passage and Jesus’ experience in Samaria.  The itinerant, homeless, poor preacher arrives at Jacob’s well hot, tired, dusty and thirsty.  “So Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there.  Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.  It was about noon.  A woman of Samaria came to draw water.  Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’ (John 4:5-7).”

      Jesus was always the practical person, who not only understood the things of heaven in real terms, but who also understood the things of earth.  Thus, when Jesus tells us to do something, he knows whereof he speaks, and knows that we are, with his help, entirely capable of doing it.

Yours & His,

DED