“Water Hoarding”

GOD GIVES THE WATER OF LIFE TO SINNERS: 3rd Sunday in Lent, March 15, 2020

Coronavirus has monopolized the news cycle now for several weeks. Outbreaks in China and Italy have set the world on edge. Representatives from the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control appear hourly on television to tell us everything we have to worry about. In our own country we have responded by closing schools and theme parks, cancelling sporting events, suspending transportation plans. If you didn’t know any better, its as though worry, panic and fear have been turned into virtue!

The Bible doesn’t say anything about dealing with coronavirus, but it has a lot to say about how to handle adversity. When the Israelites escaped the Egyptians, they faced the harsh Sinai desert. They were thirsty, but there was no water to drink. How did they handle adversity? They worried. They complained. They criticized their leaders. Miraculously, the Lord provided by making water gush from the rock at Horeb.

Water was also the topic of conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. She had gone there by herself to draw water to give drink to her animals. Usually ladies travelled in groups, but she was by herself because of a lifestyle of self-inflicted adversity. Jesus spoke with her about living water, God’s solution for her sinful, immoral life. A drink of this water and a man would be thirsty no more.

“Thirst” provides a useful metaphor for those whose sins make them parched and dry. Jesus is exactly the drink of water they need. Or, as Paul explains in our second reading, “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,” and later “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Did you hear that? Peace. Justified. Faith. Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Those are just a few of God’s solutions to worry, panic and fear. And for those of you who are still addicted to the news cycle, here’s a news flash: God is still in total control of everything and everyone.

► Readings:
• Exodus 17:1-7: God brings water from a rock.
• Romans 5:1-8: Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
• John 4:5-26: Living water for a sinful woman.
• Psalm: 95

► Sermon theme on John 4:5-26: "Water Hoarding" (Sermon Video) (Sermon transcript)