Just a reminder there is NO Faith Formation this weekend. Happy Spring Break!!
Thirst for water...Ex 17:3-7
Thirst for water...Ex 17:3-7
In this weekend’s readings, we hear a lot about water, and how the people are thirsty for it. We also hear a lot about the law, and how the people of God are to follow it, and how it has been broken. But first, let’s talk about how thirsty everyone is…
In Exodus, the People of God are complaining again (shocker, I know!) about being in the desert with no food or water and asking Moses “why did you make us leave Egypt” in the first place? It’s like asking your children, spouse, friends, etc to go on an adventure with you, and they are the least bit excited and you are following the map, but you have yet to see anything cool. All you have seen are a bunch of trees, or in their case sand, and some wildlife, but nothing to write home about. Staying home, or staying a slave, would have been much better rather than going on this adventure. And oh by the way, I am extremely thirsty, please send water ASAP. Can you make that happen God?
Last week, we touched on being dehydrated, but what about just being thirsty. We can be thirsty for so many different things, it is even a slang term. “Thirst” doesn’t just want something; it makes an unsightly spectacle of a clueless, grasping, gaping need. It encroaches on boundaries and intrudes on others’ space, jostling self-respect and good taste out of the way”. I sit here chuckling over this because this really sounds like the Israelite s journeying through the desert. By this point, they lost self-respect, they wanted to go back to Egypt and be owned by the Pharaoh. They were clueless, they had no idea how good they had it. God was following them wherever they were and gave them whatever they wanted. And they did cross some boundaries, even though God told them to do it, they went into other peoples territories and took things. The Israelite's were not only literally thirsty, but they were also thirsty for God’s attention and love, which He gave them, they just were not ready to see it or have it. They were scared. They were lonely in the desert. They left behind their comfort zone, they had their tribe, but in a sense they were all alone. They were thirsty for the familiarity of their past lives and they were ready to settle. I am sure that we can all find a common thread for that. We all have had moments in our lives where we feel unsettled about something and we just try to find a person, place, or thing to tie us back to our roots to calm our soul. The People of God were just trying to do the same.
So, Moses goes to a rock, always a rock (like in the first Sunday of Lent when Jesus was tempted), and hits it with his staff, and water comes pouring out. The Lord is present, just what they wanted, and water pours forth, also what they wanted. But I bet they still doubted and still had trouble believing that God sent forth that water. What is great about the place where Moses hit his staff on the rock for the water to come pouring forth are the Hebrew translations. “Meribah” from the Hebrew translation means to present a legal case and “Massah” from the Hebrew translation means to test. So, the People of God, the Israelite's, were exercising their right to test God, the law maker, to see if He and Moses were tight enough for Moses to command water to come out of the rock. One would say ‘thirsty much?’
In the Gospel of John this week, we continue with the theme of thirst. Jesus and his disciples come to the town of Samaria, which is a huge no no for Jewish men like themselves. As we hear in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, no one will stop to help the person who has been robbed on the side of the road, except for the Samaritan. He stopped and he helped the person. Now we are in the town of Samaria and here Jesus is asking a woman for a drink of water. Not just any woman by the way, but a woman of Samaria, and a woman who is on her fifth husband and sixth man. He knows this instantly. The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Many things to unpack here, first the thirst. Jesus was thirsty and so was the woman. They both were at the well, Jesus did not have a cup or a bucket to get water from the well and the woman questioned how he was going to satisfy his thirst. Quite the problem here. I see many people face this problem in the Church here at St. Austin’s. They are thirsty during Mass, or they begin to have a coughing fit and there literally is no water fountain to get water from.
We can look at the people here at St. Austin’s in two ways. They have the entire spring of life flowing through them and they just need water to clear the tickle in their throat, or something said or done in Mass caused something to well up inside of them and they need the water to quench their thirst of what was said or done. Same thing with the Samaritan woman. Jesus stirred something inside of her where the water from the well was not going to quench her thirst. The water of eternal life was not going to flow through her and she would continually have to keep coming back to the well to get water. Now, after hearing Jesus’ prophecy, she had two choices. One to believe him and tap into the eternal spring, or two to not believe him and continue questioning about where she would fill her cup for the rest of her life. Have you walked a mile or two in her shoes? Have you ever experienced that eternal thirst wondering how you were going to fill your cup up? Have you ever wondered if you heard or knew Jesus’ prophecy for your own life? Would it change your outcome? Are you looking for a glass of water as you drink this?
On the other side, let’s look at why Jesus went to Samaria. This town where Jews were not welcomed. In The Paulist Biblical Commentary, I read that Jesus went here to woo the people of Samaria. Why? Well, he is about to return to the town of Cana where he performed his first miracle at a wedding, and before this passage, he just was with John the Baptist, who is close with Jesus, who is deemed the ‘bridegroom’ of the Church. We see a big wedding theme here in these chapters of John, wooing is a fitting word. He wants the people of Samaria to have a different outlook or take on the Jews. We are in the middle of Lent, our story is coming to an end; Jesus’ flesh ministry is coming to an end, before his eternal life ministry takes over. We are going back to the beginning where it all took place, and we are learning from Jesus in the middle of Lent of how to start forming relationships with those we may not want to form a relationship with, but how to start and where to start it.
I think it is fitting to end with talking about good ol’ Paul. In Roman’s this week, Paul gives us the best advice on faith, grace, hope, and love. If we have faith in God, then He gives us His graces, and through His graces we have hope, and with hope we can love because we know that Jesus died for us. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us, including the woman at the well, and the People of God who doubted God’s power and closeness with Moses, and including you and me.
Mass Readings Explained
Here are the background to this upcoming Mass readings. Here is the video and here is the written script of the explanations. These are great tools to use with older grades to talk about the readings and give them more historical context to the readings.
username: rvaughn@staustin.org
password: Vaughn1
username: rvaughn@staustin.org
password: Vaughn1
Important Dates Coming Up:
March 15 and 22 off for Spring Break
April 5 and 12 off for Palm Sunday and Easter
April 26 Last Faith Formation
