Being Church

We are in the Easter Season of the church, perhaps the most joyful time of all. Spring is here. The snow is melting (even if it keeps returning). The sun is shining. “Now is the month of maying, when merry lads are playing, fa la la la la la la la la.” Well, that’s tomorrow, but you know what I mean.

 

Best of all, we know that Jesus has defeated death. God raised Jesus to life, and today we remember the time between his resurrection and his ascension. For forty days, Jesus lived and walked with his disciples again. It must have seemed like a dream, but he was preparing them to be the church after he ascended into Heaven.

 

John 10

Our text from John's gospel gives a picture of the church Jesus was forming. During his ministry, he had compared himself to the Good Shepherd. In contrast with thieves and robbers who seek only to steal, kill, and destroy, Jesus came to give his followers life, real overflowing life. The kind of life that he showed them in his time with them after the resurrection. Jesus compared his followers to sheep – not in a bad sense as we might, but in the sense that they follow him. They go where he takes them. They do what he asks. They live a full and good life under the shepherd’s care.

 

We are sheep in this sense, then. Not that we are mindless, unable to think for ourselves, but that we are mindful of Jesus. We listen to his voice. We receive his Spirit. We follow Jesus and are formed into the flock in his care, that is the church.

 

Acts 2 

Acts 2 describes what the first church looked like, called into being by Jesus’ resurrection and formed by God’s Spirit. “⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³ Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵ they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶ Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

 

Luke wrote his history of the first church using sources that went back to the events he describes. Although the final form of Acts was written down 40 or so years later, they tell us faithfully what the first disciples did as the Holy Spirit filled them to carry on the ministry of Jesus. Note the list that Luke gives and what that list might look like for us.

·         They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching: We read the Scripture, centering the whole teaching of the Bible on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

·         They devoted themselves to fellowship: We gather for worship and for community, in the church building and in our homes.

·         They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread: We remember Jesus’ death and resurrection, especially – but not only – in the communion service.

·         They devoted themselves to prayer: We spend regular time in prayer, personally and corporately.

·         They performed many “signs and wonders”: We are uncomfortable with this idea, but we do at least care for each other in various physical and material ways.

·         They shared their belongings so that no one was left needy: We fall short of their radical simplicity, but we have created an agency to help the needy of our community and we use our deacons’ fund to meet needs within our congregation.

·         They spent time each day worshipping in the Temple and “breaking bread” in their homes: We are not as dedicated to public and private worship as they were, but we do believe in the value of public and private worship.

·         They “ate their food with glad and generous hearts”: We also give thanks for God’s good gifts and share what we have with others.

 

Putting all of this together, Luke closes by noting that God added new people to the church regularly. Sometimes, we think that this numerical growth is the point of the whole passage. I don’t think so. Rather, Luke suggests that the point is to embody Christ’s ministry and message by being the visible Body of Christ. Numerical growth is a result of faithful Christian living. Faithful living is the goal – worship and prayer and meeting needs and embodying Christ. Numerical growth is a fruit of meeting the goal.

 

Who, Then, Are We Today? 

What do you go to church for? Some may be looking for an incredible musical experience. Put a professional music team at the front of the church and fill the sanctuary with sound. That’s a good thing! I have felt God’s presence many times when the music has carried my soul almost, it seems, out of my body. But pure professionalism in music makes for a great concert, not necessarily for a worship experience.

 

Some may be looking for a spellbinding preacher. Put a charismatic preacher walking back and forth on the stage. Again, that’s good! I have been challenged and inspired by powerful preachers. I have enjoyed great events like the Urbana Missions Conferences and Missionfest Manitoba for just this reason. But too many big-name preachers have stumbled and fallen in their personal lives for us to base our church experience on the preacher.

 

So, why do we come together? I suggest that Luke’s description gives us an answer. We come together to read the Bible, to praise God in song and prayer, to fellowship with each other, to care for each other. We could do a series on these points. I want to pick up just one of them and reflect on it further: I want to talk more about prayer.

 

Prayer 

Prayer stands at the centre of the action in the book of Acts. One commentator has said that nothing important happens in Luke and Acts without the presence of the Holy Spirit and the presence of prayer. The Holy Spirit and prayer are central to Luke’s description of the early church. We may think that certain people in the church are real prayer warriors and that we can leave the praying to them, but I suggest that prayer is God’s gift for all of us. We gather together to pray.

 

What does Luke mean when he says, “they devoted themselves to prayer”? What did that look like? What did it sound like? We can take a guess, but we don’t really know. It may have involved kneeling or even prostrating yourself on your face before God. Judaism today has three set times for prayer (morning, afternoon, and evening), while Islam has five set times for prayers. Some more liturgical traditions in Christianity use what they call “the divine hours”, set times of prayer (either three or five times a day). For example, a monastery may have set prayer times at 6 am, 9 am, noon, 3 pm, and 6 pm.

 

I have been in prayer meetings where we sit together and pray in silence – a ten-minute silence. I have been in gatherings where everyone prays together at the top of their voices – a Niagara of sound pouring over the congregation. I have prayed with congregations and alone, kneeling by my bed or standing in the middle of the room. Sometimes prayer is spontaneous, just talking to God. Sometimes we use set prayers that express our desire for constant connection with God.

 

At its root, prayer is simpler than all that. We simply place ourselves before God, offer God ourselves, and listen for God’s Spirit within us. Sometimes we use the acronym ACTS – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Whatever forms we use, the purpose is that we are relationship with God. God is present, and we become fully present with God.

 

It’s all quite mysterious, and perhaps we sometimes have our doubts about it all. I remember praying with our son when he was three years old. It was part of our bedtime routine. I sat on the edge of his bed, we closed our eyes, and I prayed. One night he would not keep quiet while I prayed and finally I stopped and asked, “Do you know who we’re talking to?” He replied brightly, “No one!” Sometimes it does indeed feel like that.

 

George Herbert

And yet, prayer is so much more than that. Prayer is real. Prayer is the lifeblood of the Christian. Without prayer, without communion with God, we fall apart and die. Four hundred or so years ago, George Herbert was a member of parliament in England who gave up his political career to serve as a country pastor. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 39, but before he died he wrote a remarkable poem on prayer.

Prayer the church’s banquet, angel’s age,

God’s breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth

Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tow’r,

Reversèd thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milky way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul’s blood,

The land of spices; something understood.

 

Herbert gives 26 images of prayer (I think). It would take a full hour’s lecture to cover them all, and I want to note just a few of them. Some of them are obscure, and some are simply delightful. 

1) He starts with this image: Prayer is the church’s banquet. Better than Fifth Sunday Faspa, better than our summer potluck lunches, better than our Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner at the church, prayer is a reminder of the great banquet feast that we enjoy at the end of time, the wedding feast of the Lamb. Prayer anticipates eternity. Prayer gives us a foretaste of Heaven in the present.

 

2) Here is another one: Prayer is God’s breath in man returning to his birth. Think about it. You and I are alive because God has breathed life into us. Remember Genesis 2: 7? “The Lord God formed the human being from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the human creature became a living being.” Every time you take a breath, God is breathing life into you, and every time you let your breath out, you are giving your life back to God. Prayer is that breath, drawing in and breathing out. We focus on God, receive God’s Spirit (being “born again”), give ourselves back to God, and then do it all again.

3) Prayer is “the Christian plummet sounding heaven and earth”. The image doesn’t mean much to us, but Herbert’s congregation would have understood. The plummet was a line dropped from a ship as it comes into harbour, showing how deep the water was and helping the pilot bring the ship in. Herbert makes this an image of our life’s journey to Heaven. We are sailing through the dark of night, and our pilot out on the prow of the ship drops a plummet into the water so that we can take one more step, live one more day.

 

“Lead kindly light amid the encircling gloom. Lead Thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home. Lead Thou me on. Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me.” You see Herbert’s idea. Prayer shows us the next step to take in our lives. We can’t see the road ahead, but God shows us the step ahead.

 

4) Now for a surprising and difficult one. Prayer is our “Engine against th’ Almighty, sinner’s tower”. An engine here is an instrument of warfare, when an army attacks a city under siege. Prayer is the instrument with which we complain to God when life overwhelms us and we feel as though God has abandoned us. And, in the great paradox and power of God’s grace and mercy, prayer becomes the sinner’s tower where we go for safety. We cry out against God, and God brings us into a place of safety where we can heal and find new hope and life.

 

Concluding Thought

There are 20 more of these images in this amazing poem, but this gives you a taste. I want to make one more point in closing. we often think of prayer as a private venture; I am impressed how often the prayers in the New Testament are corporate prayers. Everyone was praying together. It seems to me that prayer – communion with God – is best when it is part of our own private practice (like breathing in and breathing out) and when it is fundamental to our life as a congregation. We pray in our worship service and in our committee meetings.

 

Herbert says that prayer is our soul’s blood. Without God we are nothing and have nothing. In prayer, we give ourselves to God and receive ourselves again. I encourage you to find the ways to pray that work for you and to receive from God the abundant life he has promised us.

 

 

Texts:

Acts 2: 42-47

Life among the Believers

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. ⁴³ Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵ they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. ⁴⁶ Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

 

 John 10: 1-10

Jesus the Good Shepherd

10 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁷ So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Looking Ahead Question: When Easter is over and done, what do we who live as God's people do with it?

 

Theme: Being the people who follow the Good Shepherd (we really are sheep!) forms us into a community who worship God and love each other.

 

Going Deeper Questions:

1. The sermon focused on prayer this morning. Do you think that prayer really is the centre of our communal life? If it isn’t, should it be? Or should something else be the basic reason we gather together? If so, what is that something else?

 

2. How do you pray? Do you prefer spontaneous or set prayers? What way of sitting or standing or kneeling makes it easier for you to pray?

 

3. How has prayer helped you to function as a Christian? As a person in general?

 

4. Is public prayer or private prayer more important in your life? Why? Which do you think should be more important?

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church

30 April 2023

 

Easter Sermon

We began our service with the words with which Christians have marked the resurrection for two thousand years: “Christ is Risen!” “He is risen indeed!” We say these words, and we mean them; but this has been a hard week. Two funerals, and the echoes and ongoing loss of at least two other deaths. We have lived in the pain of Good Friday for more than just a day. Grief and loss are all around us, and the affirmation of Jesus’ resurrection takes energy that we barely have and faith that we only partly feel. The words are nevertheless true. Christ is risen! Jesus has conquered death! We are able to live with hope and joy because he died and rose from the dead.

Matthew 28

Our text tells the story. The disciples had lost everything. They had watched their Lord and friend killed on a Roman cross. They had buried him in a grave that Joseph of Arimathea had made, presumably intending to use it for himself or other members of his family. Jesus had to be buried somewhere, and Joseph offered his grave, cut out of a rock. Jesus was laid there on Friday evening, and then all observed the Sabbath. We assume that the disciples grieved silently on the Sabbath, hiding from the crowds. And then on Sunday morning, early – before others were up and about – some women went to the grave.

Matthew names Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” (27:56 – mother of James and Joseph, or mother of James and John), but Luke adds “and the other women”. So, a group of women led by Mary Magdalene and the mother of some of the disciples. These women went to the grave to grieve, to see where the body of the one they loved lay. How often have you or I gone to the grave of someone we love. My mother died in May 1991. This past week, my older sister sent me a picture of the plot and headstone where she and my father lie buried. We remember, and they were grieving and remembering.

Then something none of us has ever experienced happened. There was an earthquake. The stone blocking the grave was rolled away. An angel appeared and sat on the stone, frightening the guards who were supposed to keep people away so that they fled. The angels spoke to the women, “Be not afraid. Sing out for joy. Christ is risen, Alleluia!!” John 20 tells us that Jesus had a special word for Mary, but Matthew notes only that Jesus then appeared, that they worshipped him, and that he sent them to the disciples to tell them that he was alive.

History or Principle?

Some people suggest that this only a good story, meant to help us keep hoping in the face of dangers and troubles in this world. Are they right, or did it really happen? John Dickson is an Australian historian who has written a little book called Is Jesus History? He notes that there are rules for historical inquiry by which we can tell how likely a story is to be true. By the cannons of history, he suggest, the New Testament is histoprically accurate.

Dickson tells of an Australian judge, well respected for his ability to sift evidence in the courtroom, who spent the last years of his life evaluating the evidence of the New Testament to see if it would have made a trustworthy testimony in his courtroom. The judge himself was agnostic about the existence of God and expected to find that the story of the resurrection was a story designed to give hope, not the record of what actually happened. His conclusion was that by all the canons of history, the record of the resurrection is trustworthy. The gospel writers recorded truth faithfully. Jesus lived, and died, and rose from the dead.

If that is true, the passage we read this morning is not just a story meant to help us hope in the darkness. It is instead the reminder that death itself has been defeated on the cross. Jesus walked the path of life that every one of us walks. Jesus came up to the end of his life, knowing full well that his ministry would end on the cross. He died, and then God raised him from the dead.

The World We Live In

When we look around, we see great beauty and goodness, and we see all kinds of danger threatening to overwhelm us. When we look at the beauty, we can believe that God is Creator. We see love and delight in the way that people help each other and the enjoyment we have in a good friendship. But then a friend dies, or a family disintegrates, or a storm system destroys our home. We see the problems of our world, and we wonder what hope there is for the future.

What is reality? Is reality the friend who helped me out when I needed a friend? Or is reality the friend who stabbed me in the back and destroyed my hopes? Is reality the beauty of the Rocky Mountains or the Great Plains, or is reality the possibility that we have already passed the point of no return with climate change?

In short, which is stronger – good or evil? Who wins – God or Satan? Our head says that God and good are stronger, but sometimes we wake up in the night and we’re not so sure. Let me tell you something: There is no shame in doubting the goodness of our world. The problems we face are real, and we take them seriously. Let me tell you something else: Our fears and our doubts are not the last word. The women came to the tomb full of fear and doubt, and then the angel rolled away the stone and dispelled their fear, and they worshipped the risen Jesus.

We should perhaps not be too surprised at this resurrection story. Where does a tree growing in your yard come from? It came from another tree that dropped a seed – perhaps an acorn – as it got older. From that acorn another oak tree grew in its place. The analogy is imperfect, but it shows a pattern in which all of us participate. Where did I come from? My parents have died, but they gave me life and I am here. When I die, my sons and their wives take my place. Where did they come from? From me and Lois, just as we came from our parents. I trace this pattern of dying and continuing in one’s children back six generations in North America – I am the son of David, the son of John, the son of Peter, the son of David, the son of Martin, the son of Johann Heinrich Kleimenhagen, the first of our family to come to Canada from Germany 240 years ago.

There’s death and new life for you. Every one of us is a testimony to new life coming out of the death of our parents. This is a basic pattern in all of created nature. Jesus simply took this basic truth of reality to a new level and promised each of us that our own deaths likewise are the door to new life with him.

What Does This Mean for us Today?

I grew up in the Brethren in Christ Church in Zimbabwe. When I taught in Zimbabwe in the early 1970s, there were about 5,000 members of the BIC Church there. Then came the Liberation War, and the people suffered greatly. The mission schools were closed, and those who could moved from their rural homes into the cities. At the request of the church there, the BIC missionaries who remained were brought back to North America in 1977.

I remember my last General Conference there in August 1974. A missionary named Luke Keefer preached a sermon on the filling of the Holy Spirit. After the sermon, pastors and deacons, leaders of the church pressed to the front of the church building singing, “Woza Moya Oyingcwele” (“Come, Holy Spirit”). I was one of them, singing and praying for God’s Spirit to fill me. When we were all finished singing and praying and searching together, the man beside me asked, “Have you been filled with the Spirit?” I said, “Yes.” I asked, “Have you?” He said, “No.” I met him again two months later, and he told me with great excitement that he had now been filled with the Spirit. What he and so many others in the church received was the presence and power of God to endure the Liberation War. When the war ended and the churches reopened, the church that had been 5,000 members was now 20,000.

What did the resurrection mean for the church in Zimbabwe? It meant that the darkest days of the war were only the prelude to the light of the resurrection. Even today, when Zimbabwe still struggles with economic problems that make life increasingly difficult, the resurrection reminds us that the darkness lasts only for a night, and joy comes in the morning.

I have lived in four countries – Zambia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and Canada. Each one of them has its problems and failures. I wonder sometimes if we have any real future. Human sin and conflict make life look almost hopeless. But Jesus rose from the dead, and his resurrection reminds us that no problem, no conflict in this world is hopeless. The war in Ukraine? Fears of climate change? Duelling judges in the United States? Politicians who care more about lining their own pocket than doing public good? They are all here, and Christ died to redeem each one of them. The resurrection is our evidence that Jesus can and will heal the world.

A friend of mine, Patrick Franklin (former theologian at providence Seminary), wrote the following Easter meditation:

What difference does the Resurrection of Jesus make? Christian belief in the resurrection is misunderstood and misguided if taken to imply a kind of escapist pipedream optimism, which distracts us for a short time … from the troubles, challenges, and sufferings we face in the world. … But this is not what characterized the earliest Christians who were witnesses and devotees of the Risen Jesus and whose experience of the Resurrection radically altered their existence. For them, the Resurrection meant that death does not have the last word, and therefore its instruments and servants – fear, despair, lies or untruth, sickness, poverty, egoism, apathy, hatred, violence, and the preservation of self and tribe by any means possible – are exposed as deceivers and destroyers. …

The Resurrection led the early Christians not into escapism and disengagement, but to enter villages and towns ravaged by sickness and plague to care for the sick and dying. To share their own resources – “everything they had” – among them “so that there were no needy persons among them” (Acts 4:32-35). …

The Resurrections means . . .

- That we will have conflict, but we are not to make enemies or return evil for evil.

- That we will face suffering, sacrifice, and death, but we are not to give in to despair or escapism. …

- That we will face the ‘will to power’ in our politicians, leaders, institutions, traditions, histories, fellow human beings, and – if we’re honest – in ourselves! – but we can also embrace the Spirit’s power to will the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, and to love our neighbours … as we love ourselves …

- That we will feel alone, disconnected, divided, alienated, misunderstood, and hated, but we are not to become jaded, resentful, and suspicious, but to fix our vision … on the reconciliation that Christ [has] achieved, that we have been made brothers and sisters in Christ (whether we like each other or not), we are the Body of Christ, the household of God – a family defined not by blood ties and ethnocentric and xenophobic tribal loyalties, but by the “new birth,” by baptism, by love, by faith, and ultimately by the saving, reconciliatory act of God, our common Creator …

This holy Easter weekend, I choose … to align (and re-align) my vision – my faith, hope, and love – to the Risen Lord in light of the Resurrection of the Son of God. May the new creation that is dawning in him – by the Spirit’s presence and power – dawn more fully and powerfully in me; may it dawn more fully and powerfully in the church …; and may it dawn more fully and powerfully in the world, that we in all our created, beautiful diversity and multiplicity might be one in Spirit and in Truth. … 

So Also for Us

We have experienced our own struggles and hardships these past weeks, and all this is true for us as well. We come to see Jesus, and we find him risen from the dead! We come with our fears and frustrations, and he gives us new life and strength to forge ahead.

Thirty-two years ago, my father-in-law died on Easter Sunday. I remember the phone call. We were visiting my parents from Easter Weekend, and my mother woke us up early in the morning to say that Lois’ Dad had just died of cardiac arrest brought on by his cancer. We got up and packed and drove immediately to her home to be with her mother and family.

We had the funeral service and imagined her father singing in the choir in heaven. After the service, we drove to the cemetery. After the words of committal, they lowered the casket into the grave. As it was being lowered, I saw our younger son start to sing. He was about four years old, and his favourite song was “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” I stepped over to stop him, since I thought that was really not appropriate, and then I heard what he was singing. A song from Sunday School, “One, two three, Jesus loves me. Number four, more and more. Five, six, seven, we’re all going to heaven. Eight, nine, ten, he’s coming back again.”

I stepped back and let him sing. He had it right. Because Jesus lived and died and rose from the dead, we also live and die – and rise with him. And Jesus says to all of us, as he did to the women that morning, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go back home; there they will see me.” Or, as we sang it this morning, “Be not afraid. Sing out for joy. Alleluia! Christ is risen!”

Resurrection Sunday 2023

Steinbach Mennonite Church

Beginning Thoughts

1. God wants all people to be reconciled with God and with each other. God wants this reconciliation so much that Jesus died – and rose from the dead – to accomplish it. We live in the reality of this cosmic shift from death and alienation to life forever with God.

2. Text: Matthew 28: 1 to 10.

The Resurrection of Jesus

28 After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. ² And suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. ⁴ For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. ⁵ But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he^[a] lay. ⁷ Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead,^[b] and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” ⁸ So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹ Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers and sisters to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

3. Remembering the resurrection of Jesus can become routine with annual Easter celebrations. Can you see with your inner eye what really happened that first Resurrection Sunday? How does what happened re-orient our lives and help us to live in a world where death appears to be in charge?

Shaped Through Thirst

Water 

Forty some years ago, Keith Green sang a medley ending with a joyful shout from John 4: 

I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me! Makes the lame to walk, and the blind to see. 

Opens prison doors, sets the captives free! I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me! 

Spring up, O well, within my soul! Spring up, O well, and make me whole! 

Spring up, O well, and give to me That life abundantly. 

 

Water. Water is life. Without water, we die. 

 

In October 2003, Lois and I drove from Johannesburg, South Africa to Windhoek, Namibia, passing through the Kalahari Desert in Botswana – normally about a 15-hour drive. On the third morning of what should have been a two-day trip, we left a Rest Stop named Kang, hoping to reach Windhoek. (Yes, there’s a longer story here, which I won’t tell now.) 

 

An hour later, we sat by the road with general electrical failure. October is the hottest month of the year in that part of the world, and we were broken down in the desert. A passing motorist picked me up and took me back to Kang, where I found an auto-electrician, who took me back to our car. He found four blown fuses in the car and bridged them with copper wire so that we could drive again. 

 

While I was gone, Lois and our sons waited in the 40-degree heat. They kept all of our water as well as the water that the people who picked me up were carrying. They used most of that water by the time we got back, and we finished it by the time we reached the next rest stop in Namibia. That night, as we sat around our supper, we reflected on waiting in the hot sun, with only the water that we carried. Nevin spoke up and said, “You know, when Jesus talks about the water of life, I think I understand him better now.” 

 

Water is life. Without water, we die. We are in the season of Lent, and often people fast – perhaps giving up chocolate or coffee for Lent. Some years, I have fasted for a day a week through Lent. I would eat breakfast on Thursday, fast for lunch and supper (using that time for prayer), and then eat breakfast on Friday. But you don’t fast from water for extended periods of time. Water is life. Without water, we die. 

 

John 4 

That’s why the woman came to the well. Evidently, she was something of an outsider in her village Sychar. Our text tells us that she came to the well at noon – the hottest time of the day. Most people came to the well in the morning or evening. It seems she was trying to avoid other people, perhaps because she had been in so many bad relationships that she no longer trusted anyone. 

 

She certainly responds to Jesus’ request for a drink of water with suspicion. “Why do you ask me for a drink? You’re a man; I’m a woman. You’re a Jew; I’m a Samaritan. What are you trying to do?” 

 

Well, what was Jesus doing? He was walking from Judea to Galilee, a journey of about 100 miles. Sychar was about halfway along, two or three days walk from Jerusalem. Walking is hot work, and, when they got to Sychar, the disciples went into the village to get some food. Jesus was waiting for them when the woman showed up. So his request for a drink of water makes a lot of sense. 

 

The woman’s response also makes sense. She is used to being shunned; she is not used to a Jewish man treating her with respect. Then the conversation took a surprising turn. Jesus tells her that she should be asking him for a drink of living water. “I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me!” You can also almost see her ears perk up as she tries to figure out what he’s talking about. 

 

She asks, “Is your water even better than this amazing well, dug by our ancestor Jacob?” He replies, “Jacob’s well gives you physical life. My water gives you eternal life!” He redirects her from the physical to the spiritual. Jesus does this often. The wine at the wedding in John 2 becomes a sign, explained in John 15, “I am the true vine.” The bread at the feeding of the 5,000 in John 5 becomes living bread, “I am the bread of life.” In chapter 7, John explains this water of life as the Spirit of God, which Jesus gives to those who believe in him. Life by God’s Spirit. Eternal (or abundant) life. 

 

The woman responds with real interest. This sounds great! I’m in! Give me this living water! Jesus says, “Bring your husband [so he can receive it too].” ,Crestfallen she says that she has no husband. Her status as an outcast in her village rises up before her. Jesus makes it clear: “You’ve had five husbands and now live with someone who won’t even marry you.” These are the words of a prophet, who can see clearly into people’s hearts. 

 

If Jesus is a prophet, she thinks, he can tell her how to come back to God. She has been cast out of her own community; perhaps Jesus can tell her where to go. Jesus brings the scene to a climax: “Samaritans worship here at Mount Gerizim; Jews worship in Jerusalem; but real worshippers worship God in spirit and in truth wherever they are. 

 

The woman recognizes that he is now speaking of the coming of God’s Reign and of the Messiah. Jesus says, “I am he.” I am – the title that signals the presence of God; I am he – I am the Messiah. 

 

Out of this amazing story I lift one basic fact: Jesus uses the woman’s physical need to help her recognize her spiritual need. She needs water to live here and now; she needs God – made present in the person of Jesus – to live here and now and forever. 

 

Maslow’s Hierarchy 

This is, I believe, a basic rule of life: Our physical needs point the way to our spiritual needs. You may have run across this idea in your own studies or reading in psychology in something called “Maslow’s Hierarchy”. About 80 years ago, an American psychologist named Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy (or pyramid or ladder) of human needs. He first suggested five levels: physical needs (such as for food and water); the need for safety and security; the need to belong and to be loved; the need for self-esteem; and the need to be fulfilled (what he called “self-actualization”). Maslow suggested that we are driven to meet the basic needs (food and drink and safety and so on) first, and when they are met, we turn to what we might call higher needs (for belonging and developing ourselves to reach our full potential). 

 

Originally, Maslow ended with self-esteem and self-actualization. As he worked with his model, however, he concluded that there are more than five levels and suggested a fuller pyramid (or ladder) with eight levels, thus: 1) physiological; 2) safety; 3) belonging and love; 4) esteem; 5) cognitive (the need to think through and try to understand what happens to us); 6) aesthetic (the drive to create and to find beauty in life); 7) self-actualization; and finally 8) transcendence (which describes what we call our relationship with God). [I take this information from Wikipedia. My own study of this material was many years ago!] 

 

I’m not interested in endorsing or critiquing the theory of personal development found in Maslow’s hierarchy. I note simply this one point – that meeting needs on lower levels points us to meeting needs on higher levels. Once you have eaten enough, you can and should begin to reflect on who made the food you ate. Both the human cook preparing it, and the divine Creator who made it. When you have a home and a safe place to sleep, meeting that need opens your eyes to God who has provided for you. When you get sick, you become aware of Jesus, who is the great physician. When you experience the loss of a loved one, that loss stimulates a deeper awareness of how important family is – both our human family and the family of God. 

 

In short, I believe that our experience of physical needs prepares us and stimulates us to become aware of our deeper spiritual needs. 

 

Jesus 

Jesus said something like this when he taught his disciples to pray. “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed by your name. Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread – meet our physical needs. And forgive us our sins – meet our spiritual needs.” That is the pattern. Physical needs draw us to God for healing or help or food or companionship, and then God in Christ directs our hearts to our spiritual needs. 

 

As we noted above, Jesus uses this same pattern in John’s gospel. He is the true vine, and we are the branches (Jn 15). He is the bread of life (Jn 5). He gives living water (Jn 4). Wine, bread, and water – staples of life in his day – all direct the people’s attention to him to discover the Messiah, the one sent from God with life that satisfies forever. 

 

What Does This Look Like in Real Life? 

You have to be careful with this sort of thing. The movement I am suggesting is that experiencing physical needs can be the door to meeting our spiritual need for God. I believe that is true, but you have to be careful not to suggest that when someone faces a physical need, God is trying to teach them a lesson. When something bad happens to us, we don’t need to say, “Obviously, God did this for my good!” 

 

I think of a couple from my first pastorate in Pennsylvania. They had been trying for some time to have children, and then the wife conceived triplets. All three died within two weeks of their premature birth. Now, 36 years or so later, they might be able to reflect on God’s work through that experience, but our first task together was just to grieve their loss. It hurt, and we should not pretend anything else. 

 

Even with that caution, however, I believe the point stands. God uses our physical needs to draw us closer to God and meet our deepest needs. 

 

The experience of a church in Ukraine is one example. The most recent Christianity Today tells the story of some of the churches in Kherson. The city was occupied by Russia until recently, when Ukraine retook the city. While Kherson was occupied, many people fled the city, and those who remained lived under terrible danger. The pastor of Calvary Baptist Church was one of those who fled when his life was directly threatened. After Ukraine recaptured the city, the pastor returned. He found his apartment just as it had been six months before. He found that three-fourths of his 400 church members had scattered throughout Europe. Of their six pastors, he was the only one able to return. The article continues:

And yet. Throughout the occupation, the remaining church members of Calvary still came together every morning at 10 to pray. Like the early Christians in Acts 2, they gathered daily to break bread, share food, and praise God. … 

Today, 300 new faces have become regular attenders at Calvary. It’s going to challenging when leaders and members come back to an unfamiliar church body …, but it’s a happy challenge ….

The writer of the article interviewed several pastors in Kherson. He asked another pastor, nicknamed James (who had stayed in Kherson), “Don’t you ever regret staying in Kherson?” “Regret? No! No! Never! We are on God’s frontlines. We are ready to meet God at any moment.” 

 

Timothy Keller has noted a similar phenomenon in the way Paul prays for the churches. 

It is remarkable that in all of his writings Paul’s prayers for his friends contain no appeals for changes in their circumstances. It is certain that they lived in the midst of many dangers and hardships. They faced persecution, death from disease, oppression by powerful forces, and separation from loved ones. Their existence was far less secure than ours is today. Yet in these prayers you see not one petition for a better emperor, for protection from marauding armies, or even for bread for the next meal. Paul does not pray for the goods we would usually have near the top of our lists of requests. … Rather, in them he reveals what he asked most frequently for his friends—what he believed was the most important thing God could give them. What is that? It is—to know him better. (Keller, Prayer, p. 20) 

 

Conclusion 

We are in a much less tense situation in Steinbach. We deal mostly with personal problems – health loss and the deaths of loved ones. They are enough! As we experience the physical needs of living in this world, Jesus gently takes our hands and leads us to meet the deepest needs of our lives, to find life with him. 

 

It’s not an easy straight line. You can’t say, “This bad thing that happened to me is good, so I’m just happy.” Or at least not right away. I have been in that space when God’s absence is the only answer to my prayers. I know what that darkness feels like. But I know also that Jesus is with me. When I feel the weakness of this physical body, I hear his voice calling me to go deeper and find him. Like James, the pastor in Kherson, we are on God’s frontlines, and we are ready to meet God at any moment.

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church 

12 March 2023 

 

Focus Statement: Thirst speaks of longing and serious need. Without water, all living things, including humans, die. In both Exodus 17 and John 4, thirst is the driving need and becomes the central metaphor for the heart-need of humans, created in the image of God—a relationship with the living God. 

 

Text:John 4: 5-42 

 

Thinking Ahead Question: 

Have you ever experienced acute physical need? How did the experience affect your relationship with God? 

 

Going Deeper Questions: 

1. I know that you have a story about your longing for God. Could you tell us a bit about it? 

2. How did your spiritual thirst come to be satisfied? How much was a result of your hard work, and how much was because of God’s providence? 

3. How do you experience Jesus daily as your living water? 

 

My Questions: 

1. Why are we so ready to ask God for help when we are in acute physical need? 

2. What do we do with God’s response when we “run out of water”? 

3. Are there any personal stories you are willing to tell the class? 

4. How does God’s presence help us deal with God’s absence?