Message: Faithwalk, A Journey Fueled by living H2O!
You know in the Gospel of John, it seems like the Lord is either making a journey to Jerusalem, or out to the hinterland to where the people living their everyday lives inhabit a land that is unforgiving, in a world that exacted a cost just for survival. The harsh reality of life underlies much of scripture.
And yet among these journeys, travels, and God’s outreach that our Lord continues to make throughout the Gospels, the Good News continues to be conveyed in countless ways to all kinds of different people. The Children of Israel are instructed, nurtured, and even cajoled to a better way by our Lord. And even outsiders, Gentiles and hybrid Faithwalkers like you and me.
Our Samaritan Woman is just one of countless children of God, our Lord extends God’s willing grace and love to. For her, I’m sure that the words Elaine read in today’s Call to Worship reading would hold special meaning personally. Reading again from, Romans 5:6-11;
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
At just the right time in the Samaritan Woman’s life, God came into her life, told her everything that ever happened to her, offered her living water, much like the living water we experience when we take the invitation to be reclaimed, saved, and baptized. Washed and refreshed anew for eternity. Our trust, faith, and acceptance of the Lord’s saving grace, indeed saves us from God’s wrath, because our Lord’s Spirit is alive and at work in each of us adopted into God’s family. At just the right time!
At just the right time, our salvationary calling from God, indeed our journey, your Faithwalk, and new life, began in part, to exists for the long run, into eternity… And they lived happily ever after, the end… No!
No, because there is so much more. Because you are a thinking person, God is going to continue to grow you and me into eternity. Stuff doesn’t just freeze when you have been saved. You are saved to begin your beautiful new life in and with your Lord. A God who loves you, even when you blow it and miss the mark or marks set in your faithwalk in and with Him.
Case in point; the children of Israel (by the way Israel means to struggle with God, and they sure did!), wereloved, nurtured, and provided for, in spite of their nonsense. They journeyed in the wilderness for 40 years before reaching the promised land. Why 40 years, my thought (you have to think this over, pray about it and decide with God for yourself), my thought, because it took 40 years to ween these people off of the Idolatry they learned in Egypt, and that took a whole new generation of offspring.
God’s children are just a mess, and we can learn from their issues by reading about their journey, their Faithwalk, called the Exodus. Their travels are provided in God’s Old Testament, in Exodus also called the Torah, also called Instruction! For additional clarification today, I would like to read from Exodus 17:1-7;
1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
*Interrupting the Narrative to say; Poor Moses! Being God’s middleman is not a fun prospect at all! Thankfully, we do not have a middle man in our Church. You have direct access to God through His Son Jesus Christ. Because you know what living water is, and what it can do, your journey, your Faithwalk in this wilderness called Western Civilization…Is doable, achievable, and yours to own with the Lord! Unfortunately, our Children of Israel in the wilderness were not quite there yet. On to verse 5;
5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
** Massah means testing, and
Meribah means quarreling.
Out of the blue, I would say; a road trip to Nebraska is too long, let alone 40 years… to have to live on a steady diet of Massah / testing, and Meribah / quarrelling! No doubt in my mind, my dad would have pulled the car over. Our Father of Heaven, would have His own ways to grow the children of Israel in the wilderness, and you and I in the here and now, and along the way and still love us in spite of us. No matter how blemished and scarred the journey.
For we are all on a journey. As mentioned earlier, our wilderness (modernity) is beset with technology, and conveniences, undreamed of a generation ago, not to mention how far beyond the comprehension people in Moses’ day could have imagined. Never have people been as pampered and provided for as you and I living in this country at this time. And yet we face our own journeys with plenty of Massah / testing, and Meribah / quarrelling!
Even in the midst of living water, our baptism and the Lord’s grace does not prevent our enduring; testing and quarreling at times. In fact, some times it seems like the testing, quarrelling, and strife increases as our desire to follow Christ increases.
So how do we go about focusing on following our Lord, listening to the promptings of His Holy Spirit, and learn to love God and our neighbor more honestly, deeply, and sincerely? That’s the big question of the moment. How to stay on track in our desire to follow and be more like our Lord. To be responsive to His desires in our lives.
This is not a new idea that I am posing for you all today. For as long as there have been a family of God, people who sincerely wanted to be a part of God’s eternal plans, and have meaning in their lives, have searched their hearts for answers. David as King didn’t stop the sole searching and reaching out to the Lord in song, word and psalm. In fact, here is a psalm reflecting thanksgiving, reframe, and joy, from a man after God’s own heart. Reading from Psalm 95;
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
*Interrupting David to say; This indeed composes an important aspect of our journey, our Faithwalk in the Lord. Joy, thanksgiving, and song reflect a journey fueled by the living waters of the Rock of our salvation! On to verse 3;
3 For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
**Cutting in again to say; And that is why we are here today my beloved family in God. To praise, glorify, and magnify His Holy and Precious Name before all others. Now David will give us some advice that will be reminiscent to the wanderings, journeys, and faithwalks in the wilderness of our lives. Verse 7b on;
Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 where your ancestors tested me;
they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10 For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
God was so angry with Israel at Meribah and Massah (the place of testing and quarrelling), that David is recalling God’s displeasure two hundred years later. So that the people in David’s time and you and I today won’t repeat that mistake of testing and quarrelling, with God, other people and ourselves.
Remember that generation remained to the end of their lives in the wilderness, not reaching the promised land in this existence. So, let me reiterate David sincerely for all to hear; Today, if only you would hear his voice,
8 “Do not harden your hearts…
Because life is so much more when it is fueled by living water, that come from the rock of our salvation. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But how do I stay focused, on target, and faithful to God?
How do we go about loving God with all we are, and loving our neighbor as ourselves? Especially when it seems like I am mad at the world half the time, and leery of what the world has to offer the other half. Maybe, just maybe, we are looking at too much of the goal at one time and getting overwhelmed by thoughts of how hard it is to be a Christian, that some of us are giving up before we even get started down that road of a Faithwalk.
Perhaps a thought, and this is all it is my thought. You are tasked with the heavy lifting of prayers, study, and thinking with God for yourselves. My thought is if we start with the basics, and then grow with God from there. By basics, I mean using the KISS method of Keep It Simple Steve (or stupid), and begin with Prophet Micah’s instruction from God. Reading Micah 6:8;
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you? …
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Now that’s a journey that is ever more with time and practice; fueled, mentored, and sustained by our Lord. (With you!) Unique and special to each one of us. And when we do this and go down that road, that journey of a Faithwalk, little by little the Lord can walk with us and help us build, or rebuild our lives in and with Him!
When people humbly live life, I believe our hearts are open to the prompting of God’s Spirit, and little by little our faith grows as we are able or willing to grow in the Lord. And everyone is invited to this promenade, the parade of the spirit, this journey of life. Even undesirables, like the Samaritan Woman, who was not and is not undesirable to our God! Reading today’s Message reading, John 4:1-10;
1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
*Interrupting the narrative to say; That it doesn’t matter who baptizes, when it is the Holy Spirit and the actual person being Baptized that mean everything. Our Lord is a part of every Baptism, because we house His Spirit in our hearts. Leaving the semantics of legalism behind, our Lord will now take the Gospel to a new demographic, you and me, outsiders! On to verse 4;
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
**Interrupting again to say; All good Jews would avoid walking through Samaria. They would cross the Jordan river and go north or south to reach their destination rather than mix with Samarians. Our Lord is going to turn church exceptionalism upon its face and lead by example. Verse 7;
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
This conversation will continue and the people of the town will ask the Lord to stay with them. Our Samarian woman is one of the first missionaries to share God’s Good News with all of the willing. People open to the promptings of God’s Spirit, and the living water of God will fuel by His Holy Spirit; journeys, Faithwalks, and lives in and with our Lord.
Like all of us, the further down the road any of us travel with and in our Lord, the more we will hopefully learn to;
- Act justly
- Love mercy
- Walk humbly with God
And through that walk with practice learn to;
- Love God with all we are, and
- Love the people God places in our lives.
The above are what I believe to be components that make up a person’s Faithwalk, and all the above are fueled by living water provided by our God’s Holy Spirit. May all of you thrive in your walk in Him.
Amen!
Benediction; Romans 5:1-5,
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.