Thirsty for God's Goodness

Exodus 17:1-7

A sermon by K. Toivanen at EMUC, 10/5/2008

I was awakened on Saturday morning by a call from a neighbour asking if we had any water flowing in our taps. I went to check and sure enough when I turned on the faucet, nothing came out.

As someone who resists buying bottled water for environmental reasons, I didn’t have much of a water supply on hand; a bit left over in the kettle to make a cup of tea for breakfast, and in order to wash even my face and hands, I had to resort to bailing a bit of water out of the toilet tank (the tank not the bowl!!). Thankfully, the broken water main in my neighbourhood was repaired before noon and water was restored.

It was a brief reminder to me of how much we depend upon water and yet how much we take it for granted until it stops flowing from out taps. I was only inconvenienced for one morning and according to the World Heath Organization, I can live for 5 days without water. Yet, I can’t imagine what it must be like to be in a place, as many are in this world where drinking water is hard to find.

In this world, mostly in Africa, there are at least one billion people who must walk three hours or more to get water to drink. In Zambia, for example women and children on average walk seven km one way to get water at a borehole.

In Jerusalem, a Palestinian waiter in a local hotel explains to KAIROS visitors that he must get up at 1 am to fill water bottles during the one hour each day that the taps are turned on in his town.

Even here in Canada, where we assume that we are ‘water rich’, far too many First Nations communities and some rural communities must boil water before consumption.

In the ongoing saga of the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites, today’s story is about a basic human need; that of the need for water. In this barren wilderness, after traveling for days in the hot sun, their water reserves have run out and they are thirsty. As they view the dry and parched landscape, they see no signs of water.

And so the story unfolds in much the same way as it did last week. They complain to Moses, "Why did you take us from Egypt and drag us out here with our children and our livestock to die of thirst?"

It seems that even though God showed them a way through the waters of the Red Sea and even though God rained down bread upon them when they were hungry, they have a short term memory. Whatever trust they have in Moses and in God is very short lived.

What is becoming clearer for me week after week as we look at life from the perspective of the Israelites, is that whenever they come up against a challenge - a bump in the road or a new problem, they immediately go to a place of scarcity…a place of believing that there are no resources to be found to sustain life. In spite of previous experiences of sustenance in their journey of freedom, they blame leaders for failing them and God for abandoning them.

We may not be in a barren wilderness, wondering where our next drink of water is to be found, but we too can go to that same place of scarcity, complaint and mistrust.

It’s a perspective that often dogs the church. From time to time we’ve all heard it or even said it ourselves: ‘There is never enough money, never enough time, never enough resources, never enough committed people to be the church that Christ calls us to be". And so many church communities move into a survival mode of bickering and complaining and simply trying to hang on for one more month.

It’s a perspective that dogs our personal lives… we don’t have enough money for what we think we need, enough savings for retirement, enough free time, enough love, enough personal satisfaction in our jobs, and so we become embittered and resentful of those whom we think have everything and more.

It’s a perspective that dogs a consumer culture…we can never have enough stuff, we can never keep up with the latest technology and what’s more we live in a world where there is clearly a scarcity of energy and resources such as water.

We wish the world were otherwise, we wish we had it in us to be more, to do more and to have more, but the more we complain the more bone-dry our spirits grow; the more we wonder if anything or anyone can refresh us, our churches or our world.

The trouble is that with all our murmuring and complaining it’s pretty hard to hear anything above the din, it’s pretty hard to hear the sound of water trickling through the rocks; it’s pretty hard to see the amazing life that thrives even in a barren wilderness.

But is there a way out of this endless cycle perpetual dissatisfaction and complaint or do we simply resign ourselves to a life of never having enough?

I think that we can begin to move out of this cycle, not by denying that we are thirsty, but by redirecting our thirst for God - to seek refreshment in God’s way of living and being; or as Jesus would put it ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness.’

Blessed are those who thirst for God’s goodness and blessing not just for themselves, but for all peoples and creation.

For when we join with others to love our neighbour, to live with respect in creation, to seek justice for the poor and oppressed, we discover that there is an abundance of water bubbling up within us and around us, refreshing the dry and parched places in our lives and in this world…

• it’s bubbling up as people in Palestine and Israel come together to talk through their conflicts and to find a way forward in peace;
• it’s bubbling up as we consciously choose to find sources of energy that don’t contribute to global warming or to the pollution of our water, air or land.
• it’s bubbling up as we lift up water as a sacred gift, not as a commodity to be bought and sold for profit
• it’s bubbling up as give of our time at foodbanks and breakfast clubs and as we support food-drives over the next week or so;
• it’s bubbling up as we support the work of our church and other humanitarian organizations in rebuilding communities devastated by hurricanes or earthquakes;
• it’s bubbling up in the work of the UCC’s healing fund with Aboriginal peoples and in those who are working to embody the Canadian apology to Native Peoples;
• it’s bubbling up in this congregation as we pray for those in sickness and need, as celebrate the giftedness of each person and make a place for young and old at Christ’s table.
• it’s bubbling up when we turn away from complaining about what tomorrow may bring and turn to rejoicing in the life God gives to us today.

Where is this refreshment bubbling up in your life? How are you offering God’s refreshment to others?

May we turn this day from lives of complaint to lives refreshed by the goodness of God and so let us pray:

God of tiny streams and raging rivers,

God of lakes and oceans,

God of deep wells and underground springs,

we give thanks to you for the life

that has bubbled up among us this week.

Thank you for the refreshment you give to us each day

as quench our thirst for meaning and purpose.

You draw us into relationships of nurture, compassion and respect.

And when we grow weary and feel parched by circumstances

that demand too much of us, we are grateful that your strength

and your love for us does not dry up.

Thank you God, for inviting us to share of your abundance.

Through our partnerships with church outreach groups,

and health and development groups we rejoice

that we can bring hope and refreshment to others

as we build wells together, as we clean up polluted waters,

as we help to rebuild after floods and other water related disasters.

We give thanks for the privilege and responsibility of living in Canada,

a country rich in resources and abundant in fresh water.

We give thanks for the water shed in our area

which sustains such a variety of life.

O God sustain us with your life-giving water and

be for us always a fountain of life and a river of hope. Amen.