of us, at one time or another, have had similar encounters. Although we didn t have Jesus

Transcription

1 Filling Your Bucket Sermon for March 23 The rather lengthy Gospel lesson from John today is about an encounter with Christ. All of us, at one time or another, have had similar encounters. Although we didn t have Jesus standing right in front of us, like the woman who came to the well, we can relate with her puzzlement, her questions, and her excitement as she talks with Jesus. Jesus meets us where we are, accepts us no matter who we are, and lifts us beyond the mundane of human existence into something much deeper, more fulfilling and lasting. That is the power of the Gospel message, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit and our encounters with Christ are every bit as real as is the woman at the well. The encounter with Christ begins at the community well. A woman has come to fill her water bucket, and finds Jesus sitting there resting and avoiding the noon day heat. Right away this tells us something about the woman. The fact that it is almost noon before she gets water says that either she liked to sleep in, or she didn t want to go to the well when anyone else was around. The women of the village all went out to get their water buckets filled about three or four hours earlier. Either the woman worked nights, which given her history might have been literally true, or else she wanted to avoid the impolite stares, the whispered innuendoes and the outright hostility that would accompany her sojourn into so called polite company. When she finds Jesus sitting there a second unique thing happens, Jesus speaks to her, asking for a cup of water. This just wasn t done! Men did not approach unaccompanied females, and more important unaccompanied females would never talk to single men, it was a social taboo. Not only that, but this was a Jewish man, and a Samaritan woman, which made it even worse, because Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies. Yet the woman enters into

2 conversation with Jesus, which shows either her distain for society s values, or her desperation to get out of her current situation. The conversation begins innocently enough with water and buckets. The woman has come to get her bucket filled. There was a Nebraskan by the name Donald O Clifton who back in the 60 s had an interesting idea. The idea was that perhaps he could help people by asking them what they thought about things. If he could find out what was on people s minds, perhaps he could figure out ways to help them. So he started a little company, a polling enterprise where he would have folks call and ask people their opinions. At the time it seemed a kind of stupid idea, but he persisted. This little polling operation is now called the Gallup Corporation, a multi-national mega company headquartered in Omaha, NE, that not only still does polling but consults with businesses, government and one of their biggest clients, churches. In the very first of many books he authored Dr Clifton tells a story, he calls it the Mystery of the Dipper and the Bucket. Let me share it briefly from Don Clifton s own words. You have heard of the cup that overflowed. This is the story of a bucket that is like that cup, only larger, an invisible bucket. Everyone has one. It is always with us. It determines how we feel about ourselves, about others, and how we get along with people. Have you ever experienced a series of very favorable things, which made you want to be good to people for a week? When this happens your bucket is full to overflowing. But remember this is a theory about a bucket and a dipper. Other people have dippers and they can get their dippers in your bucket. Think of the times a person makes a mistake, feels

3 terrible about it, only to have someone tell him about the mistake as though he did not know it happened. That person got his dipper in my bucket! The story of our lives is the interplay of the bucket and the dipper. Everyone has both. The secret of the bucket and the dipper is that when you fill another s bucket it does not take anything out of your own bucket. The level in our own bucket gets higher when we fill another s and on the other hand, when we dip into another bucket we do not fill our own, we lose a little. I believe this applies to our stewardship of money and time as well. When we give of ourselves, be it as a volunteer or monetary support of a congregation or a cause, we are not diminished by it, we are enriched by it. People who tithe will tell you that even though we give 10% of what we have to God, there is still more than enough left over to live. Tithing doesn t empty our bucket, it fills it. The woman came to the well to get her bucket filled, but it was filled in a way she could never have imagined. Jesus promises her living water, a different king of water that will fill her soul and revive her spirit and make her a new and better person. We all get offered this living water, whenever we encounter Jesus. Come to the well and drink, fill your bucket, be revived in spirit and in strength. The grace of God is available to all even those of us whose lives are so parched and dry we just feel like shriveling up and dying. Our woman at the well is a tough nut to crack, however. She replies to Jesus offer of living water with a sarcastic comment. Give me this water, she says, so I will never have to come here and draw water again. Remember how at the beginning it seemed like she wasn t too keen on showing up at the well anyway? This comment maybe said more about her than she imagined to a person with the empathy and astuteness of Jesus.

4 Jesus accepted her sarcasm, and gives her one better. Where is your husband? Go get him and bring him back here. It is at this moment the woman realized this encounter will change her life forever. Her response, I have no husband is technically true, but Jesus sees through her like a two way mirror, sees into her very soul. Her life is a mess, five husbands, living with another man and coming to the well at noon. Jesus sees into our souls as well. No sense trying to hide our negative stuff, our baggage and our shortcomings because God knows. But the good news is that God knows us, and still loves us, and that is what changes the woman. Again I look at our stewardship of money and time. There are some things we can t hide from God, and our check book is one of them. If you really want to know what a person values, look at their check stubs. This will tell you more about the person than anything else they might do or say. Following the verbal sparring the woman asks Jesus a serious subject. I have often thought as I read this text that the Bible should put three little dots, or a pause in parenthesis after the woman says, I see you are a prophet. Because clearly with her next question about where to worship God, she is deliberately changing the subject and you can tell she is uncomfortable in doing so. She figures a good theological discussion will take the pressure off. Let s debate the best place to worship, Jerusalem for the Jews, a distant but visible Mountain for the Samaritans. But even this ploy to stick her dipper in Jesus bucket backfires. Jesus points out to her that the place to worship God is right here, and the time to worship God is right now. The worship of God can t be confined to a single location, or a specific moment. It is always the right time to worship God, and there is no place on earth God cannot be. It is the spirit that matters not time or physical location.

5 Ask the guys from the church who make meals for the homeless sheltered at Prima Vera if they aren t worshipping when they fry up thos chicken dinners in the kitchen on Saturday afternoon. Ask the women who come on Thursday to pray for others, or ask the youth when they get home from the annual Good Friday hike in the mountains. I think they will all tell you that time and place are not essential to our encounters with God. They can happen any time, and anywhere. After her encounter with Christ the woman is so excited she can t wait to tell others about her experience. Come and see she says, can he be the messiah, she asks. We are changed in similar ways when we meet the risen Lord. It changes us, redirects us, focuses us, and energizes us. The Living Water is ours to use. Let it flow through your soul, bath in its beauty, and thank God for our precious Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.