Living Water: Gushing Water

SERMON TITLE:   “Living Water:  Gushing Water”
SERMON TEXT:    John 4:1-19, 39-42
PREACHER:           Rev. Kim James
OCCASION:           August 8, 2021, at First UMC
 
 
INTRODUCTION
 
                Early on Tuesday morning, when the volunteers were harvesting vegetables from the church garden, Betty Christian got squirted in the face.  I didn’t see it, but I heard about it later.  Apparently a raccoon had chewed a hole through the drip irrigation line.  In the previous week, we learned that deer had been grazing in the garden.  Now we’ve found out that thirsty raccoons have been helping themselves to our water lines.  So instead of the nice slow drip on just the plants in the row, our irrigation system gave Betty a face full of gushing water.
                In this summer of 2021, it seems like water is really on our radar.  Sometimes we’re talking about extreme drought, the lowest-ever-recorded water levels, and limitations on water usage.  Other times, we’re talking about downpours and flash floods that have threatened homes and lives.  Not just here in Utah, but in so many places around the world, either too little or too much water has been a problem.  And, many times, both have been true in the very same place, as it’s going to take a lot more than a few downpours to refill our dried-up reservoirs, lakes, and wells.
                Because the lack of water is such an issue this summer, we’re spending some weeks refreshing ourselves in the living water stories from the Gospel of John.  We began with the wedding story in John 2 in which Jesus made wine from transforming water.  Then we read the Jesus-and-Nicodemus story in John 3, in which life was made possible because of birthing water.  And now, we find ourselves in John 4, with Jesus and the Samaritan woman.  Let’s dip our buckets into this well of living water that Jesus describes as “gushing water.” 

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