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Come Everyone Who Is Thirsty When our family was younger, we enjoyed the occasional holiday away, camping. Camping, I soon found out, was not quite as idyllic as many make it out to be – unless of course the basic essentials are laid on quite close to the site. By that I mean that ideally there is some electric or gas powered cooker; there is a toilet reasonably close, some shelter which might pass as a shower enclosure, and above all – there has to be water close by. In the places where we camped, the water tap was about 50 metres away, and with a young family at the time, the carrying of a couple of 20 or 30 litre plastic jerry cans two or three times a day soon lost its romantic appeal. After the first couple of days of extensive water use, I soon gave strict instructions on how to use the water, and how much the children could use for various activities. We began to appreciate what we usually took for granted - that at home we have a virtually unlimited supply of clean safe drinking water, on tap, 24hours of the day or night. Today, we are launching our Christian World Service Christmas Appeal. – ( though its actually a week early ) - and the theme is “Water, the gift of Life”. I recently discovered that if I were a Masai living in Kenya, I would consume only about 10 litres of water per day, and that would have to suffice for all my needs. (A big bucketful!) That’s probably all I would have available for me. Here in NZ the figure is somewhere between 250 – 500 litres of water per day per person. In our house I have counted 10 taps plus a shower mixer. We don’t have to walk kilometers every day, not even 20 metres, but at any moment, with the turn of the tap, and from each one of them, we have fresh, clean, safe water instantly available. In Zimbabwe, the Council of Churches, in partnership with our NZ Christian World Service which promotes our Christmas Appeal on behalf of the churches, is encouraging and supporting local communities to build their own concrete water tanks in what is known as ‘water harvesting’ projects. Now most Kiwis would think it obvious that tanks should be installed to collect the run off from the roof, so that it can be saved and stored - but in most villages where life is barely at the level of existence, the cost of such installations are prohibitive. Instead, families must trudge kilometers each day to collect water which in most cases is neither safe nor fit to drink. I would like to suggest that, by way of our support for the Christmas Appeal this year, that each family make a donation equivalent to $1 per tap in their home. In your Parish Magazine, the Messenger, you will receive a brochure/come envelope, in which you can seal your donation and place it in the offertory bag any Sunday. It will be your special Christmas Gift to others, and a reminder of that precious gift of water which God has given us so abundantly in this country – and which we take for granted. What we give will change the lives – and even save the lives – of many others where life is lived on the very edge of existence. For many villagers, the availability of clean and safe water close by will make the difference between having hope and having no hope! And that is the first of our Advent themes this year – Hope! Before there can be any searching or longing for peace, or joy or love – there must first be hope! Hope is about expectation; its about possibilities; its about anticipation. Have you ever had a car battery go flat on you? You turn the key and nothing happens! Immediately you get that sinking feeling in your stomach because you know you aren’t going anywhere! You have no hope of making the journey you planned unless you can get a jump start, or a new battery. Hope is like that! If we don’t have it – we aren’t going anywhere! And people who have no water – have no hope. Hope will dies in peoples hearts if there is not, at least, the basic necessities of life – and that includes water. In Gloucester, near Cromwell House, there is what looks like an old stone-block bus shelter. It has a steep slate roof and an earth floor. It is beside a road and close to large trees and surrounding bush. It reminds me very much of the old bus-shelter which used to be beside St. Paul's Anglican Church in Symonds Street. This small building, though, is not a bus shelter but a shelter for a well. Over the years it has gained the title of "the Holy Well by Cromwell House." It seems that many years ago, (for the wording is in old English spelling) someone had the inspiration and energy to carve on the inside back wall of the shelter, above the bucket-winder, the words: "Who’er the Buketful upwindeth ; Let him Bless God ; who water findeth: Yet water here but small availeth, Go seek that well which never faileth." Jn.4:14 The reference here is to the conversation which Jesus had with the woman of Samaria at the well just outside the city of Sychar. The quote refers to the words Jesus spoke to the woman when he said “those who drink the water that I will give them, will never thirst again”. There are various kinds of thirst which we all face in life, - the thirst for friendship, the thirst for deep and fulfilling relationships; the thirst for beauty in all its forms, aesthetic pleasure, the thirst for freedom , for peace, for love for justice and for truth and above all – a thirst for a a relationship with God, a connection with God which satisfies us from deep within. It is not unusual that men and women should seek to know God more personally because our deep thirst for God was created by God! 1000 years before Jesus Christ, King David acknowledged his own thirst for God when he wrote) –“As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you O God.” (Psalm42:1) Our thirst for God is as natural as our thirst for water! It is this thirst for God which Jesus is referring to here – though the amazing thing is that when we enter into this relationship with God – not only is our spiritual thirst fulfilled, but we are headed in the right direction for the fulfillment of all the other lesser thirsts as well. So the author of those words on the Holy Well of Cromwell’s house are prescriptive of what we need to do today if we acknowledge our spiritual thirst:- “Go seek that well which never faileth.” - and 600 years before his time, the prophet Isaiah spoke words of invitation to come to that well, the source of life giving water. “Come! Everyone who is thirsty – here is water!” ( Isa 55:1) In the gospel reading, at the end of a great festival in Jerusalem, Jesus stood up and declared himself to be that well to which we should come, and from which we should draw, – “Whoever is thirsty should come to me, and drink”! But how do we draw from that living well in order to slake our thirst? I think it is the same as when we drink a glass of water. We take that water in to ourselves! In a sense we surrender ourselves to that water and it becomes one with us. So, if we are feeling thirsting today – if we know that there is a God somewhere but we have no sense of completeness with God or union with God – then today , respond to that invitation! - come to Jesus Christ, draw deeply from that “well that never faileth”, drink from the living water, Jesus Christ, and surrender yourself to Him this day. |
