"IS GOD AMONG US OR NOT?"

Exodus 17:1-7; John 4:5-42

Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!

Reading these two passages together

will either make you so thirsty you can't see straight,

or, well? never mind!

But whether it's water from the rock

or water from the well,

water is about the last thing these two stories care about.

These stories are not about water,

either one of them.

They are about how we look at the world,

and how we come to understand ourselves

through the understanding that we have of God.

And both of them beg the question:

in the middle of nowhere,

at the height of the heat of the day,

at the heart of our muddles and messes and major disappointments,

is God there, or not?

These two stories

could hardly be more different if they tried.

One is Old Testament, and one is New.

One story has a cast of thousands,

the other story only two.

One took place at an evening campsite,

the other in the heat of high noon.

One was in a place that didn't even know what water looked like;

the other took place around a long-established drinking source.

But both of them are asking the same questions:

is God among us?

is there a God, and does God make a difference?

What kind of God

would show up in a situation like this?

And if there is a God,

is that God able to sate our thirst,

to fill that need within us,

to refresh us and make us new?

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If you were to look at a map of theHoly Land,

whether it was newly-minted

or from ancient times,

you would not be able to find a spot called Rephidim.

That's because it was in the middle of nowhere.

It wasn't even a backwater place -

it was a NO water place.

They didn't know where they were.

There were none of the comforts of home.

Even Egypt was looking pretty good about this time.

You know, though,

Moses had already led them out of captivity.

They had already seen

that God provided them light by night and shade by day.

God had already given them bread to eat

in the form of manna.

And after all that,

they still found reason

and at least some justification, they thought,

to argue and to blame

and to threaten Moses

and to doubt the goodness of God.

Moses was understandably frustrated by this time.

But he told God about it.

And once again,

in goodness and not in wrath,

God gave them what they needed

instead of what they deserved.

God showed Moses how to provide them water.

Names were important back then,

like they are now.

So Moses wanted to give the spot a name other than Rephidim,

so that it would be remembered. 

He didn't call it "water,"

he didn't call it "mercy,"

he didn't name it after Tony Romo or Dirk Nowitzki. 

He literally named the place "Test and Quarrel,"

hoping that everyone would remember what had happened there.

And in that remembering,

he hoped that the people would never again

have to wonder whether or not God was with them.

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There are lots of defining moments in our lives.

Some of them are obvious at the time,

and some of them are obvious only with a little hindsight.

But sometimes,

how we remember them

is just as important as what took place.

And those two things may not always be the same.

There's power not only in the defining moments in our lives,

but how we choose to remember them,

and in the remembering,

what we would call them or name them.

That being the case,

what do you think "the woman at the well"

would have named the well

where she met Jesus that day?

Maybe she would call it "stranger,"

because of who she met there,

or "revealing,"

because that's where Jesus revealed to her

her true self,

or "encounter,"

because that's just exactly what happened.

You see,

she wasn't there at high noon just because she was thirsty.

She was there because normal women

wouldn't go to collect water at the hottest time of the day.

Back then,

women had to go and collect water for their families every day,

but all the others knew better than to come at noon.

They would all go around sunrise or at sunset.

And so water-gathering became a social time too.

It was the best time to catch up with the neighbors,

to find out who was sick or who was in town for a visit,

and also the best time to catch up on the gossip.

The woman at the well was a woman,

which by itself limited the number of people who would talk to her.

And the fact that she was living with her fifth husband

sealed her fate as far as the other women were concerned.

Not only would she be left out of the chitchat and the gossip,

she would be the gossip.

She didn't have a lot of options,

so going to collect water

at a time when no one else was likely to be there

was about the best that she could do.

About the last thing she expected

was to find someone else there when she arrived,

especially a man,

especially a man who was clearly as Jewish

as she was clearly Samaritan.

That was worse than being a Longhorn

in a roomful of Aggies - or Razorbacks -

but he chose to strike up a conversation with her anyway.

And how did somebody from the outside know the gossip about her?

Before long, she saw that he wasn't a gossip,

but a prophet.

Whether she realized it at the time

or came to see it somewhere down the road,

this chance encounter at Jacob's well

became the defining moment of her life.

What do you think she would have called it

when she told the story to her grandchildren?

Maybe she would have named it "the end" -

the end of her suffering,

the end of her thirst for a different way of life,

the end of having to live out a lie,

the end of being hated just for being who she was,

the end of having to sneak to the well at the worst time of the day.

Or maybe she would name it "the beginning" -

the beginning of truth,

the beginning of real acceptance,

the beginning of an authentic life,

the beginning of discipleship.

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Well, friends,

some would say that you and I are at a defining moment

in the life of First Presbyterian Church.

Churches' lives are measured in years, of course,

but even more by eras or epochs:

like, "We started the contemporary service when Alan was here."

Or, "we got married when Harry was the pastor."

Or, "Carl was the one who baptized my children."

Before long, you'll be looking back to say

"We started weekly communion when Sallie was here."

Or you might say some other things,

but let's not go there! 

One thing I want to say to you

is that this church's mission and ministry

is not about Sallie, or Alan,

or Carl, or Harry or anyone.

It's about the call to witness to Jesus Christ

and to serve this community in his name.

All of us meld together

with saints past, present and future

to build upon the ministry with which God has blessed us.

But given that,

the times that a pastor arrives or departs from a congregation

are seen as defining moments in a church's life,

because, for good or ill,

they carry some significance for everyone in the church

and, to some degree,

the community at large as well.

What will you and I come to call this present time?

Will we call it Rephidim - the middle of nowhere?

Will we call it Testing and quarrel?"

Will we call it the end, or the beginning?

Right now, I think the correct answer is "I don't know."

It's hard to tell what's going on

when you're in the middle of it.

At this very moment,

it seems like we are facing the very same question

that's raised in both of our readings this day.

In the middle of the unknown,

at the height of the heat of the day,

is God among us, or not?

Is there a God, and does God make a difference?

And if there is a God,

is that God able to sate our thirst,

to fill that need within us,

to refresh us and to renew us?

No matter what we or future generations

end up calling this time,

the answer to all those questions

is "yes."

God is among us, even as we speak -

as much as God was there for the Hebrews in the wilderness,

as much as God was there in the person of Jesus

for an alienated and skeptical woman.

And it is as we come to understand who God is

that we better come to understand who we are.

God is calling me and my family to something new.

But God is also calling you and this congregation to something new.

Let's work together

so that those who follow us here

will know that we knew the answer.

Let's work together in faith,

and in confidence,

so that it will be clear to everyone

that God is at work right here,

inspiring us to share the good news,

holding on to us when the times get tough,

refreshing us in the heat of the day,

giving us all the strength we need to serve.

Amen.