Reflection Resources for When We Are Scattered
Sunday, March 15, 2020 (Lent 3)
Water Can Be
As We Begin: Our song of gathering was to be “Morning Is Broken.” You might want to listen to this beautiful morning song online or by way of a device in your home.
Opening Prayers (read them slowly and linger with them)
(Edwina Gateley)
I am swelling with a joy and freedom
I have never known!
There is a rush like cleansing water
running through me,
leaving me light as air.
I have no need now
for my jar of clay.
I run
with the Living Water!
I run with the Good News entrusted to me—
to me—
to run, oh, so filled up,
with such Good News.
(from the desert, translated by Yushi Nomura)
Abba Poemen said: The nature of water is yielding, and that of a
stone is hard. Yet if you hang a bottle filled with water above the
stone so that the water drips drop by drop, it will wear a hole in
the stone. In the same way the word of God is tender, and our
heart is hard. So when people hear the word of God frequently,
their hearts are opened to the fear of God.
Morning Reading: John 4:5-42
Reflection: “Water Can Be” – take time to ponder the words below…
The meeting of Jesus and the Woman at the Well is one of the great water stories in either testament. I imagine the mischievous side of the spirit this morning as we come face to face with living water as a metaphor for our dwelling and growing in faith at a time when one of the primary things we can do to stay well in a pandemic is to wash our hands often and with care.
Before you read further, pause to slowly enjoy a drink of water. Your body, like the body of the earth is more than 60% water and benefits from regular replenishment. How are you thirsty right now? What are the thirsts of those around you? Are there thirsts you hope might be quenched?
In the children’s book, Water Can Be…, the first few pages read like this: Water is water—it’s puddle, pond, and sea. When springtime comes splashing, the water flows free. Water can be…Tadpole hatcher, Picture catcher, Otter feeder, Downhill speeder, Garden soaker, Valley cloaker… Living water does flow with more freedom than we have known before. When Jesus speaks about such water, it points to a place within us where new life can come forth. As we take in that living water, our reflection, our image of holy love, becomes more and more luminous. Living water contains what will feed us at soul level. And there is nothing static about it. It moves and changes with strength across the landscape of who we are. When we are dry, lifeless, or arid, the gift of that water can renew us even as we are withering. We can never completely understand or dissect what living water is and what it means. It is the fog that the author calls “valley cloaker,” fundamentally a mystery we are invited to befriend.
When we, like the woman at the well, have varied sorts of experiences with living water, we have something to proclaim and the courage to become an articulation of what the gospel calls forth over and over again – justice, compassion, creativity, relatedness, awe, gratitude, and spirit-leading. Living water helps us to figure out what we hope for.
Imagine with me for a moment that living water is a surging river. It has shaping power in who we are becoming spiritually. We may enter into such water expectantly or with caution. Perhaps we worry that something will bite at our feet or that the surface beneath us will be difficult and rocky. What happens if we fear the water will be too cold or the currents challenging to manage? There is uncertainty about what is next, what lies ahead, or what might be asked of us in the receiving and sharing of living water.
The woman who came to Jacob’s well, the Samaritan woman, not-one-of-us and unaccepted by many, had a transforming encounter in the heat of that mid-day. When living water in its many forms is extended to us, we are entrusted with the possibilities of transformation. In that transformation is the joyful service we can unleash near and far, hope enfleshed in who we are.
Morning Prayer (Whether you are by yourself or with others in your household, name as we do when we are together, those for whom you are particularly mindful this day. If you would like to email me any of your particular joys and concerns in prayer, I will share them in the next memo.)
So long as we enjoy the light of day
may we greet one another with love.
So long as we enjoy the light of day
may we pray for one another.
(unknown source)
Blessing: God Be With You (close your eyes for a moment envisioning our beloved circle of blessing at Mayfield.)
God be with you ‘til we meet again,
By good counsel guide uphold you,
With the sheep securely fold you.
God be with you ‘til we meet again.
God we with you ‘til we meet again.
“Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes
take the water of life as gift.” (Revelation 22:17)