Two parts hydrogen,
one part oxygen.
Bonded together,
it is H20.

The formula is simple.
The ingredients few.
No recipe matters more.

You can’t taste it.
It has no smell (or shouldn’t).
You can even see right through.

It comes in a trinity of forms:
– solid,
– liquid,
– gas.
Each an important part of the whole.

It can –
cleanse,
cool,
quench –
offering relief when we need it most.

It –
grows our crops,
moves our products,
feeds our planet.

It is water.
It is life.

Without it we cease to be.

But not all water is good. Here are a few examples.

Hot and Cold
Earlier this week my wife Kathi mentioned her morning shower was running a little cold. Let me know how your shower is, she suggested. I got in, noticed it wasn’t quite as warm as usual, turned the handle to as hot as it would go. It was warm enough. Seems fine to me, I replied, dismissing her concerns.

That night, around 10:30pm, daughter Hannah came downstairs, hair dripping wet. I just tried to take a shower, she said, and it is ice cold! Hannah was furious. I can’t take a shower like that! Can you fix it please?!? She was begging us. It’s really late honey, I replied. We’re already in bed. I’ll look at it in the morning.

The next day, feeling rather optimistic, I hopped in the shower, hoping everything would be ok. And what do you know…the water was freezing! I yelled downstairs. Kathi, there is no hot water! We can’t live like this! It’s winter, in Iowa! What should we do?

Soon enough, Kathi found the cause: the pilot light on our natural gas water heater was out. Within minutes she relit it. Later that morning I tried the shower again. All was as it should be. Thank goodness for hot showers! I was ecstatic. Kathi just shook her head.

The difference between hot and cold water, at least for former Floridians who winter in the Midwest these days, matters a good bit.

Poison
Then there is the 2014 Flint Michigan water crisis. To save some money government officials opted to change their water source. With a bit of redirected plumbing they switched it from one river to another. Within days residents complained about the water’s taste, smell, appearance. Pure H20 shouldn’t have a taste, or smell, or much of an appearance at all. Something was wrong.

Travelling through old, decaying lead pipes, the impact of this change in water source soon became clear. The water was now poisoned with lead. As a result, twelve people were killed, another eighty-seven harmed, with up to 12,000 children at risk from the long-term effects these troubled waters brought.

Where you get your water from matters too.

Algae
When Kathi and I attended Valparaiso University – a good Lutheran school – apologies Wartburg, Luther and Grandview friends – she took an ecology class. During the course she researched the impact of fertilizer runoff on inland lakes. We were dating, so I tagged along to a local park, wanting to learn more. We noticed big blooms of green algae along large swaths of the water’s surface. The algae was seemingly everywhere.

Algae consumes oxygen and blocks sunlight, harming both plants and fish. Algae smells, making it no fun to be around. Algae attracts mosquitos. Pretty soon we were getting bit by them. The water was stagnant, stank, and breeding bad things. Research now complete we left what once was a nice park. Because who wants to be a part of that.

Well
But good water? The text of Jesus and the woman at the well has plenty to say about that. Here are some highlights.

First, good water unites us. That Jesus was in conversation with this woman at all is controversial. Jesus finds himself travelling through Samaria, away from home. Here he is the outsider, a stranger in a strange land. As a foreigner eyebrows would be raised.

John 4:9 plainly says that Jews and Samaritans do not share things in common. This is perhaps the greatest understatement in the entire Bible. When the two groups came in contact tradition requires that Jews return to Jerusalem for a ritual cleansing. Yet here Jesus and the woman sit all the same.

And that a rabbi is seen talking with an unmarried woman, in broad daylight? It is downright scandalous. Oh the rumors this could cause.

Good water washes away what separates us from each other. Good water overcomes the boundaries of –
Race,
Ethnicity,
National origin,
Religion,
Gender,
Cultural norms –
And so very much more.

Good water is also clean. It is much closer to pure H2O. The well Jesus and the woman gather over is deep. It is way down in the earth. Water from deep wells tends to last longer, requires less monitoring, offers more protection from contaminants. There would be no lead poisoning or algae growing in this water. For it is from a deep, pure source.

Good water sustains our body. “Give me a drink,” Jesus asks the woman. “You’re asking me,” the woman replies? She can’t help but be surprised the two are talking to begin with. Yet they both need water. It is why they came to the well. They know that water is life. Just a few days without it and we simply cease to be.

Really good water also sustains our soul. Jesus replies to her query with “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.” It is the first indication here that Jesus is talking about more than merely H2O. What is the nature of this living water?

Living water transcends our past. The woman asks Jesus, “Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob? He gave us this well. His sons and his flock drank from it.” This is the Jacob who –
– stole his birthright from brother Esau, trading for it with a bowl of soup.
– ran from his family to escape the wrongs he had done.
– wrestled with an angel to get God’s blessing and received it.

Jacob did some bad stuff. And then ran from his problems. Wrestling with his Creator had an effect. For God blessed him all the same.

In gratitude to God Jacob made this well. It is a well that has offered good water to God’s beloved for generations and generations. It is over a conversation, at this same well, where Jesus offers this woman more than she bargained for.

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,” Jesus responds. “But those that drink the water I give them will never thirst. For it is a spring that gushes up to nothing less than eternal life.”

Here Christ suggests that yes, I am more than Jacob. Christ infers he too can wash away your soiled past. He too can offer blessings from above.

The woman, beginning to understand they are talking about more than mere H2O, says, “give me this water, so I may never thirst again.”

Finally, living water offers a fresh start.

Baptism
This weekend we are blessed to celebrate four baptisms, three at our Saturday service, one Sunday morning. What I love about that is the baptisms are decidedly different. On Saturday a mom, her son and her daughter, called by the Holy Spirit, trusting in the grace and love of God said yes, we desire to be baptized in Christ.

Yes, they said, we want to be a part of the body of Christ.

And yes, we Lutherans totally baptize adults who have not yet been cleansed by this watery sacrament before.

Recent research suggests there are now more mainline Protestants in the US than non-denominational Christians and Baptists. All while the portion of religiously unaffiliated Americans continues to grow.

Based on that, as people continue to search for meaning in life, and ultimately God, perhaps we Lutherans will be doing more adult baptisms in the future.

Dear Lord, let us be all about that.

Then on Sunday we celebrated the baptism of a cute-as-a-button six-week-old girl, brought to the living water by her parents. With this her parents commit to help the young child grow in the Christian faith, encouraging her as she grows too.

Dear Lord, may we continue to be all about infant baptisms too.

For both we baptize with water, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

For both we give you thanks, O God, that through this water and the Holy Spirit you give them new birth, cleanse them from sin, and ultimately raise them to eternal life. Tho no rush on that last part just yet 😊.

For many of the rest of us this is an opportunity to remember our baptisms, and how we affirmed them as young adults in confirmation. We too are born anew, cleaned from sin in the living waters of our baptism each and every day.

And if you haven’t been baptized yet? You just need ask. For this living water is also for you.

As we say goodbye this weekend to our Transition Pastor Walter Still – and holy cow I’ll miss you brother – concluding our time together with a series of baptisms seems downright fitting. Pastor Walter, as you depart please know: St. John’s Lutheran Des Moines will continue to encourage, celebrate and embody this new life in Christ. We will continue to lean in to all this new life our baptism entails. On this you have my word.

Close
Two parts hydrogen,
one part oxygen.
Bonded together,
it is H20.

But living water?
That well runs deeper.

Living water’s formula is simple.
The ingredients few.
No recipe matters more.

You can’t –
taste it,
smell it,
see it.

But you can feel when it’s there.

It comes in a Trinity of forms:
– God,
– Son,
– Spirit.
Each an important part of the whole.

It can –
cool,
quench,
baptize –
offering relief when we need it most.

Receive it.
Remember it.
Claim it.

It is water.
It is life.
It is for you.  Amen.