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The Gospel Reading today is from the Gospel, according to John in the 4th chapter, listen, for the word of God. So Jesus came to a samaritan city called sick are near the plot of ground

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that Jacob had given to his son Joseph Jacob's well was there, and Jesus tired out. By his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon a samaritan woman came to draw water and

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Jesus said to her, give me a drink. His disciples had gone to the city to buy food . The samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a jew? Ask a drink

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of me. A woman of samaria jews do not share things in common with Samaritans, Jesus answered her . If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you give me a

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drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water, the woman said to him, sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get

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that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor ? Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it, Jesus said to her. Everyone who drinks of this water

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will be thirsty again. But those who drink of the water I will give them will never be thirsty . The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.

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The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I may never be thirsty, or have to keep coming here to draw water. The woman said to him, sir, I see

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that you are a profit. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain. But you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem, Jesus said to her woman, Believe me, the hour is coming

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when you will worship the father. Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the jews, but the hour is coming

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and is now here when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit. And in truth for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit. And those who worship must worship in

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spirit. And in truth the woman said to him , I know that messiah is coming, who is called christ when he comes, he will proclaim all things to us, Jesus said to her, I

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am he The one who is speaking to you. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks peter Today, as we remember back to Sunday, as the 3rd Sunday in Lent, it seems like it's

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all about water, isn't it? All about thirst . First we found those hebrew wanderers complaining to moses . Again, 400,000 odd hebrews. Mhm. This time because they're camped out at remedying where there is

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no water, and they're saying, what have you done to us? Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our Children? And our livestock with thirst? God sends moses and a

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few elders to mount Horeb saying, strike that rock and water will come out of it, moses does . So we learn later, with perhaps a little bit too much of a flourish and the water gushes

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out. And then we moved quickly to john's gospel . And the woman at the well. She had come in broad daylight bearing a heavy burden not only of 40 lb of water, but also social stigma

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, emotional scars, outsider status. She is a samaritan, a half breed, unclean, semi jew , with a bad reputation. Perhaps she is surprised to hear the jewish man at the well addressing her

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all in all our rather unlikely scene, then an even more unlikely request, give me a drink. Who Me, you're talking to me, A samaritan woman. Once again, this strange jesus is found

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crossing boundaries, looking her in the eye, changing her realities. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked,

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and he would have given you living water. In response, she says, sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than

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our ancestor Jacob who gave us the well? And then she reveals a certain savvy, perhaps even a little theological sophistication, as she guesses first of all , that the man before her as a prophet,

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and begins a conversation about the traditional locations of worship by the Samaritans and the jews and jesus opens the door here to a more universal view of God. The hour is coming when you will worship the father

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, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, you worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for. Salvation is from the jews, but the hour is coming and is now here when

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the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit, and in truth you have no bucket and the well is deep. Sometimes you know the statements we make to others have a way of describing ourselves. Perhaps

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the woman's observation here is not only literal, but also a profound statement about the human condition. The water is, there certainly were way down in that deep well, but so often I, and perhaps

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you too have stood there at Jacob's well, with no bucket to access the water that could quench the thirst many times along the way. I have felt the thirst, but I didn't have the resources to

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access the water that could quench it. Maybe Jesus picked up on the irony of her observation when he spoke of the living water that would finally satisfy her deep thirst, streams in the desert, living water

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, and the water runs all through the bible. The streams whereof shall make glad the city of God Creation, which began with a wind that swept over the waters out of which came life. Noah,

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and the flood moses as a baby floating on the water and a basket of reeds moses. Again, parting the sea, Hager, rejected by Abraham, given a well in the desert, is a gift

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of God, jesus baptism in the Jordan river, jesus and the disciples in a storm at sea walking on water, The biblical witness is a wet one , thirst. It's a powerful biblical reality and a

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symbol of our human condition, all of us. At one time or another, thirst for living water . What I was preparing for this chapel service, the texts for this Lenten week drew me to think

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about water and about thirst. I wondered if water here is both symbolic and literal. As I thought about the thirst of the hebrews in the desert and the thirst of the woman at the well. And

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as I remember, the thirst of Hager and the wilderness, I thought of the literal thirst of billions of people today. And then I discovered that in this very Lenten season, the World Council of Churches

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and the christian churches in Africa are observing seven weeks of water focusing on the water crisis unesco the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates That 5000 Children die every day because of unsafe water, poor sanitation

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for hygiene. This means that during this chapel service over 400 Children will die from lack of clean water . That's just the Children. Almost a billion people do not have access to safe water globally, and

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2.5 billion lack the dignity of basic sanitation. This lack of access translates into more stunning numbers. 50% of all malnutrition is due to lack of safe water and sanitation. As is 80% of all disease.

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Half of the world's hospital beds are filled with patients suffering from water borne diseases, Impure water and sanitation is the leading killer of Children under five ahead of malaria, AIDS and TB combined. The result is

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a catastrophic two million mostly preventable deaths every year. And current US funding for water and sanitation development amounts to less than 1 1/100 of a percent of the federal budget. And yet for every dollar invested,

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there is an economic return of$8 water in many ways. As a woman's burden. Women spend 200 million hours every day hauling water, often 60% of the day. The jerry cans they carry are 40

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plus pounds and women all of them for miles. The woman at the well is not alone given the text for this length and weak, water is symbolic of our relationship with God. It's through water that

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were baptized. Water is essential for life. It's a gift of God and as a gift of God , it's meant to be shared. A statement by the National Council of Churches reads, We recognize clean

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water as a priceless gift of God, but too often we don't realize the global water crisis is ours to reconcile. Mhm Isaiah says that when the poor and needy are thirsty and seek water but have none

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, God will not forsake them. God will provide rivers, fountains, pools and springs. Actually, God has done exactly that. The fact is that there is enough water on this earth for all.

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According to Charles Fishman in his book, the big thirst, which I recommend to you, there is the same amount of water on earth as there ever was, he writes. We use and reuse water

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and none of it escapes, and we only have that one allotment of water. It was delivered here 44 billion years ago. No water is being created or destroyed on earth. So every drop of water

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that's here has seen the inside of a cloud, the inside of a volcano, the inside of a maple leaf and the inside of a dinosaur kidney. Probably many times God has given us all the water

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we need. So why are 5000 Children a day dying from lack of clean, pure water? The causes are many, including drought, overuse waste pollution , economics, politics, Dictatorships, fear of polluted

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water is real in places like standing rock, not that far away in many places where water scarcity exists , it's because the people living there do not have the means or the money to access the water that

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is directly beneath them. They have no bucket and the well is deep add to that. The fact that we have often failed to recognize the simple gift of water as an opportunity to do exactly what jesus

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tells us to do In Matthew 25, I was thirsty. You gave me drink or you didn't. So what can we do as followers of christ well there is hope. Do you know that between the

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years 1900 and 1940, The average life expectancy of Americans went from 47 to 63. What made the difference? We learned through filtration and chlorination to provide clean water, accessible water. In just 40 years

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, We added 16 whole years to the average lifespan of americans. It can be done. Let me tell you one hopeful story about how some Children made a difference for other Children in the name of christ

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. The students in the Missouri primary school in Northern kenya during the rainy season had rain water but had no safe storage system for the dry season. They and their mothers often had to walk three km each

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day to fetch water from a polluted stream. The school had substandard pit latrines and no clean water to wash their hands, which resulted in frequent bouts of illness 8000 miles away. On a sunday school field

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trip, eight middle school and 20 high school students from Kansas learned about the world's water crisis and decided to do something about it With guidance from a unique nonprofit called H20 for life, which partners US schools

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with schools around the globe. These students came up with some ideas from sending home empty water bottles with church members, challenging each person to drop a nickel in the bottle every time they use water, especially

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flush the toilet to auctioning off a donated toilet from a local plumber. Those industrious Sunday school kids raised $6,950. The implementing ngos match student funds 100% and in the end$13,500 later, a lot has changed

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for the kids at the Missouri primary school, they have roofs with gutters on the school to capture rainwater that goes through bio filters and into a rainwater catchment tank. Boys and girls now have four separate latrines

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plus handwashing stations with soap. Teachers note a dramatic increase in attendance in school because of decreased illness and lots more time in class because the students no longer have to walk long distances midday to fetch water.

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The schools improvements have led to water and sanitation improvements in the students homes, handwashing facilities throughout the community . As students shared their educational awareness about the importance of sanitation with their families. As for the american

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kids, they've learned firsthand that they really can have an impact on the world. Abby, a middle school student said it blows my mind to think that I have saved lives. Yeah, it always seems

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like that only happens in books or with somebody who's famous now I can say I've saved lives. These will be the next generation of civic and maybe faith leaders. You see they found their bucket to draw

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from that deep well that struck the rock and produce streams in the desert water. Simple water. It's a gift of God water, the stuff in which were washed in baptism and introduced thereby to the living

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water and water, both literal and figurative, is meant to be shared. Those of us who have drunk of the living water are to care about those who thirst for the literal water. The water that

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I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. May it be so