Rev. Tessie Mandeville
February 24, 2008
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30030

Last Sunday a t 5 pm, I was meeting in my office with a couple of people when we heard the tornado siren go off. The storm that could’ve produced a tornado was heading directly over their house and they couldn’t go home so we stayed here an extra hour waiting for the storm to pass. I said to my board members: When I said in my sermon that the Spirit of God can come upon, blow us around, turn us around, anytime and anyplace, a tornado wasn’t exactly what I had in mind! A few weeks ago I chose the title for today’s sermon, “Feel the Rain on Your Skin,” never thinking with the drought that we’ve been in that we would get a couple of days this week to actually feel the rain on our skin. Being taken this literally is starting to scare me and I’m afraid of what might happen between now and next week because next week’s sermon title is, “Here’s Mud in Your Eye!”

I never know how sermons are going to come to me. Last week’s sermon came to me in a song. Do you remember the song we sang? Do That To Me One More Time (Once is Never Enough). We said that it’s a good theme song for conversions and being born again. Well today we have another song to accompany us on our journey to Jerusalem: Natasha Bedingfield’s, Feel the Rain on Your Skin. However, I think it would be best if we didn’t sing this one together; it’s a little more difficult and I don’t want us to scandalize our very cool teenagers who like this song. But let me share the words with you for they describe perfectly the nameless woman at the well who is the topic of our conversation today:

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes,
but I can't live that way
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins

The woman at the well breaks tradition and talks to Jesus. Tradition tells her that since she is a Samaritan, she should not talk with Jews; Jews and Samaritans had tremendous ethnic conflict between them. Tradition tells her that since she is a woman, she should not talk to a man; patriarchal society treated women as property, not as equal citizens with men. Tradition tells her that since she is pagan and he is Jewish, she should not talk with him; religious teachings separate them. But I love that this woman released her inhibitions because in doing so, she received a blessing. I love that Jesus released his inhibitions because in doing so, we get to answer an important question: Would Jesus Discriminate? Absolutely not.

This woman was thirsty. Her thirst brought her to the well at the most miserable time of day, kind of like noon in Georgia in the middle of July. Her bucket was empty and she needed water to quench her physical thirst.

There are people all over the world today who are physically thirsty. The drought that we’re experiencing in Georgia is but a very small glimpse into what it’s like for people in sub-Sahara Africa and other countries to live with dire conditions related to water. According to a United Nations report, one-third of the world’s population lives in water-stressed conditions. Thousands of children die each day because their water is polluted, and in many countries women and girls spend hours every day carrying water for their families. All over the world poor communities’ access to water is threatened by privatization; corporations are buying up public lands to export the water.

The woman at the well was thirsty and needed water but as she talked with Jesus, we discover that she was thirsty for more than real water. She was reaching for something in the distance; it was so close she could almost taste it. When Jesus told her about the living water that he offers, she immediately asked him for it because she realized that if she was going to get it, only she could let it in. So she held her arms wide open and received the living water of his spirit. She felt the rain on her skin and she was transformed.

There are people today who are spiritually thirsty but are filling up with everything but the living water of the spirit of God, especially those of us who live in what is called the “First World” and have access to so many things. We are encouraged at every turn to consume that which we do not need and that which will not feed our souls. In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, Jared Diamond observed that consumption rates for the one billion people in the first world are 32 times greater than the consumption rates of the five billion people in the developing worlds.1 Consuming things does not fill us up; Living Water fills us up.

Jesus says that when we drink the Living Water, we’ll never be thirsty again. I believe that. The thirst that I had for the Living Water of Jesus Christ has been filled and I look forward to eternal life with him. Bu there are other things I’m still thirsty for on this side of eternity. In his first sermon ever preached Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” And one of the last things that Jesus said on the cross was “I thirst.”

From beginning to end, Jesus thirsted. He thirsted for dignity and respect for all people. He thirsted for a world where we could break through our cultural and religious taboos and reach across the lines to one another. He thirsted for justice and liberation and healing.

I thirst for a world where people can be safe in their own homes. I am deeply troubled by the violence toward LGBT people in Jamaica. Just recently a group of people broke into the home of three gay men and attacked them with machetes. Two of the men are in the hospital and one is missing. I thirst for safety for LGBT people in Pakistan, Malaysia, Eastern Europe and so many other places where people’s lives are in danger.

Last week I said that Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn us but to save us from things like literalism and being rule-bound. I want to add to that I believe there is a way to take the Bible seriously without taking it literally. I take the Bible very seriously and it is sacred to me because the human beings who wrote it reveal an honest hunger and thirst for a relationship with God and one another. I thirst for right relationship with God, with you, and the world. For a relationship that is built on mutual trust and respect. For a relationship that is filled not only with justice but with compassion and grace.

I thirst for a deeper listening to the word of God. I thirst to know where I am not living fully. I want to know where I am cut off and why. I thirst to live life more abundantly.

We are moving steadfastly toward Holy Week and the cross where Jesus is still thirsty. What are you thirsty for? What deep longings do you carry with you as you search for the Living Water of Life?

Open your arms wide and put yourself in close proximity to the Living Water of Jesus Christ who longs to quench your deepest needs and desires. Feel the rain on your skin. The woman at the well thirsted and she was filled. She went back to her village and told them about her transformation. She became a story of Living Water to them.

There are stories of Living Water being written right now. There is a group of people calling attention to water-stressed conditions by participating in the Mother Earth Water Walk. Led by aboriginal women and Anishinawbe grandmothers, they are carrying a copper bucket of water around the perimeter of the Great Lakes to raise awareness of the sacred nature of water and the threat of pollution and privatization.2

MCC, the denomination that we are part of, is known as The Human Rights Church in countries like Pakistan, Jamaica, and Malaysia. We have a Global Justice Ministry, led by Rev. Pat Baumgardner from MCC New York. We are working with people within these countries and cultures to help establish MCCs and places of refuge and safety for our brothers and sisters in countries where it is a crime to be homosexual. We are not going into these countries to convert them but to listen to their cries and to find ways of supporting them.

These are stories of Living Water but there are others still waiting to be written. By you. By me.

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins

Staring at the blank page before you; what will your story of Living Water be?

Blessed be and amen.

NYT, January 2, 2008

http://www.bobgoulais.com/bgc/wordpress/?m=200604

Copyright © 2008 by Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Permission granted for non- profit circulation with attribution of author and venue. Other rights reserved.