“Thirst”
A Meditation for Taize-Style Worship
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Rev. Jean Niven Lenk
First Congregational Church of Stoughton, United
Church of Christ
Texts: Isaiah
41:17-20; John 19:28-30
Thirst. The body’s need for water.
If
you are human, you will probably feel it at one point or another in your
life.
Maybe
you have felt thirst after eating crackers or toast, and a beverage has relieved
the dryness in your mouth.
Or
maybe you have felt thirst after exerting yourself -- taking a walk or working
in the garden -- and a glass of water has brought sweet refreshment.
Or
maybe you have felt a thirst that was more urgent, after going for hours
without something to drink – perhaps on a long and not-so-well-planned hike, or
after becoming unexpectedly lost or injured.
When
we go too long without drinking, dehydration can set in. Rapid heartbeat,
lethargy, a drop in blood pressure, and shock can follow.
Thirst. Jesus experiences it. Hanging on the cross, fully divine and also
fully human, he cries out to anyone who will listen, “I am thirsty.”
At the end of
his earthly life, the One who stilled the storm and walked on water finds
himself in a dry place. Perhaps, as he hangs
on the cross, Jesus prays these words from the Psalmist [63:1]:
"O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you;
My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."
Water – that’s what he needs. Water to moisten a parched mouth, water to free a swollen tongue, water to open a rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air, as the body makes increasingly insistent demands for that substance which is so vital to life, so foundational to all living things, so basic to existence as we know it.
A thirst for water is a thirst for life. And a thirst for life is a thirst for God. Because in scripture, “thirst” is a metaphor for a yearning, a longing, a desire for God, a need for the assurance that God is present. The prophet Isaiah offers this kind of assurance in our lesson this morning. The poor and the needy who search for water are the Israelites exiled in Babylon. To return to their homeland, they must traverse a formidable route through the desert. And through Isaiah, God speaks these assuring words: “I will not forsake them; I will open rivers and fountains and make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water.”
And
this symbolic meaning of water is woven throughout John’s Gospel. Like the bread Jesus provides, which is not
just bread but manna from heaven, the bread of angels, or like the wine he
supplies, which is not just wine but emblematic of God’s presence, a sign that
God’s new age has come to pass; the water Jesus offers is not just something
that refreshes a parched tongue or rehydrates a depleted body. It is the fundamental ingredient of life for
both the body and the soul. It is living
water, that renews and refreshes and fills us with joy.
A
thirst for water is a thirst for life, and a thirst for life is a thirst for
God.
The
One who speaks the words “I am thirsty” is himself the ultimate thirst quencher,
proclaiming “Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” [John 6:35]. The One who says, “I am thirsty,” offers to
others a different kind of drink, saying “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,
and let the one believes in me drink. As
the scripture has said, “out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of
living water.’” [John 7:37]
The people at a wedding in Cana had thirsted. But there was nothing left to drink. And so Jesus took some water and turned it into wine, and seeing that miracle, the people believed. They had thirsted, and Jesus used that thirst to draw them toward himself.
Jesus too had thirsted -- for justice, for love, for a new kind of world and a new vision of faith. Jesus had been the thirsty one, and yet, by the time his ministry was over, he had given to the people of the world living water that quenched their dry hearts and replenished their depleted souls.
And we, too, thirst -- to live a life of meaning, to let go of our baggage from the past, to believe in forgiveness and restoration and transformation and new starts; to know that we do not live or die alone, for God is with us. It all starts with our thirst – and somehow ends with Jesus drawing us to himself.
Where
you can drink in God’s refreshing water?
What serves as an oasis for you? Where
can you find streams of grace?
I
hope that one of those places is here in worship, where you are able to stop
and quench your thirst, before you continue on your way as you journey through
the rest of your week. Or maybe you are
renewed by drinking in God’s Holy Word, or refreshed by the calming waters of
prayer. Because a thirst for water is a
thirst for life, and a thirst for life is a thirst for God.
In the last chapter of the New Testament, we hear again the words of our Thirsty God, now resurrected: “Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the free gift of the water of life” [Rev. 22:17]. May each of us say, like Jesus, “I am thirsty” and drink deeply from the reservoir of our God, who promises streams in the desert and, in dry land, rivers of living water. Amen.
