"What’s in Your Bucket?" - Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

What’s in Your Bucket?
Epiphany 5 – Narrative Lectionary 4
February 4, 2018
Grace, Mankato, MN
John 4.1-42

What a wonderful story we have for today, and what a contrast to last week’s story about Nicodemus’ visit to Jesus. For example, Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cover of darkness while the Samaritan woman comes in the clear light of day. But there’s more. Whereas Nicodemus is named, a male, part of the religious authority establishment, and therefore an insider, the Samaritan woman is none of these things. She’s unnamed, an outsider in both nationality and religion, and worse, a woman. Yet, while Nicodemus fades away from his visit puzzled, it’s the Samaritan woman who has this amazing theological conversation with Jesus, grows in faith and understanding, and shares the good news with others.

I’m sorry to say that the history of biblical interpretation has not been kind to the Samaritan woman. Virtually all commentary focuses on speculation about her moral character and, perhaps worse, doubting her intellectual ability to hold a discussion with Jesus. Fortunately, more modern scholarship sees those activities as red herrings (though some people still can’t help themselves) and by viewing the story narratively, understands John’s purpose for this conversation. Jesus isn’t concerned about her marital status nor does he condemn her. Rather, the exchange serves to underscore Jesus’ ability to know all things (an important theme in John) and a revelation to the woman about who Jesus is.

The revelation to the woman (and us) is that Jesus is the one who provides living water. Living water is a classic double entendre in John: living water is flowing, active water, not the stale water you would draw from a cistern or well. And it is life-giving water. In John, living water is that which brings about authentic existence for and it is synonymous with eternal life. But we need to remember that also in John, eternal life is not only what we experience after death; it means abundant life now. In her conversation with Jesus, the Samaritan woman experienced in Jesus that which she longed for but didn’t realize she needed: a deeper relationship with God. And when she receives the life-giving water, she leaves her now useless jar behind.

So, my brothers and sisters, what’s in your bucket today that you’d like to exchange for living water? What part of your life do you want to leave behind or isn’t as you’d like it to be? Where does Jesus draw you in? Asking, “What’s in your bucket?” is not a condemnation or shaming; it’s an invitation to life. It’s an invitation to attend to those places that Jesus gives life to you, to drink deeply and let go of those things that suck life from you. As you partake of the living water that bubbles in, with and through you, share gladly with others just as thirsty, acting as a conduit through whom Jesus’ waters flow. Amen.