Earlier this month Good Morning America reported on a growing dispute between the states of Georgia and Tennessee. A Georgia lawmaker has introduced a bill to change the boundary of the Tennessee River that would result in Georgia's having more water rights from the river. "It's never too late to right a wrong," Georgia State Sen. David Shafer told the Associated Press. His bill would create a boundary line commission that aims to resolve the dispute. Along with increased water flow, moving the border would give Georgia a chuck of Chattanooga, Mississippi and a slice of Memphis, according to the AP. (link) Needless to say, Tennessee is not going for the idea. The push for more water comes as Georgia suffers from what are being termed historic drought conditions. The northern third of the state is under a level four drought response, meaning the most severe water use restrictions have been put in place. The rest of the state may soon follow. You may have seen on the news neighbors in the Georgia turning in other neighbors for illegal water use, or others fighting with each other to get water they think is theirs.

It is not just Georgia and Tennessee contending with drought conditions. By the end of 2007 about 43 percent of the US was suffering from moderate to severe drought. For the world, the percentage is more than 50 percent. We suffer from what is known as "water stress." Water stress occurs when the demand for water exceeds the available amount during a certain period or when poor quality restricts its use. Water stress causes deterioration of fresh water resources in terms of quality and quantity. (link)

The people in our texts this morning suffer from what I'll call theological water stress. The Israelites have been wandering for some time now; they're in the desert wilderness and find themselves thirsty … a thirst that is both physical and spiritual. Their physical thirst makes them desperate … desperate to do just about anything in order to quench their thirst. One can imagine their feeling of despair – how can this enormous group of people find drink in the middle of the desert? The Israelites do what most of us do in situations that are hopeless – they strike out at the first thing that they can. In this case it is Moses. They come to Moses – what are you going to do about this? Or did you bring us out of the slavery of Egypt only to have us die in this God forsaken place? The desperation of the Israelites causes them to forget how God has led them so far. In the wilderness they are caught – God have given them a great promise, but they can't see its fulfillment – they are too thirsty. How quickly they fall back into the old patterns of behavior from when they were slaves in Egypt … chaining themselves to despair and complaint as if there were no God guiding and leading them. When God appears in the story the water they longed for is found to be right under their feet.

Let me wander a bit to our own journey with the no-complaint process. Many of you have been sharing the insights gleaned in this time. One insight that many have shared has to do with how much we "cherish" our complaining … it is something we do for comfort almost. Appropriate for today is this insight – how easy it is to go through a day complaint-free when all is well. But how much harder when things are not going so smoothly … how easy it is to grumble and complain to the first person who comes our way. (For those not up to speed on the complaint free journey – you start with a rubber band or one of the purple complaint-free bracelets we have. The rules are as follows:

1. No vocal complaining, gossiping or griping. (Your thoughts are free.)
2. If you find yourself doing any of the above, you switch the bracelet you are wearing to the other wrist and start over.
3. If another person on the same journey complains, you may point that out. But in your pointing it out, you are complaining about their complaining and must switch your own bracelet.

The Israelites must have been switching their bracelets back and forth a lot at this place aptly named, Massah and Meribah – testing and quarrelling. Again, they are suffering from theological water stress.

From Massah and Meribah we move to another place of theological water stress. The encounter between Jesus and this Samaritan woman is the one of the longest recorded conversations in the gospels. It is a story with so many points of significance. In it Jesus confronts dogma and racial stereotyping, ritual behavior and gender roles. But at its heart the story is about quenching a thirst … a thirst that one isn't even entirely aware of. She is a Samaritan, she is a woman, and she is a woman with a past … coming to Jacob's well to get some water. She comes at the worst time of day – noon is not the time to draw water. It is one way to avoid the stares of the other women who would have come early in the morning to draw water for their daily needs. On this day, instead of being alone she finds Jesus. And instead of being shunned by him he talks to her. He ignores all of the constraints of his time and invites her to receive not just the water that is two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, but a water that will quench all of the desires of her soul. A water that will transform and make her new … born from the Spirit, born from above. Dan Clendenin, in Journeys with Jesus puts it well: "His simple request for a drink of water provoked a dialogue with a marginalized woman that teaches us that Jesus does not desire any human being to shrivel and die from a parched soul. Rather he longs to quench the deepest needs and desires of each one of us with the 'living water' of his Spirit."

In all of us there is that place – long ago shriveled and dried up … in some cases so much so that we have forgotten about it and no longer have any expectations of hope. That place in us comes to the well at the "wrong" time, hoping to avoid encounters with anyone. Know this – in this place of wilderness and emptiness Jesus is there waiting, even when we are unaware of his presence. The woman at the well encountered him, and so can we. His voice will come to us as Psalm 81 says: "I hear a voice I had not known." And all of the sudden we will find we have been hungering and thirsting all along. We will respond to the invitation given in Isaiah:

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live."

Then as one who's soul has been quenched with the life-giving transforming water of Jesus Christ, you will go forth to invite others in that they also may receive. As Jesus meets you at your place of dryness and fills you … go to meet others at that very same place so that they also might know the life giving water of Jesus.

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