Leave the Bucket

John 4:5-42

So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground 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 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 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 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 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 will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 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.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped 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 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, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and 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 am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

Today we meet the woman at the well.  As a woman she had no legal status.  As a Samaritan she was unclean.  An unclean Samaritan woman carrying an unclean bucket. She’d had a series of husbands, probably because they left her when they discovered she couldn’t have children. And so here we meet this broken, barren, unclean, worthless non-person.  

That was who she had been taught that she was. The story that had been beaten and ground into the deepest parts of her soul but then... there was Jesus. Just sitting there.  Not repulsed, not offended, not on guard, not worked up, not holier than thou.  Just… thirsty.  He just sat there. Sat there and calmly and relentlessly insisted that the story she had been told… the story she had inherited... the story she told herself… that story… WAS… A... LIE.

The TRUE story, Jesus told her, was that she was worthy of LIFE and not just a heavy-leaky-stagnant-water bucket sort of life, but a LIVING WATERS sort of life… a shooting-out-of-the-ground like a geyser, ABUNDANT sort of life! A filled with meaning, self worth, and purpose sort of life.  Not “someday” when she “got right” with God, or in the sweet by and by, but RIGHT THERE… RIGHT NOW!

We all have stories about us that are lies. We’ve been taught them, inherited them, and had then ground into us by our broken world. We all have that voice that insists those lies are true and says “you can’t,” right as you’re poised to step toward something new. It’s the voice that tells us those heavy, leaky bucket-of-stagnant-water sorts of stories that slowly but relentlessly erode away at our souls.

In our house that voice’s name is Brenda.  That’s the name a Drag Queen named Katya gave to her inner saboteur. Katya was brilliant to name it, because NOW with a name she could argue back with it! Because here’s the thing Katya taught us about Brenda and every voice like her’s… BRENDA’s a @#$%&…and BRENDA LIES!  That heavy, leaky, stagnant water bucket story Brenda tells?  THAT... STORY... IS... A... LIE!

The TRUTH for you and the TRUTH for me, is the same as the TRUTH Jesus told the woman at the well… MY life, YOUR life, our families’ lives, this world’s life are WORTHY of God’s ABUNDANCE... are WORTHY of living water... are WORTHY of God’s overflowing fountain of love, compassion and grace!  And ALL of us are WORTHY, simply because GOD SAYS SO!  God sent Jesus to tell us that truth and to show us that truth!

Brenda however, is persistent, relentless and clever.  But Brenda’s still a LIAR!  Brenda lies!  Jesus, however, is MORE persistent, MORE relentless and MORE clever and Jesus tells the TRUTH and Jesus will keep telling you your TRUE story over and over and over again… Jesus will just sit there and calmly and persistently remind you of God’s TRUTH and go back and forth with you for as long as it takes for Brenda’s lies and all the lies you’ve been told, inherited or been taught to be buried under a Mount Everest sized pile of Jesus’ TRUTH telling about God’s infinite love for you and all of creation.

Jesus knew the painful stories of this woman’s past could not be erased. Jesus knows the painful stories of our pasts can’t be erased either. Jesus knew the lies she had been told and taught could not be unlearned. Jesus knows the lies we’ve been told and taught can not be unlearned either. But Jesus also knows something more. That although the experiences, stories, lessons and lies of our past can not be undone or erased… those painful experiences, stories, lessons and lies don’t have to be carried around by us like a heavy, leaky bucket-of-stagnant-water either! They will never go away, but we can, like the woman at the well, leave them sitting on the edge of the well as we take one… and then two… and then more steps toward a different and abundant life… toward the life God created us to live… toward the life Jesus spends all of his life and all of his death and all of his resurrection showing us how to live… a life that grows under God’s continually showering of love.

That woman left that heavy, leaky bucket-of-stagnant-water on the edge of the well. It was there when she left and it will be there when she gets back. When she gets back it will probably taunt her, like that @#$%& Brenda does, but what Jesus taught that woman is that she is under no obligation to listen to Brenda’s lies or pick up that bucket ever again! That heavy, leaky bucket-of-stagnant-water was still there where she left it, but it no longer had any power. The painful experiences, stories, lessons and lies were not gone, but they too had lost their power… ALL of it reframed underneath a Mount Everest sized pile of Jesus’ truth about God’s infinite love.

What does Brenda say to you? What are the painful experiences, stories, lessons and lies she whispers to you in the dark… that she wants you to carry around with you like a heavy, leaky bucket of stagnant water? All of us have a Brenda.  All of us have a bucket. AND all of us have Jesus who is, one more time right now, reminding you that Brenda lies and that you have been given the power to leave that heavy, leaky, bucket of stagnant water on the edge of the well and walk off toward abundant life right now.  Amen.