March 15, 2020 - Third Sunday in Lent - A Burning Light, A Burning Question

1918 Pandemic

Blind Willie Johnson wrote in his powerful song What is the Soul of a Man? the following words:

I reads the Bible often, I tries to read it right
And far as I could understand, ain't nothin' but a burning light!

Blind Willie Johnson has been on my mind this week while hearing about the latest news on the pandemic we are facing. He wrote a song about the pandemic he lived through in 1918 called Jesus is Coming Soon.

I write this after a week spent mostly in the hospital with my wife or caring for her as she struggled with her ongoing health issues, listening to constant news updates about the pandemic or having Blind Willie Johnson's songs floating in my thoughts and, throughout my waking hours, last Sunday's lectionary readings haunted me.

I do try to read the Bible often. As much as we can learn it is hard to know with certainty anything about the nature of God. For those that have faith in something beyond our apprehension of daily experiences, is there something to be done to bring about the kingdom of God? Today's gospel reading has addressed this question for me from when it was the lectionary reading three years ago. The revealing parallels and differences in the stories of Nicodemus and the Woman of Samaria are quite obvious in these current gospel readings.

Water is a central image in both "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit" and "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."

There are parallels in the way these stories are told. In both these stories Jesus answers questions that come from the practical experience we have in life with another level of answer. Nicodemus never seems to overcome his literal understanding of Jesus' words, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night with theological questions, seeking him out to ask a question about his identity.

The woman arrives at Jacob’s well at noon, the brightest hour of the day, and she is startled when Jesus speaks to her. She came for a practical purpose: to draw water, not to question Jesus about anything spiritual. Although she asks questions that assume Jesus is still talking about her physical experience with water, they are involved in a productive exchange in their dialogue.

The exchange starts when Jesus asks for a favor. Her perplexed response "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" is explained by the parenthetical (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) There certainly is some problem with mixed levels again (perceived cultural division), however it is hard to imagine that anyone wouldn't be thirsty and ask for water at the well. It is also hard to imagine if Jesus' refreshment were the only point of this favor that their exchange would have proceeded the way that it does.

For years I have assumed the woman and Nicodemus are somewhat dense in not picking up on the meaning of Jesus' words. Now I see that is both condescending and not necessarily true. For Jesus and the woman to communicate higher truths this may be the best, if not the only, level to continue on. The profound change in the woman at the end of the story argues for this interpretation.

After Jesus' responds "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." and Jesus replies "Go, call your husband, and come back."

Jesus' words are extraordinary and unexpected. What does the woman's marital status have to do with the offer of living water? Perhaps Jesus is bringing up the idea of a union as a step in what is necessary for the transformation of the water from the well to living water. Next Jesus' observation of her 5 husbands (he might be suggesting that in her past she has operated from her five senses) and having no husband (she is ready to move on) now actually responds to her question. There is a union of the levels of daily experience and a higher level comes with the transformation of water.

In the end of last Sunday's gospel Nicodemus appears to be left on the fence and in the dark. He is not ready to accept or understand Jesus’ revelation. Nicodemus remains at the literal level of the dialogue with Jesus, confused about how a grown man can reenter his mother’s womb and be born again.

The woman proceeds from a literal level, identifying Jesus as he appears, as a Jew to a deeper understanding of his identity, calling him a “prophet”, opening herself to the possibility that he is “greater than our ancestor Jacob”, and finally hearing Jesus’ self-revelation, “I am he” - the one, as the woman says, who will “proclaim all things to us”. She rushes to share her belief that Jesus is the Christ with others. In this week's gospel - based on the word of Jesus, the Samaritans come to believe that Jesus is the “Savior of the world”.

This week the lectionary readings seemed to focus on rest and refreshing water that is not easily accessible. Pastor Ray focused on how the water from the wells that Jesus describes satisfies true thirst rather than the wells we often turn to, wells of loneliness and fear. This links to the First Reading  Exodus 17:1-7. The name of where the Israelites camped in this story Rephidim (Hebrew: רְפִידִם‎) means rest. And there is no apparent water for the people to drink there until Moses struck the rock with his staff. Then the Israelites are satisfied that the Lord is with us.

They were afraid of dying of dehydration until Moses struck the rock and revealed the water they could drink. Like the Israelites I feel I am in new wildernesses, both personally and in our shared, public world.

I have seen and experienced many fears this week with my wife in the hospital (thankfully not for this virus) and some choices that are being made beyond my control to fight the coronavirus. Some choices are moving many away from the world that I normally experience.

The congregation is not meeting in the church building because of the health advisories that are swirling around us. The question "Is the Lord with us?" takes on a new urgency. And I vacillate between fearing that anwer and having faith. There doesn't seem to be anything holding me to one or the other or both. This Jesus is Coming Soon song provides me with a window to my predicament and also weighs me with the burden that keeps me moving through my current, rather desolate wildernesses.

Rationally I don't believe in the chorus or that God sends disease and that is why I I connect with this cover of the song. It vacillates between a calm delivery of the stanzas and an energetic, wild chorus. I think I have a little of both in me as America prepares for this pandemic.  

Jesus is Coming Soon

(click the title to link to hear the Cowboy Junkies' cover of the song at 10:38) 

Chorus

Well, we done told you, 
our God's done warned you
Jesus coming soon
 
We done told you, 
our God's done warned you
Jesus coming soon

In the year of 19 and 18, God sent a mighty disease
It killed many a-thousand, on land and on the seas

chorus

It spread disease to everybody and the people were sick everywhere

It was influenza epidemic and it floated through the air

chorus

The doctors they got troubled and they didn't know what to do
They gathered themselves together, they called it the Spanish flu

chorus

Soldiers died in the battlefield, died in the camps too
Well the Captain said "Lieutenant, I don't know what to do"

chorus
 

Well, God is warning the nation, He's a-warning them every way
To turn away from evil eye and seek the Lord and pray

chorus

Well, the news was presented to the people, "You better close your public schools"
"And to prevent the death piles building, you better close your churches too"

chorus

Read the book of Zechariah, the Bible plainly say

Thousands of people in the cities dying on a-count of their wicked ways
chorus