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Water, Water, Where Are You?
 The world is beginning to have a water shortage. Climate is out of control. Imagine a city like Montevideo which has about 1,500, 000 population is coming to a halt in its water pumps. The rumors are that within a few days, there will be no more water in that big city, one of the most important ones in South America. Normally it’s a favorite of summer tourism. People love their beaches, the shallowed water in which one can walk out a distance. Funds to support Montevideo depend on the masses of tourist who come to enjoy the beaches and restaurants all long the sandy borders of the Atlantic and families rush to snap a photograph on the big Hand in the sand, and also feed the enormous sea lions who swarm around the many fishing boats in the nearby ports, which are packed, bumper to bumper with the most elegant to the smallest boats and yachts that bring people to these docks. Now, that season is basically over. We are on the opposite side of the Equator, so winter will crawl in somehow or another when weather wants to.
But, meanwhile, there is a shout out that the city is running out of water. In so many days, there will be no more water for the normal home or building. All over the world, humans have over-used water because it has been abundant and who would have thought there would be a crisis smack on the edges of the ocean. Well, the crisis is more about drinking water, and water in the homes and restaurants, everyday water that we cannot live without. And there is a lack of rain to toss health and prosperity upon the vineyards and olive plantations and soybeans, rice wheat, maize, sorghum, citrus fruits, and strawberries galore. Uruguay also grows Eucalyptus trees to make the Chinese happy. After seven or eight years, there is a crop that can be cut down and the Eucalyptus are shaved to send to China for use as paper. But then Uruguay is a treasure of vineyards also affected, being competitive with wines worldwide. My favorite is Narbona which is a mile from our cottage on the Rio de la Plata.
Everywhere on this planet we have abused the generosity of the seas and oceans, or wells deep into the bowels of the earth or in our kitchen sinks. We waste it. We abuse it. We fill giant swimming pools with it. We mix it with chemical and filth. We use it to give life to gardens and ancient trees. Yet still we are shocked that so many in the world have no access to water, not just for drinking and cooking, but for cleaning and giving life to humans who have so little, and yet the world needs water for animals, fields, trees, vegetables, fruits. Oranges and strawberries overflow in this small nation as those crops arrive.
Water is probably the most important “thing” on earth. And God had it on his 5-day list of creation. Without it we cannot put out fires nor stay healthy and clean nor grow comestibles or wine of high rank. Without it we cannot wash clothes and socks and dirty potatoes just pulled out of the soil. There are just too many of us on this earth now to take care of the water that is available. All rivers are sacred in Hinduism, but the Ganges is a goddess who came down to earth to prepare and purify people who have died or dying. Other sacred waters are in Hebron of Palestine, equal to Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, and nearby in a desert place Abraham was buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs. Even the Nigerian’s sacred Yoruba and Osun Rivers are drying up, and the Jordan River one can almost walk across in spots without getting wet. Water is being absorbed in the air because there is no rain to return it back to the earth.
My hometown of Memphis is said to have the best and safest artesian water in the United States. So, it was a shock when it looked like the Mississippi River was drying up and the giant barges had no lane to be able to carry its fodder and products under the Mississippi bridge there for a while. Many in days gone by had their own wells. But, as all things, it was used and abused and there began to be shortages in the large city and surrounding farmland.
Now water can recycle itself in some ways, like the water which Jesus used to baptize in the river Jordan. Water where salmon jump up stream is still there if it hasn’t been made poisonous by man’s discharges and disposing chemicals and medicines and dangerous things tossed into it. Of course, fish and animals have no way of judging water. They expect to be able to have water somewhere in their environments. We do, too. And yet we are the ones who abuse it the most.
During the Eucharist in most churches, water, symbolic of you and me, of humanity, and the wine is the divinity that came with Jesus Christ who gave His life for all of us. Once we put the water drops into the wine, it cannot be taken out again. And we are told that the symbolism of this is because of Jesus, we can never again be separated permanently from God. Not today nor forever. We are God’s always, no matter who we are or what we have done, so there is always hope and resolve. One of my favorite confrontations in the Bible, is when Jesus showed respect to the Samaritan women, whose task daily was to go to the well to get water for her family. Women were the ones who drew water for their men, families, needs. It was a woman’s task. And this woman came quietly to the well when no one was there, because she was embarrassed about her long list of spouses. So, she sorts of tipped toed down and wanted to get in and out before anyone might appear and insult or curse her.
As she began to gather the water, the Biblical story goes, there appeared this unfamiliar man who asked her for a cup of water. It shocked her. It must be a mistake. She thought she had chosen a time when no one else would be around. She began a brief chat with this unknown, unfamiliar Son of God which led her into confession and a diary of her life, sin, and problems. Did she mean to pour out her life before Him? She was curious but proper and eventually, being a Samaritan who believed in that the Messiah was to come. Her people called themselves guardian watchers, keeper of the Torah. There was a lot of symbolism in this conversation, almost a poetic language that didn’t make much sense to the woman who was middle aged and had passed through a number of husbands, which Jesus knew right away. Jesus talked about living water. She could only think well water always moves and never ends. it doesn’t fade out though it can dry up with the lack of re-stocking it. Without water below, water above doesn’t get pulled down from heavens, it seems. But Jesus was talking about something else. Baptismal water. Holy water. Water we put into the wine at our Eucharist to remind us of the blood and water that came out of Jesus’s heart when he was pierced with a speak.
The woman at the well immediately wanted to know more about this sacred water that never ends, primarily because she was tired of having to go to the well to gather water. Then Jesus mentions her spouses, five of them and a current one to whom she was not married. But then Jesus sort of tosses this aside as He began to show her how to be a true worshiper of God the Father. She knew the Messiah was coming. Then Jesus confessed He was that, Messiah.
When the disciples returned, they were horrified that He was even chatting with a Samaritan woman. The woman fled to the nearest town to spread the word. And Jesus then preached to His disciples in His rather covert way. The fields are ripe for harvesting, He said, and this woman, this Samaritan woman, was one of the fruits of His labor. It was that woman at the well who opened these doors with her great heart, discovering the savior of the world who knew all about her tawdry life, all because of water and a well.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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