“Jesus, A Spiritual Dowswer


Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – March 15, 2020

Centenary United Methodist Church

Exodus 17:1-7; John 4:5-18

 

    This morning we are going to examine another of Jesus' metaphors that became useful for a lesson he wanted to teach.  His student was a Samaritan woman that he met at Jacob's well. Before we discuss why and how he used water as a lesson-builder, we need to understand how people in Biblical times knew how to locate a source of underground water.

    In our Exodus passage today, we find a serious drama unfolding among the wandering Jews.  Moses' people angrily confronted him by saying, "Did you bring us out of Egypt to kill all of us from thirst?" Moses immediately prayed for help. He was fearful that his people might stone him to death. According to our lesson, God responded to Moses by saying:

Take some of the leaders of Israel with you and go on ahead of the people. Take along the staff with which you struck the Nile River.  I will show you a rock.  Strike that rock and water will gush forth, giving everyone as much water as they are seeking.  (Exodus 17:5)

    Moses did what he was told and he used his staff as a divining tool to discover the location of a source of water.  Once the location of water was found, the men Moses took with him dug the well by hand.  Since the Jewish writers built their historic narrative around the activities of God, it was God who showed Moses where water could be found in a most dramatic fashion. However, did God present the group with a finished well?  Probably not. What power was present in Moses' staff that he had used to strike the Nile River?

    When our family spent eight years in West Virginia, we learned a great deal about life in an agricultural setting.  We drank well-water as did most people. I became curious and asked if water was under the ground everywhere. The answer was strange.  Water cannot be found everywhere. The source of underground water is uncovered by a dowser and then the drilling at that site will start

    Having never heard of a dowser, I asked what this person does. This is the name given to a person who walks around the property with a divining tool much like the staff Moses used to find water.  This tool can be a small forked branch from a tree.  When the dowser reaches a spot where there is underground water, the divining tool automatically points to the ground without being assisted by the dowser.

    Of course, I rolled my eyes at hearing such a thought and muttered, "These people have lost their minds to believe that this is actually how a person finds a plentiful supply of underground water."  My skepticism was met with experience after experience of intelligent people finding water through the claims made by such a dowser. I learned this was not foolishness.  The doswer's reputation developed by producing results a hundred percent of the time.

    When we were vacationing in Sedona, Arizona, a very dry state, I asked how families find water in such a dry area.  Everyone has pools and many people have installed sprinkling systems.  Hotels have fountains as part of their landscape's

    architecture. Surprisingly, I got the same answer.  After hearing this for a second time, I was at a perfect place to buy a set of divining rods.  I purchased two sets of divining rods and found them to be absolutely amazing.

    To this day, I have no idea how or why they work but they do.  The instructions indicated that the two copper rods should point straight ahead when people begin their search. When a source of underground water is located, the rods will cross without being assisted.  Manipulating the rods is impossible since they are housed in separate tubes. In other words, this search cannot be faked. 

    Once back in West Virginia, I was watching engineers from the Martinsburg Public Works Department walking along the road in front of our home. I inquired what they were doing and one of the men told me that they had a report of a pretty-hefty leak in one of the water pipes under the asphalt. 

    One of the engineers started walking around with a set of divining rods. Apparently when the road was paved many years before, no one kept a map of the underground plumbing.  I watched the rods cross and that is where he sprayed an X on the road's asphalt surface.  No one questioned if the X actually marked the spot of the leak. I thought, "Wow! What a way to manage the Public Works Department!"

    Later that week another crew arrived and began jackhammering the road where the X had been sprayed.  The crew located a cracked union that was badly leaking and replaced it. I kept thinking, "What is going on here?  There is nothing about this process that makes any sense." I questioned the foreman about why no one questioned this engineer's method.  He told me: 

Our dowser is really a good one.  He has never missed in the twenty years I have known him.  He literally has prevented many work crews from our department from having to do exploratory surgery all over a road in order to find the diseased part.  I don't know how it works, but it does.  As I said, he has never missed.

    We can almost hear the Scribes, Pharisees, and the Teachers of the Law arguing over a carpenter's ability to heal people.  It makes no sense that a woman who has hemorrhaged for twelve years could be healed by touching Jesus.  (Mark 5:29) It is ridiculous to assume that a man who was born blind could be healed.  (John 9:6-7). There has been no scientific evidence to support the claims of those who continued to repeat accounts of Jesus' healing people.  

    My neighbor in West Virginia had a dowser who walked all over his property for over an hour and was unsuccessful.  Finally, the dowser was leaning against Charles' home when his divining tool flew out of his hand.  He picked it up and declared that the energy was so strong that there must be a massive source of water beneath the surface. The company drilled right next to the foundation of the Lewis' home.  Eventually, they hit a rushing underground stream that yielded hundreds of gallons per minute. 

    After hearing this story from Charles, I asked, "Do you mean to tell me that he found water right next to your house but could not find it ten feet from here?"  The answer was:

Yes!   I remember when the foundation for our house was dug, the contractor spent a lot of time penetrating a gigantic thick slab of limestone that covers our property. Apparently, there was enough space between our foundation and the limestone that activated his divining tool while we were drinking coffee right here.

    I did some research before writing my message for today and learned that there is no scientific evidence to back-up the claims of dowsers.  However, I learned that divining tools have been used to detect a supply of underground water for the last 8,000 years.  The Jews learned the practice from the Egyptians who always had plenty of water to drink even though the country is very dry and receives a little over three inches of rain a year.

    With this very lengthy and curious introduction, let us turn our attention to what took place when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.  As we have learned from our Sunday school days, Samaritans were despised by the Jews. However, Jesus began talking to this woman as his disciples were approaching from a local village.  They were shocked to find Jesus violating their cultural laws.  Not only was Jesus seen speaking to this woman but he appeared willing to drink from the same vessel she was using.  She reminded Jesus that doing so would have represented a serious breach in Jewish cultural laws. Jesus said:

If only you knew what God gives and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him and he would give you life-giving water. Those who drink the water from this well will get thirsty again but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give them will become a spring which will provide them with life-giving water and give them eternal life. (John 4:10f)

    This is how and why water became a metaphor to describe the kind of Attitudes of being that would transform this woman's life. Jesus can actually be described as a spiritual dowser, by pointing to the source of life-giving water.  

    Last week, we discussed Jesus using a similar metaphor when he spoke to Nicodemus.  While speaking with this great teacher of the Jewish people, Jesus described the complete transformation of people to the metaphor of being born again.

    There is no one who can understand how such transformation works.  All that we know is that a significant shift in Saul's energy flow changed him into becoming the Apostle Paul. A change in the flow of energy turned a carpenter into a Messiah who dedicated his life and ministry to the transformation that occurs when loving energy replaces Me with, We.

    Strangely enough, what is missing from our Scripture lesson today is what Jesus taught this woman.   Obviously, she had not been successful in finding love.  She failed five times to find it from men.  What Jesus most likely did was hold a verbal mirror in front of her that communicated, "Stop searching for love to come to you.  Instead, begin giving love to everyone in your life."  

    Jesus had become a spiritual dowser that was teaching the woman where the source of life-giving water can be found. The source of life-giving water was already inside of her but she had never accessed it. By reversing her loving energy from an expectation to a gift that she could give to others, that energy would become the spring that would feed the spiritual qualities of her personality.   

    Think about this.  When we feel betrayed, depressed, angry, and empty, our natural response is to point to the source of our pain. We may say, "So-and-so did something to me that really hurt and I am finding it very hard to forgive them."  Really?  Are others really the source of our pain?  Did that so-and-so's mistake, or cruel act just take control over our spirits?  Absolutely!  It is easy to point to the source we believe is responsible for our pain.  We need to look in the mirror to see the real source.  

    We always have a choice to let go instantly when other people reveal who they are and where they are on the learning curve of spiritual maturity. If our choice is to be offended, our thirst for validation will return again and again just as Jesus said.  We are doing nothing to use the event for growth in our ability to forgive, remain patient, and kind.  

    God has equipped everyone with the source of life-giving water. Many people pour money into counseling and medications that they hope will help them cope with life's twists and turns. Such props may only be using butter-cream icing to cover up the immaturity of their spirits inability to want growth over being hurt.

    How easily we turn the reins of our spirits over to others when we are offended and cannot forgive.  This is what kept the Samaritan woman going from one husband to the next.   Jesus was a spiritual dowser who could point to the hidden source of life-giving water within each of his listeners that would transform their lives.

    However, Jesus could not do the homework that others must do when they take responsibility for their responses. Just like for Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman at the well, we have to decide where we want to take our cues for living. Jesus chose the source that flooded his spirit with life-giving water.  What source are we using?

     

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

Thank you, God, that during our Lenten walk, we are directed to examine our thoughts. During moments of regret, help us to remember when we gave our love away.  When we dwell on our shortcomings, remind us of the difference that we have made in other people's lives. When we feel sorry for ourselves, guide us to find a place where we can make a difference in someone's life. How wonderful are your ways. Yet, too often we take detours by thinking how miserable the world is. We forget our role of being a light in darkness. Help us to leave the outcome of our efforts up to you like Jesus did. Amen.

 

THE PASTORAL PRAYER

Thank you, God, for these moments during Lent when we continue our reflection on the direction and quality of our lives.  This week, we learned that it does not take much to spook people.  This coronavirus that is visiting most nations is mysterious and has made a lot of people hysterical with fear.  People cannot be sure who is safe and who is a carrier of this illness.  Major athletic events that attract thousands of people to stadiums have been canceled. The world's economies have drastically slowed, store shelves are emptying, churches on our island are wondering how long they can keep their doors open for worship.  Right now, Bermuda has no way of treating someone without exposing themselves to the disease they are carrying.  Inspire us to remember that we are people who walk by faith.  We have the ability to remain calm, patient, and understanding that this chapter of our lives will pass just as such crises have in our past.

We are so aware of the many aspects within us that still remain undefined.  After unpleasant experiences like the one currently happening are gone, we can always look back and consider how our faith held up during moments of uncertainty.

Jesus walked among us two thousand years ago to teach men and women how to live in our world.  Our own fears are the greatest cause of chasing smiles from our faces. Jesus taught us to take full responsibility for our moods, our values, our responses, and most of all, our attitudes.  The life-giving water we have in good supply flows from within each one of us.  No one else can give that to us.  We have to access that flow of loving energy and use it every day as it lifts us to new levels of maturity. We pray these thoughts through Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . .