Sermon 2/24/08
Lion King: Quenched - John 4:5-42
(view lectionary notes for this text)
This week we’ve just heard “Hakuna Matata,” arguably one of the most popular songs from the Lion King. The lyrics, like the philosophy of the song, are pretty simple: Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase! Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze. It means no worries for the rest of your days. It's our problem-free philosophy. Hakuna Matata! Hakuna matata is a Swahili phrase that is literally translated as "There are no worries here". It means “no worries,” or “no problem.” In The Lion King, Simba, the young lion cub, is run out of his homeland by his uncle Scar after the death of his father Mufasa. Simba feels responsible for his father’s death, since his father died to rescue his mischievous son. But Simba eventually runs into some unlikely friends, Timon and Pumbaa, a meerkat and a warthog. They convince him not to worry about having fled his homeland. “Hakuna matata,” they tell him. “No worries.” Simba takes them at their word, and for many years, gives hardly a thought to returning to Pride Rock. Eventually though, Simba’s past becomes his future, and he has to decide whether he will confront the life he left behind or continue to live with his “no worries” philosophy.
Hakuna Matata is indeed a sort of life philosophy, not unlike the phrase from Bobbi McFerrin’s famous song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Hakuna matata – no worries, no problems. It’s an attitude about how to react to what’s happening in the world. What’s you life philosophy, your life motto? If you had to sum up your attitude about life in one short little phrase, what would it be? We’ve got many of them that float around: “Seize the day – Carpe Diem.” Or “live and let live.” How about “Que sera sera – whatever will be will be.” Or, “C’est la vie – that’s life.” I tried to see if all these phrases would show up on one page on the internet. And surely, they do, in many places, under the title of “clichés.” What’s a cliché? A cliché is: “a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse.” (1) A cliché, as we typically use them, is something with somewhat of a negative connotation. A cliché won’t get you very far.
What is your life philosophy? What is your motto? What would be a phrase to sum up your life’s philosophy? Today we encounter this fascinating story from the gospel of John, the only gospel where we find this passage. Jesus is travelling from place to place and his destination causes him to travel through a Samaritan city. The Jews and the Samaritans didn’t get along. They had common religious ancestry, but over the centuries they had divided and come to have different religious beliefs. Samaritans, for instance, only held the first five books of what is our Bible to be scripture. They didn’t include the writings of the prophets in their sacred texts. And they believed that Mount Sinai, not Jerusalem, was the holy place of worship. But Jews and Samaritans didn’t just have different views on religious beliefs. Relations between the two groups were tense and unfriendly, with Jews typically viewing Samaritans as lower and unclean.
But, Jesus travels through this Samaritan town, and stops at a well. A Samaritan woman, unnamed like so many women in the Bible, comes to the well, and Jesus asks her to draw him some water to drink. She’s surprised. She’s a woman and a Samaritan, two huge reasons for Jesus not to speak to her. But Jesus tells her, “if you knew the gift of God, and who it is [that is talking to you], you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman is naturally confused by Jesus’ strange talk. How can he get water without a bucket, she wonders? Jacob, their revered forefather got water from a well with the help of God. Can this man Jesus do that? Jesus answers, “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 responds, even if not understanding fully, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus goes on to tell the woman all about herself, her history. The woman asks if Jesus is a prophet. They debate a bit, about their different religious views. But Jesus tells her, “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the truth worshipers will worship God in spirit and truth, for God seeks such as these to worship. God is spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman says she knows that the Messiah is coming. Jesus says he is the Messiah.
But that’s not the end of our passage. The disciples show up, surprised at Jesus’ conversation partner, but wise enough apparently to keep their thoughts to themselves. Jesus says something to them about food to eat, and they, like the woman, are confused by his talk. But Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to proclaim his work.” He talks about the Samaritans being ready for the harvest, ready to receive the good news. Indeed, the passage closes with the woman bringing others to meet Jesus, who believe that he is the savior because of her witness. ***
Last year, I gave up soda for Lent. I’ve been a Diet Coke drinker since high school at least. I switched to mostly caffeine free Diet Coke somewhere in there, but I still couldn’t give it up altogether. When I travel places where I know there won’t be Diet Coke available, I usually make sure to bring my own stash with me, or I just end up making a “Diet Coke run” mid-meeting. So, last year was an interesting test for me, and I did really well all through Lent. I passed through the headache phase, that painful process where your body doesn’t respond well to missing out on caffeine. I still wanted Diet Coke when I saw it, but I managed to survive without it.
Of course, without having soda, I needed to replace my soda with something else to keep hydrated. Soda actually isn’t a good hydrating beverage. Between the sodium and the caffeine, soda can actually make you thirstier than otherwise. So I drank a lot of water. For once, I actually got my recommended eight cups of water a day, which is a rarity for me. The thing is, I don’t actually like water, the taste of it. I’ve never been a water-drinker. Still, I learned to enjoy it. And I found that the more I drank of it, the thirstier I was for it. It quenched my thirst, yes, but it also created in me a need for it – it satisfied my thirst, and so I actually thirsted even more for it. When I am the most thirsty, and the most in true need of something to quench my thirst, I would never or rarely reach for a soda. After a hard workout, or after going for a run, or being active on a hot day, it is cold, thirst-quenching water that I would reach for. So why am I so reluctant to give up the soda? Why am I so reluctant to make a change that can only be for my benefit? For my health? For good things for me? I wish I could say I kept my Diet-Coke free lifestyle after Easter came last year. But I’ve continued to go back and forth, trying to drink the water I know I need, craving instead the Diet Coke whose taste I love.
What does this have to do with Lent, or this passage from John, or a life philosophy? Well, sometimes we operate under a guiding life principle that isn’t actually for our own benefit. “Hakuna Matata,” “no worries,” can sound very biblical. Jesus tells us not to worry about what tomorrow will bring – but he tells us this because we can depend on God and trusting in God is the only grounding we need for each day. But “no worries” for the character Simba in the Lion King really means not worrying about his responsibilities, running away from his problems, forgetting about who he is and the people who need him back in his homeland. “Hakuna Matata” lets Simba not look deeper into his own young soul to discover who he is and what he must do.
The woman at the well has just met this man Jesus who tells her he knows about her questionable behaviors. He disagrees with her about her own long-held beliefs. He challenges her. He makes her accountable. But he also talks about spirit and truth that are ready for her to be part of now. And he promises her living water that quenches her thirst. She could turn away. She could write him off as crazy. She could be totally unchanged by this encounter. But her response to Jesus’ strange speech is: “Give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty.” She’s ready to go deeper, to have a deeper faith, to explore a different kind of discipleship. “Give me this water.”
It’s the same philosophy that Jesus shares with his disciples in this passage: his food, what nourishes Jesus, what gives him life, is doing God’s will, completing God’s work on earth, laboring and harvesting souls for God’s kingdom. Jesus doesn’t get his energy, his strength, his focus in life from choosing what is easy, but from choosing to go deeper, choosing to open himself up to God entirely, choosing to let God’s way be his way. That’s what sustains Jesus, fills him up, satisfies his hunger.
What’s your life philosophy? What’s the guiding principle for how you act and what you do? Jesus essentially tells the woman at the well that it doesn’t make any sense to focus your life around something that doesn’t quench your thirst, or feed your hunger. If you choose another path, you’ll just find yourself returning to the well again and again, never quite able to fill up on something that never quite satisfies your deepest longings.
Why do I choose Diet Coke instead of water? Why do we choose style over substance? Why do we choose quantity over quality? Why do we choose to wander lost instead of following God? We’re always convinced we’ve got a better way of looking at things. But Jesus tells us, if we know who he is, if we get it, if we understand who we’re talking to here, we’ll drop our clichés by the wayside, and choose life, choose living water to quench our thirsty souls. Gracious God, give us this water, so that we may never be thirsty.
Amen.
(1) from dictionary.com
Benediction: (Rev. Moira Laidlaw) - Go into this week with your lives overflowing with the love of God, your hearts saturated with the peace of Jesus Christ, your whole being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.