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“The Way I Love You”

By Lisa Sharon Harper

Scripture: Jeremiah 2:1-13

The word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord:
I remember the devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to the Lord,
the first fruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it were held guilty;
disaster came upon them,

says the Lord.

4 Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the Lord:
What wrong did your ancestors find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?
6 They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord
who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
in a land that no one passes through,
where no one lives?’
7 I brought you into a plentiful land
to eat its fruits and its good things.
But when you entered you defiled my land,
and made my heritage an abomination.
8 The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers transgressed against me;
the prophets prophesied by Baal,
and went after things that do not profit.

9 Therefore once more I accuse you,

says the Lord,
and I accuse your children’s children.
10 Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
send to Kedar and examine with care;
see if there has ever been such a thing.
11 Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
be shocked, be utterly desolate,

says the Lord,

13 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
that can hold no water.

Gospel Reading: John 4: 7-14 (NRSV)

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 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.) 10 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.’ 11 The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ 13 Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.’

Exercise

Gather the following items:

• 1 colander or strainer
• 1 cup of water
• Stand at a sink

Stand at your sink and pour the cup of water into the colander. What do you notice? How much of the water that you poured in does the colander hold?

Reflection

Jeremiah begins his prophetic word to the people of Israel with a lament from God. “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride.” God gushes, remembering the requited love of his beloved bride—the people of Israel. Like a new bird, the people used to gaze at God with love, longing, and satisfaction. The people received God’s lavish gifts and sank into the safety of God’s arms. Then the text says they turned on God. They forgot God—the fountain of living water. Instead, they traded living water for “broken cisterns that could hold no water.”

A cistern is a large tank used to hold drinking water or water to maintain sanitation in daily life. A broken cistern fails to hold the water.

Consider: What impact would a broken cistern have on a household?

• Less drinking water
• More vulnerable to dehydration
• Digestive problems
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• More vulnerable to kidney failure, seizures, heat injury, and low blood volume shock

In other words, water is a critical source of life. Dehydration can lead to breakdown and even death.

Jeremiah cries out to the people of Israel that they have turned away from God. They have normalized living with cisterns that hold no water. They have normalized living in a kind of dehydrated state. They have come to consider fatigue and irritability, digestive problems and seizures, low blood volume, and chronic kidney stones to be their spiritual norm. The text tells us this spiritual sickness manifested in the world as the people “going after worthless things and becoming worthless things.” The text tells us the leaders mishandled the law, worshiped idols, and desecrated the land.

But God pleads with the bride to forsake their broken cisterns and to return to the source of living water.

In our Gospel passage, Jesus approaches the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well—the location where Jacob proposed to his bride, Rachel. And Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, “Give me a drink.” These are the very words that Jacob used to propose! Then Jesus reveals his identity to the Samaritan woman. Jesus is the source of Jeremiah’s living water! She can leave this man-made well, which she will have to return to again. Drink from the water Jesus gives, and the source of life will gush out from within her, becoming a source of life for others!

Which would you rather have? The broken cistern or the source of living water?

Reflection Questions

Where am I drawing from broken cisterns that can hold no water?

What ways of Jesus have I turned from in favor of idols, mishandling of the law, or desecration of the land through neglect, exploitation, or war?

What would it look like to return to God and tap into the source of life?

Breath Prayer

Breathe In: I want you, God.

Breathe Out: Cracked cisterns are not normal.