On my recent visit to Australia I was not surprised to hear and to see evidence of the issues of water, of its lack and of its careful use since Eastern Australia has been in the grip of drought conditions for seven years or more. For instance in most public gardens and spaces there were clear signs of how plants were watered and where the water came from. Many had large plastic tanks for collecting rain water to assist with the upkeep. People generally were much more conscious of the importance of water and its use. We all appreciate that water is fundamental to life. However in a modern city like New York with its abundant water it is easy to forget that vital link. We expect to have water available at all times at the turn of a tap for personal and household use as well as for our gardens and cleaning our paths and sidewalks. It is only in times of prolonged drought that threats of possible water restrictions remind us of the limited nature of the resource. I can remember a dry summer here in the 80s when restaurants stopped serving water automatically.

But anyone who has traveled in third world countries subject to drought will have observed the dramatic link between water and life. I remember driving through some extremely poor rural areas of Zimbabwe in 1991 in the middle of a long period of drought. Wherever you came upon a well there would be groups of women carrying plastic vessels and buckets filled or to be filled with precious water then to be carried back to their villages which could be miles away. Like in the time of Jesus the well is still a very significant lifeline in many parts of the world. If you read Episcopal Relief and Development literature or that ofany aid organization working in the third world you will find that water projects feature a good deal.

So it was in the time of Jesus. The land of the Bible then as now is a dry place with few natural water resources. As I said in my sermon two weeks ago about wildernesses so it is that wells and other watering places feature in the Bible and in the biblical psyche. Think of Abraham settling at Beersheba (literally 7 wells). Think of Moses striking the Rock in the wilderness to obtain water to quench the thirst of the Israelites or the image of the Promised Land as a watered place. Think of the significance of the River Jordan as the way into that Land as well as the way into the Kingdom and its place in the ministry of John the Baptizer. And in our Christian tradition think of the whole significance of the waters of Baptism. It is not surprising therefore to find Jesus sitting beside the well. Here was a classic teaching aid!

Jesus soon moves his encounter with the Samaritan woman from the immediate issue of his thirst to the deeper question of living water, water that gives life which is eternal. “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” Jesus uses the occasion to reveal that he, Jesus is the source of that living water that gives eternal life. For we who are baptized this whole narrative provides a context to our understanding of Baptism. It is through our immersion in the living waters of baptism that the way to eternal life is opened up to us.

The well, the place where water is available, then can be for us a powerful image of the spiritual life and our prayer and this in several ways. First it is a place of refreshment. Jesus came to quench his thirst at an ancient well. So we need places where we can be refreshed, including places of real spiritual refreshment. I like to think of these as oases, spiritual oases. I well remember traveling by four wheel drive through the Sinai Desert through endless miles of rock and sand and suddenly rounding a bend to see in front of us an oasis, with palm trees, welcome shade, people and animals, and of course at its heart, a well, the source of life. Our prayer can be for us such a life-giving oasis: a place of refreshment and of revival.

This image of oasis with its well, can be a good way of describing what we are on about this morning as we meet for corporate worship. We have come to this oasis to be refreshed by the waters of life. It can be good image of a time of retreat or quiet. We may see our times of quiet reflection or meditation as oases in our day. For you the oasis which comes to mind may be the seashore or a garden or a walk by the river or whatever. Many people visiting this church with its garden often describe the experience in terms of an unexpected oasis in the middle of New York. Father Houghton knew what he was about in planning a garden and providing a fountain. There is nothing like a source of living water to refresh us physically and spiritually. In fact some contemporary fonts have running water built into them for this precise reason.

But the well in the Gospel passage was also a place of encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. And what is worth noting is that it was no passive encounter. The woman bombards Jesus with questions. She wants answers. Sometimes we are a bit shy about our questions. Perhaps we feel we ought to know the answers so we leave them unasked. But our questions have a place in our prayer. We need to be honest before God, to ask Why? and When? and How? Why me? Why now? How long, Lord? How can this be? We need to be open before God with our real feelings and not to put up a good front, a sort of spiritual politeness. It is often claimed that in polite company you shouldn’t discuss religion, politics, sex or money. The trouble is what is there left to talk about! Sometimes I think we treat God like polite society. But the well is the place for a good, honest, open debate with God. And so should our prayer.

But the well in addition to being a place of refreshment and encounter is above all a place from which to draw water; a place of resource. It was St.Theresa of Avila who used the well as an image of prayer in her writings. Thomas Kelly wrote a book some years ago called “When the Wells Run Dry” which developed Theresa’s ideas. We can ask ourselves, what are the spiritual resources upon which we can draw when we are thirsty, thirsty for God? Let me suggest several which then may spark-off others in your own minds. The Scriptures of the Bible are clearly such a resource upon which we can draw for inspiration, for the quenching of spiritual thirst. The Psalms are the most obvious place to start. That is why they play such a central part in Jewish and Christian worship. The Psalms are a remarkable compilation of human wisdom speaking to almost every situation we face. Think of the power of Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd. Or think of Psalm 121, I lift up my eyes to the hills, but where shall I find help? And so we could go on. Or we could draw upon the riches of the Book of Job, or the Prophets, or the Gospels or the writings of St.Paul Today's reading from Romans is a good example. Hymnody is another classic spiritual source which can quench our thirst, can focus our restless souls and bring us closer to God.

The power of hymns is often underestimated. They do form part of our spiritual landscape. I had the privilege of ministering to Archbishop Frank Woods who ordained me priest 36 years ago this past week in his last days when I was Rector of a Melbourne parish. A week before he died I had said Morning Prayer with him sitting on the edge of his bed. When we had finished he said, “Andrew, what is your favorite hymn?” And before I could answer he recited the four verses of “Ye Holy Angels Bright” with his eyes closed and head back on his pillow. He paused after the words, “Ye blessed souls at rest, Who ran this earthly race, And now, from sin released, Behold the Saviour’s face, His praises sound, As in his light With sweet delight Ye do abound” That’s what I want to do, he said, “Abound”. I have to admit when that hymn was sung in the Cathedral at his funeral twelve days later I couldn’t sing for sheer emotion. Such is the power of hymnody. Again it would be a useful Lent exercise to sit down with a hymnbook and identify those hymns which “feed” you, those hymns with strong associations, those hymns worth committing to memory.

In the Anglican spiritual tradition poetry as well as hymnody has played an important part and is another important spiritual resource, a well upon which to draw. The poets, George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins, T.S.Eliot, or R.S.Thomas form good reference points from where to commence your journey. Think on Herbert’ poem “Prayer” which begins: “Prayer, the Church’s banquet, Angels’ age, God’s breath in man returning to his birth, The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage, The Christian plummet, sounding heaven and earth”. Or from Eliot’s, “Little Gidding” from The Four Quartets: “You are here to kneel Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more Than an order of words, the conscious occupation Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying. And what the dead had no speech for, when living, They can tell you, being dead: the communication Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living. Here, the intersection of the timeless moment Is England and nowhere. Never and always.”

Art is another spiritual resource upon which to draw. Our current Wednesday Lent series is about the place of icons in the spiritual tradition. Father McPherson is to lead a visit to the Metropolitan Museum a week Saturday to look at art through spiritual eyes. Paintings and sculpture can be an excellent spiritual resource. Another spiritual resource which we so easily take for granted is music. The organ music of Bach for instance or the wide range of choral music which we hear in this church are a deep well of resource. The current popularity of the music of the 13th.century German woman saint, Hildegard of Bingen, of Gregorian chant and of the music of Taize as aids to contemplative prayer also highlight the part music can play as a spiritual aid. Again it is a useful Lent exercise to identify those things that inspire and feed you; as well as exploring new wells, to discover new resources which will aid your prayer.

And it is important to note that the experience at the well had a transformative effect on the nameless woman. She approached the well as an outsider in many respects: she was a Samaritan; she was a woman; and she was of doubtful respectability. But through her encounter with Jesus; through her tasting of the water of life; she emerged from the experience as a transformed person; as an evangelist, telling others of her experience and witnessing to Jesus the Messiah.

For the Samaritan woman the well became the place where she encountered the Living God in the person of Jesus, who said to her, “I am he”, that is God who is the source of all being, the living water who gives life in all its fullness. That encounter is a sign of the significance of our baptism; the rationale of the spiritual life; the life of prayer.  Amen

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