2023.03.12 | What's Feeding You
What’s Feeding You?
John 4:5-42
Preached by
Marvin Lance Wiser
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, CA
12 March 2023
Good morning church family! It’s a great day, a day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it. We’ve been busy church, we’ve got a fundraiser and a fun-raiser coming up in less than a week. So today, I’ve got on my heart to talk to you about where we derive our fuel. How do we do what we do--and do it joyfully. How do you find it within yourself to keep on participating in all the awesome truly transformative work here at Eden Church. Because God knows, it’s a lot!
This Lent we’ve been talking about practices that aid us along the journey. Today, we’ll continue that conversation. But first, be with me in a spirit of prayer: Holy God, my rock and redeemer, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts bless You, our Source and Sustainer. Amen.
Have you ever felt like your life was spinning out of control? I’m talking staying up to 3am studying for your third final, all happening on a Friday, you ran out of coffee 12 hours prior, and have but 18 cents in your bank account out of control. And you know you should have listened to your instructor more than you did. You know who you are. Or you're staring at an audit deadline and half your team is out sick.
Or how about parents of young children during a pandemic? Can I get an amen? Enough said there right? Sometimes we felt as though we were spinning around just as they were--and we’re still getting over that spin cycle. Speaking of spin cycles, I feel like this next GIF even better encapsulates what many of us are feeling like we have just gone through these past 3 years. We’ve all heard the simile employed of “I feel like an unbalanced washing machine,” but what about an unbalanced washing machine on a trampoline?! What’s up on the monitors probably does our experience a little more justice don’t you think? I’m getting some affirmation from the pews on this one. I see you.
Some had a short break from work, for others work piled on like never before. It consumed us, some of us are still there, living to work rather than working to live. We’re not people belonging to just work. Jesus says that the Sabbath was made for us, not us for it. Let us not forget that when Jesus was at the house of Mary and Martha, Martha was so caught up in the details that she missed the point, to exist in the moment together. And while we perhaps know this, no doubt we have found ourselves just like this little one, hanging on, refusing to let go at all costs for fear of what may come in the uncertainty of it all. Utterly exhausted all the while.
This worship service marks three years since the beginning of our pandemic pandemonium. And yet despite it all, we persevered. We had to. We kept going on and we keep going on. But oftentimes on our journey, in the midst of all the chaos, we found that our wells seemed to have run dry. Or even worse we began to derive our sustenance from poisoned wells. We slipped into vices. We attempted to cope alone with our hurried and unbalanced lives. Too much alcohol on the weekends--too much alcohol during the week. Eating our emotions. Operating on information overload. Practices that once sustained us slipped to the wayside. We failed to focus. Beauty of the here and now evaded us. We got angry easily. Our tempers flared. Thick skin thinned. Perhaps some of this still lingers. The less centered we are, the more irritable we grow. With little rest, we fall out of balance, out of touch with our source. Fruits of the spirit sour.
Have you ever heard of the expression “hangry?” I’m often the subject of that adjective myself. It’s the combination of hungry and angry. As in, the hungrier one gets, the less Zen they are. This condition most often manifests itself in infants and young children, but Yuliana and my girls will tell you sometime between my first cup of specialty coffee and my second, if I don’t get some good food in me, I’m likely to get a little hangry. I’m sure I’m not the only one here that suffers from this horrible predisposition, right? Let’s get together, we need to start a support group. Seriously though, this morning we’re talking about why we may get spiritually hangry and what we can do about it.
There’s a lot that can be preached on from this morning’s Scripture passage, but today I want us to focus on just a portion of Jesus’ own words as recorded by John. In response to the woman at the well, Jesus in verses 13-14 says to her, “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.” Later on in verse 34, in response to his disciples, Jesus says to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete their work.”
It’s clear that Jesus received his sustenance from above. Fulfilling God’s mission filled his cup. It was his fuel, his food. Of course this entailed healing the sick, subverting the powerful, and being in solidarity with the poor, but closer readings of his ministry also reveal that this entailed times to pull away from the busyness of the crowds, to spend time in nature, in prayer, in solitude. Jesus took time to consider the lilies of the field, the birds of the air. He recharged his batteries. And often. He didn’t wait until they were depleted, Jesus pulled away from the hustle and bustle, even amid the immense need, to make sure that he was continuously filling his well, filled with the bread of heaven and drinking deeply of living waters that comes with connection to the Source of life and salvation. Can you imagine Jesus saying, “Okay it’s time for y’all to fend for yourselves this week, I’m going to the Golan Heights for some solo camping.” We know what happens to the lifespan of batteries if we repeatedly let them deplete. Too many complete cycles shortens the battery life. Let’s not wait until we’re depleted to recharge. Once we detect we’re spiritually hangry, let’s make some adjustments, and search out the source of living waters, to quench our thirst. Doing so at regular intervals will increase the longevity of our spiritual batteries, and help us run this race together with a renewed endurance.
In last week’s message, Pastor Pepper offered to us a nuanced understanding of John 3:16, that the word “perish” may be rendered “to be lost,” as in the here and now. What happens to one without food and water? Just that, we perish. Without Jesus or connection to our Source, we get a little hangry, we’re lost spiritually, meandering and irritable. An example would be going to a webpage and not being able to access it or able to get there but part of it is unfunctional. We’ve all had this happen. The source code is not manifesting itself on the page as intended. Something is off or interrupting it, or something is lost. This is us if we are not cultivating connections to the divine in our lives.
What then are some ways that we can recharge our batteries, quench our thirst with living waters, eat of the bread of heaven, finding and aligning ourselves with our Source Code?
The ways in which we connect with the living waters and correct our spiritual “hangriness” are many and varied. For starters, going to the source code of our faith, the Scriptures. Lent is a great season to read devotionally or along with the liturgical calendar, for example following the Revised Common Lectionary, or simply choosing a Gospel with which to dive deep. Estudio Bíblico this Lent is reading the life of Jesus as recounted by the Gospel authors.
Another way is through prayer. Centering or contemplative prayer better aligns us with the will of the one who sent Jesus our teacher to show us such a way. Intercessory prayer exercises our empathy for self and others. Conversing with our Source negates any tendency to go it alone. Even Jesus was ministered to throughout his journey. As well, it's an opportunity for praise and thanksgiving. The Apostle Paul exhorts us to pray without ceasing. No doubt, as it keeps us connected to the source of living waters, keeping our spiritual “hangriness” at bay.
A couple of weeks ago, my family and I stopped what we were doing. We seemingly didn’t have time to stop, but stopped we did. We loaded the kids into the car and drove to the church at night. We walked in and sat down in the pews and listened to an amazing concert by the choirs of both Castro Valley High School and San Jose State University. Music replenishes the soul. Can I get an amen? There’s a reason, the disciples were singing when the left the upper room, and why music has throughout the millennia been part of ritual and cultic adoration--it connects us to the Source, the very rhythm of life. After having attended the concert I felt I didn’t have time not to attend. It was so good for the soul, and quelled any rumbling of spiritual “hangriness.” David’s playing of the harp did just that for King Saul.
There’s an oft used phrase “the arts will save us.” Art is performative, and can be used to connect us to our Source, if that’s the intention. So, go for it! Break out those dusty brushes, let your heart be the canvas and produce something that cuts through the noise and connects you to something beyond yourself. That aligns you with Source. Make something with your hands that’s not simply a product for consumption, the only objective is to pause, pull away, connect your senses to the earth that God has made and called good, mix it with water, and mimic the Creator’s goodness. After all, the Prophet Isaiah reminds us that we are the clay and God the potter.
Taking time to exercise, not only with the objective to lose weight and better our appearance to societal and cultural standards, but to feel our blood pumping, to feel the palpitations of our heart, the deep inhalations and exhalations of our pulmonary system, the rhythms that connect us to the moment when God breathed into our nostrils the breath of life. Inhale with me. No seriously. Let’s pause right here. Take a deep breath in together and hold it. And exhale. We’re connected. Something is giving life to us that exists outside of us. Feed yourself daily with reminders of the knowledge and experience of this.
Be like Jesus, get out. Turn the computer off. Leave the phone at home, or at least in the car, and get in nature. Okay, take an umbrella. Or not! Feel the rain, really feel those droplets of living water. Jesus would routinely go on prayer hikes in the mountains and would hang around beachside campfires with friends. We are incredibly blessed to live in a place with so much varied nature within such a short distance. Jesus lived in similar terrain. May we get to know God’s creation up close and appreciate its diversity and beauty. May our senses feast upon God’s goodness all around us. It’s Magnolia blooming season. While the San Francisco Botanical Garden has a whole walking path dedicated to them, you don’t have to take BART very far or pay a toll to cross the Bay Bridge to enjoy them. They grace our own local East Bay neighborhood streets and free regional parks. What do you want to see up close in nature? The Psalmist and the Book of Job tells us that wisdom comes to us through nature. Spending time therein, prepares us for sweet fruits of the spirit.
Finding out that we may be lost, hangry even, and realigning ourselves to the source of living waters, refilling our wells, is a part of what Lent is about my friends. A recentering, a replenishing. When we’re not allowing ourselves to be fed by the food of the will of God, or drink from living waters, we are out of alignment. So, when we’re feeling that sense of spiritual “hangriness” creeping up, and however that manifests for us, pause and ask yourself, what’s feeding me? Has my well run dry? Am I spending enough time with God, nature, my kids? Or am I getting lost in the details.
With that, I want to take this opportunity to thank my clergy renewal committee here at Eden Church. As we’ve been meeting since November preparing my next year’s sabbatical grant application, they’ve helped me envision things that I couldn’t on my own, things that make my heart sing, that bring forth joy, renewal, and connection with God in more subtle ways. At a time when more clergy are calling it quits than ever before, I’m happy to be able to have the support from Eden to make sure there’s time for rest, renewal, joy. To be able to refill the well, and drink deeply.
Like the woman at the well, and Ted Lasso, we have to believe that we’re worth it though. No matter what society or culture tells us. We’re worth the investment in self and deserve life abundant. Don’t forsake self for the sake of details, productivity, etc. Jesus didn’t. Believe that we’re worthy of balance, sustenance, connection to the divine.
So I ask you to think, contemplate, what’s feeding you? And ponder how you might better align to the source. The source of life giving waters, the food that is from above, that keeps us going, centered in purpose and joy-even when the journey’s hard.
As we close the message, I leave us to ponder lines from The Apostle Paul, part of a letter penned in prison to the church in Philippi, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Phil. 4:4-8) Amen.
Blessing:
Church, we all get hangry from time to time. Sometimes we get into too much of a hurry to appreciate God’s good creation and think of good things that allow springs of living waters to burst forth within us. Lent is the season to rebalance ourselves, refill our wells. Don’t look for time to put the spiritual disciplines mentioned today into practice, you may not find it. Make the time. For in doing so, you feed yourself, your quench your thirst, you are found, you are saved. Go in peace and joy considering the lilies of the fields, the magnolia blossoms of the trees, and the birds of the air. May this Lent be a transformative one. Amen.