day 9 - the moveable well.

Next Sunday, I will be preaching on two stories of thirst. The first comes from the exodus narrative as told in Exodus and Numbers, when the people wandered through the dessert, and began to complain of thirst. Miraculously, God provides, spilling fresh clear water from a broken rock:

"From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” -Exodus 7:1-7

In my art class, we've been talking about how this story is represented in Jewish and early Christian art. The story became such a deep part of the culture when people had no Temple to go to, that it was no longer thought of as a one-time miracle event. Instead, it was a living legend known as the "moveable well." People spoke not of just one rock, but a deep well that followed the people all the way from Sinai to the promised land and never ran dry. This legend became particularly important after the temple fell and the dream of the promised land was fading. It seemed a promise that no matter where they traveled, God would feel their thirst and fill them up with what they needed. They imagined that the springing up of the well occurred every time Moses gathered the people for worship and set up the tabernacle.

So, on the walls in Synagogues the movable well is painted, reminding people that although the Temple has fallen and they are displaced, God's presence is welling up in their worship. That as they read scripture and participate in the liturgy, God is still quenching their thirst. Through worship, they are bathing in the deep spring of life that never runs dry.

I love to think of worship as our moveable well. Each time we gather together, lifting our voices in song and prayer, retelling the story of God, and sharing in the mystery of sacrament, we are breaking open the stone of our lives, letting the river of God rush in once again.