3rd Sunday of Lent 2026
Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8: John 4:5-42
From the early years of photography, it is easy to find—probably from any town or city—pictures of narrow alleys where families lived, one above another on several floors, all having to descend to street level to draw their water from a single pump. Much more recently, I remember a water shortage in 1959, when my Primary School withdrew our allowance of water with our school dinners, and also the long hot summer of 1976, when people in some parts of England had to collect their water from bowsers in the streets.
Those were difficult times, now long forgotten, as our water supplies have, by and large, returned to normal, yet in many parts of the world, the provision of water remains precarious. Bishop Swarbrick’s pastoral letter a fortnight ago described the scene, drawn from the experience of his many years in Zambia, of women and girls letting down their buckets into the well, to bring up water which might be far from clean.
Presumably there will be times when there is no water at all in the well, not least because of global warming. You may have read predictions that future wars will be fought over access to water, a situation which already occurs in parts of Nigeria.
You and I will have been thirsty at times, yet few, I suspect, have been DESPERATELY thirsty, with the sort of dehydration which leads to delirium and, finally, death. This is the situation in which the children of Israel find themselves in our Exodus reading as they trek through the wilderness with their flocks and herds, all needing water.
I don’t know about you, but I can sympathise, to an extent, with the people’s grumbling. On the other hand, it is worth bearing in mind that they were serial grumblers, even claiming that they had been better off as slaves in Egypt. It shows that human nature never changes: there will always be people who will tell you that the past was better in the “good old days” which, of course, never existed. For instance, if “then and now” photos were displayed on Facebook of the alleys which I mentioned at the beginning, you can guarantee that a majority of comments would claim “it looked better then”.
Water is essential for life. “No water” equals “no life”. Thus when Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit, the giver of eternal life, it is not surprising that He uses the analogy of “living water”—water welling up from a spring, fresh and clear. Nor is it surprising that we receive the beginnings of eternal life through baptism, water poured over us. Let us never take water for granted; let us always remember how precious it is; let us support efforts to provide clean water for those who lack it; and let water, when we use it, remind us of our baptism, and of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, and who gives us life.
One other thought: have you noticed that Our Lord seems to have a soft spot for naughty ladies? He is generous to the woman caught in adultery, His only rebuke being “Go, and sin no more”. He grants the request of the pagan woman who has answered Him back, and He reveals His Messiahship to this woman of Samaria, a “heretic” who has gone through five husbands and is now “living over the brush”. So if any of you are naughty ladies, you may be all right: naughty blokes, not so much, because that often involves domination and control.
