A reflection for Sunday June 28th - The Anglican Parish of Hamilton

Today I offer a simple bible reading technique that I sometimes use.

Pick a small manageable chunk of scripture. It might be from the Bishops bible reading challenge, it might be from the Sunday readings in the pew sheet, it by from the lectionary of the day. It might also be that you are gently working your way through a particular book in the bible. What ever the piece of scripture shouldn’t be that long that you lose the will the live by the end of it.

Read the passage through as you normally would quietly to yourself. Then close the bible. After a little while open the bible back up and read the passage through out-loud at a very slow pace. The slower the better.

Stop when a word, phrase or incident arrests your attention. You may want to write it down or underline it. Ask yourself what is going on here? Am I puzzled, grumpy, excited or confused.

Reread the piece that has intrigued you. Allow it to percolate, savour it, ingest it. Maybe make a few notes. Write down the questions you still have. What is the back story behind this episode? How might I apply this in my own daily life?

Here’s some cogitations from today's gospel.

“And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward”.

One of my first questions about this passage is.

“Who are the little ones?”

The clue I suspect is in the word little. Little is vulnerable, helpless and unprotected. In Jesus day it was the lepers, the widows and the beggars. In 2020 you could take your pick. We are much more aware of the needs of others right around the world. The refugee, the homeless, the abused. Those who do not have a voice in our noisy world.

In fact anyone who is thirsting for something that they need and are unable to have access to it. That is what makes one little.

So a little one might be one of those who slept rough last night, or it might be someone who has a crippling disease ,or it might be those who have a broken heart or have physical bruises that are hidden from public view.

The little ones are in a very real sense the pierced Master himself. You know how it goes ….Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me. So part of the gospel message, but it is also a difficulty and the trick is to see who it is that we are ministering to. It is Joe Blow who we have known for years, or someone who happens to be born from a different land. This is the Master who has come looking for a drink from us.

The cup I also found interesting. A cup of water is not a lot but it does heaps and is infinitely precious.

For your reflection you might like to think about who it was that gave you a ‘symbolic’ cup of water when you were so parched and thirsty. What were the circumstances? What was the water? In many cases the water came from an unlikely source. The most unlikely person and that is why it made such an impact on you and thus you have never forgotten it. Were we gracious in our acceptance? Did we go and do likewise and offer water to someone else?

Digging a little deeper

What is the backstory here. When Jesus spoke the words from this mornings gospel was he perhaps remembering the time when he was in conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well and he had asked her for a drink.

Part of that conversation went like this

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman “Everyone who drinks this water from the well will be thirsty again, but the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

The water symbolises what we need most. Our deepest yearnings our unspoken cravings, the stuff that we need to survive. It is that which is absolutely essential for us. Without it we perish and we perish quickly.

So the water is… Him. We give Jesus to his little ones. In doing so we minister to Him and we become A Christ for a thirsty world. A parched and aching world. We are to become an oasis for those who have lost their way in the desert of their life, but we must have a source of living water springing up always from deep within us.

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Or in another translation.

Sir give me this water always.

And perhaps that is a good place to stop and that is a good prayer for us

Give me living water always.