Father Water

For the last 12 years I've lived near the banks of the Rio Grande, (the Rio Bravo in Mexico). It always amazes me that the water that melts in Southern Colorado runs all the way through New Mexico, and down much of the Texas border, until it runs into the Gulf at Brownsville and Matamoros.

Fly  fishing last summer in the Rio Grande near South Fork, the south fork of the Rio Grande, I reflected that I was standing in the same water, that a week or two later I might be drinking. It made me think about what I was putting into the river, thinking about the fact that I might see it later.

Water is such simple stuff, and yet such miraculous stuff. Until you don't have it, you don't appreciate it.

Watching the horrible tragedy of the Tsunami in Japan, followed by the reactor disasters. People lining up to buy water bottles because the local water supply is already too radioactive for small children.

Perhaps that is some of what Jesus is trying to get at with the Samaritan woman is that the basics of this life, all have some contaminants. Some more and some less. Even our religious systems, as good as they may be have become damaged.

As they argue about who is right about religion, the Jews or the Samaritans. Jesus tells her the Jews are closer to the the truth. But in the end he says, something more than religion must prevail.  

Worshipping the Father in Spirit and in Truth. Somehow Jesus means for us to give up religion and take up relationship with the Father.