(Ex.17:3-7; Ps.95:1-2,6-9; Rom.5:1-2,5-8; Jn.4:5-42) "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst." What is this "spring of water welling up to eternal life" but the Holy Spirit come upon us, the Truth of God in our midst through the blessed sacrifice of the Son for us "while we were still sinners." Brothers and sisters, "the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us," even as Jesus' words of spirit and truth are poured into the ears of the Samaritan woman. Do we know His grace? Do we hear His voice and leave our water jar at the old well as we go to tell others about the Christ? In our readings today is the juxtaposition of the physical and the spiritual, and the call to enter into the Spirit of God. In our first reading, the Israelites "in their thirst for water" while wandering in the desert cry out against God and Moses and long to return to their slavery in Egypt, that they might but be able to eat and drink. The Lord would teach them to depend on Him, to trust in the Spirit and His love, and He will provide for all their needs, as He does this day, but they are blinded to the Hand of God. "Though they had seen [His] works," they continually tested Him, unable to find rest in Him, and for their hardness of heart virtually none shall themselves enter the Promised Land. And the source of their lack of faith is ever their bellies. In our gospel twice we see the inability to understand the Spirit speaking because of the belly's grumbling. The Samaritan woman confuses the life-giving water of which Jesus speaks with the passing water she came to draw from Jacob's well: "Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming to this well." And the disciples think someone else has brought the Lord something to eat when He says, "I have food to eat of which you do not know," at their urging Him to eat the food they have in hand. But as He speaks to the woman of the Holy Spirit, He speaks to them of our daily bread – "to do the will of the one who sent [us] and to finish His work." Indeed, as He awaits the return of the sinful woman with her Samaritan neighbors, He prepares them for the mission that must now go forth even to "foreigners." It is the Spirit of God He desires them to eat that they might be fortified for their call. And it is the Spirit found in the Body and Blood He has shed for our sakes of which we all must partake to slake our thirst and find the strength to do the work which leads us to the kingdom of God. His is a kingdom for all; and it lasts forever. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "The Spirit Rules the Body" from Breath, The Apple Rises, fifth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James Kurt. ******* O LORD, let us believe that your Son is the Savior of the world, and so have eternal life in Him. YHWH, give us to drink of the water of the Spirit. Let us listen to the voice of your Son and so be filled with your Word. It is you who feed us; it is you who satisfy our thirst. Let us not set our hearts on the food of this earth but seek only the streams of living water which come to us by the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ. Yes, let us listen to His voice and be converted to His way, and we shall be saved, and we shall worship you in truth. O what joy would be ours if we could but set aside the jar we use to carry the water of this world and run to tell others of the glory in our midst in your only Son! O what grace would course through our veins and be proclaimed by our tongues if the Spirit we welcomed into our hearts! Dear LORD, let us turn to you and not to our stomachs. Let your river in Heaven brim over and pour upon all your faithful children.