As
we came to church last Sunday, we
ran the gauntlet of the downpours that accompanied the tail end of hurricane
Bertha. As a result, many of the congregation arrived at St Paul’s singularly
soggy!
At
the same time, more than 40,000 Yazidi refugees in northern Iraq were huddled
at the top of Mount Sinjar, on a waterless plateau, in burning temperatures of
over 40° C with no water to drink. Happily, some have now managed to avoid the
militant “Islamic State” extremists and find refuge in Kurdistan. But there are
many who are still trapped, dying for lack of water.
Water
is the essence of life. Not for nothing did Jesus call himself, and the message
he proclaimed, Living Water. We cannot live without physical water. But
equally, life without Jesus is meaningless.