Use of water
Please sing or read the following hymn
Hymn: StF 376 “Crashing waters at creation”
- Crashing waters at creation
ordered by the Spirit’s breath
first to witness the day’s beginning
from the brightness of night’s death
- Parting water stood and trembled
as the captives passed on through,
washing off the chains of bondage
channel to a life made new.
- Cleansing water once at Jordan
closed around the one foretold,
opened to reveal the glory
ever new and old.
- Living water, never ending,
quench the thirst and flood the soul
Wellspring, Source of life eternal,
drench our dryness, make us whole.
Prayer
Loving God, we are drawn to your well to seek the water of eternal life.
Refresh us with your Word. Surround us with your Love.
And fill us to overflowing with your Spirit,
the water of life, that we may never be thirsty. Amen.
To think about…
In the hymn that we have just sung or read, the hymn writer, Sylvia Dunstan, points to the idea of water as a metaphor for the action of the Spirit of God.
Look at each of the 4 verses of the hymn.
- Can you work out which Bible story each verse is referring to?
- How is the Spirit acting in each story/verse of the hymn?
Water in the news: have a look at these stories. What makes sense to you? What intrigues you? What surprises you? How do the stories make you feel?
Los Angeles fires leave firefighters and water supply overwhelmed
As firefighters battled infernos ravaging the Los Angeles area for a second day, they struggled with water supply to their hoses and hydrants, and firefighters, unaccustomed to fighting multiple blazes at once, were overwhelmed by flames.
Officials detailed on Wednesday morning how the fires had strained the city’s water supply, asking residents to conserve water usage and noting that water quality diminished as the system was pushed to its limits.
“We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging,” said Janisse Quiñones, head of the city’s water and power department.
The water systems in Los Angeles are for urban use, she explained – homes and businesses – not large firefighting efforts, which the city and county do not typically face.
Water quality monitors “fail to detect sewage”
The Environment Agency (EA) installed the monitors at Cunsey Beck, which feeds into Windermere in the Lake District, after a fish-kill in June 2022 in which “100% of life” within the river was suspected to have died.
Save Windermere campaigners claimed a test they carried out using non-toxic dye showed the equipment was wrongly placed, meaning it could not pick up flow coming from a nearby sewage pipe.
United Utilities to increase water bills by 32%
The water company, which supplies Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria, most of Cheshire and parts of Derbyshire, said the increase had been negotiated in December with the regulator Ofwat as part of its price review.
Household bills will initially go up by an average of £86 from April.
The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said it was concerned about people who were already struggling to make ends meet.
Bible readings: Amos 5.21-24
I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
To think about
1) Where in your experience can you go to see water rolling down?
2) Where would justice be found if it “rolled down” over a land like water?
3) What would be different or unusual about righteousness if it was ever flowing?
4) Is water a good metaphor for justice today?
5) Do people always have access to good water? If not, why not?
Gospel of John Chapter 4 verses 4-15
Jesus had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
To think about
1) What does Jesus mean by ‘living water’?
2) What sort of life is eternal life? Is it simply life in heaven or is it something more than just that?
3) Can we offer people “living water” today? If so, how could we do this?
Challenges for the week
Individual
- Shower for less than 2 minutes per day (and shower rather than bath!)
- Don’t wash clothes unnecessarily. Always ask, ‘Is it really dirty?’
Church/Community
- Install a rainwater butt for use in the garden
- Write to United Utilities to find out about their work in reducing water loss from pipes or in preventing sewage or other contamination of the river system.
Prayer:
We are connected in creation
by water which gives us life.
Tides move in our blood,
and on distant shores
our kindred lift their heads
in the salt air
and scan the horizon
for a trace of our mark on the earth.
Let our marks be gentle.
Let us respect the sacredness of water
which moves between us
as a blessing from the hand of God