A Sermon for the Women’s World Day of Prayer, 2014, preached by Sr Anna Mary House, OP at Sacred Hea

. Dear Friends, we have learned so much from the material offered in this year’s Day of Prayer – about Egypt, the women of Egypt, the Bible’s rich and powerful thoughts on water. In this short address, I would like to re-emphasise three points: the power of water, the power of Jesus, and the power of women.

Water, as we are so well aware, can destroy and it can give life. In the recent flooding, in many parts of our own country, we have seen farms drowned, railway lines ripped up, livelihoods threatened: was it last year or long ago that we lamented a January drought?

It is in times of drought that we are more likely to remember the life giving power of water: Job in his suffering cries out

:“there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root was old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground,: yet, through the scent of water in will bud and bring forth boughs” (Job 14:7)

Water brings life:

The Power of Jesus – who among us in this church today does not acknowledge the power of the Lord? All our lives come from God and will return to God, and Jesus has come into the world to reveal the extent of God’s love. This season of lent is a time for us all to take stock our lives in the light of Jesus’ teaching. Look at chapter 5 of St Matthew’s gospel!

“You are the world’s seasoning, to makes it tolerable! You are the world’s light – a city on a hill – don’t hid your light! Let it shine for all!.” (cfMt 5:13-16)

I’d like to read you a little from the writings of Agnes Sandford, which gives us practical advice on this topic:

'God’s life is a flow – it is living water- it is active electricity – it is love vibrating at a definite wave length and intensity. In order to keep this current flowing through us, we must give it an outlet so that it can complete its circuit. If we do not do so, the channel of the flow becomes clogged and it runs more and more thinly and finally ceases altogether.

Many people make a little spiritual progress and then cease to benefit from the very power that had been their joy and strength. They have received as much as they can receive until they learn to give – and they do not want to give.

The manner of giving is less important than the feeling of gratitude that makes one long to give. Those who from a spontaneous feeling of gratitude give or their money to further the ministry of the church keep their channels free for God’s life. Those who give in loving service to others also keep their channels free.

“I’m so grateful for what God has done for me!” one woman cried. “And do you know what I have decided to do? I have decided that in return I’m going to try to make my husband the happiest man in the world!”That was perfect. And as long as she consciously offered in loving service to her husband a thank offering for God’s loving service to her, she continued to receive from God the gifts of love and peace. She also received, over and above, an abounding love and gratitude from her husband.

“It’s so hard to give anything to God!” she complained. “He gets ahead of you every time! Do you know that? My husband just follows me around and thinks I’m the most wonderful thing in the world! It’s no longer any effort to make him happy – so now I’ll have to think of another way of showing God how grateful I am.”So it is. The love of God rushes into us so eagerly that one channel is filled and in order to keep his life flowing through us we must open another channel. Jesus knew that it would be so. It was for our own sakes as well as for the sakes of those who need us that He commanded every one of us His followers to go into all the world to tell people about Him – to heal the sick, to cleanse the lepers, to raise the dead. “Freely ye have received, freely give.” And even that one who gives a cup of cold water in His name will not fail to receive His reward.'(Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light)

My third point is the power of women. We may not always be in positions of influence, wealth or power, but that’s not the main thing. Jesus, as we’ve just heard in the account of the woman at the well, chooses all sorts of people to carry the gospel message. A Scottish preacher called the woman of Samaria “a slovenly woman, coming late in the morning to fetch water – Ould Maggie Draggle-tail!

”The poet Clive Sansom tries to tell the story from Ould Maggie’s point of view:

He came to me with his eyes and asked for water,

Stretched out his hands and spoke…

His mind burned into mine like the noon-sun,

My pitcher of thought broke.

I had not noticed him at rest by the well-head,

Shadowed by the rare tree;

But as I carried my shame into its coolness,

His eyes awaited me.

I tried to avoid them as I drew the well-rope,

Taut through a mindless hand

,I saw his robe cross the speckled sunlight,

His feet stir in the hot sand.

I saw his face. It was white with road-dust,

Whiter than any stone.

But his eyes were ageless and deep as well shafts

As they met my own.

They unroofed my brain with their profound gazing,

Made the heart a molten thing

:Every purdahed thought unveiled itself

Under the questioning.

He spoke of water to cleanse the spirit,

I tried not to understand,

He followed me along the road of my evasion

And when it ceased in sand.

He brought me home from my self-forced journey,

He showed me my own soul

Cracked and dry as a discarded wine-skin

–And made it whole.

He came to me with his eyes and asked for water,

Stretched out his hands and spoke.

As I carried my peace back to the streets of Sychar,

A new world woke.

(Clive Sansom)

Today is women’s world day of prayer.

Dear Lord, let us too carry peace with us! May Jesus give us his Spirit, that power may flow in us and from us as streams in the desert. Amen.