Kvetching

February 27, 2005 (Third Sunday in Lent)

by The Rev. Bruce Hall, Deacon

- Exodus 17:1-7
- Psalm 95 or 95:6-11
- Romans 5:1-11
- John 4:5-26-42

It is amazing what a change in location can do for a person. In the middle of winter, a brief stay in warm, sunny place can almost do miracles for our mood and dispositions. Who among us, even with the rather ambivalent nature of this year’s winter doesn’t appreciate a good day-dream of what it would be like to live somewhere else, even for a little while? My sister, for example, had always been fond of the idea of living in New York. As an actress and later a sitcom writer, New York had a classy, glitzy, glamorous feel and in her occasional trips there she really took a liking too the place. Eventually, she did move there and marry into a Jewish family that had lived on the west side for generations. It was delightful to hear the slow but increasing use of Yiddish terms over the course of the years and, essentially, proving that my sister had indeed made the final exodus from a San Diego suburbanite to ensconced New Yorker. That is were I first hear the word “Kvetch,” which means to “complain” or “whine,” and comes from the Yiddish term kvetshun, literally, to “squeeze or press.” I’ve heard many such terms over the years, but this has been one she and I have often had in common, as we, sister and brother, share ours life and experiences with one another. It is one of the ways we have drawn closer together.

In today’s Old Testament lesson, we hear of our own more distant relatives in complaining of their life in the wilderness. Freed from the slave camps of Egypt, they had witnessed God’s power to liberate and protect. Now, fearful of hunger and thirst, they began to complain and grumble. Openly they question weather God would continue to be present with them and in the midst of their fear asked, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” It would be easy to simply chide God’s people for failing to trust a Creator who had already show power and providence through signs and miracles. How could they deny what they had already experienced of God’s love only to doubt once more that God was with them? Perhaps I say this because I know I too would have done the same, and that even in the continuing experience of God’s grace that you and I have our doubts; we have our own cries for water in our desert experiences. And what is the nature of this kvetching? It is the attempt, a plea really, for God to be near, to help us. So too, the children of Israel seek to be closer to their creator. In the constant quarreling and testing of God’s faithfulness, the wilderness account presents a common theme of complaining, whining, and doubt—kvetching. Not complaining for its own sake, no, but because they and we today, look for an answer. No one complains to a rock and expects and embraces, nor do we whine to a toaster expected to be fed. We cry to our God because God listens and always has, and through the Son, always will. And especially when we test.

At the well, a source of life in the Middle East, we read of our Lord being tested in a different way and learn of a new response to doubt and uncertainty. Coming to the well, Jesus encounters a prostitute. It is noon, the hottest part of the day, a time of day where a Samaritan and prostitute will be able to avoid the stares and insults of kinspeople. Indeed, she may find a bit of business as well. Meeting Jesus, she engages in conversation, probably flirtatious, but genuinely curious and seeking answers as well. She is surprised that a Jew would ask her to draw water for him, let alone use her cup in that the Samaritans were generally seen as unclean by Jewish law and being a prostitute, well, that placed her on the lower rungs of society. Who was this man, hanging out at the well at noon? What did he want with her? She meant to find out. She asked why Jesus would want water from her but Jesus turns the question back to her deeper need for “living water” which leaves her confused. Again, she tests him by asking if He is greater than Jacob, and once more, Jesus turns the question back to the larger question of eternal life. Far from condemning her pressing questions, Jesus embraces her testing and draws closer to her. Still uncertain, she demands He show her this water. In the end, Jesus shows her His true self—the Messiah.

In testing Jesus she encountered Christ.

It was not in spite of her doubts and questions, but as a consequence of them that she saw what she did not see before. Though this testing doubt gave way to belief and belief to trust and the testimony of what she had experienced. In friendship, family, and faith relationships, pressing the limits of these relationship also involves, in part, the attempt to draw nearer and encounter one another in emotional and spiritually intimacy.

My brothers and sisters, God is up to our wilderness moments and testing minds. Our Creator and Sustainer can handle our tantrums and taunts. We expect an answer from God and the answer is the Cross and Resurrection. In faith, we press the accepted boundaries of our relationship with God we seek to learn if God is really there for us and if we dare to hope. In Christ, it is revealed to us that yes, God is here for us. In the changes and chances of our mortal life we will find food and living water.

“For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of His hand, Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!”