We Are a Quarrelsome Bunch

A Reflection for the Third Sunday of Lent

photo by bader Abdullah on Unsplash

We Are a Quarrelsome Bunch

We are a quarrelsome bunch

Always wanting proof of love

Always doubting, maybe not the gifts

But the motive of the giver

Always claiming faithfulness

Without having faith

Always testing and therefore testy  

Expecting disappointment

Revelling in need

But even as we weary God

The proof of love is all around

Surrounded by the gift of life

We are loved beyond all sense

I Am, it’s true

Have faith and know

Without a test, without a doubt

Be satisfied, expect to thrive

And we’ll become a thriving bunch

The wilderness has a way of bringing out what was already there. The Israelites are barely out of Egypt when the quarreling begins — not over small things, but over the most elemental: water, survival, the question of whether God can be trusted at all. Is the Lord among us or not? It is a test, and it is honest, and it is us.

We are a quarrelsome bunch. Not because we are uniquely faithless, but because we are human — always wanting proof of love, always doubting not perhaps the gifts themselves, but the motive of the giver. We receive, and then we wonder why. We are sustained, and then we press for more certainty. We claim faithfulness without quite having faith. We test, and we grow testy, and we arrive at the well parched in ways that have little to do with thirst.

The woman in John's Gospel knows this terrain. She has come alone, in the heat of the day, carrying whatever it is that keeps her from the morning crowd. And there, unexpectedly, is someone who offers something she has not asked for and cannot quite name. Living water. Not proof. Not argument. A gift that meets her beneath the level of her defenses.

Paul holds this before us too: God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not after we had earned it. Not once we had stopped quarreling. The proof of love was given while we were still reveling in our need, still expecting disappointment.

I Am — it's true. The one who spoke to Moses from the rock speaks still, surrounded by the gift of life. The invitation is simply this: have faith and know, without a test, without a doubt. Be satisfied. Expect to thrive.

And slowly, perhaps, we'll become a thriving bunch.

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The scriptures for this Sunday: Exodus 17:1–7 | Psalm 95 | Romans 5:1–11 | John 4: 5–42