Cracked cisterns that can hold no water
Photograph by Steve Johnson via Pexels
Rev. John Zehring
I got tired of buying cases of 24 plastic bottles of water, lugging them, storing them, and watching them pile up in my recycling bin. A little research showed that I could buy a pitcher that filtered water and removed bad particles that might flow from my tap water. It tasted clean and refreshing, it reminded me to drink more water, and every time I refilled it, I rejoiced that I was no longer employing single-use plastic bottles that fill the landfills and poison the environment. I am embarrassed it took me so long to discover this. It also did not take long to pay for itself many times over. Then, I read a feature reviewing insulated water bottles. One was a clear winner, a bit expensive but well worth its many features. So, I bought one and use it faithfully multiple times a day, which has increased my drinking of water. Just about everything I read about maintaining good health begins with hydration and exercise – two simple actions which yield major benefits.
Images of hydration and water ripple through the Bible’s pages, linking them to the idea of spiritual hydration. Psalm 42:1-2 captures this poetically: “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” The Psalmist also likened the Divine to the source for quenching our spiritual thirst: “For with you is the fountain of life…” (Psalm 36:9). Jesus blesses those whose thirst for righteousness: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). And Jeremiah used water to illustrate how self-defeating behavior can lead to spiritual dehydration: “…for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).
I toured a foundry which makes bronze bells and wind chimes, where the owner pointed out molten metal at 2200 degrees being poured from a crucible about the size of a bucket into the molds. The crucibles glowed so red hot that they appeared translucent. The purpose of the crucible is to hold the molten metal. The owner guided visitors out back of the barn to a pile of used-up crucibles. They use them over and over again until it is time for them to be tossed out. The owner of the foundry said “I want to show you something. Watch this.” He wrapped both hands around a sledgehammer and delivered a big blow against one of the hot empty crucibles. The best he could do was to put a tiny dent in it. Next, he took another crucible which had cooled off. He picked up a small hammer, gave a light tap to the cold crucible, and it shattered to pieces like fragile glass. “Nothing can break these crucibles when they’re hot,” he said, “but anything can break them when they’re cold.” Then he added, revealing himself as a philosopher of sorts, “I suppose people are like that. It’s hard to break a person whose spirit is hot. But even small things will bust them wide open when their spirit goes cold.”
Although a crucible is not the same as a cistern (both are basically containers, but cisterns are for holding water), the hot crucible seemed to illustrate Jeremiah’s point: cracked cisterns cannot serve the purpose for which they were created. And hot crucibles are a reminder that it is hard to break a person whose spirit is hot.
Cracked cisterns that hold no water are useless, and so is a faith that does not lead to the care, love, and fair treatment of all people, especially of those on the margins of society. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel warned, “When faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion – its message becomes meaningless.” Compassion and empathy are foundation pillars of social justice, which you would think would be the goal of those who taste God’s living water.
Those who care deeply about the values of justice, mercy, and faith may find themselves more easily dehydrated spiritually in these times. But there is a fountain of living water, which can rehydrate, refresh, and renew us for the journey.
Jesus was at a well with the Samaritan woman when he transformed the physical act of needing water to the spiritual need for hydration: “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.’” (John 4:13-14). The water that Jesus gives does not refer to the physical but to the spiritual – to his spirit within, to the spirit of God, to the Holy Spirit. People of faith know by experience how God’s spirit nourishes and hydrates.
I recently received a blood test result with an “abnormal” flag. It turns out that the abnormal item is potentially caused by dehydration. Here I am with my pitcher of filtered water and my new high-quality flask for drinking it. I thought I was hydrating more, but it turns out I’m still not hydrating enough. It made me wonder that if a blood test existed to measure our spiritual health, might it too find that I am not drinking enough of the living water? We might think we’re doing fine, but we could still be insufficiently hydrated spiritually.
Those who care deeply about the values of justice, mercy, and faith may find themselves more easily dehydrated spiritually in these times. Daily news stories report decreasing care for the poor, the hungry, the ill, children and women, people of color, and for all people who desire to live in a place which is good. It can bruise and break the spirit and leave us feeling parched, dehydrated, and maybe even like cracked cisterns that can hold no water. But there is a fountain of living water, which can rehydrate, refresh, and renew us for the journey. John Lewis, former U.S. representative and civil rights activist, encountered meanness and ugliness in his efforts. How did he stand it? Lewis said, “Without our faith, without the spirit and spiritual bearings and underpinning, we would not have been so successful. Without prayer, without faith in the Almighty, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings.”
In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo on December 10, 1964, he questioned why they were giving him an award for a battle which was not won: “I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.” Civil rights, indeed, human rights, may be getting even worse in some quarters. The movement led by King, and the movement led by Jesus, continues to be an unrelenting struggle. It’s going to be a long, hard journey made possible only by keeping ourselves spiritually hydrated by drinking from the ever-flowing fountain of living water so that, like John Lewis, we move forward with the spirit, the spiritual bearings and underpinning, and with our faith in the Almighty so that we do not become like a bird without wings – or a cracked cistern.
Rev. John Zehring worked in higher education for a couple decades and then served United Church of Christ congregations as a pastor in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine. He is the author of dozens of books. His most recent book from Judson Press is “Get Your Church Ready to Grow: A Guide to Building Attendance and Participation.”
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
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