Exodus 17:1-7 [1] John 4:5-42 [2] [2]

Last spring I received a gift certificate to my favorite garden shop, so I could redo the flowerbed in front of our house. This was something I had wanted to do since we moved into our house. I was determined to get the garden done, so that we could actually enjoy it and see its progress through the summer. With Mark and my schedules and with a four and one year old, however, there were very few times when we were able to put any creative thought into doing this. We would go by the green house and try to look at the plants we wanted to use, but Nathan or Jacob (our children) would start running all over the place and begin knocking over plants. We tried to keep this creative project fun and involve them but we never seemed to make any progress.

Finally one day as mid-August was soon approaching, I went by the garden shop alone and a woman who worked there gave me some great suggestions about what should go where. The only thing left to do was to go back some time, pick out the plants, bring them home, and get them in the ground.

The next time we had another block of time to work on this, we brought the boys with us with renewed excitement. But even though it was two of us, it took us three times longer than we expected to get the plants picked out that afternoon. The kids once again knocked over several plants, they played hide and seek so well that we couldn't find them, and halfway through they started whining about how hungry, thirsty, and tired they were.

Finally, we got the plants home, got the boys something to eat and put Jacob down for a nap. Nathan, however, insisted that he did not need a nap because he wanted to help. Sighing, we hesitantly agreed. To put it mildly, we did not get as far along as we had hoped to that day. Nearly a week went by before we could get back to working on the bed again and the plants were already beginning to wilt. After two more tries and with Nathan's help, we finally got all of the plants arranged, in the ground and watered.

Now, Nathan was quite the willing partner in this whole endeavor, but because of our hurried, busy lives and because we were determined to get this project done on our time table, we were much less eager to have him participate than we wish we had been in retrospect. Our patience had been tried over and over again. And after a while, we just wanted to be done with the whole project.

Thankfully this is not the way God interacts with or engages us. In the Creator's infinite patience, God beckons us to come, work as a partner in the garden again and again. For whatever reason and in God's infinite wisdom, we are encouraged to join in on God's kingdom and God's will being done here on earth. We know this because Jesus instructed us to pray using these very words. Every time we pray these words in the Lord's Prayer, we are asking God to involve us and use us. And we ask God to involve us in God's work precisely because that is what God wants us to do.

I think this is a strange way for God to try and get things accomplished in this world though, don't you? I mean, it certainly isn't the most efficient. We humans can make it pretty difficult for God at times? And we have made a pretty big mess of things from time to time in history.

Philip Yancy, in his book Prayer says: "History is the story of God giving away power." We see in the biblical stories that there is a pattern to the way God chooses to act: "God waits, chooses a partner, moves with agonizing slowness, does a few miracles, then waits some more." (p. 102)

For instance, God tells Abraham that he is going to make a great nation of him and when it doesn't happen fast enough, Abraham and Sarah try to make it happen on their own, making a bit of a mess of things. Eventually, however, God uses Abraham and all of his descendants in God's own time.

Later God told Moses that he was to free the Israelites, but at first Moses didn't really want to be a part of God's plan. But in spite of Moses and in spite of the whining of the Israelites and their chasing after idols in the wilderness, God partnered with them and led them into the Promised Land.

Later God chose King David and King Solomon, in spite of their lust and greed, to build a place of worship in Jerusalem where they could worship God, God chose prophets to point out injustices and corruption taking place, God chose other nations to partner with to correct Israel and Judah when they went astray. And then God sent Jesus and Jesus brought about a new way in which God chooses to be in relationship with us.

In the Gospel for today, we learn that Jesus' presence among us changes the way God chooses to partner with us. God's presence is no longer limited to a traditional place of worship like on a mountain or in a temple. Jesus tells the woman at the well that God's presence has been "relocated to a most unlikely place: to ordinary people like the Samaritan woman herself." (Yancey, Prayer, p. 102) Wherever one worships in spirit and in truth then, God is present. And worshipping in spirit and in truth is nothing other than prayer.

In prayer, God is present waiting to engage us in a relationship-in a powerful partnership. This is a more intimate way of being present with us and leading us. It is not the flashy, "look what I can do" way that we often yearn for, but it is the intimate holding-of-our-hands kind of way that carefully guides us to care about the things God wants us to care about.

Yancey says, "Prayer is cooperation and keeping company with God..opening the way for God's grace to work in our lives." (p. 103) More than anything, God wants to be in a relationship with us and in that relationship God invites us to be partners in bringing about God's kingdom on earth--even though we do whine and make a mess of things at times.

After we had finally finished the garden project in our front yard, it was amazing to see Nathan's joy. Every day we would come home and he would inspect the plants. Friends or relatives would come over and he would show them the garden. No longer did he trample over the plants to turn the water faucet on and off. He carefully walked on the stone path we had laid together.

When he noticed a plant was drooping, he would point out how it needed to be watered. When others would come into the front yard to play, I could hear him instructing them to walk carefully around the garden's periphery. In allowing Nathan to participate in the creative work of the garden, there was an ownership, a love, a care, a concern, an attentiveness that had not been there before.

Perhaps, just perhaps that is the marvelous, masterful plan behind God's desire to involve us and partner with us. Our involvement in God's plan and mission makes us more attentive to God. In listening to God's desire for the world, rather than our own desires, we in turn begin to care more about the things that God cares and labors for. And in spite of the messes we make, God patiently works with us beckoning us to come closer......................to slow down our hurried lives....................to simply be.................and to listen more deeply to the things God cares about.

So the next time you pray "Your kingdom come and your will be done", imagine Jesus taking your hand and showing you a glimpse of his vision for this world. Imagine the joy, care, and attentiveness you experience listening to God's voice. Imagine a world where God's desires are your desires.

With this prayer, Jesus is calling you and showing you how you can be used to make God's vision a reality. And as you return to your homes and to your daily work this week, may the joy of this divine partnership flow out of you as you invite others into the prayer as well. Let it be so. Amen.