The prophet Jeremiah’s image of “cracked cisterns that can hold no water” gets my attention today. The whole purpose of a cistern is to hold water, to collect and store rainwater for a time when water is scarce. That says to me that if we were to be cisterns, we would first of all need to be open to receive God’s life-giving water, showers of blessing, from above. Being open to receive, however, isn’t enough. A cistern has to be in good repair, solidly lined so that the collected water doesn’t leak out and cleaned regularly so the water remains potable when it is called for. That image speaks to me of our relationship with God, of our need to keep that relationship open, strong, and pure.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, uses the image in contrast to God’s fountain of living water spouting up from within. The fountain of living water that Jesus describes to the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn.4:7-15) and that John of Patmos sees in his apocalypse (Rev.21:6) which becomes the source of the “river of the water of life” (Rev.21:1,17) is a gift from God. It is ours for the taking when we are in communion with God. If, however, as the prophet foresees, we forsake God, go after “worthless things . . . things that do not profit,” “defile the land,” dig out “cracked cisterns that can hold no water,” we close off that fountain of living water as surely as if we turned off the pump. We dry up; our life becomes drought-stricken.

I propose we picture the two images in concert rather than in conflict: the cistern, clean and unblemished, as the catch basin for the fountain of living water welling up from deep within the center. In that way, the catch basin collects our fountain water so that we may share it with the dry world around us.