There’s a Hole in my Bucket

One of the great moments in entertainment history is (in my opinion) Harry Belafonte and Odetta singing, “There’s a Hole in my Bucket.” I had the good fortune of seeing Belafonte perform in Halifax with Miriam Makeba singing the part of Dear Liza. I know every line and every joke by heart, yet I laughed as hard as I did the first time that I heard the recording.

Jesus meets a woman at the well (John 4:5-42). A woman who knows the value of a bucket. A woman who knows how strange it is to see anyone at a well without a bucket, not even one with a hole in it.

This woman plays a key role in John’s Gospel. She, along with Nicodemus and the man by the pool quickly recognise the significance of Jesus and that he is the one sent by God. John’s Gospel is jampacked with signs and people confessing Jesus as the Saviour, as the Christ.

Some of us might be critical of her because she doesn’t immediately get the metaphor that Jesus is using, that he offers water that quenches a deeper thirst. But then, right after this, the apostles grapple with a similar image of food that satisfies a deeper hunger.

We are blessed with buckets that can carry the Holy Spirit. We have the food that strengthens us for doing God’s will. In one of the versions of “There’s a Hole in my Bucket,” Dear Liza tells Dear Henry that he can gather straw to fix the bucket because, “where there’s a ‘will’ there’s a way.” Dear Henry replies, “you show me Will, and I’ll show him the way!”

There is a will and it is God’s will. We have the restored bucket; we have the food we need to let; “thy will be done.”