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Hello Everyone I really appreciate reading these discussions and the assistance I receive for my sermon prep. Thanks.
I wonder if any of you come across great illustrations that would be helpful for preaching on the various texts. It would be excellent to read more stories (as well as discussion)
Anyway - keep up the good work everyone.
Geoff in OZ
Dear Geoff: I also look for good stories as I browse the input at this site and others. Can anyone help us find a good source? I enjoy the stories shared here. Pam in San Bernardino
Just a few tidbits that might help one on their way. I think Jesus was trying to get the woman to switch wells. Don
Drink from the well of drugs and you will thirst again. Drink from the well of fame, and you will thirst again. Drink from the well of lust, and you will thirst again. Drink from the well of greed and you will thirst again. But, drink of the living water that Jesus will give you, and you will never thirst again.
In some ways "The Samaritan women becomes the first evangelist, testifying to the advent of Christ and bringing others to Him (v. 39). According to an early tradition, after the Resurrection of Christ she was baptized and given the Christian name Photini, "the enlightened one." Along with her two sons and five daughters she went to Carthage to spread the gospel. There they were arrested, taken to Rome under Nero, imprisoned, and later martyred. According to tradition, St. Photini, who first met Christ beside a well, was martyred for Christ by being thrown into a well. (Some) The Church remembers her on March 20." (Orthodox Study Bible, pg. 222) Her story must be important, for it is recorded in the scriptures for us to learn about her. She is a model for us all. She faced her life with honesty and truth and was willing spread the word to a thirsty world.
Dear all,
I have been looking at this site for some time now and been greatly helped. We don't strictly follow the lectionary in my church, but I have found a useful pointer on several occasions. My first visits were around Advent - when we were following the themes through. Thank you all for the varied and fascinating input and the openess to others views and theological positions which is so obvious. I am a Baptist Pastor, studying theology in a Catholic college in London - so I am well used to listening to the views of others! I will be back and hope to post some ideas of my own when I have the courage! God bless you all in your ministry.
DP Battle, UK
Just a thought, regarding the "well" vs. the "springs of living water" Wells are man made, this one specifically by Jacob, an Israelite, one of the chosen ones for sure, but still by a man. A spring is that which is made and maintained by God. In order for the woman to draw water from the well, she must continually return and work to recieve any benefit. The spring of living water wells up within her and is maintained by the Father continually refreshiing and replenishing. And so it is with all man-made attempts to find fulfilment and nourishment for our souls. Jesus also Himself says that his nourishment (in regard to food) is doing the will of He who sent Him. Just some preliminary thoughts...
MK in KY
Hello all. I love this site for its challenge to the isolation one experiences whilst preparing sermons. I'm not preaching this week, but leading worship, and I'm conscious that the 8th March is International Women's Day. Does anyone have ideas about gentle and accessible liturgy or other resources that could be used in worship to make the link between the Samaritan woman's story and IWD.? Song and hymn suggestions also gratefully received. If I find anything useful I'll let you know. Rachel in Western Australia
Don Hoff,
I've got something for you over on the discussion site...
Rick in Va
How, if one is to maintain an aura of 'tolerance' in this pluralistic age, an age where it's considered hateful and inconsiderate to make unique faith clams, does one deal with these passages?
Within the text are very unique claims that include:
"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."
"You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews."
"...true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
"I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."
"My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work"
"It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
One would be hard-pressed to skip this week's Gospel lesson if they had to adhere to the notion that they must not offend, that they could not proclaim absolutes, or that the lesson is vague and could be interpreted to mean anything one might desire them to mean.
It must be passages like these that give the theological revisionists and philosophers heartburn and an upset stomach.
Here's hoping that they might submit to God and seek Jesus, the Rolaids/antacid of humanity.
Rick in Va
Would DP Battle, UK kindly contact me. I find that combination of Baptist / Catholic fascinating beyond words! Joe from Maine jmckenna@javanet.com
I want to say thanks to the one who shared the Orthodox tradition of the "rest of the story". I hope you share the Orthodox view weekly please. LS
From my friend Lisa the Div Student (who is a treasure house of inspirational articles and illustrations):
Ye Reap As Ye Sow
His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to eke out a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.
There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could
have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life." "No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.
"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly. "Let me make you an offer. Entrust your son to me and I will see that he is given a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to be a man you can be proud of."
And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St.Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.
Gal. 6 Hosea 10 Hosea 8 Job 4
Rick in Va
"Living Water" satisfying eternal thirst is the vocation, the "food", that sustains the Christ in his mission. The eschatological Kingdom come is realized in the transfornation of the Samaritian woman. The "scandel of the Gospel" in the sacred "food" of Jesus, i.e., his missional vocation to not only samaritians but to woman, comes to fruition in this harvest. The contrast of the woman's thirst and Christ's thirst and hunger is critical to their "exodus" journey. It is Christ who in paradox says to her, "Give me a drink!".PaideiaSCO in LA
Rick, I enjoy your comments. I'd welcome the chance to chat with you some time, maybe in the chat room. I'm often on the computer after 7:30 AM, my time - which is 9:30 AM yours.
I don't see why the unique claims made in this passage would be upsetting to anyone - Jesus is expanding God's grace - not narrowing it. Jesus is opening a whole new world to the woman - and to all who encounter Him. This dramatic story is a wonderful illustration for how we are all challenged then transformed when we meet Jesus. DN in AZ
DN in Az,
Write me, I'd be glad to expound.
For those of you anonymous (and not so anonymous) folks who consider the rhetoric of evangelicals not worthy of reading, begin now to 'liberally' use your mouse to hit the scroll key (grin).
Let me quickly say that it's been my experience that many who claim to be tolerant and open-minded and urge all to do likewise are usually the same one's who are quite intolerant and close-minded to anyone who would dare to believe that Jesus is the unique Son of God, the Messiah, or the one and only Savior of the World (as this week's text so clearly seems to point out).
These same folks are especially uptight when evangelicals decide to carry out Christ's command to go and make disciples of all nations and in so doing repeat some of those same 'unique' claims.
Nevertheless, if you'd like for me to explain further, write me at rrice@bcharrispub.com
Rick in Va
I like the thoughts on Jesus is trying to get the woman...and us to change wells. Seems to me one of the problems is that I keep switching. I drink from the living water...then at times thirst for other water. Would suspect others do the same. Any way, I enjoy this site and reading the comments of others. Jon in Illinois
I like the thoughts on Jesus is trying to get the woman...and us to change wells. Seems to me one of the problems is that I keep switching. I drink from the living water...then at times thirst for other water. Would suspect others do the same. Any way, I enjoy this site and reading the comments of others. Jon in Illinois
In the Gospel passage, the woman is responding to the status quo of relationship, i.e. Samaritans and Jews don't mix. Jesus begins by relating, the Samaritan woman "Plotini" responds. The discussion is productive for both. Christ receives the earthly water, Plotini the "Living water" Oh, if you and I as persons of today, could communicate as Jesus and Ploti(thanks to the input earlier from the "Orthodox" tradition.
Shalom
Pasthersyl
In terms of switching wells, I think Jesus was calling her from her "past" to her future. Her past was a long story. We all have long stories, ways we try to justify ourselves or refuse to forgive ourselves. Jesus Knew about her past. He told her about it, but that wasn't the point. He knew what she had done, but He called her to what she could do. Jesus knew she was someone who could hear and witness to the fact that he was the Messiah. He told her that was who He was. It was time to stop trying to swallow what was "water under the bridge". The living water was in front of her. D. in ME
By way of introduction in a sermon, one could point out that the village "well" is sometimes used in Scripture as the place where people meet their future mates. One of my professors in seminary said that the "well" was the ancient world's version of a singles club!! In the case of John 4, Jesus could be seen (metaphorically) as the "bridegroom," -- not of the woman -- but of the church. MJY in Kansas
THIS WELL RUNS DEEP
She was despised; she was probably lucky to be alive (in some places she wouldn’t be, but after all, this is Samaria: they’re ALL unclean lawbreakers, halfbreeds, infidels). She comes at noon, in the heat of midday, because she knows it’s safe. No one else will be there to harass or heckle her, mock her, put her down. She must wait through a long and thirsty morning to draw her day’s water. Then, off she goes, as she does every day, when the sun is straight overhead.
She approaches the well. Much to her shock and disappointment, someone is there. Uh-oh. And, it’s a man. Suddenly, she is worried, perhaps even a little frightened. She considers going back home, even pauses for a moment in the street. In that moment, she remembers other times at the well...
She also remembers other men. Her fist marriage was an arranged affair, as was customary, and she’d been very young. She tried to please her husband, to take care of all his needs. But it had not been easy, and after a time he grew intolerant, impatient, increasingly demanding, cold, distant. He beat her a few times, and finally, left, divorcing her, leaving her literally out in the cold.
A few friends scrambled to help her, to find another husband. But she was now "damaged goods"...in several ways. It was very difficult. And so. On through a series of unsuccessful marriages, none of them any good, because no decent man would have her, and she was forced to submit to some truly horrifying men...or starve to death. Her last husband had been the worst of the lot, cruel and selfish and mean. No fear of God in him. He’d been thrown at last in jail for his unpaid debt. And she was thrown out of their meager house when it was repossessed. So, she had to do some things that wrenched her soul, ripped open wounds in it. Few weeks in the same bed anymore...
All this flashed through her mind, as she paused, licking her dry lips, only half looking in the direction of the well. The man was still there. A stranger. He didn’t appear to be going anywhere soon. And, though she didn’t know why, she sensed strongly he was waiting for something, or someone. He might be there a while.
She started to turn toward home, such as it was. There was little warmth there; but at least it was shelter. And as long as she was "good," there was enough to eat. She took a slow step, then another. But she stopped. She felt trapped, torn between longings she could not resist, pulled, almost in despair. And, as happens in this life, when certain longings become more insistent, more demanding than others, she cursed at her fear and tried to shove it behind her, where it followed and nipped at her heels. She turned back toward the well. She did not want to; but she had to.
It was thirst, finally, a deep and persistent thirst, that drove her on to the well.
...to be continued
We discussed in DISCIPLE II (UMC) the wells that were dug by Abraham and Isaac in the new land. Isaac had to dig a brand new well for himself (Gen. 26:23-33), for his own faith, and god met him there. The well was a loaded symbol back then. Very family-oriented. And here we find a well that Jacob dug. We sometimes depend on the "wells/faith" of our "tradition" or "family," but sooner or later we have to dig for ourselves our own well of faith, and drink from the life-giving source. Isn't this what Lent is about?
The well at which the Samaritan woman drinks is not giving her anything. Really, she has no well, no faith, and no prospects of digging one. And here is Jesus...if he would have had a dipper hung around his neck, I don't think the metaphor could have been more obvious.
Blessings all, MK in NC
Rick in Va, I understand what you are saying to mean that some interpet "tolerant" to mean accepting other ways to God besides Jesus. In other words, let them find out on their own. Not interferring with their seeking. It is my understanding that tolerance, at least in my tradition (UMC) relates to our Sunday School philosophy of "think and let think." Wesley would have agreed to thinking. But I am not sure that he would have accepted everything which comes from our thinking. Nor Jesus for that matter. Well, enough of this. I'll get back to the scriptures and this weeks lection! :-) Thanks for this opportunity to rethink about tolerance. Randall from Summerville, GA
Friends:
I think it's interesting that this story begins with Jesus finding the woman at the well and asking her for a drink. We assume that when we meet Jesus we're the ones to ask him for a drink. So does this mean, in some sense, that Jesus asks something of us before he hands out the drinks. Or is his request for a drink from the woman a sign that he desires some kind of intimacy with her beyond conversation. Sharing food or a drink with a stranger engages us in a kind of intimacy that casual converation cannot provide. I think that's why we do church suppers, coffee hours, even communion. And how do people today offer a cup of water to Jesus? -- Tim in Deep River
Rick in VA: This might not be your cup of tea, but for a Jungian interpretation for this exclusiveness passage, I suggest "The Christian Archetype", by Edward Edinger. To anyone who might have an answer to another question: What novel is it from, where the priest rushes down to the altar of the church and cries out, "Lord, just this once, not thy will but mine be done!"? Thanks. OldMrGrace in Dallas.
I'm always struck in this story by the courage of the woman to hear Jesus "tell her everything she'd ever done" and be open to being transformed by that, rather than running and hiding. It seems to me that this is what the gospel of Jesus Christ always offers: the possibility of transformation; of seeing in a new way the things we thought we understood: about ourselves and about God. Last week we had Nicodemus: who I suggested could be the poster child for our generation, since he was both a "conservative" AND a "revisionist." Striving to conserve the law and the tradition: open to "re-vision" what the kingdom looked like as Jesus opened for him new understandings of what it was to be "born again." Now we have the Samaritan woman -- unacceptable in a variety of categories -- and yet (by many criteria) qualifies as the first evangelist ... maybe even for apostleship, if we define that as #1 - confessing Jesus as Messiah and #2 - being sent out to tell the good news. Kind of puts a different twist on the concept of Apostolic Succession.
The Episcopal Hymnal has a great hymn for this text: #673 -- The First One Ever (Ballad, Linda Egan). Could be a good resource for those working on the International Woman's Day angle.
For Rick in VA: Thanks for your concern about my digestive system. ("My It must be passages like these that give the theological revisionists and philosophers heartburn and an upset stomach.") Feeling just fine: looking forward to preaching on Sunday. Blessings, Susan in SanPedro
This is rich sustenance all right,but heartburn? Nausea? Hardly.
A bit of "literal history" (surprise!) from one of the theological "revisionists"...
FACT: the biblical world of Judea, Samaria, etc., was (like most of the world up into our time) strongly patriarchal. Women had few rights, and almost no legal standing, except through their husbands. Bloodlines continued through male heirs. Women took the names of their men. Sons succeeded their fathers in ruling positions, businesses, and all legal entities. Daughters did not. Women were essentially bought, like property, from their fathers for marriage (the dowry). Women were usually barred from public discourse of any kind, especially religious or theological discourse ("As in all the churches of the saints, women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says." -- 1 Cor. 14.33-34). They were not to approach or address men in public. Often, women were considered the source of evil and temptation, based on a skewed interpretation of Genesis 2 and 3.
None of this is to say men are inherently bad, or women inherently better, or that all women’s lives were one long chain of rape, mistreatment and misery (though some certainly were); just that we men have been historically privileged, and have often been very reluctant to give up that privilege. To that extent, we have also been neglectful and selfish. No, I am not a radical feminist; I am simply a man with his eyes opened, and hopefully, a contrite heart...and it is Jesus who is primarily responsible for both.
FACT: Jesus was neither neglectful or selfish. He also seems to have rejected privilege of every kind --including gender--as a basis for the worth and dignity of human beings. Even through the Gospels (the whole Bible, for that matter) were written by males (or at least attributed exclusively to males), and therefore written/presented from within a patriarchal perspective, stories like John 4 somehow survived the filter of patriarchy...thus strongly suggesting that Jesus’ attitude toward, and acceptance of women, must have been truly remarkable, even radical. To have survived the selectivity of a patriarchal theology and religious perspective, Jesus’ radical inclusivity had to have been utterly astounding. So much so, that resonance of it, and it’s shock value, survive in John (evidenced in this week’s text, 4. 8 & 27) at the end of the first century. It was a central "plank" of Jesus’ "vision and program."
FACT: John was one of those patriarchal Gospel writers. He was also writing from and to a persecuted minority in the late first century: the Jews who accepted the vision and program of Jesus were met with increasing hostility by others of their own people as time wore on. John had his feet in both worlds--privilege and persecution (without knowing it...to be male in a patriarchy is like being a fish in the sea, living in and "breathing" the water without knowing there is a whole other world of air above and dissolved in the water; maybe that’s why stories like John 4 survived that patriarchal filter). John’s ultimate claims for Jesus are entirely expected, natural and understandable. They are not the rantings and ravings of an "insecure" church or a hopeless minority; they are the utterly human and hopeful expressions of a faith in God that has been touched and shaped by the "radicalness" of Jesus, and passed on through the imperfect perspective (another fact: ALL our perspectives are imperfect and limited, as any good historian will admit) of an imperfect community struggling courageously to hold itself together and remain faithful to a vision of God which had grasped them completely...even if they could not completely grasp or understand it.
John 4 is full of these tensions. Nope,no heartburn or nausea here; only a stimulating challenge, excitement, and a wonderful window of opportunity into John’s world and the issue of women in history and the church; and throughout it all, John 4 provides an AMAZING testimony to the strength and courage of Jesus, his spiritual depth and power, and the "otherness" of his vision--as well as his bid to us to enter that "otherness."
OPINION: it also points, once again, to the universality of God’s love. This "living water" flows to us and through us from beyond time and space, beyond every human condition, category, boundary, reason, or prejudice. It is the essence of creation itself. To borrow from (and slightly adapt) Tillch: this is the river flowing out of the "ground of being", and making life possible in that "ground." Hope that’s not too much theological revision... ;-)
Barry in OH
THIS WELL RUNS DEEP...
Cautiously she approached the well, gripping her water jar tightly. She tried not to look at the stranger. But out of the corner of her eye, she noticed his sweat, his weariness, and the dust on his feet. And for the first time she also noticed, with some alarm, his Jewish prayer shawl. Trying to steady her hand, she reached for the rope. A bright flash of reflected sunlight stabbed her eyes from the bottom of the well. She sensed the coolness of the well. It was getting very hot.
"Could I trouble you for a drink of water?"
The words were spoken softly. She almost missed hearing them...but not because of their volume. He SPOKE to her. To HER.
She hesitated. Startled. Bewildered at such a thing. "What?", was all she could manage.
"A drink. Could I please have a drink of water?" Her eyes danced around quickly, furtively. No one else was near. Indeed, he WAS speaking to HER.
Perhaps it was the fear. Or maybe tiredness from bearing all the freight of her life, compounded by this intrusion into her routine, about the only thing she could depend on. Perhaps it was chiefly her increasing thirst. Maybe all of these; but for whatever reason, she was suddenly exasperated. She just wanted some water, and to be left alone. The force of her reply surprised herself: "Water? But you’re a...a JEW! And you ask ME for water?" Her face burned with shame for speaking to him even as the words blurted out. "Who do you think you are?"
She allowed herself a quick glance at his face, prepared to look away just as quickly. But, she didn’t.
She couldn't.
...to be continued
Barry,
Sparing those who disagree with my point of view the exercise of scrolling past my post, I've responded over on the discussion site...
Cheers,
Rick in Va
THIS WELL RUNS DEEP ...
Cute story. Trouble is you are adding words and notions to the story that aren't there. How do you know what circumstances surrounded her five marriages? Read Deuteronomy 25:5-10 sometime. Maybe this women is living with the fifth brother of her husband but he won't marry her. Jesus passes no judgment upon her marital situation. He merely states that she is correct in stating that she has no husband. Any kind of sexual immorality or great sin that is attached to this woman is one of our doing, not Jesus'. Be careful with interpretation. There is enough stuff in the bible to deal with, we don't have to add stuff to it.
Matt in VA
W. Willimon (Pulpit Resources) has great illustrations and stories for those interested. This week he says that all the lessons are about water, but that the lessons are really about our dependency upon God....gail in berkeley
A few random notes & quotes:
"The revolution accomplished in the matter of the status of women by the teaching and example of Jesus is hardly ever recognized for what it is, namely, one of the most important social advances in the history of civilization."
"Our religion may feel like our search for God, but in reality it is only our response to the God who is searching for us."
"The converted Samaritans are the harvest of the new creation, of which the Church of Jesus Christ itself is the first-fruits."
--Each of the above quotations is from Alan Richardson, "The Gospel According to Saint John - A Commentary," pp. 73-81 (on John 4:1-42).
Verse 22, "salvation is from the Jews," is a "clear indication that the Johannine attitude to the Jews cloaks neither an anti-Semitism of the modern variety nor a view that rejects the spiritual heritage of Judaism."
--The above quotation is from Raymond Brown, Anchor Bible Commentary on John, v. 29, p. 172.
“Again, living water is not called this from its effect, as life-giving, but ... because it flows from a living source.” - John Calvin, Commentary on John.
This person who meets Jesus at Jacob’s well has three strikes against her: she is a woman; she is a Samaritan; and she has been married five times and is currently living with a man she’s not married to. But: she recognizes Jesus as a “prophet” (just as Nicodemus recognized Jesus as a “teacher”); then wonders aloud to her fellow Samaritans whether Jesus is the Christ; and finally leads many people from her city to meet Jesus in person and recognize him as the Savior of the world. Progression of confession: from Teacher to Messiah to Savior of the world.
Doug in Riverside
OldMrGrace in Dallas,
I'm intrigued, can you tell me more about the book?
Rick in Va (rrice@bcharrispub.com)
Thanks.
I would encourage the person who has started the story "THIS WELL RUN DEEP" To finish the story and not to be discouraged by the critique. I had become quite intrigued by it, because I think you have tapped into "minority" women feelings. I understand the criticism that this appears to be adding to the facts, but I am interested in the depth of the writer's experience. Somehow this has helped me in my own meditation of this passage. Thank you both: the writer and Matt of VA.
Shalom
Pasthersyl
To those looking for an applicable song-- On the 1965 (I think) concert two-album Peter, Paul and Mary release "Peter Paul and Mary in Concert," there is a song called "Jesus Met the Woman." It is basically this scripture in song, beautifully done. It is written by Yarrow (Peter), Travers (Mary), and Okum (I have no idea of his/her first name). I heard a woman sing it in a service once, but that was eight years ago in a different state. I assume it is out on sheet music or in a book, but have no idea how to find it. Cool song, and sounds great on guitar! Linda
"Give me a drink"...She had probably heard that line before. "What's a big boy like you asking a drink from a woman like me?"...(batting eyes and slight smile)
I thought for a moment that I had met the right man. What I discovered was that that was part of my whole problem, thinking I had to find the right man. He showed me that life comes not in finding the right man, but in becoming the right woman.
How do I become the right woman? This "living water" this gift of God, this man who told me every thing I have ever done, but never condemning. Could he be the Messiah.
Something is happening to me. I am not as thirsty as I thought I was. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I even left my bucket at the well.
Fred from La
Okay, I'm hooked. Would the person who gave us the beginnings of a great story in "This Well Runs Deep" please finish it and give us a reference to quote? Please? revup
John Dewey once defined "educational experience" as that experience which "opens up" one to new experiences. I find in "The Well Runs Deep" a "living interpretation" overcoming the "impersonal objectivity" type of meaning so characteristic of the modern worldview. Too often, I believe, we project back into the scriptures our modern worldview type meaning while claiming it to be "objective", "literal-it", meaning and yet we do not recognize we have thus made sacred stories into a "closed system" denying any "open-ness" to the new emerging "wells of meaning" rising out of our own autobiographical frame. I believe "The Well Runs Deep" speaks in a universal language, not unlike the original oral tradition of sacred story, where by one is "opened" to the inner truth of one's own "relational history", i.e., one's own life truth and story. Nail-bender, and/or artist of the story, please continue, for I am in need of "Living Water". PaideiaSco in LA
A Samaritan. A Samaritan and a woman. Nothing could have been more shocking. Nothing could have been more damning. And yet, and yet he went.
A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine, the Rev. Dr. Otis. Otis is the pastor of S. G. Baptist Church on Martin Luther King Drive. I always enjoy talking with Dr. Otis, for you see he always has a way of reaching truth, even when it might be painful.
We were talking about ways in which our churches might bring about meaningful changes in the systems which bring about poverty, hopelessness, and a sense of helplessness. When he said to me, "You know, unless we are willing to stop and meet people where they are, we will never reach those who most need to know that God loves them."
He then told me about driving out of his church everyday and seeing a small group of young men hanging out along the side of the road. He knew they were selling and using drugs and he kept telling himself that as a pastor, he really must stop and see if he might offer God's hope. "But," he said, "It always seemed like I was in a hurry to go to this meeting or that function."
"One day, I finally stopped and I went over to the men and started a conversation with them. I told them that God loved them and that I loved them and that they didn't need to be part of this destructive scene." One of the young men looked at me and said, "Dr. Otis, you don't love us. We see you drive by here everyday, and up till now, you have never once stopped. And no one from your church has ever once invited us in. So Dr. Otis you might have many things to say to us, but don't tell us you love us."
I looked at Brother Otis and I said, "So what did you say? What did you say?" With tears in his eyes, Otis responded, "I asked them for forgiveness … because they were right."
Many of us here have spoken about what it meant for the woman to have Jesus approach her and indeed, it was a life transforming experience. Many of us here have talked about how we too are called to reach out to the Samaritan women in our midst, whoever they may be, and indeed we are called to this end. Many of us have pointed to the story and spoken about orthodoxy and polity, correct belief and proper response, and perhaps even these perspectives too have their place.
However, ultimately, I believe we are called to seek out the woman, not because we might give her anything, but because in the process, we too might be converted - converted to compassion, converted to the one who moves beyond all our well constructed barriers. You see, when Jesus approaches the Samaritan woman at the well he banishes exclusionary lines of culture, gender, race and nationalism. When Jesus eats, drinks, and lives with tax-collectors and zealots, he banishes exclusionary lines of credal purity and religious bigotry. When he calls "sinners" his closest friends and when he loves US anyway, he finally banishes our right to self-righteous. He seems to continually say, those of you who are assured of your holiness, you are the ones who will miss the Kingdom of God. But those of you who are broken, those of you who are the tax-collectors, the prostitutes, the Samaritans, you are the ones who will find the Kingdom.
I have often thought about how much time we, you and I, spend on this site speaking of ecclesial correctness, proper polity, legitimate worship styles, denominational differences, and who has the "right" understanding of God, etc., etc., etc. ad infinitum - as if any of this really matters. For Jesus seems to continue to point not to "rightness" but to love, not to liturgical style but to the manner in which we live, not to proper orthodoxy but to spirit and truth. And I am reminded that those whom were assured of their rightness, were the very ones, are the very ones, who kill Jesus.
Yet, Jesus gives us the example of going to the very one whom we are supposed to hate and meeting them not where we want them to be but where they are, meeting them not in who we want them to be but in who they are, meeting them not because we might somehow save them, but simply because Jesus is already there, at the well.
Jesus never says your correct doctrine, your orthodoxy, your proper worship style has made you whole - he simply says it is I that heals - all you might do is have faith.
My friend Otis in venturing to the well found that, in the end, it was not so much that the Samaritan who was converted, but Otis himself.
Shalom my friends,
Nail-Bender in NC
This passage is so full - the 1st evangelist, breaking down gender and racial prejudice, going to the well for living water, an affirmation of faith in Jesus as Christ, maybe even going past kosher laws for righteousness. where does irt fit into Lent; what does one draw out?
blessings, rachel
NailBender,
As much as I like your writing style, your poignant illustrations, and the manner in which you make your points, I do have questions...
You summarily dismiss or encourage us to diminish "rightness", while in the same breath you encourage us to love and have faith. I'm assuming you've decided that thia way is the 'right' way. And I believe you to correct in a general sense.
So aren't you encouraging your brand of 'rightness', your ecclesial correctness, your 'right' understanding? I believe you are.
You say "Jesus never says your correct doctrine, your orthodoxy, your proper worship style has made you whole - he simply says it is I that heals - all you might do is have faith." I agree with you, but faith in what? When we get into the object of our faith, then we must deal with issues of correct doctrine, orthodoxy, and the like unless we're comfortable with those who do the right 'social' things but believe that God emanates from trees, frogs, or David Koresh.
Yes, Jesus is already at the well when the woman comes. And we must today, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be Christ-like as we meet those who are thirsty. But we must also, as our Lord has commanded us to, point them to Christ as Messiah, as Lord, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World. And that, I believe Nailbender, requires doctrinal correctness.
Rick in Va
To Rick in VA. I loved your story about Fleming and Churchill. Could you kindly tell me the source of that story? Can you in some way verify its authenticity? Reg in IL
Reg,
I received the Fleming/Churchill story from my friend Lisa via e-mail. I can't verify it's truthfulness but have left the question with a Churchill biographer and am waiting on his answer.
I did do a web search and found the following site that classifies the story as an 'urban legend'.
http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/faxlore/fleming.htm
So it might not be true at all. Too bad...
Rick in Va
First, welcome back Nailbender. I've missed your incarnational story-telling, and your insights. Or have I just not been paying attention?
Second, I'd like to interject a little "Liberation Theology" into the discussion.
In this world we are enamored of many thing, but none more than our ability to "produce." Look at all the great buildings, the great technology, the great blah, blah, blah. Look at how much we have ACCOMPLISHED!!!
Then there's the first thing we ask a new aquaintance. "What do you DO?" Not, who are you, or tell me about the relationships that are most important to you? What do you DO, to make your life worthwhile, to CONTRIBUTE to the world, to make money for yourself? Etc., etc. The old "human doing vs. human being" thing.
Who are the people who are most despised today in our little corner of the universe? "Welfare bums," and those like them. Those who simply take and don't make. Those who don't produce what they are "supposed to" produce. Political parties have been formed based simply on the fact that some people aren't doing what we descent, hard working Americans/Canadians/whatever, are doing: earning our way through life through what we do/make/produce.
Ok. So, here's this woman who's been married five times, and who is living with yet another man. I suggest that she was not living up to the production expectations that were laid on women - she wasn't having babies. She wasn't producing what "everyone knew" she was "supposed to be" producing, what gave women their only real value in life - the production of a heir for her husband.
She was not morally lax. She just wasn't doing what she was supposed to do. She was inferior, even to other women. She was damaged goods. She was a foreign, heretical woman who didn't make babies. She was utterly worthless.
The fact that Jesus spoke with her, asked her for a drink from her vessel, had a theological discussion with a woman, with a Samaritan woman(!), is not just a racial critique, not just a theological critique, not just a social critique, but it is ALSO an ECONOMIC critique, which overthrows our "production" valuations of people.
People are always more important to Jesus than what they do.
Rick in Canada, eh?
Thanks for the great discussion this week. This is Communion Sunday for us (the scriptures are perfect for it!) and I'm hoping to do something different with it this month--more meditative, less wordy, more personal for Lent, and maybe tying in with the scriptures if possible. I know its last minute, but any ideas? Thanks! Rebecca in MD
Rick,
Jesus was doctrinally wrong when he "ate with sinners," and spoke to a sinning Samaritan woman, he was dealing with the unclean. His disciples were always doing "doctrinally wrong" things. What is doctrinally wrong is a cultural, denominational thing. Paul argued with those who would force gentiles to be circumcised. Doctrinally correctness is an individual, cultural issue that divides rather than unifies. It seems to be an issue right now with this site. Although I seem not to be heeding my own words, I hope we do more "pondering" before we respond to one another. But perhaps this is the only way God can lead us "stiff-neck," preachers right now. It is hard to come together in our diverse ways and background. But the Scriptures says "With God, all things are possible.
Shalom
Pasthersyl
THIS WELL RUNS DEEP...
It was as if his eyes were looking right to the very depths of her soul. But, there was no judgment in them. No harshness. Dark, clear, piercing eyes, surrounded by a few sun-spawned wrinkles. And in them, what?...Almost a bidding; an invitation?
Then she noticed his hands. They were large hands, rough, with a few scars, well healed. A workman’s hands. Strong hands. Trustworthy hands.
One of them lifted and pointed to her bucket. He smiled, noticing how she was almost transfixed. "Who am I , milady? One who’s very thirsty. A thirsty Jew, you have it right." Still smiling.
She let the bucket down. Glancing back at him, and avoiding his gaze, she said, "I...I should not. Samaritans and Jews...we don’t---". She paused, not able to find words that would answer those eyes.
"Ah, yes," he chuckled slightly. "But do not the deer and the jackal share the same stream? Both God’s creatures. "
His words intrigued her. She pulled up the sloshing bucket. She was still uncertain...
"All that lives needs this water. All are sustained by God’s deep well of life." More smiling. She set the now-full bucket on the ledge.
"But, you have no cup, sir."
He cupped his hands, and held them out. "Please?"
Still, she paused for a moment. What if someone saw her? Was it not difficult enough already? But, she could not refuse him. He seemed so kind, so gentle. And he seemed also very wise. Perhaps he was a rabbi. She found his face again, and the eyes, if anything, were even more compelling. In but an instant they drew her in, touched her, appraised without threat, saw without expecting, invited without demanding. Who WAS this man?
She poured some of the cool water into his hands, whose reach now appeared to be all chivalry, and confidence.
He nodded his thanks, smiling again--a very attractive face when it smiled--and said, "The water of life, yes...so good. So pure."
He drank deeply.
...to be continued
For Rick in Canada, eh?
Brother Rick, absolutely! It is truly important to point to the economic facet of this story. Certainly, Jesus continues to point us to the underside, economically, spiritually, physically, from a point of politic.
As a side comment: As I think of the reasons so many have been killed by the church over the years, it is interesting to note that to my knowledge we have never burned anyone at the stake for NOT feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, visiting the prisoner, and caring for the sick, even though this seems to be the only place in scripture where Jesus specifically talks about how we might be judged. Interesting.
Shalom.
Nail-Bender in NC
Pasthersyl,
Of course Jesus was doctrinally wrong while on Earth and so were His followers. You won't get any argument from me on that. He was teaching a new thing. The Law couldn't save, only He could.
The doctrinal correctness that I hold dear and think we all ought to as clergy in this religion called Christianity are the very things that this week's lesson points to:
"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."
and
The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us. Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."
and
"It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
If we can't hold to these basic teachings and yet do good works (sit and eat with sinners), then we don't need to be clergy, we just need to join the local rotary club, or the Moose lodge or some other civic organization that is doing good (and great) things.
But if we are clergy, shepherds, descendents of the Apostolic teachings, then we have a duty and a commitment (go back and read your ordination vows) to both do good works and teach sound doctrine, not just one or the other.
It seems to my un-enlightened brain that progressives are extremely willing to do one but oh so uncomfortable with the other. Why? Because they've been brain-washed into thinking that it's intolerant, not pluralistic, and even bigoted.
God help us... soon...
Rick in Va
Like Susan in San Pedro, I, too, have always been struck by the woman's positive response to someone who knows all about her. Also that of the other Samaritan's: they run out to the well to meet someone with a reputation for being able to see our hidden secrets. Shouldn't they be running the other way? I don't know about you, Susan, but I don't think it's an overly guilty conscience that makes me wonder at this seemingly unnatural behavior.
They don't act like those who "love darkness rather than light for their deeds are evil." (I like the illustration of the bugs scattering when you overturn a rock).
Could it be something about their identity as Samaritans? They don't have pretenses to uphold? A supposed superiority to protect? Unlike many of the good righteous folks Jesus is accustomed to ministering among. Those who have to drop the stones. Those for whom the truth, and therefore Jesus, becomes a threat? And those who end up "hiding from grace?"
Or am I making too much of the revelatory nature of Jesus's disclosure?
pHil
Note to Pathersyl: Before you go too far with your use of the Orthodox legend about this woman. You misread her name. It's "Photini," which, linguistically, is important, to her character as the "enlightened one." Plotin, I think, may have been a buffoonish character in Shakespeare's Cymbeline. -- the nomenclature cop
I have grown up as a Lutheran. I still am one, more's the wonder! During my life as a Lutheran, I have had much contact with Lutherans who were convinced of the need to make sure the Church's doctrinal positions were spotless, and accorded with the correct interpretation and proclamation of the "pure gospel."
As far as I have experienced it, this search to be doctrinally pure has only hurt people, only divided, only killed relationships, only re-buried the treasure which had just been found in the field.
A book I read in seminary had the following, quite profound thought in it: "Theology exists to make preaching as hard as it needs to be."
I like that, for a whole bunch of reasons. It reminds us that doctrine is the servant of the Church, not its master. It reminds us that doctrine was created for people, not people for doctrine. It reminds us that doctrine is a result of living with the gift of faith, not a requirement for admission to faith. It reminds us that doctrine's purpose is to drive us to ask questions that no one has thought of yet, not answer questions that people have stopped asking.
Doctrine comes after faith. "Sir, I see that you are a prophet," comes before "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" Which comes before, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
Rick in Canada, eh?
I've been reading this site for weeks, and not contributing, but, for good or ill, it's not in my nature to remain silent for long. pHil, I liked your thought about how the Samaritans don't have any pretenses to keep up, and that seems to make them more recpeptive to Jesus. It's so unlike the "leaders" in John's Gospel who seem to want to do nothing more than show Jesus up; show him that they know the Law better than the Son of God ("Why are you healing on the Sabbath?") I think that is John's point: those with nothing to lose and no reputation to protect seem to open their eyes and find their way to Jesus more readily. I even see it in my own congregation - in most cases, the ones who know they've lived a wild past or been agnostic at some point are more committed Christians now that they've turned their lives around than those who grew up in the same pew that granddaddy built.... It's those who have really known and felt their thirst who care about that Living Water the most. D in WV
To all:
This is my second week on this site, and I ask the same question as last week. I am looking for the connection between the O.T., Epistle, and Gospel passages. I am thinking that water as always been a crucial issue for humankind - not just literal water but in the spiritual sense. The human problem is that we search for that which we ultimately cannot find, while that which we long for is so readily available. Those in the Exodus were griping about the lack of water. The epistle references our dis- satisfaction with the cycle of suffering, etc. And evidently, the woman in the gospel struggled with the inadequacy of water from the local well. Is there a parallel.
Doc in OK
To all:
This is my second week on this site, and I ask the same question as last week. I am looking for the connection between the O.T., Epistle, and Gospel passages. I am thinking that water as always been a crucial issue for humankind - not just literal water but in the spiritual sense. The human problem is that we search for that which we ultimately cannot find, while that which we long for is so readily available. Those in the Exodus were griping about the lack of water. The epistle references our dis- satisfaction with the cycle of suffering, etc. And evidently, the woman in the gospel struggled with the inadequacy of water from the local well. Is there a parallel.
Doc in OK
To all:
This is my second week on this site, and I ask the same question as last week. I am looking for the connection between the O.T., Epistle, and Gospel passages. I am thinking that water as always been a crucial issue for humankind - not just literal water but in the spiritual sense. The human problem is that we search for that which we ultimately cannot find, while that which we long for is so readily available. Those in the Exodus were griping about the lack of water. The epistle references our dis- satisfaction with the cycle of suffering, etc. And evidently, the woman in the gospel struggled with the inadequacy of water from the local well. Is there a parallel.
Doc in OK
Rick you seem to assume that the woman was barren. It could be, following your line of reasoning, that her husband just was not up to snuff. Afterall it is not children but male children that proves a woman's worth. Yes I am being sarcastic. I too am enjoying the woman at the well.
Thom, the other GA
03 MAR 99 Having fun pulling together some of the insights. Yes, we don't know the details of the woman's "failed" marriages. And we won't preach on a lot of contemporary issues unless we make a hermeneutical leap--the Bible doesn't "major" in anachronism, that it, anticipating the problems of 20-30 centuries later, in detail. Could this have related to the Levirite marriage code? Sure. Maybe she couldn't have children(maybe five husbands in a row were sterile... less likely); perhaps she was abused and dumped time after time. Co-dependancy is a reality. Part of my sermon will be contemporary facts on domestic violence (dv), e.g. 3-4 million women per year (women are victims in 95% of cases); violence will occur at least once in 2/3rds of all marriages; 40% of wife assaults begin during the wife's 1st pregnancy. Will I insist that this woman was battered? Of course not. Have we been victims (in some way, of some domination, manipulation, abuse) and perpetrators of same? I believe so. Does Christ use the knowledge of either our brokeness or our sin against us? On the contrary, His love is affirmed; our salvation is secured. In fact, as the companion text puts it: For while we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly--Romans 5:6. I might substitute Psalm 55 for 95, with particular reference to verses 12-13: It is not enemies who taunt me...But it is you, my equal, my companion..." In the U.S. a woman is more likely to be assaulted, injured, raped or killed by a male partner than by any other type of assailant (Browne, A. and Williams, K.R. "Resource Availability for Woman at Risk..." I can provide full citations for all of the sampling of data if you wish: pkne@juno.com) I think it's safe to say--I even remember hearing it somewhere: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Not shaming victims here). All benefit from the transforming love of Jesus Christ. Thanks Susan in S.P and Barry. Peter in CA
Thank you for the correction Nomenclature cop. I am not known for my accuracy, more for my intensity.
Shalom
Pasthersyl
P.S.
I tend to like the woman named in the Scriptures. Not for the accuracy so much as they become more real. I know, I know, this is my thing. But I truly know that God has made me that way, and I must answer Christ call.
Shalom
If anyone is interested in the song "Jesus Met the Woman," it is in the camp songbook "Songs," compiled by Yohann Anderson. The cover used to be brown; now it is bright magenta. It is on page 15.
I think my focus will be on how Jesus didn't judge the woman or not help her "because she deserved the life she had" Those are such human responses to people who are in need: that they deserve it, or bring it upon themselves, and as such we often use that as an excuse not to reach out and help them in their need. The woman obviously was "needy", and Jesus reached out to her in genuine compassion and love. He gave her something she could never have received from others around her; he gave her the gift of living water that would bring wholeness into her life of brokenness, pain and shame. The water from the living well of Jesus Christ can bring healing to those who are willing to drink of it and believe.
As part of our service on Sunday, we will be having the sacrament of annoiting with the laying on of hands for healing. I think this is my in, recognizing that God's power at work in our lives through his healing hand upon us gives us something that we can't experience in any human relationship we may enter into. The world is full of judgement, shame and guilt, but God offers us the living water of salvation, hope and love which in and of itself is a blessing far greater than we can ever imagine. Thanks be to God!!!
In part, I know I'm responding to a situation in my parish, where some are judging a particular woman rather than recognizing her need and reaching out to help her. What I want them to hear is that even though they don't see her as worthy of comapssion and help, that God does.
I'd like to hear any comments or stories that might help.
MK/Ont/Canada
THIS WELL RUNS DEEP...
Then he held out his hands for more water. She obliged. He drank some of it, and splashed the rest on his face, rubbed the coolness on the back of his neck. Sparkling drops glinted on his wet beard.
A deep sigh, and then, "Thank you, my good woman. I was thirsty indeed."
Good woman. It had been a while since she’d heard words like those.
"The water tastes good," he continued.
"Yes," she said. "It is a good well. Old, and deep."
"Deep. Indeed. Yet all who drink of this well will get thirsty again. Especially here; so hot and dry in these hills."
She wanted, and not wanted, to engage him. "Are...there hills where you come from, sir?"
"Oh my yes. Beautiful hills, fertile and green with fruit. I am Jesus. From Nazareth in Galilee."
Galilee. Ahh, that explained much. The Jews in the south had little use for Samaritans, and not much more for Galileans. She felt her anxiety dwindling. Slowly.
"I see," she said, unable to think of much else to say. This was so--unusual! To speak to a man this way. Calmly. And in a public place! And one so disarming, so kind, it seemed. "It’s...really none of my business," she ventured tenuously, but...but what brings you to Sychar? Do you have family here?"
"Family?," he mused, those dark eyes squinting briefly. Then his faced broke into a bright, broad grin. "Yes. Yes. Family. I have family in many places."
That smle was so infectious. She’d never seen one like it. Who was this man, this..what did he say his name was...Jesus? Did he truly have kin here? A Jew, even a Galilean Jew? Or was there something else. Why HAD he come to this place? What did he want? Who was he related to? All this flashed, in an instant, through her mind. And also, why should he care? But despite herself, she found that she did.
"My family is very large indeed."
...to be continued
A Miracle has occurred. The unclean were made clean. The weak were made strong. Those that were cut from family and friends were restored to a new family. One of Choice, compassion and agapic love. Not of expectations of behavior, career or family.
What we find is a raindow family that is made of all people of all walks of life. People searching for truth and community. Regretfully, just as a Samaritan would never find acceptance in Hebrew society, those in my congregation would not find acceptance, or even a loving God in many other congregations. Not because God is not there, but the rhetoric has replaced the love and compassion that marks the ministry of Christ.
You see tonight I watched as a woman cried because she was doubly damned in another church. SHe was made to feel that God would have nothing to do with her because she was a woman, and then compound that with the issue of her Lesbianism and you have a person that feels totally condemned for life - beyond the completed work of Christ on the cross (Yes, Rick in VA there are Gay Evangelicals!)
Yoe see we often do not take the side of redemption, but society in our view of behavior. You know we grade sins as to how bad they are.
Today I wonder if we will preach on how we are all the woman at the well, with all of our short comings. Maybe we are all that because we chase after other Gods - money, fame, security instead of the living loving God.
I also wonder if we will begin to teach ministry as Jesus did in this story? Will we begin to see our duty as sharing compassion, or giving rules? I have found that people level out as you show them that you will not reject them, or be pushy about how YOU think it should be done, but be available for service to them. Today I pray that we will all build a ministry that includes and expands - as Jesus did, not passes judgement. I remain with you
in Christ's Love and Service Greg in Nashville
Nailbender--what I get out of your story with Otis is that when Otis went to those young men, I think he discovered that God was already there, perhaps waiting for Otis to come too. The references to Jesus meeting the woman at the well, are incorrect. The WOMAN met JESUS at the well. He was already there--Just like he is out in the world waiting to meet us, in worship, waiting to meet us, at the Salvation Army store waiting to meet us, in the one room shacks where some have to live, waiting to meet . If we, in fact, had a "conversion" or "revelation" like Otis did, perhaps, we would not worry so much about points of correctness. They will take care of themselves if we obey Christ and see the harvest before us! STAN
THIS WELL RUNS DEEP...
"I’ve not seen you here before," she said. "How is that?"
"I’ve not been to Sychar. But my father has. My father lives here."
She was confused. Her anxiety was melting away in the noon heat, replaced by curiosity, and a vague but certain sense that she had met this man before. Somewhere. Sometime. But no, that was not possible. She would remember. A man like this...she would remember.
"But, you said you were from Galilee; how is it your father lives here?
"My father has many dwelling places."
"Ah," she said, her confusion not lessened. "What is your father’s name? Perhaps I know him."
"I simply call him Abba. And yes, I believe you have met him. One or twice anyway." The smile returned...in a manner somewhat wryly, she thought.
"Sir, I meant, what is your family name?"
"First, tell me yours."
She blinked, taken aback, and the bucket nearly fell back into the well. She had not expected him to ask such a thing.
What should she say? If he knew the truth about her--
Then...Caution be damned, she thought. She’d had enough of caution, enough of fear. "Sylvia. My name is Sylvia."
Another of his broad, contagious grins. "A lovely name. Sylvia. Like the sound of a quiet waterfall."
Her face warmed. She was blushing, in front of this stranger. But then she immediately grew wary, and without realizing drew her cloak a little tighter about her body. Tenseness, anxiety, old friends, trudged along again, as quickly as she’d just damned them.
"You have many questions, Sylvia. Ah, don’t be alarmed. You wear them like an ill-fitted coat."
Suddenly her anxiety grew sharp edges.
"What do you mean?," she fairly shrilled. "You don’t know me!" She floundered for a way to fend off the sudden vulnerability that ensnared her, a way to...push him back? Did she want that?
Before she could stop herself she lashed out, but dully, and all she could manage was to attack the murky riddle, if that’s what it was--he seemed rather full of riddles--which he’d dangled before her earlier, and which she had not allowed herself to embrace: "You’ve had your water, your thirst taken away. There’s nothing wrong with the well. You seemed to enjoy our cool Samaritan water well enough! Now, be off!" She motioned him away with a flick of her hand, and sloshed water on her clothing. Its coolness sliced against the day’s heat and sent a quick chill through her body.
For a brief moment pensiveness danced on his brow. He turned his head slightly, looking away, and just as quickly looked back as a half-smile turned his mouth.
"Yes, Sylvia...as I said, this water is very good. Very cool, very satisfying. And it will leave you very thirsty again by the shadows’ wax." He paused, seemingly to gauge her reaction. She too, paused. Even in retraction she found herself seeking those eyes again.
Then, kindly, more softly: "And if you asked me, I would give you living water. The true water of life."
His eyes were soft now, too, full of their own kind of water. " And you’ll never thirst--or fear, or question--again."
...to be continued
For those interested, another good Jungian source on scritpure is John Sanford's "The Kingdom Within" (has nothing much on Jhn 4, though).
Barry in OH
When my elder son was in kindergarten, he had a wonderful Sunday School teacher named Olivia who loved to tell Bible stories. A southern lady, she had great dramatic flair and was a real hit with the kids. One Sunday, I asked the customary "what did you learn in Sunday School today" question, only to be told "We heard about Jesus and the whale." "No, honey," I said, "it was JONAH and the whale." "Nope, Mom -- Olivia told us about JESUS and the whale." Seminary training left me clueless, so I tried, "Tell me the story, then." And he began, "Jesus was thirsty and he went to the 'whale' for some water ... and there he met this woman." The Tennessee accent provided some confusion for the California boy, but in considering this text tonight, I think of another "large animal" metaphor. I think of the "elephant in the living room" so many have discovered in 12 step programs: the "elepant" being the un-named addiction or dysfunction sitting in the midst of us which we deny rather than deal with. Sounds like the SThe Samaritan woman didn't have a whale, but it sounds like she had any number of elephants in HER living room ... and Jesus offered her the gift of seeing that -- recognizing "everything she ever did": and yet she was loved. And he offers to do the same for us today. What elephants are sitting in our living rooms? In our pews? Sanctuaries? Sacristies? What do we leave un-named rather than offer to God to be healed? The sexism and homophobia that drive a woman to feel twice damned and unacceptable? (Bless you, Greg in Nashville) Our nitpicking at each other's theologies, exegesis, politics or hermenutics rather than sharing the joy of the gospel and the saving grace of Jesus Christ with a broken world? (There are not only gay evangelicals ... there are feminist evangelicals!) The profound reassurance I hear in this text tonight is that no matter what is sitting in our "living room" it's not too much to deal with -- as long as we trust that Jesus is there to deal with it with us. "Just As I Am" might be the sequence/sermon hymn for this one. Shalom!
OOPS! The above ramblings belong to Susan in SanPedro
JESUS MET THE WOMAN (Adapted & arranged: Yarrow/Travers/Okun) Silver Dawn Music -ASCAP [from the album IN CONCERT]
Jesus met the woman at the well Jesus met the woman at the well Jesus met the woman at the well And He told her everything she'd ever done
He said, "Woman, woman, where is your husband?" He said, "Woman, woman, where is your husband?" He said, "Woman, woman, where is your husband?" "I know everything you've ever done"
She said, "Jesus, Jesus, I ain't got no husband" She said, "Jesus, Jesus, I ain't got no husband" She said, "Jesus, Jesus, ain't got no husband" "And You don't know everything I've ever done"
He said, "Woman, woman, you've got five husbands" He said, "Woman, woman, you've got five husbands" He said, "Woman, woman, you've got five husbands" "And the one you have now, he's not your own"
She said, "This man, this man, He must be a prophet" She said, "This man, this man, He must be a prophet" She said, "This man, this man, He must be a prophet" "He done told me everything I've ever done"
Jesus met the woman at the well Jesus met the woman at the well Jesus met the woman at the well And He told her everything she'd ever done
JESUS MET THE WOMAN (Adapted & arranged: Yarrow/Travers/Okun) Silver Dawn Music -ASCAP [from the album IN CONCERT]
Jesus met the woman at the well Jesus met the woman at the well Jesus met the woman at the well And He told her everything she'd ever done
He said, "Woman, woman, where is your husband?" He said, "Woman, woman, where is your husband?" He said, "Woman, woman, where is your husband?" "I know everything you've ever done"
She said, "Jesus, Jesus, I ain't got no husband" She said, "Jesus, Jesus, I ain't got no husband" She said, "Jesus, Jesus, ain't got no husband" "And You don't know everything I've ever done"
He said, "Woman, woman, you've got five husbands" He said, "Woman, woman, you've got five husbands" He said, "Woman, woman, you've got five husbands" "And the one you have now, he's not your own"
She said, "This man, this man, He must be a prophet" She said, "This man, this man, He must be a prophet" She said, "This man, this man, He must be a prophet" "He done told me everything I've ever done"
Jesus met the woman at the well Jesus met the woman at the well Jesus met the woman at the well And He told her everything she'd ever done
A young Jewish man studying to be a Rabbi came across a story about the pelican. He was amazed at what he discovered about this creature of self-sacrifice. It is said that if a pelican cannot find food for its young it will pluck out it own heart and feed it to its young. The young student was impressed at such love that could come from an animal. But one day this student discovered in the Torah that the pelican was among the unclean animals. He thought to himself, "How can such an animal be unclean that would give its own heart away?" So the young student went to an old sage with his question. The sage replied, "Yes, the pelican is a self-sacrificing animal. But it's among the unclean, because it will only give its heart to its own kind. Jesus came to give his heart to those unlike himself.
Randall in Summerville, GA
Hey guys and gals,
From the Our Daily Bread devotional from today, something I think is appropriate considering this week's text:
Mexico City is sinking. According to a New York Times article, "So much water has been pumped out from the aquifer beneath [the city] to satisfy [its] 18 million residents that the ground is collapsing at a stunning rate." The city has sunk 30 feet in the past century.
Is a similar thing happening to you spiritually? You've given so much to others that your energy is gone. You feel drained, depleted, as if your life is collapsing in on itself. What started as a noble venture to help thirsty people has become a journey through the desert for you.
Jesus said, "'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive" (Jn. 7:37-39). Jesus painted a picture of abundant supply--not a trickle but rivers of living water produced by the Holy Spirit, who is given to everyone who trusts in Christ.
What are you thirsting for? Do you need the forgiveness and peace of God? Or do you need your spiritual reservoir replenished so you can refresh the parched souls around you?
Jesus invites all of us to find our deep satisfaction and inexhaustible supply in Him. --DCM
The Lord wants us to come to Him To quench our thirsty soul, For from Him flow life-giving streams To heal and make us whole. --Sper
Only Jesus, the Living Water, can satisfy our thirst for God.
Rick in Va
To Susan in San Pedro,
Amen and Amen!! Thank you! What a wonderful way to start the day.....I'm on my way to share the Jesus and the Whale story with the staff. And, I'll be pondering all day the elephants in my living room......
Thanks also to Randall for the story about the pelican....great stuff.
Blessed wanderings today folks! In the love of Christ, SueCan
THIS WELL RUNS DEEP...
Tears?
What was that all about, that wetness crouching in the corners of his eyes?
Certainly his tears could not be for her.
Maybe the riddles and mysteries of this stranger harbored a latent--now, not so latent--sadness? Or something else...she could not fathom it.
"You," she said, "...how will you give me water? You haven’t even a cup of your own, let alone a bucket to draw with! Besides," she continued, now a curious blend of defensiveness and acquiescence, "you’ll find no better water anywhere. This well was dug by our ancestor Jacob and his sons, centuries ago. You’ll not find the like of it in Galilee!"
He stood up.
She stepped back...
He looked at her, and then leaned over to peer into the well. He looked for a long moment. She couldn’t tell--had he closed his eyes? Then, he straightened and spoke.
"The water I offer, Sylvia, is from the deepest well of all. And you won’t find it here. No. Nor in Galilee. Nor Jerusalem. Nor Athens. Nor even in Rome. One drink, one taste...," he reached his hand into the bucket she had let go of, and took a handful to his mouth for a quick sip, "...thirst banished for a lifetime."
His eyes fixed hers, locked on them, just a moment. A moment pregnant with immensity. With eternity. That face was so.....
"Will you have a drink?"
So. It had been invitation after all.
And beyond all sense, all reason, she was no longer afraid. Something inside her was dangerously close to breaking; no...eruption, maybe, it too beyond conscious grasp. She never wanted to be afraid again, never fearful, never lonely, never with the terrors of past or future foreboding tearing the sleep from her eyes and hope from her heart, ripping at what was already so tattered and frail.
No, she was not afraid at that moment. She was almost giddy with the sudden irrationality of it all, that fear might no longer be possible.
She was just very, deeply, thirsty.
...to be continued
Anyone catch the lead news story in this week's "Christian Century"?...about women in ministry. Very interesting, in light of some of our thoughts this week.
Barry in OH
Rick in Va: Edward Edinger has done a lot of interesting work with the Scriptures from a Jungian or archetypal point of view. The book in particular is The Christian Archetype: A Jungian Commentary on the Life of Christ. It's not a very big book, but there are a lot more of his thoughts on Christianity scattered through his other works, which are mostly about alchemy. He died several months ago, by the way. You can probably only obtain this book from Inner City Books in Toronto. I think they have an 800 number. Otherwise it's (416) 9270-0355. Cheers, OldMrGrace@aol.com
Last night Monica shared with the nation that her two affairs with married men, and the partial responsibility which she carried, came from a sense of low self worth. I wonder if John might simply say that she was thirsty?
Fred from La
Why do we insist on focusing on three of the 37 verses in this lesson? Jesus approaches the subject of this woman's past to provide a fresh angle on his identity. Verses 16-19 have been consistently mininterpreted, resulting in the popular portrait of this woman as sinner. The text is not, as interpreters almost unanimously assume, evidence of the woman's immorality. The reasons for the woman's marital history intrigue us (to the point of losing sight of the issue), but those reasons do not concern Jesus at all. Read this story on its own terms. The conversation provides an example of Jesus' ability to see and know all things. Check out John 1:48-50; 2:24. This conversation in 16-19 is a moment of revelation for the woman. There is no indication that a great burden of sin has been lifted. She does not seek or acknowledge any forgiveness or need for forgiveness concerning her life. Rather, Jesus' insight into her words and life leads her to declare him to be a prophet. This is similar to Nathanael in 1:47-49. The recognition of who Jesus is based upon his perception and insight leads this Samaratin woman and Nathanael to a christological confession. What is the point of the Johannine text? The revelation of Jesus as Christ. Gail in GA
Amen, Gail!
I'm working on the "end" of the story ... the woman has (apparently?) tasted living water, but her belief is still shaky (NRSV: "He couldn't be the messiah, could he?") ... and yet she does evangelize! Last week with Nicodemus we learned that we don't have to understand in order to believe; this week we learn that we don't have to believe in order to go and tell! With the large number of "searchers" and skeptics in our congregations (yes, they're there, perhaps hidden), this could be an important message. Not sure what you believe about Jesus? That's OK -- go gather your friends and ask them to come help you figure it out!
What do you all think? Can I go this way and stay true to the whole story? I'd really like to work with the living water image, too: I do believe it's all connected. Kind of like a magic potion or ultra-concentrated drink; a little bit goes a long way .... this is all very hazy to me right now. Help??
Kay
The woman asks: "are you greater than our ancestor Jacob?" I wonder if we ask that same question as we struggle with new ways of seeing, experiencing, and discerning this passage? Can we leave behind even the 'old ways' of Jesus' time? How many wells have we dug by hand lately or when did we meet at the city well last?
All things new? I wonder? PM in KS
There are a number of accounts in the Gospels of Jesus' meetings with specific people: the rich young man, the man born blind, the Cananite woman, Zachaeus, the woman at the well. The latter was my mothers favorite. When I went to Israel in 1964 after drinking some water from the well I filled an empty wine bottle to take home to Mom. At customs in Boston the Irish officer asked me what it was and i said, "Holy water." He said, "Oh yah, that's what they all say." and let me through.
These meetings with people always intrigued me. They are so real. I think even the Jesus Seminar would say they are prime scources (I have litle use for the Seminar.) Certain people come into Jesus life and He deals with them. Some have a question to ask (the rich young man) some have a request, (Jairus), some just want to see Him (Zachaeus.) Jesus deals with each one in such a memorable way.
As our decoration this Sunday we are going to set up an enormous red clay water jar. (It's about 4 feet tall.) I'm going to invite the people to "Come, sit here with Jesus. What do you want to say to him this morning. What does He want to say to us. We should be polite and listen to him, shouldn't we. He's talking about water. What's he saying about water. What's he comparing it to?"
At various times in the Church we have called it "The Holy spirit" or "grace" or "the life of Christ within you" ("I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me." --St. Paul.) Let's talk about this rich reality that Jesus offers us. It is symbolized in the rich sacrament of Baptism, wherein water is used to symbolize the pouring forth into us of the Spirit of Christ. ("If the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you then shall be raised also."
I wonder if our people have the same strong belief in the life of God dwelling in them as the first generation of Christians had, especially St.Paul's crowd?
Enough rambling. Thanks for this marvelous web site!!! --Joe from Maine
What a contrast from last week:
Nicodemus, a man of faith, doubting and uncertain, not knowing what to make of this Jesus! and now a pagan woman, a heretic, a Samaritan woman (notice change in gender, and the place of women in the culture) who is drawn to faith! WHAT IS THIS - one who lives his life in tradition, who worships faithfully who is without faith; and one without belief, believes - beware, o preachers of the word!
tom in ga
What a contrast from last week:
Nicodemus, a man of faith, doubting and uncertain, not knowing what to make of this Jesus! and now a pagan woman, a heretic, a Samaritan woman (notice change in gender, and the place of women in the culture) who is drawn to faith! WHAT IS THIS - one who lives his life in tradition, who worships faithfully who is without faith; and one without belief, believes - beware, o preachers of the word!
tom in ga
I am struck by how Jesus communicates his unconditional love to this woman - by "emptying " himself by allowing this ashamed woman to serve him. By receiving this gift from her, he humbles himself to her and communicates that her hand is worthy enough for him to receive from. So often when we think of evangelism and missions, we think of ourselves as "bringing" Christ to the people, as if we are the benefactors of God's grace and love. The reality is that God is already present among these outsiders. Transformation occurs when we humble ourselves to these outsiders, by perceiving the hand of God already working amongst them. Christ is communicating love and respect by receiving the hospitality of this woman. This woman was considered little more than trash, a slave by her fellow villagers. She is perceived as having nothing to offer anyone. (This is similar to the way we perceive welfare recipients and others who are dependednt on the handouts of people in power). By receiving from her first, he removes himself from a postion of power and thus empowers her to engage in dignified and open conversation. Jesus gives her a voice. I worked with Liberian refugees in the Ivory Coast for several months. I went thinking that I was going to "bring" them hope and the message of God's love. I thought that I was the one who had the gift to bring. When I got there, I realized how mistaken I was. The refugees felt incredible shame concerning the limited gifts they were able to offer the visiting American. The war had stripped them of their dignity and of every criteria society uses to measure worth. They had lost their homes, their possessions, their jobs, and their social status. They were humilated at becoming objects of UN charity and handouts. I discovered that I wasn't there to "bring" them anything at all, but to receive their hospitality graciously and with gratitude. By receiving from them, their sense of human worth and dignity was restored. We were mutually transformed in the process. Perhaps Jesus was doing a similar thing for the woman at the well. By receiving water from her, he was communicating that she had something to offer, even to this Jewish rabbi. The woman responds to Jesus' agape love by bringing the whole village to Christ. When we receive gifts from those who feel unworthy, we empower them to serve.
Chris in MN
A few years ago there was a movie called The Cure which is another good illustration of the all-inclusive love that God wants us to know and live and which is at the heart of who Jesus was and is today. The Samaritan women was a leper of her day. (unclean) We have talked about the economic leper and women as lepers and as ethnic groups different from our own are seen as lepers by some but we haven't talked about the leper with Aids. In The Cure two young eleven year old boys are best friends. Dexter has Aids from a blood transfusion. One night he invites his friend Eric over for dinner. Dexter is unable to eat his desert and Eric eyeing it (as any 11 year old would) asks if he can have it. Dexter's mother explains that although Aids is not transferred through the sharing of food and dishes, they have made it a rule to keep all Dexter's food and dishes separate.. Eric replys, "Never mind Dexter, when they find the cure, you and I are going to order the biggest monster sundae that we can and then we're going to dig right in." Now thats total acceptance and extending God's love to the "unclean." The real cure is of course the love and friendship between the two boys (even though Dexter dies), as few other boys would have nothing to do with Dexter at all - mostly out of fear.Its the same kind of total acceptance that Jesus offers to everyone no matter how different or damaged they may think they are. What a radical gift and radical God we know. Nina in the North
To Susan in SanPedro,
You preach now! Made me have Holy Ghost bumps all over the place.
Greg in Nashville
Jesus tells the woman "what you have said is true," and then goes on to say that "the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth ... God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
True worship has to do with truth-telling, even about that which is as uncomfortable and personal as having had five husbands, and the current not a husband. How often do we "truth-tell" in our churches? Thanks, Peter in CA for your willingness to "truth-tell" about a difficult subject.
SH in the NW
Maybe one of the reasons that people can't bring themselves to trust in the love and care of God is because they don't experience in their relationships with people in general.
If one is cynical in life, then maybe it's easy to become cynical in faith as well. When that happens, it's easier not to drink the water because I don't want to be hurt and let down yet again.
It seems to me it's about trust, and learning to be able to trust and believe in the presence of God in our lives that brings wholeness and peace especailly when we don't experience it in our relationships with others around us. Wasn't that the experience of the woman at the well???
MK/Ont/Can
I agree with Kay in Ga that we may focus too much on vs 17,18, maybe to the exclusion of many other aspects of the beautiful story. Nevertheless, the issue of the woman's husbands was of interest to Jesus.
The issue contains four important verses 16-18. Living water is life giving, not in general ways but in particular ways, in the ways where we are thirsty. The issue of the woman's husband comes immediately after the woman's request for living water. How is the water to be applied, to what thirst? Her question does not reveal that she understands what difference living water will make.
The point of the story is that Jesus is that living water. But the difference Jesus as the living water can make will in some way be seen in the context of a woman who had 5 husbands and now living with a man who is not her husband.
It is,maybe in a small way, a rather liberating story for one who might have believed that for a woman, life only comes through men.
I agree with Kay in Ga that we may focus too much on vs 17,18, maybe to the exclusion of many other aspects of the beautiful story. Nevertheless, the issue of the woman's husbands was of interest to Jesus.
The issue contains four important verses 16-18. Living water is life giving, not in general ways but in particular ways, in the ways where we are thirsty. The issue of the woman's husband comes immediately after the woman's request for living water. How is the water to be applied, to what thirst? Her question does not reveal that she understands what difference living water will make.
The point of the story is that Jesus is that living water. But the difference Jesus as the living water can make will in some way be seen in the context of a woman who had 5 husbands and now living with a man who is not her husband.
It is,maybe in a small way, a rather liberating story for one who might have believed that for a woman, life only comes through men.
Ooops, That was Gail in Ga, sorry Gail and Kay Fred in La
To whomever mentioned John Sanford as a resource I would add his excellent commentary on the Gospel of John entitled: Mystical Christianity. OldMrGrace in Dallas
THIS WELL RUNS DEEP -- FINALE
"I must go," she said suddenly, scrambling to gather her bucket and water jar.
Eruptions can be violent things. Even, sometimes, deadly.
He watched her as she hurriedly departed.
"Yes, go home. Then come back, and bring your husband." Upon hearing it, she froze. She felt his gaze on her back.
Head hung low, she croaked, "I...have no husband," between sudden tears in her own eyes.
It seemed to him that she had shrunken in size by half. It took no soothsayer to know her story, no prophet, nor oracle. The history of a thousand sleepless nights was written in her posture, her manner, her despair.
He approached her, and gently led her to the ledge of the well. They sat together in silence for a moment.
All the while her mind was a storm of riotous thoughts...How can he affect me this way, so deeply, so quickly?...why am I letting him?...He’s captured something in me--What?...Something’s broken loose, I can feel it...He’s no rabbi, not like any teacher I’ve heard of...Maybe he’s a demon in disguise! Yes, that would explain much!...If anyone sees us together, sees me talking to him...sees him touching me...God in Heaven, what’s happening?!...God in Heaven! [the eruption began to crest the rim, slowly, and building]...what has God done for me?? Where are the blessings in MY life??
As soon as these last thoughts flowed, so did extreme guilt for thinking them. More tears.
"Sylvia."
She was gently sobbing now.
"Sylvia. Look at me. Please."
Slowly, she raised her face. Their eyes met yet again. He gently caressed her cheek, brushing away tears. No man had ever touched her that way before.
"Sylvia. Drink the living water I offer. For it is the love of God. Abba’s love. It is the deep well I speak of. Drink of this well. It’s water is the purest kind. And it is a pure gift, for you."
She listened to his astounding words.
Said she, "God hates me!"
"No, Sylvia." No condemnation in this. Only utter confidence.
"Besides, we worship a different God..."
"The time is coming, and soon, when the one God, Abba in heaven, will not be worshiped at Gerazim, or Jerusalem. Drink, Sylvia. Drink and thirst no more. God’s love is in you, and you will not find it in any temple, nor on any mountain. For the deep well of God’s love is truly a spring of life. A glorious, sumptuous spring. And it’s source? It’s source is here--"
He gently touched her heart with a pointing finger.
And what was breaking let loose completely. No bonds, no fetters, not even self-made, could hold back the gushing fountain of a freed and liberated soul. She suddenly grabbed both his hands. There were tears in his eyes again.
Her heart was pounding. The words came out almost breathless: "Sir, I beg you. Jesus--give me this living water!"
And with the same finger, he wiped one of his tears, and touched it to her lips.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Postscript: Of course, it probably didn’t happen this way...in a manner like as this. It is pure speculation. But we can never know for sure.
Perhaps it did.
Dear Friends,
Thanks for the thoughtful reflections once again.
Just a thought to offer. The woman went to the well to get one kind of water - to satisfy one kind of thirst, and went back to town - leaving her jar behind (v.28) - because she received a different kind of water - living water that satisfied a different kind of thirst -- all from a stranger who knew her better than she knew herself.
Thanks for the imaginative approach to this text in "THIS WELL RUNS DEEP." I was refreshed.
Jerry in MN
Isn't it interesting that as soon as Jesus gets personal (whether or not he's dealing with guilt or hurt - I take the points made above) the woman asks a theological/doctrinal question...
Nick, UK
To the person who posted THIS WELL RUNS DEEP. . . .
What a beautiful story. Please tell us who you are. . . .
Friends,
Maybe it's ok that we don't know who shared the wonderful story THIS WELL RUNS DEEP. Maybe, instead of striving after full knowledge and all explanations, we should simply say "Thank you for the gift," and embrace the mystery...
Rick in Canada
Rachel in Australia, if you can get your hands on a United Methodist Hymnal there is a hymn which might meet your purpose. It is #276, the First One Ever and has three verses about women meeting Jesus, the second specifically the Samaritan woman. Rev D in BG
If Jesus is so completely unjudgemental and un-detered by the fact that this woman is with a man who is not her husband - why does he ask her to go and bring her husband. IT seems to me like some kind of a test. We know he is aware of her situation because he sums it up just a few verses later, so why in the world does he ask her to get her husband. Does he want to see to see her level of honesty before he offers her lving water? Is it a way to measure her honesty. I agree he is not condemning about her past but he does seem to demand that it be clear and open between them.
peace
Thanks for The Well Runs Deep---marvelous gift for us.
Perhaps we can look at our shopping malls as contemporary versions of the ancient well and play with that idea as a starting point for our telling the story of the well and what the well means in our lives. What if something wasn't right in the mall. What if we were confronted by one who knew all about us. How weird would that be. How would we react/ Ron in Florida
to Rev D in BG Thankyou for your suggestion of "The First One Ever". I was pleased to find a UM website with Hymnal listings. It is well that I am not a conspiracy theorist however, because no. 276 was neatly omitted from the available list. I shall keep looking. Thanks again. Rachel in W. Australia
Regarding the woman coming to the well at noon. I think we may make too much of that fact. Maybe she came at noon because the a.m. hours were too cold to venture out. We always tend to portray Israel as a permanent desert, but to the north it is quite green and lush much of the year. Both times I have been it has rained and been quite cool.
If "noon" means anything besides time of day, I think it contrasted to the "night" of Nicodemus' visit to Jesus. He was in the night, he was in the dark, he appears quite blinded in his misunderstanding. The woman in the well is in the light. . . in the brightest part of the day, she has vision, she is willing, her eyes are opened and she wants that for her townsfolk. The Orthodox are right in comparing her to a "photon torpedo." :-)
I'm caught by the fact that John rights that Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. No he didn't! Everyone knows that he could have gone around just like most good Jews would have. He perhaps felt "compelled" to go where no one has gone before. In that region of the world, communities and towns only formed when they were in close proximity to a water source. Jesus is "living water." Jesus wants to bring the source of that living water even to the unlikely and scandelous regions. The Dead Sea is living proof that the further you get away from the source of water, the more pollution (35% salts) you will carry.
I think there is a "go and do likewise" message implied here. Now we just have to find the equivalent of a Samaritan watering hole. Usually it's where you would rather not go!
Shalom,
BillAdams, Trinity, Sutter Creek,CA. USA
Regarding the woman coming to the well at noon. I think we may make too much of that fact. Maybe she came at noon because the a.m. hours were too cold to venture out. We always tend to portray Israel as a permanent desert, but to the north it is quite green and lush much of the year. Both times I have been it has rained and been quite cool.
If "noon" means anything besides time of day, I think it is contrasted against the "night" of Nicodemus' visit to Jesus. He was in the night, he was in the dark, he appears quite blinded in his misunderstanding. The woman in the well is in the light. . . in the brightest part of the day, she has vision, she is willing, her eyes are opened and she wants that for her townsfolk. The Orthodox are right in comparing her to a "photon torpedo." :-)
I'm caught by the fact that John rights that Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. No he didn't! Everyone knows that he could have gone around just like most good Jews would have. He perhaps felt "compelled" to go where no one has gone before. In that region of the world, communities and towns only formed when they were in close proximity to a water source. Jesus is "living water." Jesus wants to bring the source of that living water even to the unlikely and scandelous regions. The Dead Sea is living proof that the further you get away from the source of water, the more pollution (35% salts) you will carry.
I think there is a "go and do likewise" message implied here. Now we just have to find the equivalent of a Samaritan watering hole. Usually it's where you would rather not go!
Shalom,
BillAdams, Trinity, Sutter Creek,CA. USA
Regarding the woman coming to the well at noon. I think we may make too much of that fact. Maybe she came at noon because the a.m. hours were too cold to venture out. We always tend to portray Israel as a permanent desert, but to the north it is quite green and lush much of the year. Both times I have been it has rained and been quite cool.
If "noon" means anything besides time of day, I think it is contrasted against the "night" of Nicodemus' visit to Jesus. He was in the night, he was in the dark, he appears quite blinded in his misunderstanding. The woman in the well is in the light. . . in the brightest part of the day, she has vision, she is willing, her eyes are opened and she wants that for her townsfolk. The Orthodox are right in comparing her to a "photon torpedo." :-)
I'm caught by the fact that John writes that Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. No he didn't! Everyone knows that he could have gone around it just like most good Jews would have done. He perhaps felt "compelled" to go where no one has gone before. In that region of the world, communities and towns only formed when they were in close proximity to a water source. Jesus is "living water." Jesus wants to bring the source of that living water even to the unlikely and scandelous regions, epsecially to the regions that were furthest from the source. The Dead Sea is living proof that the further you get away from the source of water, the more pollution (35% salts) you will carry.
I think there is a "go and do likewise" message implied here. Now we just have to find the equivalent of a Samaritan watering hole. Usually it's where you would rather not go!
Shalom,
BillAdams, Trinity, Sutter Creek,CA. USA
Regarding the woman coming to the well at noon. I think we may make too much of that fact. Maybe she came at noon because the a.m. hours were too cold to venture out. We always tend to portray Israel as a permanent desert, but to the north it is quite green and lush much of the year. Both times I have been it has rained and been quite cool.
If "noon" means anything besides time of day, I think it is contrasted against the "night" of Nicodemus' visit to Jesus. He was in the night, he was in the dark, he appears quite blinded in his misunderstanding. The woman in the well is in the light. . . in the brightest part of the day, she has vision, she is willing, her eyes are opened and she wants that for her townsfolk. The Orthodox are right in comparing her to a "photon torpedo." :-)
I'm caught by the fact that John writes that Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. No he didn't! Everyone knows that he could have gone around it just like most good Jews would have done. He perhaps felt "compelled" to go where no one has gone before. In that region of the world, communities and towns only formed when they were in close proximity to a water source. Jesus is "living water." Jesus wants to bring the source of that living water even to the unlikely and scandelous regions, epsecially to the regions that were furthest from the source. The Dead Sea is living proof that the further you get away from the source of water, the more pollution (35% salts) you will carry.
I think there is a "go and do likewise" message implied here. Now we just have to find the equivalent of a Samaritan watering hole. Usually it's where you would rather not go!
Shalom,
BillAdams, Trinity, Sutter Creek,CA. USA
Sorry for the multiple posts. I thought the "confirmation" page was giving me the opportunity to edit and then re-submit.
Shalom,
Bill Adams
To the persons who wrote << an applicable song-- On the 1965 (I think) concert two-album Peter,
Paul and Mary release "Peter Paul and Mary in Concert," there is a song
called "Jesus Met the Woman." It is basically this scripture in song,
beautifully done. It is written by Yarrow (Peter), Travers (Mary), and
Okum (I have no idea of his/her first name). I heard a woman sing it in
a service once, but that was eight years ago in a different state. I
assume it is out on sheet music or in a book, but have no idea how to f
ind it. Cool song, and sounds great on guitar! Linda
>>
wanted to know more about the song Jesus Met the Woman At the Well... it is perhaps one of the most powerful pieces related to this text... too late for some of you on this Sat to get the material.
The song and many others is available in the song book "Rise Up Singing", a good resource published by Sing Out Publ. PO Box 5253, Bethlehem Pa. phone 215-865-5366
Jesus met the Woman at the Well can be plated prtetty straight in the key of C, so not complicated.
Fouind on Dave Van Ronk "Sunday Strut (philo), "Dave", Ian and Sylvia "Four Strong Winds". Peter, Paul and Mary "In concert and their SB.
Mahalia Jackson sang it often, and it on a number of her albums.
donaldhoff@aol.com
elmira, NY
To Rick in Canada-
thanks for turning our attention to the cultural practice of asking person you meet the question "what do you do?"
<<Then there's the first thing we ask a new aquaintance. "What do you DO?"
Not, who are you, or tell me about the relationships that are most
important to you? What do you DO, to make your life worthwhile, to
CONTRIBUTE to the world, to make money for yourself? Etc., etc. The old
"human doing vs. human being" thing. >>
fortunately that is not the common question in many other cultures around the world.... some ask what the name of your father is..... a few have their ways of asking what your wealth is.... or how many granchildren you have. Examine countries in Latin America where the question was asked " What do you enjoy doing in life?"
perhaps we can borrow the appraoches and get away from position= worth.
donaldhoff@aol.com
Elmira NY
Thanks to Gail for her contribution-
I find it interesting that there is an assumption.... probably mostly by men on this DPS that this woman was one who lived in shame... nothing in the text supports this. Jesus mentions that she is living with a man who was not her husband.... that is not to be taken as a sin or against the culture or law of the time. I'm afraid that is a European/Western idea. In a number of societies, including the middle east, here are times when one lives with a person at one stage of their relationship, or in the case of a brother who dies and the widow marries the next brother. Too tempting for us to lay our puritanical USA standards.
This is a story, not a story of a woman's sin being discovered, but she is more amazed than he knows these personal things about her. As some of the women contributors have pointed out.... this is a story of this woman's enlightenment.
I'm struck that this DPS is like a village well. We come here thirsting and to be supplied. I've been to many wells and pilas (washing areas) in my various trips. Here is where people share and learn. Men of DPS we can learn a whole lot by listening to the women at this well. It sure beat the senseless petty fighting and posturing which has happened on this site in the past. I give thanks we have not had to experience it this week. We need to take more responsibility....Don't let it happen...don't accept it. I think that we need to communicate with the persons directly if you have to.
thanks.....
donaldhoff@aol.com
Elmira NY
Hello folks
I'm looking for the words to the Ballad of Desert Pete--words are about finding an old well in the desert and the instructions to make it pump water. If you know where I might find them, pop a note into my email box. thanks
Dale in Sydney NS
d.s.irving@ns.sympatico.ca
William Willimon's resources are helpful this week. He points out that the woman was coming to the well only to get water. She didn't even know about living water and all of Jesus's words seemed strange to her. The woman would not have known how to ask for what she really needed--so much like we are. We come to church on Sundays to "find something" but not with a clear sense of what the "something' might be. I related this to the feelings of homesickness I have had throughout most of my life--a longing to be some place, although I am not sure where that place may be. Like the Hebrew children, we wander hoping to find what we need (water in the desert), while all along, we were not looking for what we really needed--living water. So when Jesus stands in front of us, it is confusing at first, as he opens to us the deep longings within ourselves to be whole and free. Patti in NY
I apologize for beating a dead horse, but there are some who seem to believe that any focus on the woman having five husbands is some kind of an affront to women.
If any have felt that from my contributions, please forgive. That is certainly not my intent.
I cannot believe that having 5 husbands and living with another man who was not her husband was a common thing in that day. Did she just have incredible bad luck with men? Did each one die? Did they dump her?
There were cultural expectations in that day for the brother-in-law to marry the woman in case of her husbands death.
Whatever the case, this woman was very dependent, dependent on a source of support that seemed to be running out: 5 + 1.
Nicodemus' thirst had to do with the law and the fact that he could never do enough no matter how hard he tried.
The woman's thirst is represented in the number of husbands and an old tradition that could not provide what she needed.
Let's not take too much of our 20th century struggles between men and women and impose them on culture of that day. There is too much in the way Jesus dealt with women in that day that has implications for our day.
I agree wholeheartedly that we men need to listen to the women on line and in our churches. They have tremendous insight into many of these stories that some of us seem blind to. So many of the stories in the Bible have traditional interpretations that are mostly men influenced.
Already stories are taking on new meaning because of the contributions of excellent women scholars.
Jesus has an extremely intelligent conversation about her personal faith and the worship of her people in a time, place and situation completely out of context for the period in which it occurred... or was it more common than we wouuld like to believe. That women of ill-repute can be intelligent...capable of greatness...or even greatly misunderstood...having to deal with high intelligence in a society where you are not considered a citizen because you are a woman. amy pa
The following is a rather stiff sermon I preached 3 years ago, but I'm sending it along because it contains a helpful interpretation of the passage by Sandra Schneiders in a terrific book called "The Revelatory Text: Interpreting the New Testament as Sacred Scripture" HarperSanFrancisco, 1991. For you consideration: John 4:5-42: Elizabeth Taylor, as you may know, has recently divorced her eighth husband. She has, I hear, sworn off marriage. She has in common with the woman at the well this experience of an unsatisfactory love life demonstrated by an extraordinary number of marriages. Their experiences of finding the right mate is well outside of ours. There is an analysis [exegesis] of this passage in John that has helped me to see how we - who are not Elizabeth Taylor - might come to identify with the woman at the well and thereby be able to receive the living water she receives. Dr. S.M. Schneiders, professor of New Testament at Graduate Theological Union in California, suggests that John includes this story in his gospel because the ``Christian'' community he is writing for has a problem accepting Samaritans or other ethnic groups into their community. But here is Jesus actively reaching out to include people regardless of the ethnic background or their gender. To understand the passage we need to understand who the Samaritans were and why the Jews despised them. You may remember that after the reign of Solomon the kingdom split into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judea in the south. After a succession of kings more wicked than good, Israel was invaded by Assyria and the people were exiled. Only a few peasants remained and immigrants from surrounding nations settled in the area. The northern kingdom was never reestablished. Its memories and customs and religious life were maintained by the people remaining in region called Samaria - the Samaritans. The histories of the Old Testament were written by the survivors in the southern kingdom - Judea. About 150 years later they, too, were invaded by the Babylonians and exiled. Only these exiles had the opportunity to return and it was then that they rebuilt their temple in Jerusalem, discovered and wrote the books of our Old Testament and became that group of people known in the first century as the Jews. Are you with me so far? In the meantime the Samaritans continued their worship of God - Yahweh as God was known to both groups. They worshipped God at Mt. Gerizim rather than Jerusalem and their scriptures consisted only of the Torah, the law - the five books of Moses. Their heroes of their faith were the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and, especially, Moses. The Messiah they expected would be a prophet like Moses, rather than a king, like David, who the Jews were expecting. The Samaritans were considered by the Jews to be the illegitimate children of Yahweh. They might belong to God after a fashion but they did not have a lawful place at God's table. They were to be avoided and ignored. The Samaritans were considered ritually unclean. The relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans was similar to the relationship between whites and blacks in this country. There was a time, not so long ago, when the south maintained ``white-only bathrooms'' and ``colored-only bathrooms,'' ``white-only drinking fountains'' and ``colored-only drinking fountains.'' Someone told me just recently about a sister-in-law who, when asked, gave a drink of water to an African-American and then, after he was gone, she carefully set the glass in a corner explaining that she would give it a special washing later. This is the relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans when we meet the woman at the well. ``Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ``Give me a drink'' (vs. 5-7). This is astonishing. Not only is Jesus - a strange man - talking to woman unaccompanied by a husband or brother, but he is asking her for water from her water jug. He is asking for water at the ``colored drinking fountain.'' He is breaking Jewish law! The woman is properly amazed and she begins a theological discussion with Jesus - the longest dialogue in John's gospel. ``The Samaritan woman said to him, `How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?' (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, `If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.' The woman said to him, `Sir, you have no bucket and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?' '' (vs 9-12). Now in the middle of the following discussion about living water Jesus gives an odd instruction, ``Go and call you husband.'' The woman replies that she has no husband and Jesus says to her, ``You are right in saying, `I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!'' He is confirming to her what she already knows is obvious. So, what is the big deal about this being true? Here is the crucial point in Schneiders's analysis of the passage: thus far this woman has represented the Samaritan concerns more than anything else. According to 2 Kings 17, the northern kingdom's sin at the time of the invasion by Assyria was the worship of two calves, the sacred pole of Asherah, the stars and Baal - five false gods like five husbands. There is a long tradition in the prophets of equating the covenant relationship between God and Israel with the marriage relationship. The faithless spouse who commits adultery or worse, marries another, is equated with the faithless people who worship other gods as well as Yahweh or, worse, abandon God altogether for the exclusive worship of another god. Adultery and idolatry. Here is Samaria in this Samaritan woman and it is true - she has had five husbands and Samaria has worshipped five other gods. Now she is with a man who is not her husband and Samaria is worshipping God but not properly - the covenant, the marriage contract, if you will, has not been made lawfully. Now the woman's next sentence makes sense. She says to Jesus, ``Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you-all say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.'' And Jesus tells her that the time is coming when the worship of God will not belong to a place - Jerusalem or Mt. Gerizim - or to one group of people - Jews or Samaritans. The time is now here for all people to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. It is the spirit of our worship that matters - not our race, not our gender, not the place where we worship or the form of our worship but that we worship God seeking the truth and loving each other. It seems to me that this passage mirrors different relationships we may have with God. At different times in our lives we have abandoned God for other gods - the gods of career, education, money, family, a true love, success, knowledge, work. None of these ``gods'' is ever good enough though. They will all fail us. Someone once asked me if I believed that we each have a soul mate. After 25 years of marriage to the man I will be married to the rest of my life and after knowing people happily married for many years longer I have to say, ``No and Yes.'' The soul mate for each of us is God. It is only by loving each other with the love we know in God that we can properly love our marriage partner, our children, our coworkers, and our neighbors. We have come to our senses and realized that we want God in our life. But what kind of relationship is it? Are you just dating? ``God, it is nice to meet with you once in awhile and I am grateful that I can call on you when I have a problem. It's great to have someone who will listen. But I really don't think we need to carry this relationship any further.'' Or maybe its gotten more serious. Maybe your relationship with God is serious and exclusive. ``God, I am so glad to love you and to come here to church to be with you and to know that you are with me all the time.'' Most of us may be in this kind of relationship with God. The thing is, we get to a point in our spiritual lives where we sort of moved in together - God is a permanent part of our lives. But we haven't taken the final step. Like the Samaritans, we may lack the willingness to pursue a deeper relationship with God. Where we are is good enough. We don't see the need to try to find a deeper relationship with God. It has amazed me that my niece has not only lived with the same young man for five years but 2-1/2 years ago this couple got a mortgage together and proceeded to rebuild a house. Having done all of this they finally decided to get married. As out-of-sequence as this order seems to me, nonetheless I celebrate that these two people decided that their relationship demands a new level of commitment. And that's the challenge to us this morning. You see, Jesus comes to the woman at the well, as bridegrooms in the past found their brides at the well - remember the stories of Isaac and Rebeccah and Jacob and Rachel and Moses and Zipporah. And in this passage Jesus comes to Samaria and Jesus comes to us. Jesus comes, God in the flesh, up close and personal, in your face, in the middle of your day, saying, ``Let's take this relationship one step further. Let's right here and now make a lifelong commitment to each other - I will be your God and you will be my people. No easy outs as if a better offer will come along. I will be faithful to you. Will you be faithful to me? Will you strive to know me better and to love me better every day? Will you seek to be closer to me than you are even now? I will be there for you. Will you always be there for me? If you feel God is calling you to a new stage in your life together, than pray about it and pray about it and pray about it and talk to someone else about it. You can talk to me, or you can talk to - a friend, a counselor - someone you trust. The fullest relationship of your life, the relationship for which you were created requires that you take the next step. - AJM in PA
Jesus has an extremely intelligent conversation about her personal faith and the worship of her people in a time, place and situation completely out of context for the period in which it occurred... or was it more common than we wouuld like to believe. That women of ill-repute can be intelligent...capable of greatness...or even greatly misunderstood...having to deal with high intelligence in a society where you are not considered a citizen because you are a woman. amy pa
whose doctrine is it anyway? amy pa
Thanks Don Hoff, for pointing out that the shame we imagine may be misplaced. The woman may have been passed from brother to brother at their death or abandoment of her resulting in a number of marriages - a situation likely resulting in feelings of hopelessness, but not shame. Given the culture that's a whole lot more likely than her entering into a series of co-dependent marriages
There seems to be a theme to the gospel passages for Lent so far - where do we find salvation/transformation - where do we meet God. The first week we saw Jesus place himself in a setting, the wilderness, where something could happen. Next we had Nicodemus actively searching it out in the person of Jesus. Now we see that God may come to us - when and where we least expect it - even if we don't believe it's possible anymore.
Just a last post for all us Saturday nighters - by design or circumstance.
I think of all the patriarchs who met or otherwise found their spouses at a well. Seems wells are life changing places. When I see Jesus meeting this woman at a well (Jacob's, at that!) I've got to ask about the coincidence.
It also seems that most of us understand this woman to be young -ish and possibly tormented in some fashion. After five husbands, I'm tending to see her as an elder woman, hence, unafraid to challenge Jesus and talk honestly with him.
Another interesting twist: the water of the mikveh, the ritual bath, is to be at least partially from "living" water - spring or rainwater. Just as he spoke to Nicodemus in terms he might understand about the kind of new life and renewal he offers, perhaps there might be, in this conversation, an image a woman might hear in her most deep self. Jesus as those waters of strength, renewal, peace, at-one-ness.
I'm probably dancing on thin ice, here, but I love the image that takes the concept from drinking to being totally submerged in living water. It;s intimate and feminine and jsut the way I imagine Jesus might talk with a woman...inside her reality.
Just Pondering
Another late post, but I'm still "mulling." The Interpreter's Bible commentary stirred up for me a connection between the Jew/Samaritan split and much contemporary ecclesial angst. These were feuding cousins: inheritors of the same convenant; children of the same God. What kept them apart was differing interpretations of the Scripture they inherited -- Samaritans stuck to the Penteteuch as the limit of the revealed Word of God: the Jews added on "all those other books" which became the Hebrew Scriptures we inherit. The quarrel over where the temple should be came out of differences of opinion on how to translate certain verses. In a way, the Samaritans can be seen as the "traditionalists" -- "God said it (in Five Books), I believe it, That settles it." The Jews are the "revisionists" -- open to an evolving understanding of God and God's will for them as a people. And which tradition do WE inherit? The one of Jesus, who pointed out that to worship in spirit and truth is to transcend these divisions. What a promise! Shalom, Susan in SanPedro
WELL, WELL, WELL - Many pages on the woman at the well, up to v21, then a deafening silence. Many pussies fell down the well before they got that far. Or is this teaching too radical for those of us who feel secure only while we're in our God boxes? JESUS FORESHADOWS A RADICAL CHANGE TO RELIGIOUS PRACTICE
"Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. NO LONGER DID A SPECIAL PLACE OF WORSHIP MATTER.
WHAT MATTERS IS HEART AND LIFE 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." Only by coming to Christ, the living water, can we be made spiritually alive toward God. Then his own Spirit indwells us, and we are led by Him.
ohn continually portrays Jesus as 'the truth'.
JESUS SAID: 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father but by me' ( John 14:6) HE DECLARES THAT HE IS THE ONLY WAY TO GOD. (John 12:44-46) Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. {45} When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. {46} I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
HOW THEN DO WE WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH?
(Rom 12:1-2) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. {2} Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. EACH DAY, 'LORD, NOT WHAT I WANT, BUT WHAT YOU WANT' Noel from Oz
This is my first time to this sight. I've been thinking about talking about tolerance with the text from John. Using an illustration that when we're in a strange and foreign land the water we drink may taste quite different from what we're use to. Could it be that for this woman at the well, the water that Jesus had to offer was also very different than what she was use to??? Jim in Iowa
As I think about Jesus asking the woman for a drink, I am reminded of a powerful story told by Walter Wangerin in his wonderful book, "Miz Lil and the Chronicles of Grace," which I will take the liberty of retelling in edited form. Wangerin tells of a time early in his ministry when he was serving a small African American congregation in Evansville, Indiana. One of his congregants was an elderly woman named Lillian Lander, the Miz Lil of the title. Each week as she left the sanctuary after the worship service, she would look Wangerin directly in the eye and give him an honest appraisal of his sermon, although it took some time for him to understand her terminology. Some Sundays, she would say, "Well, you taught us today." Others, she would say, "Hoo, pastor, you preached today." Not knowing what sort of distinction she was making, he finally asked her what, in her mind, was the difference between teaching and preaching. "'When you teach,' she said, instructing me, 'I learn something for the day. I can take it home and, God willing, I can do it. But when you preach-' She lowered her voice and probed me the deeper with her eyes. '-God is here. And sometimes he's smiling,' she said,'and sometimes he's frowning surely.'" This explanation didn't do much to enlighten Wangerin, or at least not until a fateful Sunday in which he told a story to illustrate some now long forgotten point. It was a factual story, based upon his experience in the church and in that inner city environment, involving a woman he did not expect anyone to recognize, since she was no longer around. And after worship, Miz Lil took Wangerin's hand, held it so tightly that it hurt. "'Pastor,' she said, softly, "you preached today...God was in this place.' She said this with utter conviction. But the diminutive woman was not smiling. And she would not let [Wangerin] go." Here, in shortened form, is the story that Wangerin told. It was the story of a woman, Marie, who lived across the street from the church, a woman dismissed by many as "a crazy lady," who did not respond to Wangerin's greetings with anything more than a blank stare. She was a prostitute, and Wangerin would often notice her sending her three year old son out of the house on his own so that she could entertain her customers. One night, Wangerin was alone in the church study doing some reading when he heard a whistling noise. Assuming that it was an intruder, he got up and began searching the building. Eventually he realized that the whistling sound was coming from the basement, from the boiler room. In fact, it was the whistling from the plumbing, indicating that water was running somewhere in the church. At that point he heard something outside, and peering out the window, realized that it was Marie, filling milk cartons with water from the lawn spicket. Wangerin found himself filled with a certain amount of righteous indignation, but decided to let things go; let it go, that is, until a few moments later, the whistling started up again, and he looked out the window to see not only Marie, but now one of her johns, who was himself filling several milk jugs with water. In Wangerin's words, "I had a sudden vision of Grace Lutheran Church, the building itself, rolled over on her side like a helpless sow, while all the people of this neighborhood like wriggling piglets were pushing their snouts into her belly and sucking and sucking the poor church dry." With that he suddenly knew what he had to do; he turned off the main water supply. "Even so did a cleric and the church prevail, by cunning, not by confrontation, and no one was hurt, and no one's feeling or reputation was wounded, neither the church's nor the prostitute's. We could coexist on opposite sides of Gum Street. All in a rush of inspiration a problem had been solved...I slept very well that night...To God be the glory. Amen." And after telling that story in that sermon, after hearing the compliments and encouragement of the other members of the congregation, Wangerin found himself in the grip of Miz Lil, and she would not let him go. " 'Pastor, you preached today. God was in this place.'" Wangerin almost smiled, taking it to be the highest compliment. But Miz Lil said, "'He was not smiling.' Neither was she. Nor would she let me go. 'God was in your preaching,' she whispered. 'Did you hear him, Pastor? It was powerful. Powerful. You preach a mightier stroke than you know. O, God was bending his black brow down upon our little church today, and yesterday, and many a day before. Watching. 'Cause brother Jesus-he was in that child Marie, begging a drink of water from my pastor.'" "Give me a drink," said Jesus to the woman at the well. How and through whom is Jesus begging us, begging our churches, for a drink of water?
P.T. in N.H.
Thank you very much, Mr. Hoff, for telling me not to participate unless I participate according to your standards. What a wonderful display of tolerance and appreciation for diveristy! What an open mind! What a zest for pluralism. What a universalist attitude! Bigotry by any other name is still bigotry. Exclusivity is exclusivity, no matter what you call it. Hypocracy is still hypocracy. My Lord tells me not to judge, but he commands me to test the fruit and this fruit is rotten!
Abused, in Texas
Dear Friends:
It's late. Far too late to begin a sermon, yet here I am. I've been at a women's retreat where we have been reminded to keep the gospel alive. In a world where much is changing, and in churches where much needs to change, we must be careful to hang onto the heart of the gospel.
So what is the gospel here?
Listen to the women, how she questions jesus. She understands so little, but she is hungry to know more. Count her questions if you like, then count your own. So, does she keep questioning until she understands it all? Does she keep her knowledge to herself? No, she has encountered Christ (at least she thinks it might be he), and she goes and tells the news.
How many of us have been afraid to share the gospel because of our own lack of understanding? Have we failed to speak to others who are thirsty for good news? We do not have to have every answer; we simply must have faith in what we do know, in what we have experienced. If we bring others to Jesus based on our own faith, rest assured that they will soon believe because they have seen for themselves.
Tomorrow, while not as prepared as I would like to be, I will preach the gospel. I have good news to share. Jesus knows my heart and is my savior. He wants me to be in dialogue with him, and I will meet him there. And yes, I will RUN and tell my story to those who will listen, so that they too can know my Lord.
A little evangelical fervor from a mainline protestant: Pam in San Bernardino
Thanks AJM in PA for an excellent lesson in history and theology. Your message was very helpful. It put it all together for me. I though I was aware of the Jewish/Samaritan history and struggle, but I see it in a whole different light as a result of your message. It was just what I needed.
thanks, Fred in LA
It's not late on the West Coast! Thanks for the good company. I've decided to sign on for the first time because this is one of my alltime favorite stories from John.
John is a weaver,(tho I am not, so the image I use here is likely faulty!) beginning with many threads and deftly dropping and picking them up again, adding new threads and securing them.
For example, we've already read in John 1-- John the B's statement to the Pharisees about not knowing-- "among you stands one whom you do not KNOW." One thread.
A second thread is SEEING. 1:34=again J the B "And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God"
Thread three is also in the previous sentence: TESTIFY.
Thread four is still in chapter 1, the COME AND SEE invitations...leading to Nathanael's encounter with Jesus. "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" "Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to KNOW me?" Obviously, picking up some threads .. there are too many to articulate here but worth a long look for the pure pleasure of it!
By the time we've gotten to Chapter four, there is a cloth well on its way to having a pattern...but it is not at all completed...which is to say, John, in wants to show us readers a way (Way) a development of belief, a growth in relationship, a becoming...Noticing the conclusion to the Nicodemus story (vv.19-21) we will see the woman, (baring all other interesting speculation, projection, and contemporizing,) at noon, engaged by Jesus in conversation. ("The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood")
About the woman, perhaps the most that could be concluded is that she is acquainted with grief.
The new aeon in Jesus, the new conversations, the new metaphors, the new grace, the new invitation, the new hospitality is breathtaking. The woman's story, like Nicodemus', is an open ended one. Her last useful words for John's purposes are shaping a creed in its earliest stages...and something of the exuberance is contagious.
This gospel is a whole cloth, but it is just beginning in these chapters. By the time John 9 arrives, the pattern is completely set.
For this Sunday, we have encouragement to ask the question drenched with amniontic possibilities!
hoping for rain on the west coast. lb
I preached this text, and called the sermon, "How the Samaritan Woman Got Her Groove Back" using the Stella movie as a back-drop