Tapping Into Unlimited (Living) Water
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For March 12, 2023:
Tapping Into Unlimited (Living) Water
by Tom Willadsen
John 4:5-42, Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11
Sir, give me this water!
It’s easy to imagine the marginalized woman who has to go to the well at the hottest part of the day for the back-breaking task of hauling water up from the below to ask for water that never runs out.
There are communities in our own country whose infrastructure does not provide this basic necessity. Is it a stretch to imagine the residents of Jackson, Mississippi or Flint, Michigan pleading for living/safe water to come from their faucets?
Imagine the relief that farmers whose share of the dwindling Colorado River has disappeared would feel if they could tap into the unlimited, living water Christ offers.
In the Scriptures
The lesson from Exodus takes place after the Lord has set the Israelites free from slavery. Their memory is pretty short. Egypt looks pretty good compared to dying of thirst in the Wilderness of Sin. Note, “Sin” is a proper name, not an indication of the status of the people. “Sin” may be derived from an Egyptian word that means “fortress.” The Israelites are serial grumblers; this is the first of many occasions when they complain to Moses because they are afraid of dying.
In Numbers 11 they complain not because they’re dying of thirst or starving, but because they’re tired of manna. In that case, the Lord came through for them with a vengeance!
You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” (Numbers 11:19-20, NRSV Updated Edition)
In today’s reading, there’s just garden variety complaining, still, Moses feels threatened by the people and the Lord responds to their fear and complaining. Interestingly, the place is named not for the miracle of the Lord’s providing water to keep the people alive, but for their complaining to and testing of the Lord.
Psalm 95 is a song of praise for when the Lord provided water to the frightened wanderers. The Lord, through the psalmist, admonishes a later generation to not be like those who tested the Lord, who forgot the parting of the Sea of Reeds, and the drowning of Pharaoh’s cavalry just two chapters before. “Don’t be like those people! They had to wander for 40 years because they couldn’t trust that the Lord was with them to protect them!”
Today’s gospel lesson is an interesting, provocative set of contrasts between the conversations Jesus had with Nicodemus in chapter 3.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee in Judea. He came to Jesus at night and did not understand what Jesus was saying. “How can anyone be born after having grown old?”
The Samaritan woman at the well, on the other hand, talks to Jesus in the middle of the day, in the most public place. She wonders, “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” (Spoiler alert: He was.)
Jesus even stays a couple days in Samaria! He’d left Judea at the beginning of chapter 4 because the Pharisees had gotten word that he was baptizing more disciples than John. Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well took place as he and his disciples were en route to Galilee.
The “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger” theme runs through the this week’s Romans reading. One could read it as an ode to suffering and difficulty, because look how much better we emerge from it! But remember, one only gets to tell this story after surviving or prevailing. We laugh at the pettiness and short memory of the Israelites only because we know how the story ends. They were more than scared, they were scared to death. Similarly, it’s not comforting, or pastoral, to remind someone facing peril or ruin that suffering leads to endurance, character and ultimately…hope. What terrific gifts! God must love you to afflict you so much. Remember — God only gives us as much as we can handle!
Reconciliation — which is Paul’s theme throughout Romans — is hard work. Bringing incompatible things together is not simple or easy. A generation ago people reconciled their checking accounts with their bank statements. Hours our frustration ensued — who made the error, me or the bank? Paul writes that it takes the blood of Christ to reconcile humanity to God.
If you plan to preach the upside of suffering, please go deeper than, “It takes both the Sun and the rain to make a rainbow.”
To Paul righteousness is more than mere innocence or blamelessness; righteousness applies to God’s faithfulness, embodied in the crucified and risen Christ.
In the News
Three of our four lessons this week address the necessity of water. Humans need water to live. It is generally agreed that one cannot live much longer than a week without water. The Israelites are appropriately afraid to be finding themselves in the wilderness without water to drink.
We take water for granted. We regard it as practically free; someone who “spends money like water,” for example has little regard for money’s value. Places like Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi have confronted the dire situation of not being able to provide safe water to their citizens. These cities are a national embarrassment.
Following the earthquake in Syria and Turkey the need to provide survivors with water and shelter has turned into a slowly evolving disaster of its own. The videos are not as dramatic as those featuring collapsing buildings, but the peril is every bit as real.
The situation in the Mountain West and Southwest is not as imminent, but equally dire. Enormous atmospheric rivers brought much needed precipitation to California last month. There was even a blizzard warning as far south as Los Angeles. Lake Tahoe received more than 90 inches of snow in 72 hours ending March 1!
I moved to Reno in September of last year. We are supposedly in a historic drought, but how meaningful is that term in a desert? Every time it rains people remark, “We need the rain,” but is that not always the case in a desert? The water crisis is more nuanced and complicated than a large part of the country needs more rain. Yes, more rain is definitely helping, but timing is also important. Last year, for example, Lake Tahoe received a slightly below average amount of snow, but the drought was worsened by a much warmer than typical spring, causing the snow to melt too quickly.
Arizona and southern Nevada’s water shortage is more deeply-rooted. Those areas have been relying on sub-surface water for years and the aquifers are being depleted. A few years of above average precipitation will not replenish the aquifers appreciably. The hard fact is too many people, industries, and farms compete for a finite resource, a finite resource that is essential for life.
In the Sermon
It’s easy to forget how important water is. Life cannot exist without it. It is present in scripture as the Bible begins, the Spirit of God hovered over the watery chaos. It also has power to destroy — only eight people and an ark full of animals survived the flood. Pharaoh’s horsemen and chariots drowned chasing the Israelites who miraculously escaped into the divided Sea of Reeds. (You’ve seen the movie.)
Water can also cleanse. We see this in baptism, and also in the book of Amos who calls for justice to flow down like mighty streams.
Jesus grabs the woman’s attention by offering living water that will never run out. Is he offering life? Cleansing? Renewal? Respite? What does Jesus’ offer of living water mean to us today?
SECOND THOUGHTS
Samaritan Country
by Dean Feldmeyer
John 4:5-26
I grew up on westerns. Novels, short stories, TV shows, and movies. I loved them. Still do.
There are many scenes that are repeated in those stories: The shootout in the street, the barroom brawl, the cowboy riding off into the sunset, the cattle drive. One of my favorites is what I call “Indian Country.”
The protagonist has to get from point A to point B, a trip that will take a day or two longer than he wants to spend. So he goes to some grizzled, old, army scout or cowboy or Native American and he asks if there isn’t a shorter route to this destination.
The grizzled old guy squints into the sun, spits, wipes his brown on his sleeve, and says, “Yeah. Yeah, they’s a shorter route. Save a day, maybe more on your trip.” Our protagonist nods and anxious to hear of this shorter route, produces a gold coin and offers it to the ol’ timer.
The old man looks at the coin, bites it, looks at it again, satisfied, and puts the coins in his vest pocket. “Only one problem.” He points in the direction of the shorter route. “It goes right through the Diamond Back mountains.” He pauses and looks seriously at the protagonist. “Indian country.”
Music swells menacingly as the camera lingers on the Diamond Back mountains.
There was no “Indian country” in Jesus time and place but if you wanted to get from Judea to Galilee there were three routes, and the shortest went through “Samaritan Country.”
What’s the Deal With Samaria?
When Solomon died (circa 930 BCE) his kingdom was divided between two of his sons. Rehoboam took ten of the tribes and settled in the northern half of the country (Israel) with its capital in Samaria. Jeroboam took the remaining two tribes and settled in the southern half (Judah) with its capital in Jerusalem.
For the next 200 years the two countries fought an on-again-off-again war over which country was the rightful heir to Solomon and what people were the authentic children of Israel. Then, in 723 BCE the northern kingdom (Israel) was invaded and defeated by Assyria. Most of the inhabitants who weren’t killed outright were carried into slavery. The few who were left stayed and were assimilated into the surrounding countries.
The southern kingdom, Judah, continued on for the next 700 years with only a brief, 50-year interruption for the Babylonian Captivity (586 BCE).
By the early first century, when our story takes place, Judah has recovered from the destruction and defeat brought upon them by Nebuchadnezzar but have managed to achieve some relative prosperity even under Roman occupation. The people of Samaria or those who claim Samaritan ancestry have managed to trickle back into the northern country.
One might think that survival being as dicey a proposition as it was for those people, they would have found a way to get along. But, alas, that was not to be the case.
The old animosity between Samaritans and Jews was as fresh and raw as ever, sometimes even breaking out into physical violence. This was especially troublesome as Samaria sat in the middle of Judah, dividing the country between Galilee to the north and Judea to the south. Traveling from one to the other was a difficult proposition, especially for the Jews.
To get from Judea to Galilee they would have to travel one of three routes: The Eastern route crossed the Jordan River in the region known as Perea then crossed back over the Jordan River near Jericho. It would have taken pilgrims five to seven days to traverse it but, due to the Jewish settlements in and around Perea, it was a relatively safe journey.
The western route followed the coast of the Mediterranean Sea all the way to Emmaus, a trip of about 10 days.
The central route was the shortest and took only about 3 days to go from Judea to Galilee but it went through Samaria. It was a path through a volatile region that carried with it some very real risks.
The Woman at The Well
It is into this volatile, dangerous cultural milieu that Jesus and disciples come on the day in question, to a little town called Sychar, which is built around a famous well called “Jacob’s Well” because it was, according to legend, dug by Jacob.
The disciples decide to go find some food but for reasons that are not explained, Jesus decides to stay and hang out around the well, which is what people did in those days though rarely in the middle of the day. The well would have been a sort of morning and evening gathering place in the village where people came to get water but also to share news, gossip, and just kill time. If you were new in town, it would be the place to go to get a feel for the local culture. So, for whatever reason, Jesus has decided to hang there for a while.
It being the middle of the day, the well is virtually deserted. Eventually, a Samaritan woman shows up and Jesus strikes up a conversation with her by asking if he can have a drink of water from her bucket.
There follows a sort of point-counterpoint type of conversation wherein we discover some interesting things about this woman. Not only is she a woman and a Samaritan, she’s not a very good Samaritan. She’s a widow and, since her husband died, she has lived with a series of men but married none of them, including her current paramour. She is, as my grandmother used to say, a floozy; or, as the kids, today, prefer, a skank. She’s a skanky Samaritan.
And, while laugh we may at such a notion, we also feel kind of sorry for her, don’t we? We have known people like this.
We have known women who do not feel whole unless they are on the arm of a man and they aren’t very particular about what kind of man they cling to. We have known women who cannot relate to men except sexually. And we have known men who could not take care of themselves and needed a woman to do it for them; men who knew who they were only when they could see their reflection in the eyes of a woman. We have all known people who never learned to be whole, differentiated selves, who gave more credence to what others say about them than to what they knew themselves to be.
Jesus sees that in this woman.
There is no water, not even in the famous, historic Jacob’s Well that will sate the thirst that parches her throat and will not go away. There is no man whose company will make her feel about herself the way she really wants to feel. There is no sacrifice she can make on any altar — in Bethel or Jerusalem — that will give her life the depth and meaning that she longs for it to have.
Jesus sees all of that and offers her something that will make her life everything that she wants it to be. “The woman said to him, ‘I know that the 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.’”
Though our reading ends here, the story goes on.
She leaves her bucket at the well and goes to tell others what has happened to her, about this man, Jesus, who has seen the very depth of her pain and the ground of her being. The disciples return with food and they have virtually the same conversation with Jesus that the woman just had with him only this time the metaphor is food instead of water.
They don’t get it. The metaphor goes right over their heads. In the previous chapter, Nicodemus the Pharisee, the purest and most obedient of Jews, did not get what Jesus was talking about. Jesus’ own disciples did not get what he was talking about. But the Samaritan woman, the skanky, ethnically impure, theologically incorrect, Samaritan woman, gets it. She brings her friends back to meet Jesus and they believe in him and invite him to stay for a while and he does. He stays with them for two days before going on to Galilee.
He stays in Samaria, among Samaritans. He eats and sleeps and talks and laughs and lives with Samaritans for two days and then he goes on to Galilee. And as he goes, we are left to ask one compelling question: Who are the Samaritans for us?
Who are the ones who are so impure, so theologically incorrect, whose religion is so absolutely crazy that they could not possibly be included among the people of God? Who are the ones who we have placed on the outside to look in at all of us who have it right?
And to whom are we to the Samaritans? Who are those who are so sure, so pure, so right and righteous that they will exclude us, reject us, anathematize us because we are impure and they fear that our impurity will somehow taint or pollute or contaminate their pristine perfection?
Who are the Samaritans of our time and place, and what are we going to do about them?
Who Are the Samaritans?
When my children were young, I was asked to write some curriculum material for the Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. This meant I had to go down there from our home in Cincinnati, to a writers and editors conference, so we could sit around a table and hash out what that year’s curriculum would look like and who would be writing about what.
They flew me down to Nashville and I caught a cab from the airport to my hotel. As we drove to the downtown area to my hotel near the Vanderbilt University campus area, the cab driver asked me where I was from and why I was in Nashville. I shared all of that with him. Then, as if to say, “Well, you’re not in Cincinnati any more, son,” he regaled me with some of the most hideous, racist, sexist, vulgar observations, stories, jokes, and anecdotes I have ever heard. And, as he did so, I looked out the window, trying to just get through the ride, only to see hooded Klansmen waving confederate flags and handing out literature on the street corners.
That night, I called my wife shared what I had experienced on that cab ride. I concluded with, “I will never, never live south of the Mason/Dixon Line.” And, for years, I held that opinion. While there may be some occasional exceptions, white southerners were, by and large, to my way of thinking, Samaritans. Not just wrong, but willfully, openly, stubbornly, defiantly, and proudly wrong.
And then, a few years later, my son, Ben, called to tell us that he had accepted a job, teaching at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Now, anyone who has lived in Tennessee will tell you that the eastern and western parts of the state are as different as two areas could possibly be. The West, including Memphis, Nashville, and Chattanooga, is part of the deep south and has more in common with Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi than with Kentucky. Eastern Tennessee, especially the northeast part of the state, where Knoxville is located, is just an hour or so away from Ashville, North Carolina, where the people never joined the Confederacy and where a strong cadre of southern abolitionists worked against slavery, some even going to prison for their opposition to secession. It is the home of the University of Tennessee, the 1982 World’s Fair, and the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, the most visited national park in the country.
But none of that meant anything to me. White southerners were all Samaritans to my way of thinking and I felt badly for my son and his wife that they had to go and live among them.
Then the reports started to come back, the dispatches from Samaria, if you will. Their first two days in Knoxville they had been invited to church no less than six times. Well, I thought, there are churches and then there are churches. But, as it turned out, two of the invitations came from the Ebenezer United Methodist Church near their new home — where they had a female pastor.
And that church received them lovingly and supportively. And the sociology department at the university opened their arms to Ben and Carrie and gave them a dogwood tree for their yard when their first child, Luke, was born. And their neighbors came to them and welcomed them and helped them when their car broke down.
And then, the cruelest blow of all — Jean and I accompanied them to church and saw in the parking lot, of all things, Democratic and Republican bumpers stickers on cars parked right next to each other. Supporters of Obama and McCain going to worship in the same church and sitting side by side.
What was wrong with these people? Hadn’t they heard the stereotypes? Didn’t they know that they were all Samaritans — ignorant, prejudiced, conservative, racist, rednecks? How dare they turn out to be good, decent folks who just talked funny — y’all and yonder and stuff like that.
Samaritans? Strangers from a strange land? Maybe. But they were my son’s surrogate mom and dad, and my grandson’s surrogate grandparents who took them into their embrace and loved them. They were their Christian brothers and sisters. They were the woman at the well, and so was I, and the water we were drinking together as we worshiped that day, was living water.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Katy Stenta:
Exodus 17:1-7
Complain, Complain
In an era where churches are on the decline, many congregations tend to do little more than complain about it. They complain about how no one cares about God anymore, about how values have changed, about our changing culture and the prominence of technology in it, the lack of gratitude, or the lack of time (or economy) for people to go to church. It is interesting that God rests the responsibility for the lack of water not on the leader Moses or God but on the people doing the complaining.
Thus, it is up to the body of Christ to change the church, not the leaders. Here is a great article about some of the differences between the leaders work and the congregation’s work, because it is not good to tempt God. Don’t complain, roll up your sleeves and start to change things yourself. Dig a well or look for the water yourself.
* * *
John 4:5-42
Water, Water Everywhere
When the news broke of the latest publication scandal involving a sex metaphor by the Gospel Coalition, I rolled my eyes hard. I could not even bring myself to read it all the way through. I wonder if the woman at the well felt the same way. This woman had multiple husbands and probably was not well respected by her community. Rachel Held Evans and Jess both knew that patriarchy is baked into the system. We are so thirsty for justice — a kind of justice that knows who we are and still calls us by name. This is the kind of person that Jesus is. Jesus, who practices a ministry of presence, is waiting for us. We are so thirsty for justice, but is it the right kind? Why are we so ready to take on some metaphors in the Bible but not others? Why do we preach David and Bathsheba, but not Song of Songs? Who are we listening to for our justice? The ones in power, or those who are at the edges, who know what the true thirst is? Are we waiting at the well practicing the ministry of listening like Jesus, or are we out there ready to proclaim that we know what is right like the Gospel Coalition?
* * *
Romans 5:1-11
The theology of suffering is one of the trickiest ones for humanity. It is so ripe for abuse, I am touched with fear and trembling. All too often it can become something where we glorify abusing one another, or in the midst of capitalism, we can glorify working ourselves to death. We can say that it’s okay that people die working, because their suffering will be glorified in the Kingdom. We can rationalize slavery, and the recent child labor violations, because the economy needed it. However, Jesus Christ saves us even through our trials and tribulations, he doesn’t put them upon us. Jesus — the savior who retreated to mountains, lakesides, and boats — who ate meals with his friends and journeyed to be with his found family of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The Lord and Savior who welcomed children never glorified suffering or production. Jesus Christ suffers with us and for us, and understands us, but does not say, ‘Go out and suffer.’ He doesn’t advocate that Christianity is about making others suffering into Christianity. Christianity is first and foremost about reconciliation and humility, not producing little Christian copycats. What would Christianity look like if it produced sanctuary first? What would it look like if it was all about rest? What would a ministry to not produce Christians look like? Would it be more salvific? It makes one wonder.
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From team member Mary Austin:
Romans 5:1-11
Messy Hope
After all his own trials, Paul knows enough not to simply say, “Have hope!” He outlines the lengthy process through which our struggles grow into hope. He writes, “Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.”
After the death of her sister, Rachel Held Evans, Amanda Held Opelt struggled to find hope in her life again. She recalls a saying of her mother’s. “It has to get messy before it gets clean!” She adds, "This is a mantra my mother would repeat with cheery conviction every time we undertook the process of spring-cleaning at our house. She’d strip the beds and empty the bookshelves, pull out all the broken toys and half-eaten graham crackers from beneath the furniture. Brooms, mops, vacuum cleaners, and dust rags littered the floor. Life was upended until it was put back together, sparkling, orderly, and brand-new. It had to get messy before it got clean. As my sister once wrote, my mom’s mantra is “a philosophy that pretty much sums up every meaningful experience of my life.” For me, this includes grief. You must accept that the house is being turned upside down. It has to get messy before it gets clean."
On the way to hope, things are messy before they become evident.
* * *
Romans 5:1-11
Hope Starts Within
Senator Cory Booker says that his real education started with an older woman in his neighborhood, when he first started in public service. Miss Jones asked him to describe the neighborhood, and he listed the drug dealing, the shabby apartments, the abandoned buildings, the sense of despair.
Booker recalls, “She just said to me, in a very curt way, “Boy, you need to understand that the world you see outside of you is a reflection of what you have inside of you, and if you’re one of those people who only sees darkness, despair, that’s all there’s ever gonna be. But if you see hope, opportunity, if you’re stubborn enough to, every time you open your eyes, see love and the face of God, then you can be a change agent here. Then you can make a difference.” (from the On Being interview with Krista Tippett)
Even after all he’s been through, Paul is able to see hope, and he passes that on to us.
* * *
John 4:5-42
Women at the Well 2.0
The woman getting water at her village well has many modern-day sisters. Water.org says that collecting water is still women’s work. “Today, women around the world will spend a collective 200 million hours collecting water. In addition to time spent collecting water, millions may also spend significant amounts of time finding a place to go. This makes up an additional 266 million hours of time each day lost because they have no toilet at home.”
Access to water plays a role in their freedom. “When women are empowered with safe water and toilets at home they are empowered to change their world. No longer burdened by the water crisis, they can care for their families. They can start small businesses, adding to their household income. They have the time and water to garden and cook food for their families. And, they no longer face unsafe situations when defecating in the open or walking to distant sources for water.”
The story of the woman at the well feels far away, and yet the woman in John’s gospel has millions of modern counterparts.
* * *
John 4:5-42
Chatting With Strangers
As always, Jesus already knows the things social scientists are “discovering.” In her book Platonic, Dr. Marisa Franco praises the beauty of what she calls “spontaneous conversations” to create connections with people. Jesus and the Samaritan woman have one of these conversations by the well, and the meeting changes both of their paths.
Franco says that we’ll all be less lonely if we chat with stranger, like Jesus and the woman at the well. She advises that we start talking to the people who regularly cross our path. “Spontaneous communication is unplanned conversation that occurs because two people are in the same place at the same time. It is in fleeting moments of chitchat that relationships are sprouted. We can initiate a conversation with strangers by using the insight and question method developed by David Hoffeld. This involves simply sharing a statement or insight and asking a question to follow up. We might say, “I really loved the main character in the book we read for book club. What did you think about her?” or “This drink is so sweet and tastes so good. How do you like yours?” or “It’s been so long since I’ve been to the beach and I’m so glad to be here. What do you like about the beach?”
She adds a personal story, “Talking to strangers has helped me turn my neighborhood into my community. As a graduate student, I spent many days at Starbucks at a communal table with strangers, writing and reading research articles. At first, the people around me would fade into the background, human wallpaper, but eventually, through “spontaneous conversation,” as in “I’ve been working for so long. How’s your work coming along?” I started to connect to them. I’d see their familiar faces all around the neighborhood — at the pool, a restaurant, or walking on the street. We’d say hi and the entire neighborhood started feeling far less anonymous. There was something about bumping into people I knew that made me feel like I belonged. Those days at Starbucks turned my neighborhood into my community.”
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From team member Elena Delhagan:
Exodus 17:1-7
There are some scholars who have written commentaries on Exodus based on the language and customs of the Ancient Near East. In it, they remind the readers that the desert of Sinai is an arid land in which water is scarce. In Moses’ day, wells and other water sources were hidden to discourage nomads from encamping and taking advantage of the water supply. Wells were often covered up to protect animals and people from falling in by placing large stones overtop the well, then covering dirt over the top of the rock. So, it is possible that the Lord guided Moses to a rock that covered up a well, and when Moses struck the rock, he actually moved it and found a well filled with water.
Though perhaps not an interpretation that is very sensational or miraculous, this viewpoint does have a bit to teach us. A lesson here is that the work of God cannot always be seen but that the Lord is indeed always working behind the scenes to protect us. The people did not know that the well existed at Rephidim, but God did. The LORD showed Moses where the well was by directing him to a particular stone. Moses struck the stone and the well was discovered, showing that even in our darkest times of struggle, God faithfully leads us.
* * *
Psalm 95
When Jews go to worship at the beginning of their weekly Shabbat, they start by singing the prayer from Psalm 95. It is the first psalm sung in a litany of seven, corresponding to the days of the week. Psalm 95 exhibits God’s hesed, or simply put, God’s love. God portrays love in this psalm by recounting how he patiently listened to the people grumble and complain for forty years. To us, forty years sounds like an incredibly long time but, then again, the concept of time is different in God’s dimension. If Psalm 90 is correct and “a thousand years is like a day,” then 40 years might work out to be approximately 57 minutes and 36 seconds. Rabbi David Krishef, in one of his commentaries, asks us to imagine having to listen to a negative, grumpy friend or coworker complain to us for 57 minutes and 36 seconds. Talk about a challenge! Now, imagine having to show hesed to that crotchety, whiny person — having to show love and patience (and having to resist the urge to yell at them to shut up already!)
This is the lesson we can learn from Psalm 95. If God can remain loving and kind in the midst of 40 years of complaints, we too can endure. Perhaps we could even mimic Paul’s words in our Romans passage and “glory in our sufferings” because we know that perseverance, in some small way, is making us just a little bit more like God.
* * *
John 4:5-42
Imagine the scene. It’s the middle of the day, and you, a Samaritan woman, make your way to the community well. While you’re drawing water, a man approaches you. Startled, you quickly avert your gaze. It is quite literally a man’s world that you’re living in, and the patriarchy demands you pay him respect, after all. He’s not just any man, though. He’s a Jew. The top tier of Israel’s class-distinctive caste system. He’s a man with power, with privilege, with opportunities your people could never dream of. You brace yourself for the inevitable disgust and contempt he’ll throw your way, but it doesn’t come. You sneak a peek; recognize him as the Jewish rabbi everyone is talking about. He’s male, Jewish, and a teacher of the Law — essentially the trifecta of status, power, and respect in Israelite society.
And this man? He asks you for a drink.
When we think about the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in this light, it becomes impossible to miss the cultural system of power dynamics at play during their interaction. When Jesus asks the woman for a drink of water, he is intentionally empowering her in their situation; he is acknowledging that he is of need, and she — a lowly Samaritan woman! Gasp! — has the ability to meet that need. It is an intentional humbling of self on Jesus’ part, and because of this, he models how to radically turn the entire cultural system of racial purity, of socioeconomic class, and of patriarchy right on its head. He shows us what it’s like to live out the upside down kingdom of God, where the first will be last and the last will be first. What might our own ministries look like if we would follow his example?
* * *
Romans 5:1-11
A prevalent theme in three quarters of our readings this week is water. In the Romans reading, we are reminded that we are saved and justified through Christ’s blood (v.9). It is interesting to note that the follow-up step to salvation is baptism. Baptism in water acts as a sign and seal of God’s covenant with us through the Son Jesus Christ. Presbyterian baptism services (whether through immersion or a few sprinkling drops) require “a visible and generous use of water, conveying the lavish outpouring of God’s grace, filling believers with the gifts of the Spirit, and overflowing in lives of faithfulness, service, and love.”
Whatever your church believes about baptism, may you take the time to reflect and give thanks for it. God uses the water to wash us into new life as a believer of God!
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WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O come, let us sing to our God!
All: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
One: Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving.
All: Let us make a joyful noise with songs of praise!
One: O come, let us worship and bow down.
All: Let us kneel before God Almighty, our Maker!
OR
One: What is it that you desire this day?
All: We thirst for God and for life.
One: Come to the fountain of life and drink deeply.
All: For too long we have thirsted for joy.
One: God is here to slake your thirst.
All: Thanks be to God who satisfies all our needs.
Hymns and Songs
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELW: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
GTG: 734
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
Fill My Cup, Lord
UMH: 641
PH: 350
GTG: 699
AAHH: 447
NNBH: 377
CH: 351
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
UMH: 110
H82: 687/688
PH: 260
GTG: 275
AAHH: 124
NNBH: 37
NCH: 439/440
CH: 65
LBW: 228/229
ELW: 503/504/505
W&P: 588
AMEC: 54
STLT: 200
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
UMH: 121
H82: 469/470
PH: 298
GTG: 435
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELW: 587/588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
God Will Take Care of You
UMH: 130
AAHH: 137
NNBH: 52
NCH: 460
AMEC: 437
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
GTG: 662
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
W&P: 91
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
UMH: 400
H82: 686
PH: 256
GTG: 475
AAHH: 175
NNBH: 166
NCH: 459
CH: 16
LBW: 499
ELW: 807
W&P: 68
AMEC: 77
STLT: 126
Help Us Accept Each Other
UMH: 560
PH: 358
GTG: 754
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
Jesu, Jesu
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
GTG: 203
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELW: 708
W&P: 273
Renew: 289
As the Deer
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
Unity
CCB: 59
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is the source of all life:
Grant us the grace to open our lives to your living waters
that we may know true life and joy in you;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, source of all life. You are the one who brings the life giving waters of life to us. Give us the water that brings us life and slakes all the thirsting of our souls. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our seeking life from sources that cannot satisfy.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have offered us life that is full of joy and meaning and yet we turn away from you and seek after things that do not satisfy. You offer us things that are eternal and we choose things that are fleeting and passing away. Yet even though we have spurned you and your love, you seek us and offer us once more the living water of your Spirit. Forgive us and renew us that we might be filled with your Spirit and with your life. Amen.
One: God is gracious and life giving. God offers us life when we have chosen death so that we might live always with our Creator. Receive God’s loving-kindness and live.
Prayers of the People
Glorious are you, O God of creation and God of life. You are the most awesome of the most awesome. There is none to compare with you.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have offered us life that is full of joy and meaning and yet we turn away from you and seek after things that do not satisfy. You offer us things that are eternal and we choose things that are fleeting and passing away. Yet even though we have spurned you and your love, you seek us and offer us once more the living water of your Spirit. Forgive us and renew us that we might be filled with your Spirit and with your life.
We give you thanks for your life that flows through all of creation. We thank you that you spoke and brought life into being. We are aware of your Spirit that touches all with your life. We thank you for those who have shared with us your love and taught us to open our hearts to you.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We offer to you the cares of our hearts. There are those who are in need in so many ways. Some struggle without the necessities of life; they are without sufficient food, clothing, shelter, or clean water. Some find themselves alone and are thirsting for love and companionship. Some find their health failing and are facing their own mortality. Help us to reach out to those around us through your life and Spirit that dwells within us.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
* * * * * *
CHILDREN'S SERMON
How Far Would You Walk for A Glass Of Water?
by Chris Keating
John 4:5-42
Ahead of time: Gather a couple of water bottles (we all have more than we need!)
Constructing a children’s conversation around the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman faces many obstacles. It’s a long story that is layered with Johannine theology, complex images, and abstract ideas. Ideas like “living water” will likely soar right above the heads of younger children, which is likely why so many children’s sermons on this scripture rely heavily on object lessons involving too many props.
Another option is to use the encounter at the well to be the backdrop to a compelling story of the woman’s call to discipleship. In this story, Jesus crosses boundaries of race and gender. In response, the woman becomes a surprising evangelist. Filled with excitement, she leaves behind the one thing she had brought with her in order to tell others about this man she had just met.
After the children are gathered, bring out the water bottle(s) you have brought. Invite them to think with you about times when they have been playing outside, running hard, hiking or involved in some other activity. When we are really, really thirsty, nothing is better than a drink of cold water. Scientists tell us that it is possible we prefer cool water because human beings learned that water drawn from cooler creeks and flowing streams were more likely to be safer to drink. Stagnant bodies of water tend to be incubators for parasites and harmful bacteria.
Begin the conversation with the children by asking if they can name the places inside your church where they could get a drink of water. How many water fountains are there? How many sinks? Can you name them? Who would they ask if they could not get it for themselves?
These might have been questions Jesus was asking as he walked through Samaria. It was about lunch time, the Bible says, which means the sun was directly overhead. Jesus must have been thirsty. We can imagine he had been walking a long distance. But getting water in Jesus’ day was not as easy as going to a water fountain. Water was not plentiful in the lands where Jesus lived. Most people needed to find a well where they could draw up the water they needed for each day. Today, there are more than two billion people who must walk more than three miles every day in order to find clean water. It’s hard to believe, but even in our country are more than 2,800 places in every state that lack access to clean supplies of water. How far would you walk for a glass of water?
Jesus goes near a well, which was a place where people could get clean water. He sees a woman who was getting water for her family. She has come there at a time when she did not expect to meet anyone and is surprised when Jesus asks her for some water. Not only did men not talk to woman they did not know, but this woman was from Samaria and Jesus was Jewish. In that day, Jewish people and Samaritans did not get along. They did not talk to each other.
Jesus knew that. And, if he had wanted, he could have gotten the water by himself. But instead he starts talking to the woman. She is surprised that even though she had never met Jesus, he knows where she lived and even knew about her family. How could he know that?
But Jesus tells her something else. He accepts her and tells her that God is about to do something incredible. He shares God’s love with her and tells her this love will change her life forever.
The woman is shocked! She is so surprised that she gets up and runs back to her village. She even leaves her large water jar behind. She can’t wait to tell others about this man who showed her what it means to experience God’s love.
Jesus calls this gift “living water.” It changed the woman’s life, and it can change ours, too. She was thankful for the gift she was given and kept telling others all about Jesus.
During Lent, we can take time to share God’s gift of love just as Jesus did. We can do that in many ways, including helping others to get clean water. Some of the churches have places where you can help raise money to build wells or get clean water. (Visit the web pages of your denomination’s global missions or relief ministries for more information. Groups like Oxfam, the Heifer Project, and World Vision also have water projects.) We can take offerings to help people whose homes were destroyed in the recent earthquakes in Turkey. We can even collect recyclable water bottles to give to homeless persons living near our church. There are many ways that we can help others know God’s love, even by sharing something as simple as a glass of ice-cold drinking water.
Prayer
Lord, we thank you that you provide for our needs. Thank you for giving us gifts of water, sunlight, and food, and help us to share these gifts just as Jesus shared living water with those he met. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 12, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Tapping Into Unlimited (Living) Water by Tom Willadsen based on John 4:5-42, Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11.
- Second Thoughts: Samaritan Country by Dean Feldmeyer. There’s a shorter route; save you three, maybe four days. But it runs through Samaritan country.
- Sermon illustrations by Mary Austin, Elena Delhagen, and Katy Stenta.
- Worship resources by George Reed.
- Children’s Sermon: How Far Would You Walk for A Glass Of Water? by Chris Keating based on John 4:5-42.
Tapping Into Unlimited (Living) Waterby Tom Willadsen
John 4:5-42, Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11
Sir, give me this water!
It’s easy to imagine the marginalized woman who has to go to the well at the hottest part of the day for the back-breaking task of hauling water up from the below to ask for water that never runs out.
There are communities in our own country whose infrastructure does not provide this basic necessity. Is it a stretch to imagine the residents of Jackson, Mississippi or Flint, Michigan pleading for living/safe water to come from their faucets?
Imagine the relief that farmers whose share of the dwindling Colorado River has disappeared would feel if they could tap into the unlimited, living water Christ offers.
In the Scriptures
The lesson from Exodus takes place after the Lord has set the Israelites free from slavery. Their memory is pretty short. Egypt looks pretty good compared to dying of thirst in the Wilderness of Sin. Note, “Sin” is a proper name, not an indication of the status of the people. “Sin” may be derived from an Egyptian word that means “fortress.” The Israelites are serial grumblers; this is the first of many occasions when they complain to Moses because they are afraid of dying.
In Numbers 11 they complain not because they’re dying of thirst or starving, but because they’re tired of manna. In that case, the Lord came through for them with a vengeance!
You shall eat not only one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you—because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” (Numbers 11:19-20, NRSV Updated Edition)
In today’s reading, there’s just garden variety complaining, still, Moses feels threatened by the people and the Lord responds to their fear and complaining. Interestingly, the place is named not for the miracle of the Lord’s providing water to keep the people alive, but for their complaining to and testing of the Lord.
Psalm 95 is a song of praise for when the Lord provided water to the frightened wanderers. The Lord, through the psalmist, admonishes a later generation to not be like those who tested the Lord, who forgot the parting of the Sea of Reeds, and the drowning of Pharaoh’s cavalry just two chapters before. “Don’t be like those people! They had to wander for 40 years because they couldn’t trust that the Lord was with them to protect them!”
Today’s gospel lesson is an interesting, provocative set of contrasts between the conversations Jesus had with Nicodemus in chapter 3.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee in Judea. He came to Jesus at night and did not understand what Jesus was saying. “How can anyone be born after having grown old?”
The Samaritan woman at the well, on the other hand, talks to Jesus in the middle of the day, in the most public place. She wonders, “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” (Spoiler alert: He was.)
Jesus even stays a couple days in Samaria! He’d left Judea at the beginning of chapter 4 because the Pharisees had gotten word that he was baptizing more disciples than John. Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well took place as he and his disciples were en route to Galilee.
The “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger” theme runs through the this week’s Romans reading. One could read it as an ode to suffering and difficulty, because look how much better we emerge from it! But remember, one only gets to tell this story after surviving or prevailing. We laugh at the pettiness and short memory of the Israelites only because we know how the story ends. They were more than scared, they were scared to death. Similarly, it’s not comforting, or pastoral, to remind someone facing peril or ruin that suffering leads to endurance, character and ultimately…hope. What terrific gifts! God must love you to afflict you so much. Remember — God only gives us as much as we can handle!
Reconciliation — which is Paul’s theme throughout Romans — is hard work. Bringing incompatible things together is not simple or easy. A generation ago people reconciled their checking accounts with their bank statements. Hours our frustration ensued — who made the error, me or the bank? Paul writes that it takes the blood of Christ to reconcile humanity to God.
If you plan to preach the upside of suffering, please go deeper than, “It takes both the Sun and the rain to make a rainbow.”
To Paul righteousness is more than mere innocence or blamelessness; righteousness applies to God’s faithfulness, embodied in the crucified and risen Christ.
In the News
Three of our four lessons this week address the necessity of water. Humans need water to live. It is generally agreed that one cannot live much longer than a week without water. The Israelites are appropriately afraid to be finding themselves in the wilderness without water to drink.
We take water for granted. We regard it as practically free; someone who “spends money like water,” for example has little regard for money’s value. Places like Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi have confronted the dire situation of not being able to provide safe water to their citizens. These cities are a national embarrassment.
Following the earthquake in Syria and Turkey the need to provide survivors with water and shelter has turned into a slowly evolving disaster of its own. The videos are not as dramatic as those featuring collapsing buildings, but the peril is every bit as real.
The situation in the Mountain West and Southwest is not as imminent, but equally dire. Enormous atmospheric rivers brought much needed precipitation to California last month. There was even a blizzard warning as far south as Los Angeles. Lake Tahoe received more than 90 inches of snow in 72 hours ending March 1!
I moved to Reno in September of last year. We are supposedly in a historic drought, but how meaningful is that term in a desert? Every time it rains people remark, “We need the rain,” but is that not always the case in a desert? The water crisis is more nuanced and complicated than a large part of the country needs more rain. Yes, more rain is definitely helping, but timing is also important. Last year, for example, Lake Tahoe received a slightly below average amount of snow, but the drought was worsened by a much warmer than typical spring, causing the snow to melt too quickly.
Arizona and southern Nevada’s water shortage is more deeply-rooted. Those areas have been relying on sub-surface water for years and the aquifers are being depleted. A few years of above average precipitation will not replenish the aquifers appreciably. The hard fact is too many people, industries, and farms compete for a finite resource, a finite resource that is essential for life.
In the Sermon
It’s easy to forget how important water is. Life cannot exist without it. It is present in scripture as the Bible begins, the Spirit of God hovered over the watery chaos. It also has power to destroy — only eight people and an ark full of animals survived the flood. Pharaoh’s horsemen and chariots drowned chasing the Israelites who miraculously escaped into the divided Sea of Reeds. (You’ve seen the movie.)
Water can also cleanse. We see this in baptism, and also in the book of Amos who calls for justice to flow down like mighty streams.
Jesus grabs the woman’s attention by offering living water that will never run out. Is he offering life? Cleansing? Renewal? Respite? What does Jesus’ offer of living water mean to us today?
SECOND THOUGHTSSamaritan Country
by Dean Feldmeyer
John 4:5-26
I grew up on westerns. Novels, short stories, TV shows, and movies. I loved them. Still do.
There are many scenes that are repeated in those stories: The shootout in the street, the barroom brawl, the cowboy riding off into the sunset, the cattle drive. One of my favorites is what I call “Indian Country.”
The protagonist has to get from point A to point B, a trip that will take a day or two longer than he wants to spend. So he goes to some grizzled, old, army scout or cowboy or Native American and he asks if there isn’t a shorter route to this destination.
The grizzled old guy squints into the sun, spits, wipes his brown on his sleeve, and says, “Yeah. Yeah, they’s a shorter route. Save a day, maybe more on your trip.” Our protagonist nods and anxious to hear of this shorter route, produces a gold coin and offers it to the ol’ timer.
The old man looks at the coin, bites it, looks at it again, satisfied, and puts the coins in his vest pocket. “Only one problem.” He points in the direction of the shorter route. “It goes right through the Diamond Back mountains.” He pauses and looks seriously at the protagonist. “Indian country.”
Music swells menacingly as the camera lingers on the Diamond Back mountains.
There was no “Indian country” in Jesus time and place but if you wanted to get from Judea to Galilee there were three routes, and the shortest went through “Samaritan Country.”
What’s the Deal With Samaria?
When Solomon died (circa 930 BCE) his kingdom was divided between two of his sons. Rehoboam took ten of the tribes and settled in the northern half of the country (Israel) with its capital in Samaria. Jeroboam took the remaining two tribes and settled in the southern half (Judah) with its capital in Jerusalem.
For the next 200 years the two countries fought an on-again-off-again war over which country was the rightful heir to Solomon and what people were the authentic children of Israel. Then, in 723 BCE the northern kingdom (Israel) was invaded and defeated by Assyria. Most of the inhabitants who weren’t killed outright were carried into slavery. The few who were left stayed and were assimilated into the surrounding countries.
The southern kingdom, Judah, continued on for the next 700 years with only a brief, 50-year interruption for the Babylonian Captivity (586 BCE).
By the early first century, when our story takes place, Judah has recovered from the destruction and defeat brought upon them by Nebuchadnezzar but have managed to achieve some relative prosperity even under Roman occupation. The people of Samaria or those who claim Samaritan ancestry have managed to trickle back into the northern country.
One might think that survival being as dicey a proposition as it was for those people, they would have found a way to get along. But, alas, that was not to be the case.
The old animosity between Samaritans and Jews was as fresh and raw as ever, sometimes even breaking out into physical violence. This was especially troublesome as Samaria sat in the middle of Judah, dividing the country between Galilee to the north and Judea to the south. Traveling from one to the other was a difficult proposition, especially for the Jews.
To get from Judea to Galilee they would have to travel one of three routes: The Eastern route crossed the Jordan River in the region known as Perea then crossed back over the Jordan River near Jericho. It would have taken pilgrims five to seven days to traverse it but, due to the Jewish settlements in and around Perea, it was a relatively safe journey.
The western route followed the coast of the Mediterranean Sea all the way to Emmaus, a trip of about 10 days.
The central route was the shortest and took only about 3 days to go from Judea to Galilee but it went through Samaria. It was a path through a volatile region that carried with it some very real risks.
The Woman at The Well
It is into this volatile, dangerous cultural milieu that Jesus and disciples come on the day in question, to a little town called Sychar, which is built around a famous well called “Jacob’s Well” because it was, according to legend, dug by Jacob.
The disciples decide to go find some food but for reasons that are not explained, Jesus decides to stay and hang out around the well, which is what people did in those days though rarely in the middle of the day. The well would have been a sort of morning and evening gathering place in the village where people came to get water but also to share news, gossip, and just kill time. If you were new in town, it would be the place to go to get a feel for the local culture. So, for whatever reason, Jesus has decided to hang there for a while.
It being the middle of the day, the well is virtually deserted. Eventually, a Samaritan woman shows up and Jesus strikes up a conversation with her by asking if he can have a drink of water from her bucket.
There follows a sort of point-counterpoint type of conversation wherein we discover some interesting things about this woman. Not only is she a woman and a Samaritan, she’s not a very good Samaritan. She’s a widow and, since her husband died, she has lived with a series of men but married none of them, including her current paramour. She is, as my grandmother used to say, a floozy; or, as the kids, today, prefer, a skank. She’s a skanky Samaritan.
And, while laugh we may at such a notion, we also feel kind of sorry for her, don’t we? We have known people like this.
We have known women who do not feel whole unless they are on the arm of a man and they aren’t very particular about what kind of man they cling to. We have known women who cannot relate to men except sexually. And we have known men who could not take care of themselves and needed a woman to do it for them; men who knew who they were only when they could see their reflection in the eyes of a woman. We have all known people who never learned to be whole, differentiated selves, who gave more credence to what others say about them than to what they knew themselves to be.
Jesus sees that in this woman.
There is no water, not even in the famous, historic Jacob’s Well that will sate the thirst that parches her throat and will not go away. There is no man whose company will make her feel about herself the way she really wants to feel. There is no sacrifice she can make on any altar — in Bethel or Jerusalem — that will give her life the depth and meaning that she longs for it to have.
Jesus sees all of that and offers her something that will make her life everything that she wants it to be. “The woman said to him, ‘I know that the 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.’”
Though our reading ends here, the story goes on.
She leaves her bucket at the well and goes to tell others what has happened to her, about this man, Jesus, who has seen the very depth of her pain and the ground of her being. The disciples return with food and they have virtually the same conversation with Jesus that the woman just had with him only this time the metaphor is food instead of water.
They don’t get it. The metaphor goes right over their heads. In the previous chapter, Nicodemus the Pharisee, the purest and most obedient of Jews, did not get what Jesus was talking about. Jesus’ own disciples did not get what he was talking about. But the Samaritan woman, the skanky, ethnically impure, theologically incorrect, Samaritan woman, gets it. She brings her friends back to meet Jesus and they believe in him and invite him to stay for a while and he does. He stays with them for two days before going on to Galilee.
He stays in Samaria, among Samaritans. He eats and sleeps and talks and laughs and lives with Samaritans for two days and then he goes on to Galilee. And as he goes, we are left to ask one compelling question: Who are the Samaritans for us?
Who are the ones who are so impure, so theologically incorrect, whose religion is so absolutely crazy that they could not possibly be included among the people of God? Who are the ones who we have placed on the outside to look in at all of us who have it right?
And to whom are we to the Samaritans? Who are those who are so sure, so pure, so right and righteous that they will exclude us, reject us, anathematize us because we are impure and they fear that our impurity will somehow taint or pollute or contaminate their pristine perfection?
Who are the Samaritans of our time and place, and what are we going to do about them?
Who Are the Samaritans?
When my children were young, I was asked to write some curriculum material for the Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. This meant I had to go down there from our home in Cincinnati, to a writers and editors conference, so we could sit around a table and hash out what that year’s curriculum would look like and who would be writing about what.
They flew me down to Nashville and I caught a cab from the airport to my hotel. As we drove to the downtown area to my hotel near the Vanderbilt University campus area, the cab driver asked me where I was from and why I was in Nashville. I shared all of that with him. Then, as if to say, “Well, you’re not in Cincinnati any more, son,” he regaled me with some of the most hideous, racist, sexist, vulgar observations, stories, jokes, and anecdotes I have ever heard. And, as he did so, I looked out the window, trying to just get through the ride, only to see hooded Klansmen waving confederate flags and handing out literature on the street corners.
That night, I called my wife shared what I had experienced on that cab ride. I concluded with, “I will never, never live south of the Mason/Dixon Line.” And, for years, I held that opinion. While there may be some occasional exceptions, white southerners were, by and large, to my way of thinking, Samaritans. Not just wrong, but willfully, openly, stubbornly, defiantly, and proudly wrong.
And then, a few years later, my son, Ben, called to tell us that he had accepted a job, teaching at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Now, anyone who has lived in Tennessee will tell you that the eastern and western parts of the state are as different as two areas could possibly be. The West, including Memphis, Nashville, and Chattanooga, is part of the deep south and has more in common with Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi than with Kentucky. Eastern Tennessee, especially the northeast part of the state, where Knoxville is located, is just an hour or so away from Ashville, North Carolina, where the people never joined the Confederacy and where a strong cadre of southern abolitionists worked against slavery, some even going to prison for their opposition to secession. It is the home of the University of Tennessee, the 1982 World’s Fair, and the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, the most visited national park in the country.
But none of that meant anything to me. White southerners were all Samaritans to my way of thinking and I felt badly for my son and his wife that they had to go and live among them.
Then the reports started to come back, the dispatches from Samaria, if you will. Their first two days in Knoxville they had been invited to church no less than six times. Well, I thought, there are churches and then there are churches. But, as it turned out, two of the invitations came from the Ebenezer United Methodist Church near their new home — where they had a female pastor.
And that church received them lovingly and supportively. And the sociology department at the university opened their arms to Ben and Carrie and gave them a dogwood tree for their yard when their first child, Luke, was born. And their neighbors came to them and welcomed them and helped them when their car broke down.
And then, the cruelest blow of all — Jean and I accompanied them to church and saw in the parking lot, of all things, Democratic and Republican bumpers stickers on cars parked right next to each other. Supporters of Obama and McCain going to worship in the same church and sitting side by side.
What was wrong with these people? Hadn’t they heard the stereotypes? Didn’t they know that they were all Samaritans — ignorant, prejudiced, conservative, racist, rednecks? How dare they turn out to be good, decent folks who just talked funny — y’all and yonder and stuff like that.
Samaritans? Strangers from a strange land? Maybe. But they were my son’s surrogate mom and dad, and my grandson’s surrogate grandparents who took them into their embrace and loved them. They were their Christian brothers and sisters. They were the woman at the well, and so was I, and the water we were drinking together as we worshiped that day, was living water.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Katy Stenta:Exodus 17:1-7
Complain, Complain
In an era where churches are on the decline, many congregations tend to do little more than complain about it. They complain about how no one cares about God anymore, about how values have changed, about our changing culture and the prominence of technology in it, the lack of gratitude, or the lack of time (or economy) for people to go to church. It is interesting that God rests the responsibility for the lack of water not on the leader Moses or God but on the people doing the complaining.
Thus, it is up to the body of Christ to change the church, not the leaders. Here is a great article about some of the differences between the leaders work and the congregation’s work, because it is not good to tempt God. Don’t complain, roll up your sleeves and start to change things yourself. Dig a well or look for the water yourself.
* * *
John 4:5-42
Water, Water Everywhere
When the news broke of the latest publication scandal involving a sex metaphor by the Gospel Coalition, I rolled my eyes hard. I could not even bring myself to read it all the way through. I wonder if the woman at the well felt the same way. This woman had multiple husbands and probably was not well respected by her community. Rachel Held Evans and Jess both knew that patriarchy is baked into the system. We are so thirsty for justice — a kind of justice that knows who we are and still calls us by name. This is the kind of person that Jesus is. Jesus, who practices a ministry of presence, is waiting for us. We are so thirsty for justice, but is it the right kind? Why are we so ready to take on some metaphors in the Bible but not others? Why do we preach David and Bathsheba, but not Song of Songs? Who are we listening to for our justice? The ones in power, or those who are at the edges, who know what the true thirst is? Are we waiting at the well practicing the ministry of listening like Jesus, or are we out there ready to proclaim that we know what is right like the Gospel Coalition?
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Romans 5:1-11
The theology of suffering is one of the trickiest ones for humanity. It is so ripe for abuse, I am touched with fear and trembling. All too often it can become something where we glorify abusing one another, or in the midst of capitalism, we can glorify working ourselves to death. We can say that it’s okay that people die working, because their suffering will be glorified in the Kingdom. We can rationalize slavery, and the recent child labor violations, because the economy needed it. However, Jesus Christ saves us even through our trials and tribulations, he doesn’t put them upon us. Jesus — the savior who retreated to mountains, lakesides, and boats — who ate meals with his friends and journeyed to be with his found family of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The Lord and Savior who welcomed children never glorified suffering or production. Jesus Christ suffers with us and for us, and understands us, but does not say, ‘Go out and suffer.’ He doesn’t advocate that Christianity is about making others suffering into Christianity. Christianity is first and foremost about reconciliation and humility, not producing little Christian copycats. What would Christianity look like if it produced sanctuary first? What would it look like if it was all about rest? What would a ministry to not produce Christians look like? Would it be more salvific? It makes one wonder.
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From team member Mary Austin:Romans 5:1-11
Messy Hope
After all his own trials, Paul knows enough not to simply say, “Have hope!” He outlines the lengthy process through which our struggles grow into hope. He writes, “Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.”
After the death of her sister, Rachel Held Evans, Amanda Held Opelt struggled to find hope in her life again. She recalls a saying of her mother’s. “It has to get messy before it gets clean!” She adds, "This is a mantra my mother would repeat with cheery conviction every time we undertook the process of spring-cleaning at our house. She’d strip the beds and empty the bookshelves, pull out all the broken toys and half-eaten graham crackers from beneath the furniture. Brooms, mops, vacuum cleaners, and dust rags littered the floor. Life was upended until it was put back together, sparkling, orderly, and brand-new. It had to get messy before it got clean. As my sister once wrote, my mom’s mantra is “a philosophy that pretty much sums up every meaningful experience of my life.” For me, this includes grief. You must accept that the house is being turned upside down. It has to get messy before it gets clean."
On the way to hope, things are messy before they become evident.
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Romans 5:1-11
Hope Starts Within
Senator Cory Booker says that his real education started with an older woman in his neighborhood, when he first started in public service. Miss Jones asked him to describe the neighborhood, and he listed the drug dealing, the shabby apartments, the abandoned buildings, the sense of despair.
Booker recalls, “She just said to me, in a very curt way, “Boy, you need to understand that the world you see outside of you is a reflection of what you have inside of you, and if you’re one of those people who only sees darkness, despair, that’s all there’s ever gonna be. But if you see hope, opportunity, if you’re stubborn enough to, every time you open your eyes, see love and the face of God, then you can be a change agent here. Then you can make a difference.” (from the On Being interview with Krista Tippett)
Even after all he’s been through, Paul is able to see hope, and he passes that on to us.
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John 4:5-42
Women at the Well 2.0
The woman getting water at her village well has many modern-day sisters. Water.org says that collecting water is still women’s work. “Today, women around the world will spend a collective 200 million hours collecting water. In addition to time spent collecting water, millions may also spend significant amounts of time finding a place to go. This makes up an additional 266 million hours of time each day lost because they have no toilet at home.”
Access to water plays a role in their freedom. “When women are empowered with safe water and toilets at home they are empowered to change their world. No longer burdened by the water crisis, they can care for their families. They can start small businesses, adding to their household income. They have the time and water to garden and cook food for their families. And, they no longer face unsafe situations when defecating in the open or walking to distant sources for water.”
The story of the woman at the well feels far away, and yet the woman in John’s gospel has millions of modern counterparts.
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John 4:5-42
Chatting With Strangers
As always, Jesus already knows the things social scientists are “discovering.” In her book Platonic, Dr. Marisa Franco praises the beauty of what she calls “spontaneous conversations” to create connections with people. Jesus and the Samaritan woman have one of these conversations by the well, and the meeting changes both of their paths.
Franco says that we’ll all be less lonely if we chat with stranger, like Jesus and the woman at the well. She advises that we start talking to the people who regularly cross our path. “Spontaneous communication is unplanned conversation that occurs because two people are in the same place at the same time. It is in fleeting moments of chitchat that relationships are sprouted. We can initiate a conversation with strangers by using the insight and question method developed by David Hoffeld. This involves simply sharing a statement or insight and asking a question to follow up. We might say, “I really loved the main character in the book we read for book club. What did you think about her?” or “This drink is so sweet and tastes so good. How do you like yours?” or “It’s been so long since I’ve been to the beach and I’m so glad to be here. What do you like about the beach?”
She adds a personal story, “Talking to strangers has helped me turn my neighborhood into my community. As a graduate student, I spent many days at Starbucks at a communal table with strangers, writing and reading research articles. At first, the people around me would fade into the background, human wallpaper, but eventually, through “spontaneous conversation,” as in “I’ve been working for so long. How’s your work coming along?” I started to connect to them. I’d see their familiar faces all around the neighborhood — at the pool, a restaurant, or walking on the street. We’d say hi and the entire neighborhood started feeling far less anonymous. There was something about bumping into people I knew that made me feel like I belonged. Those days at Starbucks turned my neighborhood into my community.”
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From team member Elena Delhagan:Exodus 17:1-7
There are some scholars who have written commentaries on Exodus based on the language and customs of the Ancient Near East. In it, they remind the readers that the desert of Sinai is an arid land in which water is scarce. In Moses’ day, wells and other water sources were hidden to discourage nomads from encamping and taking advantage of the water supply. Wells were often covered up to protect animals and people from falling in by placing large stones overtop the well, then covering dirt over the top of the rock. So, it is possible that the Lord guided Moses to a rock that covered up a well, and when Moses struck the rock, he actually moved it and found a well filled with water.
Though perhaps not an interpretation that is very sensational or miraculous, this viewpoint does have a bit to teach us. A lesson here is that the work of God cannot always be seen but that the Lord is indeed always working behind the scenes to protect us. The people did not know that the well existed at Rephidim, but God did. The LORD showed Moses where the well was by directing him to a particular stone. Moses struck the stone and the well was discovered, showing that even in our darkest times of struggle, God faithfully leads us.
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Psalm 95
When Jews go to worship at the beginning of their weekly Shabbat, they start by singing the prayer from Psalm 95. It is the first psalm sung in a litany of seven, corresponding to the days of the week. Psalm 95 exhibits God’s hesed, or simply put, God’s love. God portrays love in this psalm by recounting how he patiently listened to the people grumble and complain for forty years. To us, forty years sounds like an incredibly long time but, then again, the concept of time is different in God’s dimension. If Psalm 90 is correct and “a thousand years is like a day,” then 40 years might work out to be approximately 57 minutes and 36 seconds. Rabbi David Krishef, in one of his commentaries, asks us to imagine having to listen to a negative, grumpy friend or coworker complain to us for 57 minutes and 36 seconds. Talk about a challenge! Now, imagine having to show hesed to that crotchety, whiny person — having to show love and patience (and having to resist the urge to yell at them to shut up already!)
This is the lesson we can learn from Psalm 95. If God can remain loving and kind in the midst of 40 years of complaints, we too can endure. Perhaps we could even mimic Paul’s words in our Romans passage and “glory in our sufferings” because we know that perseverance, in some small way, is making us just a little bit more like God.
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John 4:5-42
Imagine the scene. It’s the middle of the day, and you, a Samaritan woman, make your way to the community well. While you’re drawing water, a man approaches you. Startled, you quickly avert your gaze. It is quite literally a man’s world that you’re living in, and the patriarchy demands you pay him respect, after all. He’s not just any man, though. He’s a Jew. The top tier of Israel’s class-distinctive caste system. He’s a man with power, with privilege, with opportunities your people could never dream of. You brace yourself for the inevitable disgust and contempt he’ll throw your way, but it doesn’t come. You sneak a peek; recognize him as the Jewish rabbi everyone is talking about. He’s male, Jewish, and a teacher of the Law — essentially the trifecta of status, power, and respect in Israelite society.
And this man? He asks you for a drink.
When we think about the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in this light, it becomes impossible to miss the cultural system of power dynamics at play during their interaction. When Jesus asks the woman for a drink of water, he is intentionally empowering her in their situation; he is acknowledging that he is of need, and she — a lowly Samaritan woman! Gasp! — has the ability to meet that need. It is an intentional humbling of self on Jesus’ part, and because of this, he models how to radically turn the entire cultural system of racial purity, of socioeconomic class, and of patriarchy right on its head. He shows us what it’s like to live out the upside down kingdom of God, where the first will be last and the last will be first. What might our own ministries look like if we would follow his example?
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Romans 5:1-11
A prevalent theme in three quarters of our readings this week is water. In the Romans reading, we are reminded that we are saved and justified through Christ’s blood (v.9). It is interesting to note that the follow-up step to salvation is baptism. Baptism in water acts as a sign and seal of God’s covenant with us through the Son Jesus Christ. Presbyterian baptism services (whether through immersion or a few sprinkling drops) require “a visible and generous use of water, conveying the lavish outpouring of God’s grace, filling believers with the gifts of the Spirit, and overflowing in lives of faithfulness, service, and love.”
Whatever your church believes about baptism, may you take the time to reflect and give thanks for it. God uses the water to wash us into new life as a believer of God!
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WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship
One: O come, let us sing to our God!
All: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
One: Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving.
All: Let us make a joyful noise with songs of praise!
One: O come, let us worship and bow down.
All: Let us kneel before God Almighty, our Maker!
OR
One: What is it that you desire this day?
All: We thirst for God and for life.
One: Come to the fountain of life and drink deeply.
All: For too long we have thirsted for joy.
One: God is here to slake your thirst.
All: Thanks be to God who satisfies all our needs.
Hymns and Songs
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
UMH: 117
H82: 680
AAHH: 170
NNBH: 46
NCH: 25
CH: 67
LBW: 320
ELW: 632
W&P: 84
AMEC: 61
STLT: 281
Hope of the World
UMH: 178
H82: 472
PH: 360
GTG: 734
NCH: 46
CH: 538
LBW: 493
W&P: 404
Fill My Cup, Lord
UMH: 641
PH: 350
GTG: 699
AAHH: 447
NNBH: 377
CH: 351
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
UMH: 110
H82: 687/688
PH: 260
GTG: 275
AAHH: 124
NNBH: 37
NCH: 439/440
CH: 65
LBW: 228/229
ELW: 503/504/505
W&P: 588
AMEC: 54
STLT: 200
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy
UMH: 121
H82: 469/470
PH: 298
GTG: 435
NCH: 23
CH: 73
LBW: 290
ELW: 587/588
W&P: 61
AMEC: 78
STLT: 213
God Will Take Care of You
UMH: 130
AAHH: 137
NNBH: 52
NCH: 460
AMEC: 437
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
UMH: 173
H82: 6/7
PH: 462/463
GTG: 662
LBW: 265
ELW: 553
W&P: 91
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
UMH: 400
H82: 686
PH: 256
GTG: 475
AAHH: 175
NNBH: 166
NCH: 459
CH: 16
LBW: 499
ELW: 807
W&P: 68
AMEC: 77
STLT: 126
Help Us Accept Each Other
UMH: 560
PH: 358
GTG: 754
NCH: 388
CH: 487
W&P: 596
AMEC: 558
Jesu, Jesu
UMH: 432
H82: 602
PH: 367
GTG: 203
NCH: 498
CH: 600
ELW: 708
W&P: 273
Renew: 289
As the Deer
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
Unity
CCB: 59
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
GTG: Glory to God, The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is the source of all life:
Grant us the grace to open our lives to your living waters
that we may know true life and joy in you;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, source of all life. You are the one who brings the life giving waters of life to us. Give us the water that brings us life and slakes all the thirsting of our souls. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
One: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially our seeking life from sources that cannot satisfy.
All: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have offered us life that is full of joy and meaning and yet we turn away from you and seek after things that do not satisfy. You offer us things that are eternal and we choose things that are fleeting and passing away. Yet even though we have spurned you and your love, you seek us and offer us once more the living water of your Spirit. Forgive us and renew us that we might be filled with your Spirit and with your life. Amen.
One: God is gracious and life giving. God offers us life when we have chosen death so that we might live always with our Creator. Receive God’s loving-kindness and live.
Prayers of the People
Glorious are you, O God of creation and God of life. You are the most awesome of the most awesome. There is none to compare with you.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. You have offered us life that is full of joy and meaning and yet we turn away from you and seek after things that do not satisfy. You offer us things that are eternal and we choose things that are fleeting and passing away. Yet even though we have spurned you and your love, you seek us and offer us once more the living water of your Spirit. Forgive us and renew us that we might be filled with your Spirit and with your life.
We give you thanks for your life that flows through all of creation. We thank you that you spoke and brought life into being. We are aware of your Spirit that touches all with your life. We thank you for those who have shared with us your love and taught us to open our hearts to you.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We offer to you the cares of our hearts. There are those who are in need in so many ways. Some struggle without the necessities of life; they are without sufficient food, clothing, shelter, or clean water. Some find themselves alone and are thirsting for love and companionship. Some find their health failing and are facing their own mortality. Help us to reach out to those around us through your life and Spirit that dwells within us.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
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CHILDREN'S SERMONHow Far Would You Walk for A Glass Of Water?
by Chris Keating
John 4:5-42
Ahead of time: Gather a couple of water bottles (we all have more than we need!)
Constructing a children’s conversation around the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman faces many obstacles. It’s a long story that is layered with Johannine theology, complex images, and abstract ideas. Ideas like “living water” will likely soar right above the heads of younger children, which is likely why so many children’s sermons on this scripture rely heavily on object lessons involving too many props.
Another option is to use the encounter at the well to be the backdrop to a compelling story of the woman’s call to discipleship. In this story, Jesus crosses boundaries of race and gender. In response, the woman becomes a surprising evangelist. Filled with excitement, she leaves behind the one thing she had brought with her in order to tell others about this man she had just met.
After the children are gathered, bring out the water bottle(s) you have brought. Invite them to think with you about times when they have been playing outside, running hard, hiking or involved in some other activity. When we are really, really thirsty, nothing is better than a drink of cold water. Scientists tell us that it is possible we prefer cool water because human beings learned that water drawn from cooler creeks and flowing streams were more likely to be safer to drink. Stagnant bodies of water tend to be incubators for parasites and harmful bacteria.
Begin the conversation with the children by asking if they can name the places inside your church where they could get a drink of water. How many water fountains are there? How many sinks? Can you name them? Who would they ask if they could not get it for themselves?
These might have been questions Jesus was asking as he walked through Samaria. It was about lunch time, the Bible says, which means the sun was directly overhead. Jesus must have been thirsty. We can imagine he had been walking a long distance. But getting water in Jesus’ day was not as easy as going to a water fountain. Water was not plentiful in the lands where Jesus lived. Most people needed to find a well where they could draw up the water they needed for each day. Today, there are more than two billion people who must walk more than three miles every day in order to find clean water. It’s hard to believe, but even in our country are more than 2,800 places in every state that lack access to clean supplies of water. How far would you walk for a glass of water?
Jesus goes near a well, which was a place where people could get clean water. He sees a woman who was getting water for her family. She has come there at a time when she did not expect to meet anyone and is surprised when Jesus asks her for some water. Not only did men not talk to woman they did not know, but this woman was from Samaria and Jesus was Jewish. In that day, Jewish people and Samaritans did not get along. They did not talk to each other.
Jesus knew that. And, if he had wanted, he could have gotten the water by himself. But instead he starts talking to the woman. She is surprised that even though she had never met Jesus, he knows where she lived and even knew about her family. How could he know that?
But Jesus tells her something else. He accepts her and tells her that God is about to do something incredible. He shares God’s love with her and tells her this love will change her life forever.
The woman is shocked! She is so surprised that she gets up and runs back to her village. She even leaves her large water jar behind. She can’t wait to tell others about this man who showed her what it means to experience God’s love.
Jesus calls this gift “living water.” It changed the woman’s life, and it can change ours, too. She was thankful for the gift she was given and kept telling others all about Jesus.
During Lent, we can take time to share God’s gift of love just as Jesus did. We can do that in many ways, including helping others to get clean water. Some of the churches have places where you can help raise money to build wells or get clean water. (Visit the web pages of your denomination’s global missions or relief ministries for more information. Groups like Oxfam, the Heifer Project, and World Vision also have water projects.) We can take offerings to help people whose homes were destroyed in the recent earthquakes in Turkey. We can even collect recyclable water bottles to give to homeless persons living near our church. There are many ways that we can help others know God’s love, even by sharing something as simple as a glass of ice-cold drinking water.
Prayer
Lord, we thank you that you provide for our needs. Thank you for giving us gifts of water, sunlight, and food, and help us to share these gifts just as Jesus shared living water with those he met. Amen.
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The Immediate Word, March 12, 2023 issue.
Copyright 2023 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
