Skip to main content

Introduction to Worship for 3/19/2017

By

Finding Refreshment

Some psychologists believe that our natural attraction to “bling”—to jewelry and other shiny objects—comes from our primal search for sources of water. In a broad landscape, they appear to be small, shimmering and shining sites, not unlike the shimmering of a piece of jewelry. Water is necessary for human life; within the faith community we readily make the connection—as did Jesus—that our God is a similar necessity in our daily living. Today’s readings call us to remember that.

John 4:5–42

Samaria was a region south of Galilee and north of Judah. The hatred between Samaritans and Jews went back to when the northern kingdom of Israel was overrun by Assyria. The Assyrians resettled Samaria with foreigners loyal to them, along with Israelites not taken captive. While Samaritans continued some Jewish practices and beliefs, they were viewed as outsiders to Judaism. This separation grew over the centuries. By the time of Jesus, the enmity between Jews and Samaritans was severe.

The gospel of John includes several long narratives, of which this is the first. Verse 4 is revealing: “But he had to go through Samaria.” Other routes were available for Jews to bypass Samaria. So for John to say Jesus had to go through Samaria suggests other reasons. At the head of that list would be Jesus’ ministry among those considered to be “outsiders.” Jesus enters Samaria, initiates conversation with a Samaritan woman, and accepts hospitality from the Samaritan community.

Such reversals continue through the story. In the synagogues of that day, men and women were seated in separate locations. Here at the well, Jesus and this woman sit and speak together about the things of God. Jesus asks this woman for water. In Psalm 95, God provides water; in Samaria this woman is placed in the role of providing water to Jesus. Even more surprising is the way in which Jesus and this woman engage together in theological discussion. She knows her traditions. She awaits the coming Messiah.

Wordplay occurs around the meaning of water. The woman misunderstands Jesus. She confuses Jesus’ offer of “living water” with “running water.” There are no streams here, only a well. Jesus turns the discussion from literal meanings to deeper ones. Living water is Jesus’ way of speaking about the gift of “eternal life.” As in John 3:16, “eternal life” has to do with the gracious possibility of life lived in the presence of God. Such life begins now in the recognition that Jesus is the gift of God (verse 10), who offers such life-giving water to our spirits.

The passage ends on the theme of witness. There is first the woman’s witness to her community. Her expression of both doubt and hope (“He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”) leaves room for the community to respond. And respond it does. Their confession of Jesus as the “Savior of the World” offers one of the clearest statements of faith in the entire gospel.
• • • • • 
Life is full of reversals: the Israelites complain that there is no water, and God provides it to them, in abundance. The woman at the well comes simply to fetch a bucket of water for her household, and yet Jesus offers her new life. Paul points out that, if we were brought close to God by the death of Jesus, how much closer will we be brought through his life? When have you been surprised by the reversals of life? When have you found reversals happening to widen the circle and include others?

Connecting with life


  • When was a time you were needing water – perhaps during a long hike, or on a hot day? What did that feel like? 
  • Think of the many ways you used water in the last day or so. How readily do you take it for granted? 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Worship for 9/24/2017

By
Bless the Water: This week our creation theme is Water. As an introduction to the theme, we will be looking at the beginning of the second creation story in Genesis. Genesis 2:4b–14 In the first story (Genesis 1:1––2:3), water is there from the beginning, and creation is an act of separating everything else from the waters, and then bringing life to the land—after light and darkness and planets and the sun and moon are brought forth.      In the second story, the land has already been created, and there is a stream that waters all of the land. God creates the human from the land, and we can’t grasp the pun in English, but adam (human or man) is made from adamah (humus or earth). We’re probably most familiar with verses 8 & 9 in this text, when God creates a garden and puts adam into the garden with the green and growing things, including the tree of life and the tree of good and evil. But then the author describes the four rivers that surround the garden, a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Introduction to Worship for 4/2/2017

By
Hope Against All Hope There are disappointing moments in life, times when it seems as though there may be no hope. And then there are those times when we are, literally, beyond hope—times when it would appear that, no matter what, there is no going back. Our story this week reminds us that with God the impossible is, at best, a slight inconvenience. As Paul points out in Romans 8:11, “if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, [this same Spirit] will give life to your human bodies also…” John 11:1–45 The story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead can stretch the limits of our believing. But getting hung up on whether or not the story took place as written can distract us from the great point of the story. We know that John presents us with stories that are not in the synoptic gospels, and which (such as turning massive amounts of water into wine at Cana) seem questionable. But John’s points are not confined by fact; they are about something much more...
Post a Comment
Read more

Introduction to Worship for 2/5/2017

By
Letting the Light Through Jesus tells us that we are salt and light as we seek to live as God’s people in the world. With the Spirit’s help, we offer our gifts and talents to extend the reach of God’s realm. With Isaiah and the psalmist, we learn what it means to practice righteousness and restore beauty in community as we live out the heart of our faith. Matthew 5:13–20 This week, we continue to read from the collection of Jesus’ teachings known as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus uses powerful images of salt and light as he describes what it means to live according to the ways of God’s realm. The same images of salt and light are used in the Hebrew Scriptures to describe covenant and law. David and his descendants are called a lamp before God. Jesus continues and expands the message found in the scriptures. Jesus tells his followers that at this very moment they are salt – cleansing, preserving, adding flavour. At this moment they are light – revealing what is hidden, allowing ...
Post a Comment
Read more