Scripture/Sermon of the Day. March 12, 2023

John 4:5-30, 39-42

5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things (use vessels) in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that CHRIST is coming. When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “HE TOLD ME EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER DONE.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that THIS IS TRULY THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD.”

Reflection/Sermon:

I. This story occurs only one time in the lectionaries — it is only read on Year A, on the third Sunday of Lent. Which is too bad because we need to hear this message more. THE LESSON IN THIS QUAINT STORY about Jesus and the woman at the well IS REALLY ABOUT THE SURVIVAL OF THE HUMAN RACE.

II. Because you know what this reading is about? It’s about Republicans and Democrats. It’s about MAGA Americans and Nevertrumpers. It’s about people who watch Fox News, Newsmax and OAN and people who watch CNN, MSNBC, and Huffington Post. It’s about white supremacists and Jews and people of color. This reading is about January 6th insurrectionists and Americans who still want democracy.

This reading is about people who said the election of 2020 was stolen and those who said there was no voter fraud, the voting machines were not rigged and the president was chosen truthfully, legally, and democratically.
It’s about Russians and Ukrainians, North Koreans and South Koreans, China and the United States.

III. The gospel today is about two groups of people who hated each other for over a hundred years, so long, many didn’t know why. Like Hatfields and McCoys, Jews and Samaritans lived with each other but raised their children to hate the other group. All the children knew growing up is that a certain group is the enemy and they must hate them or betray their families.

IV. The Samaritans were Northern Jews, living in the old Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Southern Jews held the power and their base was Jerusalem and the Temple. They believed the mountain their Temple was built on, al Haram, was sacred. The Samaritans thought their temple, built on Mt. Gerazim, was the sacred place. They said to each other, our temple is holier than yours, so we are holier than you.
Like when Americans of different ethnicities or political viewpoints or heritage say to each other, “I’m more American than you — I’m a real American.”

V. As important as this issue of reconciliation between hating factions is, its only in two places in the four gospels. This reading with Jesus and the Samaritan woman, and the man casting out demons in Jesus’ name who is not one of the disciples.

VI. In a Jewish patriarchal society, the woman in our reading had three strikes against her: she was a woman, she was a Samaritan, and she was a polygamist. And Jesus, the Galilean Jew of the old Northern Kingdom sat and spoke with her with no criticism — rather — he offered her respect, dignity, and love — gifts of God which he called living water. If Jesus’ living water of love could heal the enmity between Jew and Samaritan, then it can heal any hatred, any broken relationship. It can save the world.