Year A
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In today’s reading from Exodus\u2026 the people thirsted for water\u2026 they thirsted for that which would sustain life\u2026 and demanded of Moses\u2026 Give us water to drink<\/em>\u2026 and they quarreled with him\u2026 and tested God… they asked\u2026 Is God with us or not<\/em>\u2026 that’s a question some people may still be asking these days\u2026 and God gave them what they needed\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Psalm 95 implies a question that piggybacks off of the question just asked in Exodus\u2026 not if God is with us or not\u2026 but why do we want God among us\u2026 is it only to get what we need and want\u2026 or is it also so that we can be molded like clay to do God’s will in all times and in all places\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first seven verses tell of the Israelites praising God\u2026 and I believe that the Rock of our Salvation\u2026 is the rock at Horeb which Moses struck\u2026 and water came out\u2026 and saved the people who may have lost hope\u2026 but at verse eight\u2026 the speaker changes\u2026 it is now God who asks them not to harden their hearts\u2026 as their forebears did in the wilderness\u2026 when they quarreled and tested God\u2026 even though they had seen God’s works\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is God with us\u2026 or not\u2026 and how do we determine that\u2026 especially when we make up reasons why we think we deserve God’s hand to touch us\u2026 and we don’t think God has\u2026 or when we make up reasons why we think others don’t deserve God’s hand to touch them\u2026 and we think God has\u2026 ] and even when we think we deserve God’s hand to touch us\u2026 there may still be times when we feel passed over\u2026 and that can be wildly disconcerting\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today’s Gospel passage begins with verse five\u2026 but I want to add in verses :1-4\u2026 they say\u2026 now when Jesus learned\u2026 that the Pharisees had heard\u2026 “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John”\u2026 although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized\u2026 he left Judea and started back to Galilee\u2026 but he had to go through Samaria<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Sermon Brainwave this week\u2026 the Rev. Dr. Joy J. Moore shared that as a child\u2026 who in day-to-day life was driven around Chicago\u2026 she began to notice that there were two exits that her parents never used\u2026 that you just didn’t use to get off the highway\u2026 because as black folk\u2026 you just wouldn’t be safe in those neighborhoods\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the Samaritans were a small group of Israelites who remained in the land of Israel after the deportation of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BCE\u2026 they intermarried with foreign unbelievers\u2026 and established their own religion at Mount Gerizim\u2026 and built their own temple\u2026 at which they worshipped for 400 years\u2026 they were despised and rejected by the Jews\u2026 they were considered unclean\u2026 and in the latter part of the 2nd century\u2026 the Hasmoneans\u2026 who ruled from 165 \u2013 63 BCE\u2026 destroyed the Samaritan\u2019s temple on that mountain\u2026 that’s why the woman says\u2026 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And because of the tension between the Jews and the Samaritans\u2026 it’s the last route a Jewish man would take\u2026 Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria\u2026 no he didn’t\u2026 the bee line from Judea to Galilee does not go through Samaria\u2026 no siree\u2026 not at all\u2026 so why did he\u2026 he went to make a theological point\u2026 to demonstrate that God came as one of us\u2026 for all of us\u2026 for everyone\u2026 in all times and in all places\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And remarkably\u2026 today’s Gospel contains the longest conversation that Jesus had with anyone\u2026 and a theological one at that\u2026 and it’s extraordinary that this conversation occurs with a woman\u2026 a tired Samaritan woman\u2026 drawing water at the well in the heat of the day\u2026 a woman who knew the well’s history\u2026 that God gave the well to her ancestor Jacob\u2026 but this well was also where Abraham sent a servant to find a wife for Isaac\u2026 it’s the well where Jacob met Rebekah\u2026 and we might say that the setting of the well\u2026 is a love story\u2026 because the well gives life in other ways too\u2026 and the first hearers of John’s Gospel would know this\u2026 and today\u2026 the well functions as the backdrop for another love story\u2026 between God and someone who had so many perceived strikes against her\u2026 a Samaritan\u2026 a woman\u2026 multiple husbands\u2026 that she might easily win the title of “Most Marginalized\u2026 “<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in spite of the questions we might ask\u2026 like why did she come alone in the heat of the day\u2026 why did she have five husbands but none now\u2026 whose fault was it\u2026 there’s nothing to indicate adultery\u2026 so maybe she could not bear children and was divorced\u2026 or she could have been widowed five times\u2026 and a widow would need to be sheltered in a man\u2019s household\u2026 . and the one who is not her husband now could be one of her former husband\u2019s brothers\u2026 or her brother\u2026 or a cousin\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n But like a worthy contender\u2026 she pushes the envelope in much the same way that Nicodemus did\u2026 her deepest thirst would be\u2026 to be seen for who she is\u2026 and she was\u2026 He told me everything I have ever done<\/em>\u2026 and in their conversation\u2026 in the exchanges between them\u2026 she first sees Jesus for who he is\u2026 a prophet\u2026 a truth teller\u2026 and like with Nicodemus\u2026 Jesus leads her into a gradual recognition of who he is\u2026 and when she affirms that\u2026 when Messiah comes\u2026 he will proclaim all things to us<\/em>\u2026 in response\u2026 Jesus says\u2026 I am he\u2026 but in the actual Greek\u2026 all Jesus says\u2026 is\u2026 I AM\u2026 it’s the same I AM that God says to Moses at the burning bush\u2026 and it’s the first of the seven I AM sayings in John’s Gospel\u2026 that Jesus makes about himself\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Collect for Purity\u2026 which we pray almost every Sunday\u2026 we affirm our belief that to God\u2026 all hearts are open\u2026 all desires known\u2026 and from God no secrets are hid\u2026 and that’s because God is with us\u2026 ] and while we need H2<\/sub>O from our kitchen faucet\u2026 or well\u2026 to survive bodily\u2026 while we need to worship God in Spirit and in Truth\u2026 no matter where we are\u2026 we also need the water which Jesus gives and which becomes in us a spring of Living Water that gives eternal life\u2026 but that’s something we already possess\u2026 something we already own\u2026 and for that and so much more\u2026 we say thanks be to God\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Exodus 17:1-7 Psalm 95 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 In today’s reading from Exodus\u2026 the people thirsted for water\u2026 they thirsted for that which would sustain life\u2026 and demanded of Moses\u2026 Give us water to drink\u2026 and they quarreled with him\u2026 and tested God… they asked\u2026 Is God with us or not\u2026 that’s a question some people may still be asking these days\u2026 and God gave them what they needed\u2026 Psalm 95 implies a question that piggybacks off of the question just asked in Exodus\u2026 not if God is with us or not\u2026 but why do we want God among us\u2026 is it only to get what we need and want\u2026 or is it also so that we can be molded like clay to do God’s will in all times and in all places\u2026 The first seven verses tell of the Israelites praising God\u2026 and I believe that the Rock of our Salvation\u2026 is the rock at Horeb which Moses struck\u2026 and water came out\u2026 and saved the people who may have lost hope\u2026 but at verse eight\u2026 the speaker changes\u2026 it is now God who asks them not to harden their hearts\u2026 as their forebears did in the wilderness\u2026 when they quarreled and tested God\u2026 even though they had seen God’s works\u2026 Is God with us\u2026 or not\u2026 and how do we determine that\u2026 especially when we make up reasons why we think we deserve God’s hand to touch us\u2026 and we don’t think God has\u2026 or when we make up reasons why we think others don’t deserve God’s hand to touch them\u2026 and we think God has\u2026 ] and even when we think we deserve God’s hand to touch us\u2026 there may still be times when we feel passed over\u2026 and that can be wildly disconcerting\u2026 Today’s Gospel passage begins with verse five\u2026 but I want to add in verses :1-4\u2026 they say\u2026 now when Jesus learned\u2026 that the Pharisees had heard\u2026 “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John”\u2026 although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized\u2026 he left Judea and started back to Galilee\u2026 but he had to go through Samaria\u2026 On Sermon Brainwave this week\u2026 the Rev. Dr. Joy J. Moore shared that as a child\u2026 who in day-to-day life was driven around Chicago\u2026 she began to notice that there were two exits that her parents never used\u2026 that you just didn’t use to get off the highway\u2026 because as black folk\u2026 you just wouldn’t be safe in those neighborhoods\u2026 Now the Samaritans were a small group of Israelites who remained in the land of Israel after the deportation of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BCE\u2026 they intermarried with foreign unbelievers\u2026 and established their own religion at Mount Gerizim\u2026 and built their own temple\u2026 at which they worshipped for 400 years\u2026 they were despised and rejected by the Jews\u2026 they were considered unclean\u2026 and in the latter part of the 2nd century\u2026 the Hasmoneans\u2026 who ruled from 165 \u2013 63 BCE\u2026 destroyed the Samaritan\u2019s temple on that mountain\u2026 that’s why the woman says\u2026 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain\u2026 And because of the tension between the Jews and the Samaritans\u2026 it’s the last route a Jewish man would take\u2026 Jesus didn’t have to go through Samaria\u2026 no he didn’t\u2026 the bee line from Judea to Galilee does not go through Samaria\u2026 no siree\u2026 not at all\u2026 so why did he\u2026 he went to make a theological point\u2026 to demonstrate that God came as one of us\u2026 for all of us\u2026 for everyone\u2026 in all times and in all places\u2026 And remarkably\u2026 today’s Gospel contains the longest conversation that Jesus had with anyone\u2026 and a theological one at that\u2026 and it’s extraordinary that this conversation occurs with a woman\u2026 a tired Samaritan woman\u2026 drawing water at the well in the heat of the day\u2026 a woman who knew the well’s history\u2026 that God gave the well to her ancestor Jacob\u2026 but this well was also where Abraham sent a servant to find a wife for Isaac\u2026 it’s the well where Jacob met Rebekah\u2026 and we might say that the setting of the well\u2026 is a love story\u2026 because the well gives life in other ways too\u2026 and the first hearers of John’s Gospel would know this\u2026 and today\u2026 the well functions as the backdrop for another love story\u2026 between God and someone who had so many perceived strikes against her\u2026 a Samaritan\u2026 a woman\u2026 multiple husbands\u2026 that she might easily win the title of “Most Marginalized\u2026 “ And in spite of the questions we might ask\u2026 like why did she come alone in the heat of the day\u2026 why did she have five husbands but none now\u2026 whose fault was it\u2026 there’s nothing to indicate adultery\u2026 so maybe she could not bear children and was divorced\u2026 or she could have been widowed five times\u2026 and a widow would need to be sheltered in a man\u2019s household\u2026 . and the one who is not her husband now could be one of her former husband\u2019s brothers\u2026 or her brother\u2026 or a cousin\u2026 But like a worthy contender\u2026 she pushes the envelope in much the same way that Nicodemus did\u2026 her deepest thirst would be\u2026 to be seen for who she is\u2026 and she was\u2026 He told me everything I have ever done\u2026 and in their conversation\u2026 in the exchanges between them\u2026 she first sees Jesus for who he is\u2026 a prophet\u2026 a truth teller\u2026 and like with Nicodemus\u2026 Jesus leads her into a gradual recognition of who he is\u2026 and when she affirms that\u2026 when Messiah comes\u2026 he will proclaim all things to us\u2026 in response\u2026 Jesus says\u2026 I am he\u2026 but in the actual Greek\u2026 all Jesus says\u2026 is\u2026 I AM\u2026 it’s the same I AM that God says to Moses at the burning bush\u2026 and it’s the first of the seven I AM sayings in John’s Gospel\u2026 that Jesus makes about himself\u2026 In 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