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Gospel: John 4: 5-42
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will become in him
a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to draw water.
“I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him.
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
***
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Did anyone present attend Pocketbook Bingo last week?
It was an amazing event – seemingly sold out – with nearly 200 people, 70 gift baskets, and 13 purses.
The winner of each Bingo game won a designer purse. (I myself won one last year.) This year, it seems, the most hotly desired purse was a Louis Vuitton.
***
Purses are often essential to the female wardrobe, offering both style and convenience. They may hold keys, credit cards, make up, spare change, hand sanitizer, tissues, or whatever else you can pack in there.
I remember my mother’s purse used to get so full that she could never find the one thing she was looking for.
In my mind, that ruined the whole purpose of carrying a purse!
***
In Jesus’ time, women didn’t carry purses. They didn’t have all of the “extras” that we tote around today.
What they did carry was water. Each morning, the female head of household would gather water at the local well for her family. And those water jars were as much of a status symbol as designer handbags are today.
They were judged by the size, the color, the quality, and the design.
***
In today’s Gospel, we encounter a woman gathering water with her water jar at a well.
But she’s not there in the early morning as we might expect. Normally, women went in groups as a way to socialize. But she has journeyed alone in the mid-day heat.
It was her way of avoiding other women, who likely gossiped about her checkered past. She’s been married five times and is now with a sixth partner.
***
All of a sudden, Jesus appears and strikes up a conversation.
It was socially taboo for a man to speak with a woman alone if he were not married or related to her. Even more, Jews never spoke to Samaritans; they hated each other.
But the Lord engages her, directing their conversation to her personal life. “Go call your husband and come back,” he says.
“Sir, I do not have a husband,” she replies embarrassed.
“You have already had five husbands,” Jesus says, “and the one you have now is not your husband.”
The fact that this woman has been married five times – and is now in a sixth relationship – indicates her thirst for love, and her inability to find it.
***
At first, she’s reluctant to admit her past to Jesus. But eventually, their conversation leads her to conclude that he knows all about her past, even her deepest yearnings.
Inspired by what she experiences, she leaves her precious water jar at the well – and by extension, everything she was carrying in her checkered past – to go and tell her peers about whom she’s found.
“Come see a man who told me everything that I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?” she exclaims.
Then the village empties out as people go to meet the Lord.
***
This is the longest recorded conversation the Lord has with anyone in the Gospels. Within it, we find the essence of a fruitful Lenten journey.
First, Jesus confronts this woman about the direction of her life.
That’s her Ash Wednesday.
After admitting her infidelity, she repents and is absolved.
Transformed by that encounter, she seeks others out – in fact the very people whom she avoided earlier in the day – to tell them about Jesus.
That’s her experience of new life – of Easter.
***
On Ash Wednesday, a minister traced a cross of ash on our forehead while saying the words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
Like the woman at the well, what did we need to repent of?
Perhaps it was an overindulgence in food, drink, social media, or the internet; the way we may sometimes treat other people: or the weight of an unforgiving heart.
Are we still carrying any of that within? Or have we left it at the well?
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There’s still time to change. We’re only halfway through Lent.
By God’s grace – and our own practice of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving – we’ll be able to celebrate new life at Easter.
Then, we’ll be sent out like the woman at the well. I wonder, who will we invite to, “Come and see??”
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Image credits: (1) Ascension on Twitter (2) Etsy (3) Pen and Ink Reflections