Thus says the LORD: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.
But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me. From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets. Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers. When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you. Say to them: This is the nation that does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
The Word of the Lord.
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Yesterday, in our first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses spoke to Israel with such hope. He had led them safely through the desert for forty long years. Now, the Promised Land is in sight!
While Moses will not enter, the rest of God’s people will.
In some of his final words to them, Moses warns Israel to observe carefully the commandments of the Lord, and to, “teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”
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Disobeying God’s commandments will only lead Israel to separation, unhappiness, and ultimately, death. It’s a lesson that every believer must learn.
But today the LORD declares, “My people did not obey… They have walked in hardness of heart… They have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.”
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This word “stiff necked” originally referred to an ox who was slow or unwilling to change direction.
The LORD declares that Israel has been stubborn like an ox, stuck in their sinful ways, despite all God has done for them.
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Am I afraid to change? Stuck in a sinful way?
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Lent is the appointed time to acknowledge any part of ourselves that is reluctant – or afraid – to change. Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the LORD gives us the grace we need to be renewed.
As the Psalmist says, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
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Image credits: (1) Success Consciousness (2) The Jewish News of Northern California (3) Psychology Today
Naaman, the army commander of the king of Aram, was highly esteemed and respected by his master, for through him the LORD had brought victory to Aram. But valiant as he was, the man was a leper. Now the Arameans had captured in a raid on the land of Israel a little girl, who became the servant of Naaman’s wife. “If only my master would present himself to the prophet in Samaria,” she said to her mistress, “he would cure him of his leprosy.” Naaman went and told his lord just what the slave girl from the land of Israel had said. “Go,” said the king of Aram. “I will send along a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman set out, taking along ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces, and ten festal garments. To the king of Israel he brought the letter, which read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
When he read the letter, the king of Israel tore his garments and exclaimed: “Am I a god with power over life and death, that this man should send someone to me to be cured of leprosy? Take note! You can see he is only looking for a quarrel with me!” When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king: “Why have you torn your garments? Let him come to me and find out that there is a prophet in Israel.”
Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. The prophet sent him the message: “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean.” But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the LORD his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be cleansed?” With this, he turned about in anger and left.
But his servants came up and reasoned with him. “My father,” they said, “if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, ‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.” So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
He returned with his whole retinue to the man of God. On his arrival he stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.”
The Word of the LORD.
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Throughout the Old Testament, Israel is attacked by its neighbors. Quests for power and domination then were no different than they are today.
Often nations would go into battle with competing gods. The gods of the victor were the ones to be worshiped, because they were seen to be the most powerful.
In our first reading, Israel has been attacked by the Syrian army, and one of its respected commanders is named, Namaan. Though victorious in battle and respected by his peers, Namaan has contracted leprosy – not only a threat to his status, but also to his life.
Desperate for a cure, he’s told by a captured Jewish servant girl that her God is the one true God and that his prophet, Elisha, can cure Namaan.
Desperate, Namaan listens.
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He gathers a cadre of horses and chariots, six thousand pieces of gold, and elaborately weaved garments as gifts.
But when he arrives at Elisha’s tent, the prophet won’t even greet Namaan. He doesn’t want all of Namaan’s “stuff.” He simply tells him to wash seven times in the Jordan.
At first, Namaan struggles to accept the simple task. But he learns that what God wants from him is not a load of stuff; God wants Namaan to trust.
So, off he goes. He bathes and is healed.
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What does this story say to us?
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Often when we want something from the Lord, we can make it complicated by making a laundry list of promises, reciting a bundle of prayers, and fasting until we feel that awful twinge in our stomach.
While the Lord must appreciate the effort, the one thing he wants from us is: trust.
As we read in the Book of Proverbs: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
