March 15, 2020 - 3rd Sunday of Lent

Good morning and welcome to our first on-line worship service.  As we gather at this time, we remember that we are still community, whether we can be together in person, or if we are together in spirit.  Congregations all across the country are experimenting with this form of worship today because we believe we should gather and worship and take time to quiet ourselves and redirect our anxieties, stresses, concerns back towards our loving God.  So, this is the time to breathe and be assured that even though times feel anxious, the sacred is still around us and is still with us and we are still called to be the body of Christ in this time.  Welcome, welcome to this sacred time. 

Today’s scripture is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well: 

Two weeks ago, on the first Sunday of Lent, we had the story of Jesus in the Wilderness.  The wilderness  is often thought of as a harsh environment, dry, hot, depending on where you are.  When I think of this wilderness scene, I definitely envision a desert type of environment.   As Jesus fasts for these forty days, he must have had some sort of water source, I can’t imagine forty days without food, but just the thought of even one day without water makes my mouth feel dry.  I am sure we all know the feeling of being thirsty and fortunately, for the most part, we have easy access to water. 

Fourteen years ago, I had the opportunity to go to Kenya with the Presbytery Nairobi Partnership team.  During that time, we made sure we stayed hydrated but when I got home, I had a headache that would not go away.  After going to the doctor, I learned that I was dehydrated.  Even though I had been drinking what I thought was enough water, it was not.  So, we added some electrolytes into my system and I immediately began to feel better. 

So, here we have this transition, of Jesus being in the wilderness to a story of him, passing through Samaria, and encountering a woman at the well in the middle of the day.  This is one of those passages that has so many angels in which to tackle.  Jesus should not be in Samaria.  Jesus should not be speaking to a woman.  And this woman should not be at the well at mid day.  So, all these things that should not be happening – are happening. 

Jesus starts the conversation by asking for a drink of water.  He asks her to offer him hospitality.  As the conversation unfolds, and the breaking of social customs is named, Jesus uses the opportunity to teach her about who he is.  He uses the metaphor of water and connects it to himself.  Jesus, from the dryness of the wilderness, is describing himself as the living water. 

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.”

This past Thursday evening at the Lenten dinner, we have been talking about what it means to be spiritually hungry.  Here is a woman, that is spiritually thirsty.  In a simple conversation of a man who sees her as a person, that has not labeled her as a Samaritan or a unclean woman or an outcaste, in the simple act of receiving water from her, Jesus changes her life.  She is so alone and this stranger saw her as something more than anyone else around has ever seen her.  And now she understands her thirst.  She is thirsty, thirsty to be seen, thirsty to be in a community that will accept her, thirsty to understand her purpose and worth, thirsty to know God.  And as all of this rises to the surface, in this one conversation, she runs from Jesus and goes back to the community that does not accept her and proclaims:   ²⁹ “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah,^[e] can he?”

As we journey through this season of Lent, things are not unfolding the way I had planned for them to unfold.  But that is okay, the Holy Spirit is still with us and is still at work and is still guiding us.  We may feel for the next few weeks that we are in the wilderness.  The wilderness that I had wanted to use as the place where seeds and eggs are in the right environment to hatch or germinate.  And then, as the season of wilderness ends, and a new season begins, as the caterpillar hatches or the seed germinates, there is a hunger, and there is amazing growth.  When these caterpillars arrived on Monday, they were tiny.  In just one week, they have more then quadrupled in size.  The only way for them to grow like this is to eat.  This is the season to spiritually eat, or spiritually drink.  As the woman at the well breaks out of her shell, out of the bonds of the labels that have held her captive within her community, as her wilderness comes to an end, she thirsts.  She and the caterpillar are wired the same way.  Shed the egg, the shell, the hardness that holds us back, and drink in God’s love for us.   Chew on the word of God, find ways for your spiritual hunger to be fed.  We are called to growth, no matter what age we are, God has given us the living water.  If you thirst, if you hunger, that means the Holy Spirit is with you, is nudging you, is calling you into a new season of faith.  Just like the caterpillar cannot ever become an egg again, we too can only go forward.  And God provides the food and drink that we need to engage this season of life. 

In the wilderness of the next few weeks, stay hydrated.  We may not be able to meet together as a people in one place, but we can make phone calls to each other, we can email, send letters, pray, and spend time reading scripture and even engage in various spiritual practices.  I will do my best to send ideas out to you.  Amen.