Readings for Lent 3, March 27, 2011

Exodus 17:1-7 • Romans 5:1-11 • John 4:5-42

Prayer:
Enduring Presence,
goal and guide,
you go before and await our coming.
Only our thirst compels us
beyond complaint to conversation,
beyond rejection to relationship.
Pour your love into our hearts,
that, refreshed and renewed,
we may invite others to the living water
given to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Exodus 17:1-7
The Israelites travel “by stages” towards the Promised Land. As God showed power during their slavery, winning their freedom by inflicting ten plagues on the Egyptians, God now tests the Israelites’ faith as provider and ruler, ten times. If they trust in him, he will save them. This reading is about one of the tests, but who tests whom?

Earlier, at Marah, the people had water but it was bitter; here, at “Rephidim” (v. 1, an oasis in the Negev or Sinai) there is no water at all; the well has run dry. The Israelites are serious: the Hebrew translated “quarrelled” (v. 2) is a legal term. They bring a case against Moses, but to him, their charge is against God: they doubt that he can feed them, be their god, in this hostile desert environment. As in other tests, God simply grants the people’s request, without rebuking them. He orders Moses to take representatives of the people, “some of the elders” (v. 5) to the “rock at Horeb” (v. 6). The elders see his show of power. The parallel with Egypt continues: the “staff” (v. 5) is the same one Moses used to poison the Nile. (“Massah and Meribah”, v. 7, come from words for test and quarrel.) In giving manna, bread from heaven, earlier, and now water (from an earthly rock), God shows mastery over creation.

Reflection:Human nature is so perfectly exhibited by the Israelites. We tend to find things to gripe about no matter what is going on in our lives. "They are almost ready to stone me," Moses admits. How can we get over our griping, count our blessings, and move ahead?

Romans 5:1-11

Paul has already demonstrated that “we are justified by faith”. He says that there are three consequences of being justified (found worthy in God’s court):
“peace with God”, a state of harmony with him,“hope” (v. 2) of sharing his power and eternal life, and being reconciled with him.

It is through Christ that we have “access to this grace”, this blessed state of harmony. We also bask in the glory (“boast”) of “our sufferings” (v. 3, and not our accomplishments). Through a progression from them to patient “endurance” under spiritual duress, to maturity in the faith (“character”, v. 4) we come to hope. This is hope of a certainty (“does not disappoint”, v. 5) for God’s love enters our very beings “through the Holy Spirit” (which is also God’s gift). “For while we were still weak” (v. 6, i.e. before we knew Christ), at the appropriate time in God’s plan, “Christ died for the ungodly”. It would be rare enough for anyone to die for a pious (“righteous”, v. 7) person, and perhaps a bit more likely for a particularly “good person”, but Christ sacrificed his life for us when we were neither: we were unredeemed sinners . This proves God’s love for us. So even more certainly, having been made worthy through his death (“blood”, v. 9), will we evade adverse judgement (“wrath”) at the end of time. Then we were against God (“enemies”, v. 10), then we were restored to favour with God by Christ’s death. Even more certainly will we be given eternal life (“saved”) by the risen Christ (“by his life”). We even bask in God’s glory through Christ, being now reconciled (v. 11).

Reflection:"hope does not disappoint us." What do you think about that? Has your hope ever disappointed you? If you're like me, you can probably think of times that you would say, 'yes' to this question, so what does Paul mean here? Has your hope in God ever disappointed you?

John 4:5-42

Jesus enters Samaria en route from Judea to Galilee. Exhausted by the heat, Jesus rests; his disciples go for food (v. 8). Rabbis did not speak to strange women in public and Jews considered Samaritans ritually unclean, so the woman is surprised by Jesus’ request (v. 9). Jesus answers her: if you knew that God gives to those who ask (“‘the gift of God’”, v. 10) and that I am his agent, you would be the one asking for a drink, “‘and he would have given you living water’”. She misunderstands, thinking that he asks for bubbly spring water. (A legend about Jacob: for him water rose to the top of this well and overflowed.) Are you counting on such a miracle, for “you have no bucket” (v. 11). This water was good enough for Jacob, so are you greater than him? Jesus contrasts the well water with “water gushing up to eternal life” (v. 14). (In John, living water is the vehicle of the gift of the Spirit in baptism.) While she still doesn’t understand, she at least now asks (v. 15). Vv. 16-18 are difficult, but they do show that Jesus has insight, so he must be “a prophet” (v. 19), and can therefore resolve a religious dispute: the common ancestors of the two peoples worshipped on Mount Gerizim (“this mountain”, v. 20) but Jews claim that the only proper worship site is Jerusalem. Jesus replies (v. 21): “the hour” of God’s intervention in the world “is coming”; then cultic sites will be irrelevant. Samaritans, by accepting only part of the Bible, denied themselves access to the part of God’s end-time plans given through the prophets (“what you do not know”, v. 22); “Jews” are at least on the right track. The time is both “coming, and ... now here” (v. 23) to worship God spiritually, discerning “truth”, the reality revealed in Jesus. God is “spirit” (v. 24, life-giving power). She decides to wait to understand until the “Messiah” (v. 25) comes, but Jesus tells her: “‘I am he’” (v. 26). In her haste to tell others about this amazing man, she leaves her “water jar” (v. 28) behind. Come, she says, judge for yourselves! Jesus tells his disciples that the food that sustains his life is obeying the Father and completing his task (v. 34). There is no time for delay (v. 35a) for God’s harvest, “gathering fruit for eternal life” (v. 36, conversion to Christ) is ready now. Others have already begun to sow, have preached the good news. Meanwhile, after hearing the woman’s witness, many hear for themselves and come to belief in Christ. Jesus is “truly the Saviour of the world” (v. 42).

Reflection: A lengthy reading, Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. This is a daring conversation for the woman: Jesus is a Jew, and a man. She converses with him at length, even though both of them cross social customs to do so.
What social customs keep people apart in our day? what conventions have you seen set aside? Are there any you wish were put away?

Even though Jesus offers living water, he asks the woman first for a drink from the well. He asks her to give him something, even as he offers the immeasurably valuable to her. Give and take. Does God seeks that kind of relationship from us? Wants us to give, even though God can give to us so much more.

"I am he." Another declaration of identity - common to John while rare in the other gospels.Who is this Jesus, who knows her story and breaks social convention to speak to her and offers living water...?

"for we have heard for ourselves" a sign of human nature? We don't like to believe from another person's information. We always want to hear it first-hand, from a credible source. That's just sensible, right? But is it also limiting?