Third Sunday in Lent
Year A
March 12, 2023
First Reading: Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-11
Gospel: John 4:5-42
Collect:
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen
Trusting in God’s Love
Exodus !7: 1-7
We all know the Exodus story of how Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt. Stories have been told for thousands of years. Movies made that brought the story to life.
In chapter 17 the Lord provided water in the wilderness and in chapter 16, He provided manna from heaven.
The people were, dirty, tired, and could not understand, why they were led there. The faith that Moses had in the Lord, but he was not sure what to do either, he cries out and God provided, only God can bring the water, but it is trusting God and the effort of Moses listening to what God has led him to do.
Gospel: John 4:5-42
The Samaritan women, this is one encounter with Jesus reveals something about who he is. Last week’s lesson, it was about, living by hope and faith and how God’s love for us, he gave us his only begotten Son.
This lesson, we are given and reminded about the gift of the Holy Spirt and the gift of water.
This wonderful lesson today, the Samaritan women at the well, is one of the stores that we have grown to love.
I loved how she did not run away but, she listens to Jesus and she helped spread the gospel to others in her village. They also believed, because like the women, they came face to face with Jesus. They invited him to the village and he stayed two days.
This was unthinkable, the Jews did not have a good relationship with the Samaritans, it went back hundreds of years. This story is important, because of the Samaritans and his disciples, the stories were passed down for generations. The story at the well confirms, that Jesus comes to the least of theses, He cares for the outcasts of society.
The Samaritans had the advantage of getting to know Jesus and said, “we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Romans 5:1-11
We have been given such a wonderful message from Paul’s letter to the Romans.
In the epistle, St. Paul did not know Jesus the way the disciples and the women at the well did.
He never knew Jesus in the flesh, but he is the one, that lets us know through his message, that we can know Christ just as the disciples did.
Paul says, “we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.”
Believers in Jesus experience the same process of being justified as Abraham, we too are justified by faith and we too have access to his grace.
Christian life is challenging, in the reading it continues to say that to be able to share in the glory of God. We must realize that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
For us to grow in our faith, we will have to endure many things, we may have to suffer also, but we need only to trust in God’s love and we can endure anything.
Getting back to the gospel, Jesus asks the Samaritan women for a drink of water, she is astonished at his question, “How is it that you, a Jew ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
Jesus having a conversation with her is crossing all kinds of boundaries, but it moves on to Jesus telling her that if she asked him, it would be living water that would be given to her by God, adding the water gushing up to eternal life.”
He, then talks to her about her private life, her past life, Jesus knows all about her and her past, and she is honest with him. She turns to a question for him about where to worship? A mountain? Jerusalem? He continues telling her, the hour is coming, and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
The women has her AHA moment, she tells Jesus, I know the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. Jesus reveals that He is the one. The disciples came back and she leaves and goes out to her village.
Jesus continues his message with the disciples about eating and that He is there to complete why he was sent, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.”
Conclusion
In our lessons today we see the beginning of the Christian church. Jesus teaches his disciples about the harvest, the women’s testimony with the Samaritans has brought Jesus his harvest.
Moses and the Israelites needed to know that only God can bring the water, but it is trusting God that they had to realize.
Jesus went to the Jacobs well on purpose and he intended to reach out to the Samaritans through the women he met at the well. But to also harvest and bring more into his fold.
Jesus did not call the women at the well a sinner; he did not even mention sin or sinfulness in his message and no word of judgment or even encouragement to change her life.
But what is life changing for the women is, according to her, that she has been entirely known by him, and this being known has enabled her to know him.
Goodnews
Trusting in God’s love, we are the inheritors of the church and we know that Christ is still alive and we have been given a new life in the Spirit and a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
The women at the well tells the Samaritans, that she knows he is the Messiah.
To experience the light of Christ and to really know him, search this lent season for that encounter with the light of Jesus’s and the truth, knowing that he sees you, he sees your mistake and your weakness, but he doesn’t question you, he loves you for who you are and because you believe in him, you will have eternal life.
Remembering St. Paul’s message:
We must realize that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
For us to grow in our faith, we will have to endure many things, we may have to suffer also, but we need only to trust in God’s love and we can endure anything.
Amen
The Reverend Lola Culbreath