Loving God, you claim us as your own by water and the Spirit and call us to live as your children. Fill us with the new life that only you can bring, and teach us to pass it on to others; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

There was a woman who lived in a Samaritan city called Sychar. She had lived to see the deaths of five different husbands. Her pain was so great that she could not face marrying another and then losing him, too. She was still overwhelmed by grief and couldn’t face the questions and prying eyes of the other women of the town. She goes to the well to draw water during the heat of the day – a time when she is unlikely to meet anybody there. She trudges there with a heavy heart and is startled out of her misery when a Jewish man sitting there actually speaks to her. Is this the woman from today’s gospel (Jn. 4:5-42)?

Or perhaps it was like this: There was a woman who lived in a Samaritan city called Sychar. She had been abused at the hands of five different husbands who had used her up and then kicked her out of the house and divorced her. Each time, she was forced to find another man just so that she would have somewhere to live. The other townspeople saw the bruises, but assumed that she had been sleeping around. She had gotten to the point where she didn’t want them to see the bruises any more and didn’t want to endure their callous comments, so she went to draw water at the well when nobody would be around. On the day that she sees Jesus at the well, she approaches with fear and trepidation and hopes that he will ignore her. Her eyes grow wide with amazement when this man actually speaks to her – and with a gentle and loving voice, too! Is this the woman from today’s gospel?

Either way, she is an outsider, and she is hurting. She is the type of person who fills Jesus’ heart with compassion. As she approaches Jesus, he could probably see that she was in need of any number of things. She was very much alone and needed community and love and support. She was filled with pain and hurt and this was stopping her from being able to have life-giving, committed relationships. She was from a people who worshipped any number of different gods, including the God of Israel. She had been confused by idols that do not and cannot give life. Yet, the thing that Jesus lifts up to her and invites her to seek is something that she doesn’t even know that she needs: living water!

Of course, the woman immediately misunderstands Jesus. She thinks only about how hot and thirsty she is and how nice it would be not to have to come and draw water from the well every day! Could Jesus really cause a spring to appear there, with water flowing right to where she lives?

Yet, Jesus is speaking about the loving God who made us all – the one who is “the fountain of living water” (Jer. 2:13). Jesus invites the woman to seek the one true God and to find in him the living water that leads to eternal life. I have this image in mind of the woman looking up toward heaven and smiling, with life-giving, cooling water pouring over her. It is the same posture that many people use in order to open themselves to the life-giving Spirit of God. Yet, this water not only cleanses her on the outside, but penetrates right through to her heart, for the Spirit is described as living water that flows from the hearts of believers (Jn. 7:38).

As this woman encounters Jesus, it seems that she is healed and cleansed and given new life. When today’s gospel begins, she has had the life sapped right out of her. By the end of the story, she has become an evangelist. In fact, she is so excited that she doesn’t even take her water jar back with her. Instead, she goes back into the city and invites everyone she meets to come to the well and see Jesus.

She invites the people and leaves it open for them to make up their own mind. She shares her own experience: He “told me everything I have ever done” (Jn. 4:29). And then she asks the open-ended question: “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” The people of the city come out to see Jesus because of the woman’s invitation. They encounter him for themselves and listen to what he has to say. At first, they believe in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony. However, then their faith becomes based on their own experience of seeing and hearing Jesus.

Today’s gospel is a marvellous story of transformation, as often happens when people encounter Jesus. Yet, it is also a story that raises some questions for us about our own encounters with Jesus and about our invitations to others to come and see. The first question that is raised for us is this: Have we encountered Jesus and experienced his life-changing power? And if we haven’t, why not?

Obviously, today, we don’t run into Jesus at the local well and have a conversation with him. However, we do encounter Jesus in any number of other ways. We meet Jesus in the Scriptures, and in worship, and through prayer, and through others who exhibit Christ in their lives. Jesus comes to us in the waters of baptism, in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, and in the proclamation of the gospel. These are the ways in which we encounter Jesus today, and in that encounter we are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The love of Jesus has the power to change lives, and if we who gather here regularly for worship have never seen or experienced that power, there is something seriously wrong here. There could be something in us where we have chosen to block the Holy Spirit out of our lives. Or, there could be something in the way in which we worship that somehow obscures the transforming power of the Spirit of God. I hope that neither of these things are true. In fact, I pray that every person here today has received and experienced the living water that Jesus promised.

Yet, just in case you’re worried, our standing with God is never based on whether we have experienced a certain thing or felt a certain way. Rather, it is always based on the fact that God has loved us and saved us through Jesus Christ. Those who have put their faith in Jesus have nothing to fear.

At the same time, those who have put their faith in Jesus always have something to share. As I mentioned earlier, the reaction of the woman in today’s gospel raises questions for us, too. Having encountered Jesus, her number one priority was to invite everybody she knew to come and see Jesus. Assuming that we also have encountered Jesus and have experienced his power to change lives, do we invite everybody that we know to come and see? And if not, why not? Is there something here that we don’t want people to see? Is there something that we need to change here in order to be able to invite others to come and see?

These are challenging questions for all of us! They also bring to mind some of the studies that have been done related to what brings new people to a congregation. In most studies that I’ve seen, the number one reason that people start coming to a particular church is because somebody they know invited them. It’s a simple thing, and yet we’re often scared to do it. How come?

Ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit who changes lives and who brings people to faith and who even speaks through us when we will allow it. It is not all up to us, but God does require us to do something and to use the gifts that we have been given. Let us therefore open ourselves to those rivers of living water, not keeping them all for ourselves, but allowing them to flow out from us to others. God knows when we are dry and thirsty, and God is more than happy to give us the Holy Spirit (Lk. 11:13). Come, Holy Spirit. Amen.

Lent 3(A) John 4:5-42
February 24, 2008
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore

© 2008 Lynne Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved