John 4:5-42 – Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
A couple of years ago I read a memoir called Wild, by Cheryl Strayed. It is her story of hiking the Pacific Crest
Trail, which runs up the west coast from Mexico to Canada. I haven’t done much hiking myself, but from
reading Cheryl’s book, I identified three major concerns for long-distance hikers. The first is shoes. A pair of good, well-fitting shoes is
important. Cheryl started her hike with
a pair of boots that were just a tad too snug, and before long she felt
crippled by them.
The second is weight. The
weight you carry on your back can become a sort of obsession. Cheryl started out with too much weight. When she began her journey, she filled her
backpack with the things she would have packed in her suitcase if she were
taking a vacation. But as time went on
she learned to adjust her priorities and everything in the pack had to pass the
test of necessity. Deodorant, for
example, just wasn’t necessary.
Finally,
water. On the Pacific Crest Trail, in
particular, it’s important to know where the water is. You need to know how much you will have to
carry to get you to the next water source.
You don’t want to carry too much, because water is heavy. But on the other hand, one of the worst
things that can happen to you is to run out of water.
Maps
and guidebooks tell hikers where they will find water, a stream or a water
tank, and give them some idea of the reliability of each source. Calculate how many miles you will go before
filling up, and estimating how much water you will need for that distance,
hikers determine how much to carry with them.
Cheryl
was well into her journey, and quite comfortable with this routine, when she
arrived at a water tank with just drops left in her supply. She discovered that someone had shot holes in
the tank. It was bone dry. Immediately, she was flooded with panic. She knew she would die without water. As she continued walking all she could think
about was water, water, water.
For
people who normally only have to turn the tap to get an endless flow of clean
water, it takes something like that to remind us what a precious resource water
is.
The
Israelites were like Cheryl out in the wilderness without any water. They panicked. They knew they would die without water. They looked to Moses for relief, for he was
the one whom they had followed out to this godforsaken place. They saw he had no water either, and they
cried out in anger. They resented this
new freedom with their whole being, because at this moment it looked like
nothing but the freedom to die of thirst.
Both
texts we read today are stories where water is a central character. And both these stories want us to notice that
this water, while a basic, tangible, essential substance, is also standing in
for something bigger, something more abstract.
Jesus
speaks to the Samaritan woman about “living water,” and as soon as she hears of
it she knows that she desperately wants it.
But
Jesus does a kind of strange thing then.
He says, Go and get your husband.
And suddenly the conversation turns to an examination of the awkward and
uncomfortable and problematic things in her life. You might say it has turned to an examination
of her sinfulness, or the brokenness of her life. Some have suggested that this is why this
woman is at the well at high noon, when no other women will be there. She may be an outcast among women, for her “checkered”
past. That is possible, but we should
not forget that when she returns to the city and tells the people about Jesus,
she seems to have a high degree of credibility among them, so she can’t be too
much of an outcast. I guess we might
conclude that she is, like all of us, complicated. Her life, like our lives, holds difficulties,
sorrows and joys, disappointments and mistakes.
When
Jesus abruptly turns the subject to her failed marriages and unconventional
living arrangements, it is as though he is erecting a barrier. She is on the verge of seizing this living
water, but instead of offering it to her he brings up her husbands. It would not have surprised me to see her
pick up her water jar and walk away at that point. I can imagine her saying, that’s not your
business and ending the conversation right there. But she does not.
The
Samaritan woman stays with him, right into this difficult passage, because this
is where she needs to go with Jesus. He
has revealed to her that he knows her in and out, and she does not run away
from him. This is where she must go with
him. And this is where we must go
too.
The
water of life is available to us all, if we go to the source. And when we go to the source we will find
that we are known in and out just as this woman was. Opening ourselves completely we will be
filled with this life-giving water.
This
is what I specifically want to say to you today. This lent, we have talked about exercises we
can use on our journeys that will help to form us spiritually. Lectio
divina, or sacred reading, is one.
Last week we considered the practice of letting go of what creates
barriers to life in Christ. But
something we haven’t considered yet is the need to be honest about our sins,
our brokenness. Because these things
become the barriers that separate us from Christ.
There
is a lovely exercise that gives us a gentle opportunity to do that. It is called the Examen. This is a practice that comes from Saint
Ignatius and has been handed down through the Jesuits. It is simply a daily examination of yourself
in the presence of God.
1. Give
yourself a moment to center yourself in God’s presence. You want to see through God’s eyes, not
merely your own.
2. Review
the day with gratitude. Go over the events of the day, looking for the
blessings in it.
3. While
you are doing this, pay attention to how you are feeling. Angry, sad, joyful?
4. Face
your shortcomings as they have appeared in the events of the day.
5. Finally,
look
toward tomorrow. How will the things you
have noticed and prayed about affect the way you will live tomorrow? You don’t need to go any farther than that. One day at a time.
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