Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Wellspring of Life" (March 10, 1996)
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| (steady organ music) | 0:15 | |
| (choir singing upbeat music) | 3:07 | |
| - | Good morning, we'd like to welcome you to Duke Chapel | 6:12 |
| on this third Sunday in Lent. | 6:16 | |
| We'd like to ask for special prayers of remembrance | 6:19 | |
| for those in the university community | 6:22 | |
| who are traveling for spring break, | 6:24 | |
| especially those students who are participating | 6:26 | |
| in mission trips to Honduras, Mexico, Lumberton, | 6:29 | |
| the Larsh in Canada, and Appalachia. | 6:33 | |
| Our guest preacher today is | 6:37 | |
| the Reverend Nancy Farree-Clark, | 6:39 | |
| pastor to the congregation at Duke Chapel. | 6:41 | |
| Nancy, of course, is well-known to all of us | 6:43 | |
| and we are grateful for her leadership in this service. | 6:46 | |
| She is married to Dr. Thomas B. Clark III, | 6:50 | |
| a forensic pathologist in the Office of the Chief State | 6:53 | |
| Medical Examiner and he is serving | 6:56 | |
| as our guest organist for today. | 6:59 | |
| They are a very talented family. | 7:02 | |
| We welcome the Durham Magnet Center School | 7:05 | |
| and their director, Ms. Scott-Hill | 7:08 | |
| and appreciate their music leadership | 7:11 | |
| for our service today. | 7:13 | |
| Let us continue our worship with the call to worship. | 7:15 | |
| Please stand. | 7:17 | |
| O come, let us sing to the Lord. | 7:24 | |
| Congregation | Let us sing to the (mumbles) To our God. | 7:28 |
| - | Let us come into God's presence with thanksgiving. | 7:31 |
| Congregation | We thank him (mumbles). | 7:36 |
| (organ music) | 7:39 | |
| (joyful organ music) | 8:02 | |
| (all singing) | 8:26 | |
| - | Let us pray. | 11:13 |
| We hear you calling us, God. | 11:16 | |
| You are among us here and now. | 11:19 | |
| By your grace, we have gathered for worship. | 11:23 | |
| With the assurance of your love, | 11:26 | |
| we dare top open our lives once more | 11:28 | |
| to your reconciling action. | 11:32 | |
| In you, we find the truth that reveals and transforms. | 11:35 | |
| In the sharing of songs and prayers, | 11:40 | |
| we find the courage to grow and change. | 11:43 | |
| Bless us, we pray, with gifts | 11:48 | |
| to empower our ministries, amen. | 11:50 | |
| You may be seated. | 11:54 | |
| - | Let us pray the prayer for illumination. | 12:05 |
| All | Open our hearts and minds, O God, | 12:08 |
| by the power of your Holy Spirit | 12:12 | |
| so that as the word is read and proclaimed | 12:14 | |
| we may hear your message with joy this day, amen. | 12:18 | |
| The Old Testament reading is from | 12:23 | |
| the book od Exodus 17:1-7. | 12:25 | |
| "From the wilderness of sin, | 12:31 | |
| "the whole congregation of the Israelites | 12:33 | |
| "journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. | 12:36 | |
| "They camped at Rephidim, | 12:40 | |
| "but there was no water for the people to drink. | 12:43 | |
| "The people quarreled with Moses and said, | 12:46 | |
| "'Give us water to drink.' | 12:48 | |
| "Moses said to them, 'Why do you quarrel with me? | 12:51 | |
| "'Why do you test the Lord?' | 12:56 | |
| "But the people thirsted there for water. | 12:58 | |
| "And the people complained against Moses and said, | 13:01 | |
| "'Why did you bring us out of Egypt? | 13:04 | |
| "'To kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?' | 13:06 | |
| "So Moses cried out to the Lord, | 13:11 | |
| "'What shall I do with these people? | 13:14 | |
| "'They are almost ready to stone me.' | 13:17 | |
| "The Lord said to Moses, | 13:21 | |
| "'Go on ahead of the people | 13:23 | |
| "'and take some of the elders of Israel with you. | 13:25 | |
| "'Take in you hand the staff | 13:28 | |
| "'with which you struck the Nile and go. | 13:31 | |
| "'I will be standing there in front of you | 13:34 | |
| "'on the rock at Horeb. | 13:36 | |
| "'Strike the rock and the water will come out of it | 13:39 | |
| "'so that the people may drink.' | 13:43 | |
| "Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. | 13:46 | |
| "He called the place Massah and Meribah | 13:50 | |
| "because the Israelites quarreled | 13:53 | |
| "and tested the Lord saying, | 13:55 | |
| "'Is the Lord among us or not?'" | 13:56 | |
| This is the word of the Lord. | 13:59 | |
| Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 14:01 |
| - | The epistle reading is from Romans 5:1-11 and 13-17. | 14:05 |
| "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, | 14:13 | |
| "we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ, | 14:18 | |
| "through whom, we have obtained access through his grace | 14:21 | |
| "in which we stand. | 14:25 | |
| "And we boast in our hope of sharing, the Glory of God. | 14:28 | |
| "And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, | 14:32 | |
| "knowing that suffering produces endurance | 14:38 | |
| "and endurance produces character | 14:41 | |
| "and character produces hope. | 14:44 | |
| "And hope does not disappoint us | 14:46 | |
| "because God's love has been poured into our hearts | 14:49 | |
| "through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. | 14:52 | |
| "For while we were still weak, at the right time, | 14:57 | |
| "Christ died for the ungodly. | 15:00 | |
| "Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, | 15:03 | |
| "though perhaps, for a good person, | 15:07 | |
| "someone might actually dare to die. | 15:09 | |
| "But God proves his love for us | 15:12 | |
| "and that while we were yet sinners, | 15:15 | |
| "Christ died for us. | 15:17 | |
| "Much more surely then, | 15:19 | |
| "now that we have been justified by his blood | 15:21 | |
| "we will be saved through Him from the wrath of God. | 15:24 | |
| "For, if while we were enemies, | 15:29 | |
| "we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, | 15:31 | |
| "much more surely, having been reconciled, | 15:34 | |
| "we will be saved by his life. | 15:38 | |
| "But more than that, we even boast in God, | 15:41 | |
| "through our Lord Jesus Christ, | 15:45 | |
| "through whom we have now received reconciliation." | 15:48 | |
| This is the word of the Lord. | 15:52 | |
| Congregation | Thanks be to God. | 15:54 |
| Debra | The appointed psalm for the day is Psalm 95, | 16:01 |
| found on pages 814 and 15 in your hymn book. | 16:04 | |
| Please stand as we read responsively. | 16:08 | |
| "O Come, let us sing to the Lord." | 16:17 | |
| Congregation | "Let us shout aloud | 16:20 |
| "to the rock of our salvation." | 16:22 | |
| - | "Let us come into God's presence with thanksgiving." | 16:25 |
| Congregation | "Let us bring forth | 16:29 |
| "(mumbles) song and praise for him." | 16:31 | |
| - | "For the Lord is a great God | 16:32 |
| "and a great ruler above all gods | 16:35 | |
| "and whose hands are the depths of the Earth | 16:37 | |
| "and also the heights of the mountains." | 16:40 | |
| Congregation | "The sea belongs to God, | 16:43 |
| "who made it and the dry land with God's power." | 16:45 | |
| - | "O Come, let us worship and bow down." | 16:50 |
| Congregation | "Let us kneel before the Lord our maker." | 16:54 |
| - | "For the Lord is our god." | 16:57 |
| Congregation | "We are the people of God's pasture, | 17:00 |
| "the sheep of God's hand." | 17:02 | |
| - | "Hear the voice of the Lord today, | 17:05 |
| "harden not your hearts as at Meribah, | 17:07 | |
| "as on the day at Massah in the wilderness | 17:10 | |
| "when your fore bearers tested me | 17:13 | |
| "and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work." | 17:15 | |
| Congregation | "For 40 years, I loathed that generation | 17:20 |
| "and said they are a people who err in their hearts | 17:24 | |
| "and they are not aware of my ways. | 17:28 | |
| "Therefore I swore in my anger | 17:30 | |
| "they shall not enter my rest." | 17:33 | |
| (solemn organ music) | 17:36 | |
| (all singing) | 17:45 | |
| - | A reading from the gospel, according to St. John. | 18:47 |
| "So, Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar | 18:52 | |
| "near the plot of ground that Jacob | 18:57 | |
| "had given to his son Joseph. | 18:59 | |
| "Jacob's well was there. | 19:02 | |
| "And Jesus, tired out by his journey, | 19:04 | |
| "was sitting by the well. | 19:07 | |
| "It was about noon. | 19:09 | |
| "A Samaritan woman came to draw water | 19:12 | |
| "and Jesus said to her, | 19:14 | |
| "'Give me a drink.' | 19:17 | |
| "His disciples had gone to the city to buy food. | 19:18 | |
| "The Samaritan woman said to him, | 19:22 | |
| "'How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, | 19:24 | |
| "'a woman of Samaria? | 19:27 | |
| "'Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.' | 19:30 | |
| "Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God | 19:34 | |
| "'and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink," | 19:38 | |
| "'you would have asked him | 19:43 | |
| "'and he would have given you living water. | 19:45 | |
| "The woman said to him, 'Sir, | 19:48 | |
| "'you have no bucket and the well is deep. | 19:50 | |
| "'Where did you get that living water? | 19:52 | |
| "'Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob | 19:54 | |
| "'who gave us the well and with his sons | 19:56 | |
| "and with his flocks drank from it?' | 19:59 | |
| "Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water | 20:02 | |
| "'will be thirsty again. | 20:06 | |
| "'But those who drink of the water that I will give them, | 20:08 | |
| "'will never be thirsty. | 20:11 | |
| "'The water that I give will become in them | 20:14 | |
| "'a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.' | 20:16 | |
| "The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water | 20:21 | |
| "'so that I may never be thirsty | 20:24 | |
| "'or have to keep coming here to draw water.' | 20:25 | |
| "Jesus said to her, 'Go call your husband and come back.' | 20:30 | |
| "The woman answered, 'I have no husband.' | 20:33 | |
| "Jesus said to her, 'You are right in saying, | 20:37 | |
| "'"I have no husband," for you have had five husbands | 20:40 | |
| "'and the one you have now is not your husband. | 20:44 | |
| "'What you have said is true.' | 20:46 | |
| "The woman said to him, 'Sir, I see that you are a prophet. | 20:50 | |
| "'Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, | 20:54 | |
| "'but you say that the place where the people | 20:57 | |
| "'must worship is in Jerusalem. | 21:00 | |
| "Jesus said to her, 'Woman, believe me, | 21:03 | |
| "'the hour is coming when you will worship the father | 21:05 | |
| "'neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. | 21:09 | |
| "'You worship what you do not know. | 21:11 | |
| "'We worship what we know, | 21:15 | |
| "'for salvation is from the Jews. | 21:16 | |
| "'But the hour is coming and is now here | 21:19 | |
| "'when the true worshipers will worship the Father | 21:22 | |
| "'in spirit and truth, | 21:25 | |
| "'for the father seeks such as these to worship him. | 21:27 | |
| "'God is spirit, and those who worship him | 21:32 | |
| "'must worship in spirit and truth.' | 21:35 | |
| "The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming, | 21:38 | |
| "'who is called Christ. | 21:41 | |
| "'When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.' | 21:43 | |
| "Jesus said to her, 'I am he, | 21:47 | |
| "'the one who is speaking to you.' | 21:51 | |
| "Just then, his disciples came. | 21:54 | |
| "They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, | 21:56 | |
| "but no one said, 'What do you want?' | 22:00 | |
| "or 'Why are you speaking with her?' | 22:02 | |
| "Then the woman left her water jar | 22:06 | |
| "and went back to the city. | 22:07 | |
| "She said to the people, 'Come and see a man | 22:09 | |
| "'who told me everything I have ever done. | 22:11 | |
| "'He cannot be the Messiah, can he?' | 22:15 | |
| "They left the city and were on their way to him. | 22:18 | |
| "Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, | 22:22 | |
| "'Rabbi, eat something.' | 22:24 | |
| "But he said to them, 'I have food to eat | 22:26 | |
| "'that you do not know about.' | 22:29 | |
| "So, the disciples said to one another, | 22:31 | |
| "'Surely, no one has brought him something to eat.' | 22:34 | |
| "Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will | 22:37 | |
| "'of Him who sent me and to complete His work. | 22:41 | |
| "'Do you not say, "Four months more, | 22:45 | |
| "'"then comes the harvest?" | 22:47 | |
| "'But I tell you, look around you | 22:48 | |
| "'and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. | 22:51 | |
| "'The reaper is already receiving wages | 22:55 | |
| "'and is gathering fruit for eternal life | 22:58 | |
| "'so that sewer and reaper may rejoice together, | 23:00 | |
| "'for here the saying holds true, | 23:04 | |
| "'"One sews and another reaps." | 23:06 | |
| "'I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. | 23:10 | |
| "'Others have labored and you have | 23:13 | |
| "'entered into their labor.' | 23:15 | |
| "Many Samaritans from that city believed in him, | 23:18 | |
| "because of the woman's testimony. | 23:20 | |
| "'He told me everything I have ever done.' | 23:23 | |
| "So, when the Samaritans came to him, | 23:26 | |
| "they asked him to to stay with them | 23:27 | |
| "and he stayed there two days. | 23:29 | |
| "And many more believed because of his word. | 23:31 | |
| "They said to the woman, 'It is no longer | 23:35 | |
| "'because of what you said that we believe, | 23:37 | |
| "'for we have heard for ourselves | 23:40 | |
| "'and we know that this is truly the savoir of the world.'" | 23:42 | |
| This is the word of the Lord. | 23:49 | |
| All | Thanks be to God. | 23:51 |
| (congregation rustling) | 24:01 | |
| (elegant piano music) | 24:52 | |
| (choir singing angelic music) | 24:59 | |
| (rolling piano music) | 26:22 | |
| (choir singing) | 26:29 | |
| ♪ Let my spirit rejoice ♪ | 26:41 | |
| ♪ Let my spirit rejoice ♪ | 26:44 | |
| ♪ Let my spirit rejoice ♪ | 26:48 | |
| (energetic choir singing) | 26:51 | |
| - | We are grateful to these wonderful students | 28:44 |
| from the Magnet Center for sharing | 28:46 | |
| in the leadership of today's worship. | 28:48 | |
| Thanks to all of you. | 28:50 | |
| In both our Old Testament and gospel lessons today | 28:56 | |
| we read about God's miraculous gift of water. | 28:58 | |
| Water, one of God's earliest and very best ideas. | 29:02 | |
| Two atoms of hydrogen married to one atom of oxygen | 29:07 | |
| to put it a little simplistically. | 29:12 | |
| Who would have thought such a wonderful thing | 29:14 | |
| could come of it? | 29:16 | |
| It is an essential element for life. | 29:18 | |
| Neither you nor I nor any other | 29:21 | |
| living creature would be here without it. | 29:23 | |
| It can also be deeply expressive of meaning in life. | 29:27 | |
| Who among us hasn't been calmed | 29:32 | |
| by the wide expanse of the open sea | 29:34 | |
| or moved by the sight of human tears? | 29:38 | |
| Water, perhaps, more than any other substance, | 29:41 | |
| plays an essential role in the telling of salvation history. | 29:45 | |
| Remember how, in the beginning of time, | 29:49 | |
| God brooded over the face of the waters | 29:51 | |
| and brought forth light? | 29:53 | |
| Later, God sent the great flood | 29:56 | |
| and judgment to destroy the Earth, | 29:58 | |
| but God chose to save Noah | 30:00 | |
| and his family on the ark, | 30:02 | |
| sending a rainbow in the clouds | 30:04 | |
| as a sign of his covenant. | 30:06 | |
| Moses lead the children of Israel to freedom | 30:09 | |
| while God parted the Red Sea | 30:11 | |
| and they walked across on dry land. | 30:14 | |
| Jesus came to Earth, nurtured in the water | 30:17 | |
| of Mary's womb and was baptized in the River Jordan. | 30:20 | |
| He showed his disciples the way to love one another | 30:25 | |
| by stooping to the ground | 30:28 | |
| and washing their feet with water. | 30:29 | |
| Through water, the scriptures reveal to us time and again | 30:33 | |
| that we have received life from God | 30:37 | |
| and have done so abundantly. | 30:40 | |
| In one of my favorite lines in scripture, | 30:43 | |
| Jesus tells us in the sermon on the mount, | 30:45 | |
| "God sends the rain on the just | 30:47 | |
| "and the unjust." | 30:49 | |
| Or to put it another way, | 30:51 | |
| God's grace is unbounded. | 30:52 | |
| There's more than enough life to go around | 30:55 | |
| and all will be included as recipients of it. | 30:58 | |
| Yet, the idea fo abundance, especially of a good thing, | 31:02 | |
| is difficult somehow for us to wrap our minds around. | 31:05 | |
| We assume that scarcity, rather than abundance, | 31:09 | |
| will be the bottom line | 31:12 | |
| because that's what our human viewpoint tells us. | 31:14 | |
| Put yourselves in the shoes of the Israelites, | 31:18 | |
| in today's lesson, for instance, | 31:21 | |
| and try to imagine their long journey | 31:23 | |
| across the arid wilderness. | 31:25 | |
| Yes, God had liberated them | 31:28 | |
| from the bonds of slavery in Egypt. | 31:30 | |
| But now, they were discovering | 31:33 | |
| that freedom had its challenges, too. | 31:34 | |
| You see, because of their hasty departure from Egypt, | 31:38 | |
| they had no time to prepare | 31:40 | |
| for their journey to the promised land. | 31:42 | |
| Food and water, life's basic essentials, | 31:45 | |
| God would have to provide. | 31:48 | |
| But where would it come form? | 31:50 | |
| Would there be enough to around for everybody? | 31:53 | |
| Could God really be trusted? | 31:57 | |
| Indeed, in the chapter preceding today's reading, | 32:00 | |
| we first hear the Israelites murmuring against Moses. | 32:02 | |
| "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord | 32:06 | |
| "in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots | 32:08 | |
| "and ate our fill of bread, | 32:12 | |
| "for you have brought us out into this wilderness | 32:14 | |
| "to kill the whole assembly with hunger." | 32:17 | |
| Yahweh, being a merciful God, hears their cry for help | 32:20 | |
| and delivers quail and manna to feed them. | 32:23 | |
| But even then, after all that God had done for them, | 32:27 | |
| the faith of the Israelites soon grew weak. | 32:30 | |
| Within only a few verses, the people are railing | 32:34 | |
| against Moses once again. | 32:37 | |
| "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us | 32:38 | |
| "and our children and livestock with thirst?" | 32:41 | |
| Once again, the Lord provided in his own miraculous, | 32:46 | |
| trustworthy way, this time with water | 32:49 | |
| spewing forth from a rock. | 32:52 | |
| For those who would ask, "Is God among us or not?", | 32:55 | |
| the answer was definitively | 32:59 | |
| delivered in a torrent of water. | 33:01 | |
| Our gospel account highlights a different kind of water, | 33:05 | |
| living water, as Jesus describes it. | 33:08 | |
| This dramatic story points not toward human arrogance | 33:12 | |
| in the face of God's love, as in the story from Exodus, | 33:15 | |
| but toward the completeness and the inclusiveness | 33:19 | |
| of God's love through Christ. | 33:22 | |
| Jesus is traveling through Samaria | 33:25 | |
| and in chosen to do so turns away | 33:28 | |
| from the people and the places of official Judaism, | 33:30 | |
| where he began his ministry to be with | 33:32 | |
| the Jews most hated enemies, the Samaritans. | 33:35 | |
| In this encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, | 33:39 | |
| we find a striking contrast with everything | 33:42 | |
| that has preceded it in the gospel. | 33:45 | |
| You may recall from Dean Campbell's sermon last week | 33:48 | |
| that the third chapter of John tells us | 33:51 | |
| that Jesus speaks with Nicodemus, | 33:53 | |
| a male member of the Jewish religious establishment. | 33:56 | |
| In today's text, in John four, | 34:00 | |
| he speaks with a female member of an enemy people. | 34:02 | |
| Whereas Nicodemus has a name and a reputation, | 34:07 | |
| this woman is nameless. | 34:10 | |
| She is simply a Samaritan woman, | 34:12 | |
| thus this conversation between Jesus and the woman, | 34:17 | |
| though it is the longest he has | 34:20 | |
| with anyone in any of the gospels, | 34:21 | |
| is also among the most scandalous. | 34:24 | |
| And it is scandal the woman herself takes note of. | 34:28 | |
| When Jesus requests of her, "Give me a drink," | 34:32 | |
| she questions him forthrightly. | 34:35 | |
| "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink, of me?" | 34:38 | |
| Read between the lines. | 34:42 | |
| "What kind of a Jew are you, anyway?" | 34:44 | |
| The Jews had endless rules about what they could | 34:47 | |
| and could not eat or drink | 34:50 | |
| and she knew that included not eating or drinking | 34:51 | |
| from the vessel of a non-Jew, | 34:55 | |
| considered to be ritually unclean. | 34:58 | |
| Secondly, she was woman and you've heard | 35:01 | |
| what it was like for women in those days. | 35:04 | |
| Second class is hardly adequate to describe their status. | 35:07 | |
| They were not allowed to worship with men | 35:11 | |
| where devotions included the prayer, | 35:13 | |
| "Thank God I'm not a woman." | 35:16 | |
| Neither was a man supposed to speak with a woman in public, | 35:19 | |
| including his own wife. | 35:21 | |
| And for a rabbi to discuss theology with a woman? | 35:23 | |
| Well, it was so extraordinary as to be unimaginable. | 35:27 | |
| On top that, we can surmise that she was a fallen woman. | 35:32 | |
| You see, the respectable women of the town made their | 35:37 | |
| trips to Jacob's well either in the cool of the morning | 35:39 | |
| or the evening when they could greet one another | 35:43 | |
| and catch up on the news. | 35:45 | |
| But this woman would have been | 35:47 | |
| one of the ones they talked about. | 35:49 | |
| As Jesus eventually deduced, | 35:52 | |
| she had been married five times | 35:54 | |
| and was living in sin at the time. | 35:56 | |
| Thus, the woman came for her water at noon, alone, no doubt, | 36:00 | |
| where it must have been less painful for her | 36:05 | |
| to endure the scorching heat of the sun | 36:07 | |
| than the searing glares | 36:10 | |
| of the others who came to well. | 36:11 | |
| Into this unlikely conversation, | 36:16 | |
| Jesus introduces this topic of living water. | 36:17 | |
| "Everyone who drinks this water," | 36:21 | |
| meaning the well water, "will be thirsty again. | 36:23 | |
| "But those who drink of the water | 36:26 | |
| "that I will give them will never be thirsty. | 36:28 | |
| "It will become in them a spring of water, | 36:31 | |
| "gushing up to eternal life." | 36:33 | |
| Sounds good to me, she must have thought, | 36:36 | |
| hardly knowing what to make of it. | 36:38 | |
| "Sir," she says with a twinkle in her eye, | 36:41 | |
| "Give me this water, | 36:43 | |
| "so that I will never be thirsty again, | 36:45 | |
| "or have to come here to draw it." | 36:48 | |
| But little did she know what she was really asking. | 36:51 | |
| Abruptly, Jesus changes the subject. | 36:54 | |
| "Go get your husband and come back here," he tells her. | 36:58 | |
| The tension builds as she stops dead in her tracks | 37:02 | |
| to consider her response to this curveball | 37:05 | |
| he has just thrown to her. | 37:07 | |
| Should the woman be angry | 37:10 | |
| that Jesus is suddenly getting so personal? | 37:12 | |
| Should she be dishonest because she doesn't | 37:15 | |
| want to admit to her current state of affairs? | 37:18 | |
| Should she be annoyed that business as usual | 37:22 | |
| has been intruded upon? | 37:24 | |
| She musters up her remaining shred of dignity | 37:28 | |
| and looks Jesus right in the eye. | 37:30 | |
| "I have no husband." | 37:32 | |
| Jesus replies, "You are right in saying, | 37:36 | |
| "'I have no husband,' | 37:38 | |
| "for you have had five husbands | 37:40 | |
| "and the one you have now is not your husband. | 37:42 | |
| "What you have said is true." | 37:44 | |
| It's no time for playing games. | 37:48 | |
| Jesus tells it like it is. | 37:50 | |
| Yet, at the same time refrains from judging her. | 37:52 | |
| Rather than distancing himself | 37:57 | |
| from her because of her past, | 37:59 | |
| Jesus draws closer to her. | 38:01 | |
| This sudden intimacy and unexplainable knowledge | 38:05 | |
| Jesus has of the woman is a little unsettling to her, | 38:08 | |
| as you can imagine. | 38:12 | |
| She begins to realize, | 38:14 | |
| this man truly knows her. | 38:16 | |
| If he knows all of this about me already, | 38:19 | |
| what else could he know? | 38:22 | |
| She then provides her own change of pace | 38:24 | |
| by switching the subject to religion, | 38:26 | |
| which is a move that can be interpreted in one of two ways. | 38:29 | |
| Some commentators have suggested | 38:34 | |
| this was her psychological ploy, | 38:35 | |
| an attempt to evade the embarrassment | 38:38 | |
| of discussing her morals | 38:40 | |
| by changing the subject in a hurry. | 38:42 | |
| Why not hide behind the formalities | 38:45 | |
| of a discussion about religion? | 38:47 | |
| Perhaps some of you have tried that before. | 38:49 | |
| And it works pretty well, doesn't it? | 38:52 | |
| I prefer to think of her response, however, | 38:55 | |
| as a sign of her interest | 38:58 | |
| in a serious theological discussion. | 39:00 | |
| Catching her breath that this conversation | 39:03 | |
| is even happening in the first place, | 39:05 | |
| she steps forward to engage Jesus at another level. | 39:08 | |
| "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. | 39:12 | |
| "Then tell me this, | 39:15 | |
| "where's the proper place to worship God?" | 39:17 | |
| If Jesus can ask hard questions, so can she. | 39:20 | |
| Yet it was not an unreasonable question to ask. | 39:24 | |
| For among the many issues which caused such bitter feelings | 39:28 | |
| between Jews and Samaritans, this had been the greatest. | 39:31 | |
| Who had the most direct access to God? | 39:35 | |
| was the question at stake. | 39:39 | |
| You see, the Samaritans had built a shrine on Mount Gerizim | 39:41 | |
| to stand in direct competition with the temple in Jerusalem. | 39:45 | |
| And it was eventually destroyed by the Jews. | 39:49 | |
| Touchy as the subject was, | 39:52 | |
| if a Jew and a Samaritan | 39:54 | |
| were going to discuss their real differences, | 39:56 | |
| this was the subject to go for. | 39:58 | |
| Jesus' answer wasn't like anything she could have expected. | 40:02 | |
| He implied that true worship would transcend | 40:05 | |
| both Jerusalem and Gerizim. | 40:08 | |
| God's grace was available to all | 40:11 | |
| and all were invited to worship together in spirit | 40:13 | |
| and truth, both the chosen and the rejected people, | 40:16 | |
| both the male and the female. | 40:21 | |
| These were the ones God was actually seeking, | 40:24 | |
| children of God who would receive the spirit | 40:28 | |
| that would enable them to transcend earthly institutions | 40:31 | |
| and worship God with sincere hearts. | 40:34 | |
| Could it be that Jesus was seeking her out? | 40:39 | |
| An outsider on not one, not two, | 40:41 | |
| but three accounts, to receive this spirit, | 40:44 | |
| this living water? | 40:48 | |
| By the end of the conversation, she confesses, | 40:50 | |
| "I know the Messiah is coming." | 40:52 | |
| And Jesus replies, "I am he." | 40:54 | |
| I wonder, if by that point, she hadn't already suspected it. | 40:58 | |
| About that time, the disciples returned | 41:03 | |
| from their grocery run and were they ever surprised, | 41:05 | |
| not that Jesus was talking to a Samaritan, | 41:08 | |
| but that he was talking with a woman. | 41:11 | |
| But you notice, no one dared to ask | 41:14 | |
| "What's going on here?" | 41:16 | |
| or "Why are you speaking with her?" | 41:17 | |
| They could feel the electricity in the air. | 41:21 | |
| This conversation between Jesus and this Samaritan woman | 41:24 | |
| might have begun about a drink of water, | 41:27 | |
| but it concluded with a revelation | 41:30 | |
| about who they both were. | 41:32 | |
| She as no longer simply a Samaritan woman, | 41:35 | |
| but a child of God. | 41:38 | |
| He no longer, a tired and thirsty Jewish stranger, | 41:40 | |
| but the true Messiah. | 41:45 | |
| In an essay about this text, Barbara Brown Taylor writes | 41:48 | |
| that by telling the woman who she is, | 41:51 | |
| Jesus shows her who he is. | 41:54 | |
| The Messiah is the one in whose presence | 41:58 | |
| you know who you really are, | 42:00 | |
| the good and the bad of it, | 42:03 | |
| the all of it, the hope in it. | 42:05 | |
| Now, often times, this isn't the kind of information | 42:09 | |
| that we really want to find out, | 42:11 | |
| that is who we really are underneath the stereotypes, | 42:14 | |
| the superficialities, the projections of others. | 42:18 | |
| Yet, for the Samaritan woman, | 42:22 | |
| the freedom and blessing that Jesus bestowed upon her | 42:23 | |
| by enabling her to reveal her true self to him | 42:27 | |
| was an empowering experience. | 42:30 | |
| Suddenly, she was transformed from outcast to evangelist. | 42:33 | |
| She was proclaiming to people | 42:38 | |
| she thought she could never face again. | 42:39 | |
| "Come and see a man who had told me | 42:41 | |
| "everything I have ever done." | 42:43 | |
| She no longer had to bow down | 42:46 | |
| under the weight of her shame and humiliation. | 42:48 | |
| Thanks to Jesus' acceptance of her as a person, | 42:51 | |
| including her past, her race, and her gender, | 42:55 | |
| she could rise above the walls, | 42:58 | |
| which had enclosed her for so long | 43:00 | |
| to courageously and convincingly | 43:03 | |
| share the good news with others. | 43:06 | |
| As the gospel tells us, many Samaritans from that city | 43:09 | |
| believed in him because of the woman's testimony. | 43:12 | |
| Though this story comes to us from another time | 43:17 | |
| and very distant place, | 43:20 | |
| it still seems relevant to me today. | 43:22 | |
| I talk to people every week | 43:24 | |
| who are searching for living water, | 43:26 | |
| though they may call it something else. | 43:28 | |
| Many of us are spiritually dry, | 43:31 | |
| not only the outsiders, but the insiders as well. | 43:33 | |
| Within the church I hear of | 43:37 | |
| increased interest and meditation, retreats, | 43:39 | |
| spiritual directions, even angels. | 43:42 | |
| Outside the church, I hear about the demands | 43:46 | |
| for astrologers, crystal healers, | 43:49 | |
| massage therapists, gurus of any sort. | 43:51 | |
| Masses of people are flocking to new age spirituality | 43:55 | |
| in search of remedies for loneliness | 43:59 | |
| or meaninglessness or emptiness pervading their lives. | 44:01 | |
| Though I'm not always sympathetic to the means, | 44:06 | |
| I am certainly sympathetic to the quest. | 44:08 | |
| Our souls are always thirsting for God, | 44:12 | |
| according to the psalmist, as in a dry and weary land | 44:15 | |
| where there is no water. | 44:19 | |
| It's just that sometimes we don't know | 44:21 | |
| where to turn to find it. | 44:23 | |
| Last summer, I was fortunate to be able | 44:27 | |
| to spend a few days with a Benedictine community | 44:29 | |
| at their monastery in northern New Mexico. | 44:31 | |
| And during that time, I participated in daily offices | 44:35 | |
| lead by the brothers with a number of other visitors. | 44:38 | |
| It became clear to me that not everyone at those services | 44:42 | |
| was familiar with the liturgy, | 44:45 | |
| perhaps not all were Christian. | 44:47 | |
| A few may have even been clinging | 44:51 | |
| to their crystals during worship. | 44:52 | |
| Yet, I was struck by the incredible warmth | 44:54 | |
| and vitality of that community | 44:56 | |
| and they way the brothers welcomed us | 44:59 | |
| into their midst without any judgment, | 45:01 | |
| without any agenda, other than praising God together. | 45:03 | |
| The monastery itself was located | 45:07 | |
| in a high mountain desert area, | 45:09 | |
| so arid that wet clothes on the clothesline | 45:12 | |
| needed only a few minutes in the sun to dry. | 45:15 | |
| But it wasn't the kind of place | 45:19 | |
| to be reminded of one's thirst. | 45:20 | |
| Rather, it was a place to drink deeply | 45:22 | |
| of something life-giving, | 45:25 | |
| which the brothers shared so freely. | 45:27 | |
| It seemed as if that small community | 45:30 | |
| had enough love to spread amongst all of us | 45:32 | |
| that they could spread it around the world | 45:36 | |
| and still have plenty left to share. | 45:38 | |
| Isn't that the way living water | 45:42 | |
| is really supposed to work? | 45:44 | |
| The Samaritan woman bears witness to the fact | 45:48 | |
| that even the most estranged among us can receive | 45:50 | |
| the gift of living water. | 45:53 | |
| Christ alone has the power to reveal | 45:55 | |
| the truth to us about ourselves, | 45:58 | |
| yet we must respond to his outstretched hand. | 46:01 | |
| What would have happened to the woman | 46:04 | |
| if she had been unreceptive to Jesus' initial request? | 46:06 | |
| What if she had been unwilling to admit the truth | 46:10 | |
| to herself and to Jesus as so many of us struggle to do? | 46:13 | |
| Just as Jesus stepped forward to reveal himself to her, | 46:19 | |
| she had to trust enough | 46:23 | |
| to reveal herself to him. | 46:26 | |
| In this process, she acknowledged her simpleness | 46:28 | |
| but also reclaimed her humanity. | 46:31 | |
| There was good and there was bad within her, | 46:33 | |
| but in the end, there was hope. | 46:37 | |
| For the church, | 46:41 | |
| the waters of baptism represent that hope. | 46:42 | |
| When we baptize, we do so not only with water | 46:46 | |
| that cleanses and renews us, | 46:49 | |
| but with the Holy Spirit who nurtures and sustains us. | 46:51 | |
| Long after the water itself has been dried from our heads, | 46:56 | |
| the Spirit abides with us, empowering us, | 47:00 | |
| encouraging us, enlivening us, | 47:04 | |
| enlivening us to live in the way of Christ. | 47:08 | |
| This is the living water that sustains us | 47:11 | |
| through the driest and weariest days. | 47:13 | |
| This is the promise that God stands by | 47:16 | |
| even during 40 years in the desert, | 47:19 | |
| no matter who you are, | 47:22 | |
| no matter where you're from. | 47:24 | |
| Is your soul parched from thirst? | 47:28 | |
| Is your spirit longing for a place to find acceptance? | 47:31 | |
| Come to well spring of life | 47:36 | |
| and receive God's gift of living water. | 47:38 | |
| It is yours for the asking. | 47:41 | |
| (dramatic organ music) | 47:50 | |
| (all singing) | 48:20 | |
| Debra | You may be seated. | 51:11 |
| The Lord be with you. | 51:18 | |
| Congregation | And also with you. | 51:20 |
| - | Let us pray. | 51:21 |
| O Lord Christ, the scriptures tell us | 51:25 | |
| that you reached out to a Samaritan woman, | 51:28 | |
| inviting her into a relationship with you | 51:31 | |
| in spite of all the religious, cultural, | 51:35 | |
| and social barriers of your day. | 51:38 | |
| We have heard that you looked at her | 51:42 | |
| and knew everything about her, | 51:44 | |
| yet still you accepted her and loved her. | 51:47 | |
| Give us courage, Lord, to come to the well, | 51:51 | |
| to see for ourselves. | 51:54 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, | 51:58 | |
| All | hear our prayer. | 52:00 |
| - | The Samaritans in the village first | 52:03 |
| went to the well on the testimony of the woman. | 52:05 | |
| But they soon came to believe, | 52:08 | |
| because of what they had seen and heard firsthand. | 52:10 | |
| Lord, the scriptures, the stories of our faith, | 52:15 | |
| have lead us to come to the well | 52:19 | |
| to find out for ourselves | 52:21 | |
| whether you are indeed the Messiah. | 52:24 | |
| Are you the one who offers water | 52:28 | |
| that satisfies our thirst? | 52:30 | |
| The Lord Christ, speak to us | 52:34 | |
| that we might experience you firsthand | 52:37 | |
| and drink deeply of your well | 52:41 | |
| and truly know that you are the savoir of the world. | 52:43 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, | 52:49 | |
| All | her our prayer. | 52:51 |
| - | O Holy One of the piercing eyes, | 52:55 |
| it is a frightening thing to have you | 53:00 | |
| look so deeply within us. | 53:02 | |
| Truly, you do know everything about us. | 53:05 | |
| You know what our hopes and our fears are. | 53:10 | |
| You know the ways we've been caring | 53:15 | |
| and the ways we've been cruel. | 53:18 | |
| You know how we've tried to fill our lives | 53:22 | |
| with all sorts of things | 53:24 | |
| and how nothing we've sought | 53:28 | |
| has satisfied our deep thirst. | 53:30 | |
| You know our weaknesses and sins, | 53:34 | |
| but you look at us only with eyes of compassion. | 53:39 | |
| You see our deepest wounds that we would | 53:43 | |
| keep hidden from all the world, | 53:45 | |
| but yet you reach out to us with healing love. | 53:48 | |
| O Lord, give us the courage to accept what you offer, | 53:54 | |
| so that we might drink deeply | 53:58 | |
| from your well of living water. | 54:00 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, | 54:04 | |
| All | hear our prayer. | 54:06 |
| - | O God who calls us to worship in spirit and in truth, | 54:09 |
| empower us to become like the disciples | 54:14 | |
| and the Samaritan woman who didn't keep | 54:17 | |
| your gifts for themselves, | 54:20 | |
| but who went out to share the good news | 54:23 | |
| of your grace with others. | 54:25 | |
| Give us strength to proclaim the good news of salvation | 54:28 | |
| to all those who do not yet know you | 54:31 | |
| so that they, too, may go to the well of living water | 54:35 | |
| to discover you for themselves. | 54:38 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, | 54:42 | |
| All | hear our prayer. | 54:44 |
| - | You are a God of mercy and compassion. | 54:47 |
| And you call us to be a people whose ways | 54:50 | |
| are merciful and compassionate. | 54:53 | |
| Indeed, you've called us to be brother | 54:56 | |
| and sister to one another. | 54:58 | |
| Show us those in our midst whom we can help, | 55:01 | |
| that they might experience your living water. | 55:04 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, | 55:09 | |
| All | hear our prayer. | 55:12 |
| - | Lord, we know that there are things | 55:15 |
| we cannot change alone. | 55:16 | |
| Help us to do our part, and yet, | 55:20 | |
| also trust you to accomplish what we cannot do. | 55:22 | |
| Receive into your care those whom we name in our hearts. | 55:27 | |
| Extend your hand of healing to the sick, | 55:37 | |
| your peace to those who are troubled and at war, | 55:41 | |
| and your strength to those who are weak. | 55:47 | |
| Lord, in your mercy, | 55:51 | |
| All | hear our prayer. | 55:53 |
| - | Grant what we ask, for we pray | 55:56 |
| in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord | 55:59 | |
| who is the abundant fountain of life | 56:01 | |
| which puts an end to all our need, amen. | 56:05 | |
| Often we have come to well of God's love | 56:15 | |
| and there has been living water to quench our thirst. | 56:18 | |
| Sometimes we've needed others to draw the water for us | 56:22 | |
| and sometimes it is we who offer it to them. | 56:26 | |
| The world is full of thirsty people. | 56:30 | |
| Through our offerings, we provide wells and water carriers | 56:34 | |
| and the assurance of God's love in the place where we are | 56:38 | |
| and far beyond our own reach. | 56:43 | |
| Let us give our tides and offerings generously. | 56:46 | |
| (soft organ music) | 56:56 | |
| (James singing soprano softly) | 58:55 | |
| (choir singing softly) | 1:00:28 | |
| (James singing strong soprano) | 1:01:29 | |
| (soft organ music) | 1:01:51 | |
| (heavy organ music) | 1:02:06 | |
| (all singing) | 1:03:04 | |
| What joy there can be, loving God, | 1:03:44 | |
| in the giving and receiving of cool, refreshing water. | 1:03:47 | |
| Thank you for the living water | 1:03:52 | |
| that we have received from Christ | 1:03:55 | |
| and are privileged to share. | 1:03:58 | |
| Bless the resources gathered today | 1:04:02 | |
| to sustain the programs and outreach | 1:04:04 | |
| of this chapel and the congregation. | 1:04:08 | |
| May these gifts of our words | 1:04:12 | |
| and our deeds and our sustenance | 1:04:16 | |
| make an effective witness to Jesus Christ, | 1:04:21 | |
| savoir of the world, who taught us to pray together saying, | 1:04:25 | |
| All | Our Father, who art in heaven, | 1:04:31 |
| hallowed be thy name. | 1:04:34 | |
| Thy kingdom come, | 1:04:37 | |
| they will be done, | 1:04:39 | |
| on Earth as it is in heaven. | 1:04:41 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread, | 1:04:44 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 1:04:47 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us | 1:04:50 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, | 1:04:54 | |
| but deliver us from evil. | 1:04:57 | |
| For thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 1:05:00 | |
| and the glory forever, amen. | 1:05:03 | |
| (solemn organ music) | 1:05:08 | |
| (choir singing) | 1:06:03 | |
| (intensified organ music) | 1:06:58 | |
| (intensified choir singing) | ||
| Debra | Go in peace. | 1:09:58 |
| May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, | 1:09:59 | |
| the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit | 1:10:01 | |
| be with you and keep you, amen. | 1:10:04 | |
| (soft piano music) | 1:10:08 | |
| (angelic choir singing) | 1:10:14 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:11:42 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:11:48 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:11:53 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:11:58 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:12:00 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:12:05 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:12:07 | |
| (energetic organ music) | 1:12:21 |