Sunday Worship
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Third Sunday of Lent. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.15 at St Thomas'.
If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find resources below to worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "As the Deer Pants for the Water"
Today's Gospel
John 4:5-42 Jesus and the Woman of Samaria
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
Reflection
As we journey though Lent, we are presented with repeated stories of transformation and the power of the Holy Spirit. Last week we looked at the transformation of Nicodemus from his first meeting with Jesus to His death on the Cross.
Today we look at the transformation and reconciling powers on a number of levels. Firstly the encounter between Jesus and the woman, and secondly the ethnic and religious barriers that are so wonderfully removed when the Samaritan community recognise Jesus as the Messiah.
In speaking with a woman Jesus’ actions would have been seen as outrageous. Rabbis were not to be seen to talk to women in public - it just wasn’t done. Even speaking to their wives and daughters was not acceptable. There were even Pharisees who were called ‘the bruised and bleeding Pharisees’ because they shut their eyes when they saw a woman on the street and so walked into walls and obstacles!” I have to admit, I do find that quite amusing.
There may also have been potential sexual connotations, not least because of the number of relationships she had had. But this is Jesus, He sees the woman for who she is. He knows her whole life story and how sinful she is. Yet Jesus reaches out to the sinners because part of His mission is to reach out and save those who have fallen, including you and I. John later describes the awkwardness of the disciples when they return and see Jesus with the woman. They are obviously shocked, but remain silent, unwilling to challenge His behaviour. They had probably learned on several occasions that Jesus always had reasons for His actions which are often not obvious.
John also mentions how Jews, “do not share things in common with Samaritans”. The people at that time would have been well aware of the extreme hatred between the two communities who had been fighting each other for several hundred years. So this is the most significant act of all, because although there is extreme hostility between the Jews and Samaritans, (we should remember that Jesus was a Jew), He chose to reveal himself to the Samaritans as the Messiah and Son of God. Moreover, He reveals how He has come to eliminate the barriers and hostility, not only between the Jewish man and Samaritan woman, but also He is inviting the non-Jewish people to be part of this new future. A future where all will worship God, not through sacrifices in different temples in Samaria and Jerusalem, but together with a spiritual harmony in unity and worship of spirit and truth.
In this week’s encounter, Jesus is offering an opportunity for miraculous reconciliation through faith and the power of the Holy Spirit. An opportunity that opens the way to reconciliation in one of the most pervasive and longest conflicts of the era. John’s listeners are invited to witness the wonder of the transformation that happens, because the outcast woman chose to believe and then, through her faith, the community accepted the invitation of the Holy Spirit and chose to believe as well. As disciples, we too are called to profess our faith and extend that same invitation to all, to become united by the Spirit in the truth.
Paul
