[Propertalk] Sermon Tidbits, John 4, March 27 - Part 1

Sat Mar 26 20:12:41 EDT 2011

http://www.cruzblanca.org/hermanoleon/sem/a/cua/03/03cuaresma.htm

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She is not a prostitute. She doesn't have a shady past. Yet when millions of Christians listen to her story this coming Sunday in church, they are likely to hear their preachers describe her in just those terms.
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Jesus at no point invites repentance or, for that matter, speaks of sin at all. She very easily could have been widowed or have been abandoned or divorced (which in the ancient world was pretty much the same thing for a woman). Five times would be heartbreaking, but not impossible. Further, she could now be living with someone that she was dependent on, or be in what's called a Levirate marriage (where a childless woman is married to her deceased husband's brother in order to produce an heir yet is not always technically considered the brother's wife). There are any number of ways, in fact, that one might imagine this woman's story as tragic rather than scandalous, yet most preacher's assume the latter.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-lose/misogyny-moralism-and-the_b_836753.html

David Lose
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There is no reason to think that this story does not refer to an event that happened during the life of Jesus, especially since a conversation between him and a Samaritan woman would have been a bit shocking in the early Church. However, in its present form it is a theological reflection in dramatic form, indeed one written by a very skilled dramatist. It is not impossible that in fact this was a one act liturgical play acted out by the very early Christians as part of the baptismal ritual. 

http://www.agreeley.com/homilies96/mar1096.html

Andrew M. Greeley, 1996
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So a committee of the parishioners went to see the pastor to protest letting these "non-Catholics" into the Catholic school. They're Catholics, the pastor said. They're Iraqi, They're Caldees send the pastor. What's a Caldee? Iraqi Christians. They were Christians when we Irish were still paining out faces blue. They have a parish down town, but the family moved out here so they could send their kids to a Catholic school. The older girl is quite a basketball player. They made a big donation to the parish. They own a string of camera stores. The committee went home, thinking that the pastor had been joking with them. They looked of Caldee on the net. Sure enough they were Catholics. They wondered why all Catholics couldn't look alike!

http://www.agreeley.com/hom05/feb27.html

Andrew M. Greeley, 2005
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Leslie Weatherhead was an air raid warden during the terrible days of the London blitz back in the early 1940's. ... He went around some ruins and there to his amazement, he saw an eight-year-old boy sitting and sobbing on what had been a building. ...At that point, Leslie Weatherhead stooped over and got eye level to the little fellow and said, "Tell me, son, tell me, who are you?"
With that the little boy began to cry even more compulsively and then he said through his tears, "Mister, I ain't nobody's nothin'. I ain't nobody's nothin'."
Leslie Weatherhead said that if he lived to be a hundred, he didn't think he would ever forget the poignancy of that sight -- a little boy sitting in the midst of chaos, feeling he was unconnected, unimportant to anybody else in the world. That condition is a terrible denial of one of the constituent needs of our human nature. We need to be loved; we need to be cared for; we need to know that what happens to us makes a difference to someone else. 

http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/claypool_3716.htm

John Claypool, 1994
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When God looks into our souls, sees our dark side, divines our secrets, knows our guilt, discerns our motivations, and loves us anyway, is this not the living water that renews us and remakes us? 

http://day1.org/2755-he_gets_me

David Sapp, 2011
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The story of the Samaritan woman at the well is the longest conversation in the Gospels. It is an amazing story -- not unlike Mary's. It is a wonderful story of the encounter between a physically thirsty Christ with the spiritually thirsty Samaritan woman. There are several "connecting" points between this ancient story and our lives today.  I would encourage you strongly to read and ponder this story during the week.  Meanwhile, here are a few clues to understanding the story.
* Christ meets us where we are.  The meeting at the well was a "chance encounter" only for the woman.  With God there are no "chance encounters" -- but only the chance to encounter Christ anytime -- anywhere.
* Christ accepts us as we are.  Jesus didn't come scolding!  In fact he didn't even bring up the woman's living situation until late in the conversation. Even his disciples were surprised to see him talking to a woman -- a Samaritan woman -- in the heat of the day.
* Christ has a gift for anyone who will receive it.  "If you knew who I was, you would ask for living water."  (Water of life -- the kind of water Mary discovered.)
* The only barrier is not knowing who he is.   I wonder sometimes how many Mary's there are out there who have been a part of the church -- even a very active part -- but have missed out on the gift for lack of knowing that Christ is present, and available and wanting to give this gift.

http://www.lectionarysermons.com/mar993-07.html

John Jewell, 1999
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He was still shivering from the cold; his clothes were thin. He had no gloves, no hat, no topcoat. I suspect he had not eaten in several days. As I passed him on the sidewalk, our eyes met, and when they did, I knew I would have to stop for a moment to speak to him and ask if there was anything I could do. He didn't ask for much. He didn't want a coat or a better place to stay. He didn't even ask if I had any food vouchers from one of the neighborhood delis. I reached in my pocket, thinking I would give him a couple of quarters for a hot cup of coffee. But he seemed not to want anything that might make his life more comfortable on this cold morning on the streets of the city.
"No, Father," he said, "all I need for you to do is to give me a blessing." "Give you a blessing?" I asked, somewhat surprised by his request. "Yes, that's all," he said, "a blessing." So I knelt down beside him on the sidewalk, said a prayer with him and laid my hands upon his head and gave him a blessing. With a peaceful look upon his face, like he had received a gift that he had been waiting for for a very long time, he picked up his cardboard bed and a little bag of belongings and walked haltingly down the street in the opposite direction.

Unlike many of the street people in our neighborhood that I saw day after day, I never saw him again. He simply took his blessing and went on his way, but those few moments changed my life forever.

http://day1.org/580-of_wintry_mornings_and_water_wells

J. Neil Alexander 
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It never ceases to amaze me that my body is composed of seventy percent water. It is hard to imagine that seventy percent of the flesh standing before you today is water. That means about 154 pounds of water is standing before you right now. I am not going to tell you what I weigh but I can guarantee you that 70% of my body weight and your body weight is composed of water. 
There are two and a half quarts of water in my blood. There are fifteen quarts of water in the extra plasma in my body. There are thirty quarts of water in the cells of my body, allowing all those little cells to grow. It always amazes me that 154 pounds of water are standing before you today at this moment. Truly, I am living water.
http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_living_water.htm

Edward F. Markquart
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God is Spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth, says Jesus in the Gospel of John, when Photini-that is the name by which the Samaritan woman is called in the Orthodox Church, affirms that she is open to the coming Messiah. Her name means "the Enlightened One." 

http://www.eds.edu/CURRENT/PDF/Sermons/showing.pdf

Angela Bauer 
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Water, water, everywhere
And not a drop to drink!
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The fact that we make assumptions about the woman's morality based on her marital situation is not supported by the story. And what we assume may tell us more about ourselves than about her! 

http://www.sermonsuite.com/content.php?i=788022517&key=ityru7xozBWdmp6y

Richard L. Sheffield
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