[Propertalk] Sermon Tidbits, John 4, March 27 - Part 3

[Joe Parrish]

One may be puzzled by the exclusivist tone of verse 22: "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews." This does not sound like the inclusivist, reconciling, loving manner and message of Jesus. Given the plural "you" and "we," we may very well be hearing not simply the voice of Jesus but also the voice of the Johannine community. This community was formed by faith in Jesus Christ and is now addressing other groups like Samaritans who are still hanging on to their old traditions without recognizing the fact that God has done something new in Jesus Christ that supersedes the old systems and structures. 
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We become impatient. We want instant results. Discipleship is too time consuming. Rather than allowing individuals to progress in their faith journey at their own pace as God continues to work in their lives, we insist that everything be taken care of in one or two religious experiences.

http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearA/Alent3nt.html

Jirair Tashjian
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What the woman sees is Jesus the Living Water, who summons her from her ageless racisms and divisiveness into eternal life. When she glances into the well, she sees not herself or others but the image of Jesus. Now she understands. Drinking from the living water will give her life and invite her to love rather than judge others.

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3194

Scott McKnight
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Here one cannot escape the images of water, of yet another man meeting yet another woman by a well, of the notion of the outcast (the Samaritan woman's five marriages could well represent the five nations who displaced the unfaithful people of Israel; 2 Kings 17:24).

http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/16-1_Edges_of_Life/16-1_Grindal.pdf

Gracia Grindal, 1996
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We need to know that there are many people around us who are like fields that are ready and ripe for faith in Jesus Christ. We know that only 3% of the population in Seattle attends worship on Sunday morning and that only 25% of our neighboring population is a member of a local congregation. 

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_the_woman_at_the_well_GA.htm

Edward F. Markquart
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O God, you are full of challenging surprises. You choose to meet us in unexpected places and you offer us strange gifts. You refresh our spirits with the living waters of love and acceptance. You do not judge who we are but rather, what we do with who we are. You are able to take even the most irritating features of our personalities and fashion them into tools for the shaping of your wisdom on earth. In Jesus Christ, you sent a teacher of grace. Help us to learn from him. Grant that we may worship you in spirit and in truth. Remind us that, in your eyes, we are all sisters and brothers in one family, your family. We are all descendents of your generosity. We all thirst for you. Thank you for loving us in spite of our best efforts to make a mess of our lives. Thank you for taking us seriously, especially when others do not. Thank you for ignoring the gossip and for listening to our hearts. Thank you for never abandoning us. Amen.

http://teamnoah.info/Stirred/woman.html

Sarah M. Foulger
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The kingdom that Jesus announced is not one of a privatized faith whose purpose is to guarantee personal peace and affluence. Contrary to so many popular Christian counterfeits, His kingdom does not peddle what the distinguished sociologist Christian Smith of the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) aptly laments as "the god of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" who like a Divine Butler is tasked to make us feel good.2 Rather, Jesus proclaimed that God longs to assuage the deepest needs, spiritual and material, of the morally, spiritually, religiously, and economically least and lost. He invites us to join Him in that service. 

http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20080218JJ.shtml

Daniel B. Clendenin
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The Samaritan woman at the well is an example for us, not as one who claims "Jesus is for me, too," but as one whose labor helps bring in the harvest (4:34-38). She responds to Jesus in such a way that leads Jesus to reveal his true identity to her, and in doing so, her own identity evolves. 

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=2/24/2008&tab=4

Karoline Lewis
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Life is lived at the material level. We love, enjoy, experience.... yet this is more existing than living. Existence is a bitter/sweet proposition, certainly more sweet than bitter for those living in Western Society. Living, on the other hand, is ultimately found on another level, a level where we experience true life, real life, a life lived with God, a life infused with the divine presence, filled with the Spirit of God.

http://www.lectionarystudies.com/studyg/lent3ag.html

Bryan Findlayson
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