<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19019">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4>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. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearA/Alent3nt.html">http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearA/Alent3nt.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Jirair Tashjian</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3194">http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3194</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>Scott McKnight</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV align=left>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).</DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/16-1_Edges_of_Life/16-1_Grindal.pdf">http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/16-1_Edges_of_Life/16-1_Grindal.pdf</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT size=4>Gracia Grindal, 1996</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT size=4></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT size=2><FONT size=4>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.</FONT> </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_the_woman_at_the_well_GA.htm">http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_the_woman_at_the_well_GA.htm</A></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT
size=4></FONT></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT size=4>Edward F. Markquart</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV>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.</DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://teamnoah.info/Stirred/woman.html">http://teamnoah.info/Stirred/woman.html</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN lang=en-us><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Sarah M.
Foulger</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>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.</FONT><A
id=20080218JJfn2ref name=20080218JJfn2ref></A><A
href="http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20080218JJ.shtml#20080218JJfn2"><SUP><FONT
size=4>2</FONT></SUP></A><FONT size=4> 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.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20080218JJ.shtml">http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/20080218JJ.shtml</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Daniel B. Clendenin</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>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.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=2/24/2008&tab=4">http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=2/24/2008&tab=4</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: normal"><EM style="FONT-STYLE: normal"><FONT
size=4>Karoline Lewis</FONT></EM></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4><STRONG></STRONG></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.lectionarystudies.com/studyg/lent3ag.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.lectionarystudies.com/studyg/lent3ag.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Bryan Findlayson</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><STRONG>-
- - - -</STRONG></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4><STRONG></STRONG></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>