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<DIV><FONT size=4><EM>Verses 37-39</EM>: See also </FONT><FONT
size=4>12:23-24</FONT><FONT size=4>. The woman is the first
missionary.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/alnt3l.shtml">http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/alnt3l.shtml</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Chris Haslam</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>As always in John its central character is God and God’s gift
of life through the invitation to live in the holy space of love, the true
worship in the Spirit, which is also the living space of the Father and the Son.
That love, embodied, cuts across racial and cultural prejudice, affirms women,
engages and loves sinners. In a man’s world a woman is the supreme example,
exercising ministry, but doing so with the fragility and hesitancy and perhaps
inadequacy which happens when ordinary human beings engage in ministry. That is
also cutting across a prejudice of perfectionism with which we plague
ourselves.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MtLent3.htm">http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MtLent3.htm</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>William Loader</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Contrary to popular perceptions, neither the text nor Jesus
seems to indicate that she was an immoral person.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/john4x5.htm">http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/john4x5.htm</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>Brian Stoffregen</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Okay, so how do you end a sermon when you've opened it up this
way? I don't think you have to "end" it – in fact, the hope is that people will
keep talking about this passage as they leave. But to draw things to a close,
you might share how you'd answer one or two of the questions you've just asked.
You might talk about the promise that God in Jesus also <I>sees</I> us – our
challenges, problems, doubts, fears – with compassion and frees us to leave our
jar behind. You might proclaim that the Jesus who is willing to break all
boundaries to share living water with this woman – who, interestingly, becomes
the first evangelist, leading others to meet Jesus through her testimony –
continues to break boundaries in order to reach us.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=464">http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=464</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>David Lose</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4>Jesus continues to use symbolism as he likens
the approaching Samaritans to fields ripe for harvest, and invites the disciples
to work with him in this harvest. He offers the Samaritan woman and the other
villagers living water. The Samaritans respond positively, and ultimately use a
title found nowhere else in the Gospels to describe the earthly Jesus: "Savior
of the world." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28">http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4>Michael R. Cosby</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4>Our Samaritan woman is not the only
first-century secret keeper. Everybody Jesus meets in the Gospel of John has a
secret they think he doesn't already know.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/The-Secrets-We-Keep-Alyce-McKenzie-3-21-2011.html">http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/The-Secrets-We-Keep-Alyce-McKenzie-3-21-2011.html</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4>Alyce McKenzie, 2011</FONT></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></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Robert Alter, in <EM>The Art of Biblical Narrative </EM>talked
about Hebrew “type-scenes” in which stock characters would act a certain way
every time. In the Hebrew stories, it sometimes happens that when a man meets a
woman at a well, they get married. So, if you didn’t know who Jesus was, to
Hebrew ears, this was a possible outcome, and was a great way of telling a
story.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://thehardestquestion.org/yeara/lent3gospel/">http://thehardestquestion.org/yeara/lent3gospel/</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Unvirtuous Abbey</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<P><EM>Bruce Malina (Page 99.) comments on these Verses 7 to 15:</EM></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><EM>Note that Jesus is willing to share a drinking vessel with the woman, a
serious polluting act by Pharisee standards, given the fact that he is a
stranger sharing a utensil with a Samaritan woman. Yet she is willing to share
with him. He, in turn, treats her like family, and now she begins to
reciprocate.</EM></P>
<P><EM>The point is important because it signals that the space Jesus and the
woman occupy is being transformed from "public" space, where their actions
would have been considered deviant, to "private" space, where they are not.
</EM></P>
<P><EM>Interpersonally, the woman is becoming part of the group of disciples
forming around Jesus, hence, no longer a woman with whom he should not
speak.</EM></P>
<P><A
href="http://www.amazon.com/Social-Science-Commentary-Synoptic-Gospels-Malina/dp/0800634918/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1">http://www.amazon.com/Social-Science-Commentary-Synoptic-Gospels-Malina/dp/0800634918/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1</A></P></BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.holytextures.com/2011/02/john-4-5-42-year-a-lent-3-sermon.html">http://www.holytextures.com/2011/02/john-4-5-42-year-a-lent-3-sermon.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>David Ewart</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>These peoples are the woman's "five husbands." The one
she is currently with, who is "not her husband," is <SPAN
style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline">Rome</SPAN>. Herod the (so-called)
Great had ruled the region on Rome's behalf from 37 BC to 4 BC. During
Herod tenure, about 6000 foreigners had been relocated into Samaria, but they
were not allowed to intermarry with the local population.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P dir=ltr><FONT size=4>Moreover, at Herod's death, rule of Samaria passed to
his son, Herod Archelaus who ruled from 4 BC to AD 6. Archelaus proved a
disappointment to the Romans and they replaced him with the Roman, Quirinius,
following AD 6. Following 6 AD, then, Samaria was under the direct rule of
Rome. </FONT></P>
<P dir=ltr><FONT size=4>The passage is not about the woman's sexual
life. Nor it is about her marital history. In all of the four
gospels, Jesus never expresses even a scintilla of interest in anyone's
sex life, except to stick up for so-called "sexual offenders" when they are
criticized or derided by others. </FONT></P>
<P dir=ltr><FONT size=4>Jesus compliments the woman because, as he said himself,
"What you have spoken is true." She has no husband. Samaria has had
relations with five peoples, and is currently occupied by another who wants
nothing to do with her. </FONT></P>
<P dir=ltr><FONT size=4>Jesus redefines the woman and Samaria. She is not
an outcast, half-breed, heretic--she is a truthteller! </FONT></P>
<P dir=ltr><FONT size=4><></FONT></P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>...the Samaritans move out from being bound by their
historical and national self-definitions which separated them from others.
They move into the "light" of the "savior of the world" who dissolves and
transcends these boundaries and "gathers together" all
people.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2011/03/lectionary-blogging-john-4-5-42.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2011/03/lectionary-blogging-john-4-5-42.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>John Petty, 2011</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>These questions will help you discern the level of your thirst
and inspire you to discover ways to find refreshment from God's abundant living
water.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<OL style="LIST-STYLE: disc none outside">
<LI><FONT size=4>What's the state of your refreshment today? Are you thirsty
or satisfied? Or somewhere in between?</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT size=4>What are you thirsty for? What things quench your
thirsts?</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT size=4>Where have you found living water in the past?</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT size=4>Toward what wellspring is God drawing you?</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT size=4>What tools (or practices) do you need to draw living
water?</FONT></LI></OL></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Quench-Your-Thirst-Bruce-Epperly-03-24-2011.html">http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Quench-Your-Thirst-Bruce-Epperly-03-24-2011.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Bruce Epperly</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV>In the scorching midday sun at Jacob’s well it was a “High Noon”
confrontation with as much drama as the 1952 Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly
classic. Unlike the movie, this vignette of Jesus’ life is not a violent
confrontation between good and evil, it is rather a conflict of exclusivist,
sexist and racist cultures, that is every bit as engaging as Carl Foreman’s
screen play.</DIV>
<DIV>
<P>The theme song from “High Noon” , “Do Not Forsake Me O My Darling” could well
have been the anthem of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus discerned had been
married five times before. She had loved and lost enough to have earned a
reputation which made the women of the village shun her from their communal
water drawing circle at dawn and dusk, when the day was cool. Only mad
dogs and shunned Samaritans go out in the midday sun.</P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/high-noon-at-jacobs-well/">http://thelisteninghermit.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/high-noon-at-jacobs-well/</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Peter Woods, 2011</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>This text suggests in a number of ways that it is not about
what we know but who we know. It is about having an encounter,
experiencing the light of Jesus' truth and love shining on our past and our
future, and then having the courage and the wherewithal to drop anything that
isn't that and go share what we know (not what someone else knows, just what we
know) as witnesses to his abundant grace gushing up to eternal life in
us.</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=3/27/2011">http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=3/27/2011</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Meda Stamper, 2011</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4><FONT
face=TimesNewRomanPSMT>
<DIV align=left>A reversal of expectations is implicit in this story. Normally,
if a Samaritan village found</DIV>
<DIV align=left>out about this conversation, there would have been a battle.
They would have either</DIV>
<DIV align=left>driven Jesus and his disciples away or they would have attacked
them. What happens in</DIV>
<DIV align=left>this new relationship between Jesus and the Samaritans is a
transformation of their</DIV>
<DIV>political and religious history from conflict and alienation to
reconciliation and peace.</DIV></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.gotell.org/pdf/commentary/John/Jn04_05-42_commentary.pdf">http://www.gotell.org/pdf/commentary/John/Jn04_05-42_commentary.pdf</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT face=Arial-BoldMT>
<DIV>Thomas E. Boomershine</DIV></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4><FONT size=4>- - - -
-</FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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