Third Sunday in Lent

Reading — Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42

A few quotes to start this morning.

- If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
                                                                  - My ancestors did not come on the Mayflower; 
       they met the boat. 
                                                                  - A stranger is just a friend I have not met yet.

William Penn Adair Rogers was born on the family ranch in Oklahoma on 4 November 1879. He was ¼ Cherokee. After completing the tenth grade, he dropped out to work on a cattle drive. He became a “Ropin’ Fool”, an expert with the lasso, and also a voracious reader. In 1922, his daily columns were in 2,800 newspapers, including the New York Times. In 1926, the Saturday Evening Post sent him to Europe as a Goodwill Ambassador. In 1930, his radio shows reached forty million Americans. He was on Broadway and in 71 movies, the top-paid star of Hollywood. Tragically, in 1935, at Point Barrow, Alaska, his plane crashed. He had previously written:

Live your life so that whenever you lose, you’re ahead.

Again, A stranger is just a friend I have not met yet.

While some composers of the Old Testament wrote about the golden days of the forty years in the wilderness, being led by God, the psalmist of Psalm 95 did not.

These people are wayward in their hearts; they do not know
my ways…They shall not enter into my rest… [said the Lord God].

St. Paul wrote to the congregation in Rome:

God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit… God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… We have now received reconciliation [with God].

Jesus’ encountered the Samaritan woman at the well. Remember that the Jews and the Samaritans of that day were similar to Jews and Palestinians of our own day. Jews did not share things in common with Samaritans.

The disciples went to find a meal, leaving Jesus alone at the side of the well. The Samaritan woman approached and Jesus addressed her. He engaged her knowing that she was an outcaste, even among her own people, married five times, and living with another, unmarried. She responded, fully engaging him. To her Jesus self-disclosed:

I am he, the one [Messiah] who is speaking to you.

The returning disciples were shocked to find him alone, in conversation with a woman, and with a Samaritan as well. And as the text continues, they stayed in Samaria, at the invitation of the villagers, for two additional days.

Returning to the words of Will Rogers-

A stranger is just a friend I have not met yet.

Jesus taught the disciples, and speaks to us with these words:

see how the fields are ripe for harvesting… I sent you to
reap that for which you did not labor.  Others have labored,
and you have entered into their labor.

Others have gone before us, spreading the goodness and the good news of God. It is now our turn to engage, to reach out, to converse with those around us, and to invite them into friendship with us, and into the all-embracing love of God.