2nd June Trinity 2007, Dug Deep

June Trinity

John 4, 1-26

Woman at the Well, He Qi

At this time the Lord became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

Now he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar,  near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was also there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was about midday, the sixth hour.

Then a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” For his disciples had gone into town to buy bread.

Then the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman?” For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew how the divine world now draws near to men, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me to drink’, you would ask him, and he would give you the water of life [the living water].

“Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him, his thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here again to draw.”

He said to her, “Go call your husband and show him to me.”

Samaritan Woman, He Qi

“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should worship.”

Jesus answered, “Believe me, o woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews. But the hour is coming and has now come, when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the spirit and in awareness [knowledge] of the truth.”

Then the woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will teach us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I AM he who stands before you and speaks to you.”

2^nd Trinity Sunday

June 10, 2007

John 4: 1-26

Times of day have their qualities – the joyful freshness of dawn, the quiet expansiveness of sunset. And in between, the starry midnight, and the compressed starkness of midday. When everything here stands in clear and objective relief. At noon everything earthly comes to the foreground.

            Christ’s conversation with the woman at the well begins with earthly facts: with His very presence, with thirst, with history. But the conversation quickly expands so that the earthly becomes an image of broader and higher spiritual facts. What He discussed with Nicodemus in the realm of night he speaks of here openly, in broad daylight with the Samaritan woman in day-waking consciousness. She herself, her own inner state, becomes the content of this spiritual conversation.

The five husbands of this woman of the day may well also refer to the leadership role that her five earthly senses have played in her life. They have been important in their own time and sphere. But Christ wants to indicate to her that she, along with all of mankind is at an important juncture; for now, spirit and truth, which exist also in a realm beyond the sensory, spirit and truth will now be leading human beings. The same kind of clarity that noontime brings to the earthly realm shall now shine forth into and from the realm of the spirit. Day waking consciousness shall extend into the realm of the spirit. There we will see the One who is to come, offering us the water of life.

            The well of the water of life is dug deep in the earth. And even at noon, the deep waters reflect, not the sun, but the world of the stars. To drink of the water of life, the living water, it to drink of the life of the stars, offered us by Christ. In us this living water becomes a wellspring within, a stream that overflows with true life, ever-flowing toward the stars.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

5th June Trinity 2008, Thirsty Fish

June Trinity

John 4, 1-26

  

At this time the Lord became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

Now he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar [Si’-kahr], near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was also there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was about midday, the sixth hour.

Then a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” For his disciples had gone into town to buy bread.

Then the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman?” For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew how the divine world now draws near to men, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me to drink’, you would ask him, and he would give you the water of life [the living water].

“Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him, his thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here again to draw.”

He said to her, “Go call your husband and show him to me.”

“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should worship.”

Jesus answered, “Believe me, o woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews. But the hour is coming and has now come, when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the spirit and in awareness [knowledge] of the truth.”

Then the woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will teach us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I AM he who stands before you and speaks to you.”

5^th June Trinity

June 15, 2008

John 4: 1-26

Sometimes a person is too ill to take anything by mouth, and it becomes necessary to give fluids directly into the bloodstream. As a result the person feels no thirst, for thirst is quenched in another way.

In this gospel reading, Christ meets a woman drawing water from an ancient well. It was a well established by Jacob the Patriarch and over the centuries had quenched many a thirst. But over those same centuries, mankind had become more and more ill. This illness produced a deep existential thirst that needed to be quenched in another way.

Divine Physician

The hope was that this thirst for meaning, a thirst for guidance and purpose, could be quenched by the five senses, represented by the woman’s five husbands. She is the Soul, looking everywhere for her missing half, for her completion. She looks for meaning through taste and touch, through sight and sound and scent. She looks to the past and to the ancient ways; she looks for purpose in high worship on the mountain. But no longer does any of this suffice. This experience is captured by Rumi:

I have a thirsty fish in me

that can never find enough

of what it’s thirsty for!

Show me the way to the ocean![1]

Humanity’s soul is ill. She needs the World Physician who will quench our deep thirst another way. “Whoever drinks the water that I will give her, her thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I will give her will become in her a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”  John 4:14

Through our union with Christ, our deep existential thirst will be quenched, for we will be hooked up to the Source; we will find our way to the great Ocean, drinking in, filling ourselves with His life-giving love.

www.thechristiancommunity

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[1] Rumi, “A Thirsty Fish”, in The Essential Rumi, by Coleman Barks, p, 19.

2nd June Trinity 2009, No Water

June Trinity

John 4, 1-26

  

At this time the Lord became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

Now he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was also there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was about midday, the sixth hour.

Then a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” For his disciples had gone into town to buy bread.

Then the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman?” For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew how the divine world now draws near to men, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me to drink’, you would ask him, and he would give you the water of life [the living water].

“Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him, his thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here again to draw.”

He said to her, “Go call your husband and show him to me.”

“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should worship.”

Jesus answered, “Believe me, o woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews. But the hour is coming and has now come, when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the spirit and in awareness [knowledge] of the truth.”

Then the woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will teach us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I AM he who stands before you and speaks to you.”

2^nd June Trinity

June 14, 2009

John 4: 1-26

We need water to live. In the ancient desert communities, even today, the source for water was a well. The water itself was deep underground, and one had to lower a vessel down to that source and draw the heavy water back up.

For the ancient peoples, their ‘water of life’, the source of spiritual meaning in their lives, their knowledge of eternal life, came through their ancestry. The gospel reading centers around the ancestral well of Jacob. Over time the connection to the sacred source had receded deeper and deeper. It became harder and harder to access.

Christ came to unlock a new source of the life-giving waters of God. This source is to be given to each individual human being, regardless of ancestry. He delivers this message to a Samaritan woman, whose bloodline had long ago diverged from His. He speaks to the woman of the gift of a spring, a gushing fountainhead, where the water of the meaning of life rises and overflows forever. This well spring, this source is to be found within the heart of each individual human being.

“Whoever drinks the water I will give him, his thirst [for the eternal spirit] will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.” John 4: 13     

Christ and the woman are watching us. The poet says:

Don't say, don't say there is no water

to solace the dryness at our hearts.

I have seen

the fountain springing out of the rock wall

…The woman of that place…. was waiting

to see we drank our fill and were

refreshed.

Don't say, don't say there is no water.

That fountain is there among its scalloped

green and gray stones,

it is still there and always there

with its quiet song and strange power

to spring in us,

up and out through the rock.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1]  Denise Levertov, “The Fountain”, http://www.poetrychaikhana.com/L/LevertovDeni/Fountain.htm