June Trinity
John 4, 1-26 (adapted from Madsen)
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.”
“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.”
 |
| Vonaesch |
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.”
2nd June Trinity
June 23, 2019
John 4: 1-26
If we wish to journey through an area foreign to us, we may
engage a guide. The guide knows where best to stop for food and water, for
shelter. We depend on the guide’s familiarity with the terrain to get us safely
through to our destination.
There is a certain sense in which our own five senses are
guides. They each offer specific
information about where we are. Taken individually each sense gives such
different information that we cannot depend on them singly. We ourselves need
to sift through what we receive from them. And further, their information is
limited to the earthly, sense-perceptible world.
In the non-material world, the world of life and living
beings, in the world of love, we need another guide; someone who knows the
territory, who will nourish and shelter us on the way; who will see us to our
destination. The Act of Consecration of Man (communion liturgy) speaks of One
who is our helping guide through the territory of our freedom.
The Samaritan woman
meets him by the well. In tradition she is called Photina,
Psalm 121 speaks of this guide:
….The Unnamable is always
with you,
shining from the depths of your heart.
His peace will keep you untroubled
even in the greatest pain.
When you find him present within you,
you find truth at every moment.
He will guard you from all wrongdoing;
he will guide your feet on his path….*
shining from the depths of your heart.
His peace will keep you untroubled
even in the greatest pain.
When you find him present within you,
you find truth at every moment.
He will guard you from all wrongdoing;
he will guide your feet on his path….*
*A Book of Psalms, trans. and adapted by
Stephen Mitchell
