The Well

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0:00 Well, the first thing to say is that I thought for a while about this with this updated strategy for our city and community to slow the spread of the virus and stay healthy whether or not I should connect with you all from up here in our space or just from my house. But I felt like this was our home, this was our place that this place is special and it's

0:36 for the purpose of connecting to one another and connecting to God together. And so I came up here by myself, drove here by myself and wanted to be here and do this with you all from here to spell. Like this is our place and I'm standing here for all of us together. This is our home and I'm standing here for those of you who can't be here today.

1:06 And so I'm glad to be here with you this morning. We're still in the season of the land. I don't know if any of the backstarts are enduring through all of this upheaval for you. But we'll be in the season of land for a couple of weeks. And at the beginning of the season of land, if you were around us then you might remember that we took the opportunity in that first gathering to write our own confessions. And these were acknowledgments of our own meaning for God in our own language.

1:42 And we've been surfacing some of those confessions that we wrote individually and sharing them corporately with you all so they can become our confessions together. And I'm going to use one of those for our call to worship this morning. So wherever you are, whoever is around you, whatever your settings are, know that you can make this time holy now by setting it apart for the purpose of connecting to God. We make something holy by setting it apart for a specific purpose so we can make this

2:13 next time together holy by setting it apart for the purpose of connecting to God. And this confession that we'll serve as our call to worship is this lion demarcation and the thresholding walkover that says for the next period of time, I'm going to let God handle the things that are passing, the things that are coming up and then make myself available to me. And so now we start our heart and mind walking towards that purpose together as we read this call to worship. It says very simply, I confess that I am fearful of change.

2:47 Even as I anticipate that you Lord will take care of me as you always have. Teach me Lord to trust completely in your proportions. Amen. So it's kind of fun to see that we say that God is saying yesterday today forever, that

3:17 He's outside the space and time and knows where we're going and knows where we've been. But like I said, I've come to beams for us for the light and season before I knew that this virus would run across the world and change all of our presence, reality, but the texts that I love, the stories that I picked out, I think are still working and I think that's real testament to the spirit.

3:48 And so the story that I want to look at is kind of a famous story of your familiar at all with the life of Jesus. And the story in John the Count of the Gospel, I'm going to find it for the lost. It's in John the Count of the Gospel, John chapter 4. If you want to look there with me, John's in the testament of trying to find it in paper popular scriptures and towards the back, Matthew Martin John, Max Gromance versus the second

4:19 great musician. We've talked about this before, but there's four different tellings of the life of Jesus on earth and John's little bit unique relative to the other three. He writes it much later in his own life and later in time, he's remembering back and remembering back on the stories at the time of Jesus. And he's writing a specific context. We think that most of John's writers, and they will come in this section of the story. Most of John's heroes, that right?

4:50 Most of his heroes were not Hebrew folks. They were not Israelites. They were converts to the way of Jesus throughout the Roman Empire. So they might not have been familiar with the way of Israel, specifically the traditions and teachings. They might have been more aware of the challenges of the economics and philosophy to the way of Jesus. And so there's a lot of his stories that he tells have abandoned tours, undercutting

5:21 some of those misconceptions about which Jesus might have been. And that comes up in the story that everyone's looking at in John chapter 4. I hope you've got a copy where you can read this. It starts out, it says that Jesus is leaving Israel proper because the Pharisees are starting to find out that Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John the Babbas, which they were already getting unnerved by John the Babbas as the Pharisees, the church leaders,

5:54 the good religious people, were already starting to get unnerved by the way that John the Babbas was disrupting their forms, calling into attention their different democracies. And so Jesus recognized that it was causing problems and wanting to get out of it before the problems came to a head and really started to challenge things. And so he is leaving and says that now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, who left UDS and goes again to

6:30 eat. And to give to Galilee, he has to go through this area called Samaria. And the history of Samaria is basically like in the past, Israel proper was conquered by several different people. The section that was Samaria that had become Samaria was conquered at one point by this neighboring empire of Syria. A group of them had left, but several Israelites stayed, a whole group of them stayed, and they intermarried the Assyrians that ended up forming separate kind of nationality of

7:03 people called the Samaria. Where they had some history with Israel, but now we're intermarried with other people. So they had developed some different practices. They still used the first five books, but they had different prophets and they had different places of worship. And so there was a lot of strife and kind of racism between the two of them, where they really didn't get a lot more associated with each other. So it's kind of a big deal. He was going through there to us, Jews folks, if they were walking through, they would tend to keep to themselves. And there was there any woman of Samaria to draw water.

7:38 Jesus is sitting by a well there and then the disciples have gone into town to get some food. And a woman, a Samaria-sick woman, comes to give water. It's about the noon, the middle of the day, which is a weird time to go get water because it's hot and it's hard work to get water. So a lot of theologians have speculated that this woman goes that noon on purpose because she doesn't want to be around all the young women that are getting water on the morning at the beginning of the day.

8:08 And that comes to the story that she would feel ostracized or not part of a group of women and didn't want to deal with that. So she comes in the middle of the day and no one else would be there, calling in a bunch of water. It's too hot. You would do that at the beginning of the day. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water and Jesus said to her, give me a dream. The disciples have gone away and sit you by food. But the Samaritan woman said to him, how is it that you and you ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria, it would be uncommon for me to just talk to a woman and then especially

8:44 as Samaria said. And John finds out for those readers who might not know that tradition, for Jews have no deal with Samaria. And then 10, verse 10, Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God, who is the same as to you, give me a dream, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. And I like her answer. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with and as well as to be where

9:17 do you get living water? Are you greater than her problem, Jacob? I love this because it feels like that class of like, she's like, listen, dude, I don't know who you think you are, but how are you even going to get water out of this well man? You don't even have anything to draw with. What are you saying, you're better than Jacob? She's like saying, don't play in these kind of man games with me that you know more than me. I'm here, I know how to get water out of this well.

9:48 There's no way you're getting water in this well. You don't even have anything to dip your hands in and get water. You've got to have a way to get it out of it. So she says to that, what do you think? What's your craziness? Are you greater than her problem, Jacob? He gave us as well and drank from himself as his son's and his life. And Jesus says to her, look, everything are everyone who dreams of this.

10:20 Water will be thirsty again, but whoever dreams of this water will have to keep him and have to repeat thirsty forever. Water I give him will become a spring of water, well enough to eternal life. The woman says to him, okay, yeah, give me some of this water so that I will not be thirsty anymore and don't have to come here to draw water. Oh yeah, great. You can have water that makes it so I don't have to drink anymore. That sounds great. I love some water so I don't have to come here in the middle of the day and draw water

10:52 anymore. I was trying to summarize this conversation in my head and it's like the woman walks up, she's in the middle of the day trying to keep to herself and not have to deal with everyone else. She just wants to walk there and get water and go home. That's why she comes to the middle of the day. And this is real life. Clearly a rabbi do. It's like, hey, draw on some water. She's like, why are you even talking to me? He says, if you knew who you were talking to, you would ask me to help you. And he's like, how are you going to help me? I got what I need. I can take care of myself.

11:29 She says, she says, I'm not knowing me. To Jesus, the incarnate in Christ. How are you going to help me? I can take care of myself. I got a system. I'm coming here. I got a system to avoid the people who make me uncomfortable. I got a system to get the water that I need. I come here every day and to get the water. And Jesus says, look, if you would talk to me, you would have water that never ends.

12:01 And she's like, oh, that's great. Yeah, I would love water that never ends. Why don't you just show that to me? So just give me water so I'll be thirsty. I don't have to come back here anymore. I don't know that this is genuine. I think that she is like nothing with Jesus a little bit at the absurdity of this. And Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here.

12:31 This is one of the most... Jesus is being coy here. He knows the answer and is seeing how honest he wants to be, I think. He says, go call your husband and come here. And the woman ends you, Jim, oh, I have no husband. And Jesus says to her, you're right in saying I have no husband or you have no five husbands. And the one you now have is a nine-year husband.

13:03 But you have said that it's true. Notice that Jesus calls us out. He says, if you knew you were talking to you asking for the new water, I got under control. I went into your health. I can draw water on my own. You can't even draw water out here. So look, it's not about that. I can give you a water that never runs out. I'll show you some water that never runs out. That is how it's great. He says, and points out the thing about the five husbands and the one that you're good

13:37 now is your husband. But it's important to know, or Anne, it's important to know, he doesn't tell her anything like, other than what's true, like he's not indicting her. He's not condemning her. He's not judging her. He just is like, yeah, you don't have a guy who's without your husband and the five other times who tried to have some water. And I think it's important to recognize what he does say.

14:09 He does call out that she's been, he does point out that she's been trying over and over again to connect with men, but that it's not working. And I think that he goes on and pulls out that he's been mourning. So he says, she says, I have your husband and sir, I perceive that you are a proper,

14:42 proper, proper, worshiped on the smile. What you have said is true. Then verse 19, the woman said to him, oh, she flips. Once she realized that he knows what's going on, once she realized that he has this insight, she flips and realizes, oh, he's not talking about, I don't know that she's made the connection all the way to the metaphor of the water yet, that she realizes that this guy is something particular. She calls it a proper because he knows things about her that she hasn't told her.

15:18 And so then because of the process, she starts not going to be appropriate spiritual questions. She says, I perceive that you're a prophet. Our father's worshiped on this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is a place where people out to worship. This is a debate for me, this is American, this is realizing. Where is God fact? I see that you're a prophet that knows special things. All I need where I could go find God.

15:49 That's where they would worship. Is God at the temple in Jerusalem or is it up on the mountain at the bell where Samaritan is saying that he is? Tell me where I could go find God. She's recognized he's a prophet, she asks him a spiritual question. Tell me where I could settle the debate between churches. Our fathers, our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say Jerusalem. Where is the place where we have to worship? Verse 21, Jesus said to her, women, believe me.

16:21 Woman is the term of endearment. I'm very call this mom, woman in the gospel of John. Woman is the term of endearment. Woman, like sweet, lovely woman, powerful woman. Believe me. The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father, you worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews, but the hour is coming and is down

16:52 here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth, where the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must not must worship in spirit and truth. She says, hey, where is God a person of the church that I could go and pay my dues to him, make my tithes and offer him to him and then get back to life.

17:25 And Jesus messes her up completely. He's like, hey, the time is coming and is now here when God is in you. And the spirit of God has come out from down from the mountain, out from the temple and into you. It is not what she's expecting so much so that her response is a little bit, she's like kind of taking it back and doesn't want to believe it. That she, the Samaritan woman at the well in the middle of the day with the five husbands

18:01 and the guy who's not her husband now would be speaking to a prophet who would be telling her that she could be the true worshiper of God, meaning she could embody the spirit of God wherever she goes. She could carry the spirit of God wherever she goes so that she could worship in true spirit and in truth. She can't believe it. When he says this to her, she's so taken aback. Look at what she says. This is true. The first 25, the woman said to him, I know that the Messiah is coming and John explains

18:34 to his readers he was called the cracks. When he comes, he will tell us such things. She's like, look, I cannot handle what you just said to me. I'm just going to reserve judgment on what you just said until the delivering came comes. The promised deliver. The one who said, save us from all of our hardship and peril. And Jesus puts the final overwhelming note on her.

19:05 He says, I know that when Messiah is coming, he comes, he'll tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I will speak to you and my King. This story is amazing because the woman comes to the well in the middle of the day, clearly in need. Jesus says, I can help you. And she says, no thanks.

19:36 I got it. She's heard me is so part of the water she swims in. She takes her a while to even realize where it is. And Jesus says, not talking about this well that Jacob does with water, that you go back to over and over again. I'm talking about the well of these relationships that you keep going back to over and over again that are not cutting. You need salvation from this, this reaching and reaching over and over again to the same

20:08 place to solve a problem that is not solving. I can address that well for you. She's like, and then once he goes back, not only can I save you from your neediness, I can empower you the Spirit of God to take the Spirit of God with you wherever you go. It's a beautiful Lenten message. I don't know what else you go to.

20:42 I was such a weird time to the praise and hearing around the praise and hearing around itself, medicating. Now it's such a weird time for those little wells that we have and how they meet our brokenness imperfectly. And we can go back to them over and over. Jesus speaks to the needy woman and to you and I that says, you're not fine.

21:19 You can't cut it on your own. Come to the source of life. And then in the same conversation without ever announcing judgment or persecution, only pointing out her need and offering the fix. He goes back to fixing her needs and empowers her to be the image bearer of God in the world,

21:51 the carrier of the Spirit in the world. It's beautiful. She does it. She becomes one of, if not the best, evangelist in the whole story of the Gospels. Just then the disciples came back and they marveled that he was talking with the woman. They couldn't believe it. They were so impressed. They were talking with the woman. They don't say anything to him. Look, it says, just the disciples came back. They marveled that Jesus was talking with the woman, but no one said, hey, what do you

22:22 need, lady? What do you see? They were, hey, why Jesus, what are you talking to this woman? They just say anything to him. And so when the woman saw these dudes who were just going to stand around and not say anything, she left. So the woman left her water jar right there. And went away into town and said to the people, come and see a man who told me all the derivative, can this be the Christ on the inside of the delivering king? When I was in town, out of the town, and we're coming to him.

22:56 Meanwhile, Jesus goes on and tells the disciples, look, the harvest is ready. What are you guys waiting for? He uses this broken, needy, Samaritan woman to teach these disciples a thing about their own shortcomings and failures. He's like, you have everything you need to go remind people that there's salvation from

23:31 themselves from all the little wells that they go to over and over again, that they can be saved from them. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, hey, he's like, I got food. The food that I took at verse 34, Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of whom who sent me and accomplish his work. I love that he said, tell the woman I have water and tell the disciples I have food. He's saying that important necessary for our lives is to connect to the salvific work

24:03 of Jesus, to resolve all of our neediness. And then the bread of life, the satisfaction, the nourishment for life is to live out our calling and the word. He tells the disciples, go and announce the good news. The harvest is ready. The seeds have been sown. And then as a capsule in that story, look, verse 39, many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's testament.

24:33 He told me all that I did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with him. And he stayed there two days. Many more believe because of his word. He says the woman, it is no longer because of what you have said that we believe in. And it's just as important for us today, right now, your neediness will get apparent the longer you stay in a house by yourself. All your little systems and wealth will be exposed. You don't have your normal systems for gratification and value, you don't have your normal distractions.

25:06 And it's a really interesting time for me to connect with in what way does God know. But then also having had the salvation of God applied directly to your little wealth that you go to for support and talk for you. I mean, I've got met those based level needs. Now you begin to say, who am I for you? Or what do I do with this spirit that is put in? Who am I serving?

25:37 Who am I loving? Who am I shepherding? Who am I character? This is the water and the bread of life. This is where this is what animates us and gives us the energy to continue going on living in the world. The south of the south of South Biffic, the Christ and the work that he then gives us to do. Empowered by his spirit. You have both available to you no matter what else is going on.

26:09 I hope that we're able to think about the fact that we can be today. They saved from all of the little wells we go to. And then in that salvation, empowered to carry God's spirit with us wherever we go. And empowered to do the work of Christ. Let me pray for you. Thank you for the gift of salvation and your life.

26:47 That you meet, that salvation is not correct answer to a spiritual debate. But it is real, present provision for our places of need. That your salvation for it means that we are loved, that we are empowered. Your salvation means that we have purpose and direction. Your salvation is tangible, practical for us.

27:23 It's pragmatic in our day to day. It teaches the pragmatic nature of your salvation today. And then Lord opened our eyes to the work that you put in front of us. So we would steward your spirit in us. Let me finish with one more confession.

27:55 One, our people. And two other things. One on our website, there's a little family liturgy that would be a great thing to go through if you go to the lyrics page of www.fidg.org.org. There's a link there to download the liturgy that Carol put together for families to go through together. I think that would be a good cap to your Sunday morning together. But before you do that, let's make this confession together. Lord, remind me of your goodness.

28:29 Remind me of your nature. Remind me of your love. I've forgotten who I am. Lord, remind me of my identity in you. Thanks for joining with us this morning. I hope you were encouraged. This time has a take to reach out for any ways you can be the church for you in the coming months.