John 4:5-30
Samaritan Woman at the Well
Feb 24, 2008
Patrick Preheim
When listening to the world news, Israel and Palestine continues to be one of
the driest, most thirsty regions in our world. There are very few pools of
water, glaciers, or streams. The story of The Parents Circle is, however, life
giving water in a barren region. Yitzhak Frankenthal founded The Parents Circle
after his 19-year-old son, Arik, was kidnapped and killed by members of the
Palestinian Hamas movement. Frankenthal has written about his son's death and
its affect on him (essay, "My Son Who Has Gone Made Me Who I Am," and a 2002
speech titled "The Ethics of Revenge.") Frank-enthals search for water in a
personal desert led him to found Parents Circle. The organization represents
more than 500 Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost loved ones during
the ongoing hostilities. The members have all lost immediate family members due
to the violence in the region. Family members participate in building
relationships with the bereaved on the other side of the conflict. The bereaved
families share a common goal (reading from their mission statement): We have
chosen to convert the feelings of anger and revenge, helplessness and despair,
into energies of hope and action, as messengers of a process of reconciliation.
We, who have paid the highest price possible, believe that empathy for the pain
and needs of the other can generate a change in Israeli and Palestinian
awareness and public opinion." Parents Circle is, I believe, a modern story of
the John 4. These bereaved families should be enemies, they should not gather
together, they should not share their mutual needs, they should not be working
together to reconcile the Holy Land, but they do. With this story in mind,
listen again to the Biblical story of water and thirst. I am indebted to
Patricia Farris for her narrative description which appeared in the Christian
Century some years back (“Unlikely messenger” Feb 13-20, 2002, p. 16).
Tired from his journey, Jesus sits down at Jacob’s well, then realizes that he has no cup or bucket with which to draw water. The disciples have gone off to buy food and he is alone. But someone else is out in this desert heat, and she’s carrying a bucket. She may be the last person on earth Jesus wants to encounter, because not only is she a women, she is a divorced woman. A woman with shady past. A Samaritan. By custom, Rabbi Jesus ought not even speak with her in public, let alone drink from her Samaritan bucket. It is about noon, the sixth hour. There are no shadows, there is no protective cover, no night time leisure for theological exchange and reflection. There is only this woman, and she is insolent, defensive, strong and determined... These strangers, these enemies—whose worlds would ordinarily never connect—discover at the well that they need each other. It’s hard to imagine that this is a chance encounter. Apparently, Jesus had told the disciples to journey directly into enemy territory, when most Jews would have taken an extra nine hours or so to go around Samaria, which was unclean...territory. Perhaps Jesus was intentionally seeking to break down barriers between people by making himself a bridge. He put himself in a place where he would have to encounter the people his people hated. And who hated them. For the sake of healing, Jesus follows the lead of the Holy Spirit and makes himself vulnerable...It is not a metaphorical desert. Left alone here at high noon, he could die without water. But someone has joined him at the well—the Other, the Stranger, the Enemy. And she holds the cup that can quench his thirst. We don’t know why the disciples left Jesus alone in the desert. But the woman, whose name is never revealed, is out in the heat of noonday because she has been ostracized and shunned, and is on her own to provide for her most basic needs. No father, husband, brother or son is around to look after her. And there is no group of women to share her story, wipe her tears or help her to laugh. Jesus needs to drink fresh water to live. The woman also needs a drink: she needs the fresh, living water of grace and truth only Jesus can provide to drink deep of healing and wholeness and a new life. And in their various needs, these two affirm their mutual humanity. They share in the holy Source of Life that transcends all boundary, custom, hatred, fear and scarcity. In the desert at noon, with all distraction stripped away, all shadows erased, the light shines bright enough for these two strangers to discover that they need each other...Distance dissolves into relationship. Enmity melts into mutuality. They glimpse a spiritual wholeness, a new...reality. [When Jesus initiates conversation by asking the woman for water] he breaks [the barrier between them]. The woman is bold enough to both remind Jesus of what separates them—he a Jew and she a Samaritan—and of what connects them—their ancestor Jacob. She is audacious and spars verbally with this strange man...The gospel witnesses to the gift of God for all God’s children... Jesus shows us a new way to learn about one another, learn the truth of one another, and learn that we need one another. True worship takes place not at a sacred mountain or even a shared ancestral well, but in a relationship with the person of Christ, who is the wellspring and mountaintop of hope and peace. On another day, also about noon, Jesus will face death and again confess his thirst. On that day, only vinegar will be offered—in mockery. The gift of his living water will not be apparent to the one holding that sour sponge. But today, when Jesus and the Samaritan woman meet, they conspire to bring life out of death. The water they offer each other, water that quenches the thirst of body and soul, holds the [key] of life for all. [end article]
The Parents Circle is composed of people who know their own thirst and the source of their water. They are keenly aware of their vulnerability. They have used their earthly thirst, however, to allow heavenly relief. They tapped into a source of water that has sustained them, and allowed them to export fresh life giving water to many. In 2002, the Parent’s Circle started a toll-free telephone service. They've accepted nearly a million calls since its inception. In a letter to the Parents Circle Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu wrote, “Peace is possible when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable (…) the members of the Parents Circle have experienced this truth in the depths of their suffering and loss. They have found that there is more that unites us than divides us, that we are all members of one family, the human family" Letter to The Parents Circle – Families Forum, April 2004.
Our pain, our thirst, may not be the same as the bereaved parents, but many of us thirst. Maybe we thirst on account of some personal brokenness; maybe we thirst on account of some estrangement; maybe we thirst an account of some systemic injustice; maybe we thirst because people we love will not accept the life giving we offer. The biblical story for this morning allows us to enter at many points. It is a personal story of renewal, a story about estrangement from a community overcome, a story mending a racist and prejudiced society. If we are willing to go the desert, with our own thirst or with the water of life we have been given, Jesus meets us in the desert sun to bless us. The water of Christ is for our healing, the healing of families, the healing of communities, and ultimately the world. Amen. Take some moments to consider the water which has sustained you as well as any dryness you are currently experiencing. In prayer offer both the water and dryness up to God and for personal and social healing [silence].
First Service [if you interested in receiving a blessing of water for
yourself/ a loved one/ an acquaintance I invite you to come forward while Winona
plays the piano. ]
Second Service [Please respond in song with hymn #493 “I heard the voice of
Jesus say”