To listen to the sermon preached at the 9:00 am service, click here.
To listen to the sermon preached at the 10:45 am service, click here.
St. Charles Episcopal Church - Saint Charles, IL
The Third Sunday of Lent - Lent 3 RCL Year A
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Exodus 17:1-7 ; Psalm 95 ; Romans 5:1-11 ; John 4:5-42
Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
"He told me everything that I have ever done."
Today is the third Sunday in Lent. We are about at the half way point of our forty day journey through the desert of Lent. Today we stop at a well. It is a very famous well, Jacob's well. And we meet one of the greater characters in the Gospel of John, the Samaritan Woman. In the Eastern Church she is known as St. Photini, the enlightened one. Tradition has it that Photini is the name she took when she was baptized by the disciples. Photini went on to be one of the great evangelists and apostles in the church. In the Gospel she has no name. This is a trick that the author of the Fourth Gospel uses to allow us to put ourselves into the story. As we can see in this portion of the Gospel, she responds to her encounter with Jesus in the same way that the apostles do, she drops everything and begins the work of converting her whole town. It is easy to see how the Eastern tradition grew to see this encounter as the beginning of the work of eventually converting all of Samaria to the Christian faith. At least that is the tradition.
The conversation that she has with Jesus is fascinating on many levels. Like much of John, in addition to being a ripping good story, it has many symbolic portions as well. It tells us a lot about her and about Jesus as well. This conversation is the longest recorded conversation that Jesus has with anyone in the Bible. Of all the possibilities, isn't it interesting that it takes place with a Samaritan, and a woman. As the Gospel says, Samaritans and Jews were a people set apart at this time in history. Samaria was the Capital of the old Northern Kingdom that was over run by the Assyrians 750 years before the time of Jesus. The temple of the Northern Kingdom even rivaled the temple in Jerusalem until it was destroyed by the Assyrians. The Israelites were then taken into exile and five tribes of foreigners were brought in to resettle the land. When the Israelites returned to Samaria they settled in the land mixing with the other tribes as their customs and religion mixed as well. This is why the Jews of Jesus' time separated themselves from Samaritans, they felt that Samaritans had become too intermingled with the other tribes and were no longer pure.
All that being said, it may seem peculiar that Jesus would talk to a Samaritan, but don't make too much of it. After all, he was traveling through Samaria at the time. It wouldn't be that unusual to talk to a Samaritan if you were walking in the midst of their land, would it? And much has been made that the woman was coming to the well at noon and of her multiple husbands. You may have heard other preachers imply that this would indicate that she was a woman of ill, or at least questionable repute. I don't believe this is actually the case. It appears to me that Photini is a pretty strong willed, as well as quick witted woman. In her conversation with Jesus there is a kind of banter that one would expect between equals, and even good friends.
Our picture today is Christ and the Samaritan Woman, painted by the polish artist Henryk Hector Siemiradzki in 1890. He painted it late in his life, and it is one of his best works. I like the way the artist portrays Photini. She is not demure or submissive. Jesus is clearly tired and almost reclining in the shade by the well. Photini stands facing him. There is an interest shown, though, by both parties, each for the other I was struck by how the artist portrays Photini as a relatively young woman. I had always thought of the Samaritan woman as a woman of riper years. It does, one would think, take at least some time to go through five husbands. Looking at Photini as a younger woman forced me to rethink. Perhaps her strong nature was difficult to take for the men in her town. Or, perhaps she was attracted to dangerous men. If that were true she does appear to be acting true to her history. Though she struck up a relationship with Jesus, he was dead very soon there after. It does cause one to wonder. Some scholars have pointed to the symbolic nature of the Samaritan woman as representing all of Samaria, with her five husbands representing the five tribes of foreigners that lay in the past history of Samaria. That may be, but I like to take the story more literally.
In the Gospel of John, there are many great characters, like Nicodemus from last week, that don't make it into any of the other Gospels. None of them stand out the way the Samaritan woman does. It is something to be a stand out character in a stand out Gospel. In many ways, I think that Photini, the Samaritan woman, is a good stand in for the people of today. She seems to share more characteristics with us today, than with those folks of first century Palestine, and because of that she is a way to put ourselves in the middle of the Gospel. There are many characters in the Gospel of John that are not named, like the Beloved Disciple, the Man Born Blind, and the Samaritan Woman. They are pivotal characters that have encounters with Jesus. Without names they beckon us to give them ours. This is one of the hallmarks of the Fourth Gospel, an open structure that invites us in.
Imagine yourself in an encounter like this, in the midst of your normal job, probably at one of those times when you are the most busy and a little short of help. Going to draw water was the normal job of children. If a woman is drawing water it is either because she has no children or because they are sick or unavailable for some reason. So... imagine bumping into Jesus when you least expect it and when you really don't have the time. How would you respond to the request to "Give me a drink." We always hope that opportunities to serve the Lord will come on our terms, but usually they don't. Often they come at inopportune times. Notice Photini's first response. It's very close to "leave me alone." "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, me a woman of Samaria?" How often do we look for excuses to not take part in the invitation to ministry. Can you hear in Jesus' response to Photini, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is asking you..." the invitation is there again, as well as the gentle jibe to get her attention?
I think that is the moment that Siemiradzki chose to capture in his painting. The moment where Jesus piques her interest. Can you see it? As they begin the discussion of living water, Photini begins to see that Jesus is talking about something more than mere running water. In first century Palestine the term living water meant fresh or running water, as opposed to still or stagnant water. We now almost always think of living water in a spiritual sense, but that is because we have been reading the Bible for 2000 years.Living water in this new sense was peculiar to Jesus. It is hard for us to see in the story the slow dawning that comes over the Samaritan woman. Again, putting yourself in the story, have you ever found yourself becoming aware that there is more than meets the eye in a situation? A time when helping out, cooking a meal, or some other simple activity takes on a spiritual dimension? How would you respond? Could you jump in like the Samaritan woman?
It's a small thing so you may have missed it, but did you notice that when Photini left to return to Sychar she left her jar? It's a clue. Like James and John who left their nets, she was following Jesus. And right away by the power of her testimony she brought new followers. Photini, the Samaritan woman asks us a question. What might we have to leave behind if we are to be true followers of Jesus? It will be different for each of us, as different as jars and nets, but we will have to leave them none the less. These are just a few of the questions this Gospel asks us if we are open. In one brief encounter at Jacob's well, the Samaritan woman had her life turned upside down. "He told me everything I have ever done." Though she left her jar behind, she brought back living water that filled her with light. Photini, the Enlightened One. What you will find in your encounter is waiting for you if you can find the courage to go to the well. Amen.