The North American Lutheran Church (NALC)
\nAntioch Lutheran Church, Dallas, North Carolina<\/p>\n
Sunday, March 12, AD 2023 — Lent 3 — Antioch<\/p>\n
Exodus 17:1-7 Psalm 95:1-9<\/p>\n Romans 5:1-8 John 4:5-26 (27-30,39-42) ++++++<\/p>\n Homily<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The \u201cWoman at the Well\u201d is sometimes \u2013 I will venture even to say \u201coften\u201d \u2013 portrayed as a \u201cwanton woman,\u201d i.e. politely, a woman with a history, and it ain\u2019t necessarily virtuous! There is a reference in the text to her having gone through FIVE husbands, and the fellow with whom she is at the time living is not her husband. Yes! A \u201cloose woman!\u201d Such a floosy that she\u2019s got such a bad reputation that she can\u2019t go to the community watering-hole early in the morning, at the same time as the other \u2013 respectable \u2013 women, because she\u2019s got such a bad reputation, so she has to go by herself at noon-time in the heat of the day!<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s the way that she is often portrayed. And Jesus is then portrayed as such a nice guy because he\u2019s willing to talk to, give attention to, engage in conversation with, such a whore of a woman! And then the sermon goes: Just looky there: As bad as that woman was, Jesus accepted her; and even though you are as bad-awful sinful as she was \u2013 or even if just a little bit close to that \u2013 as you know you are! \u2013 Jesus will accept you too! So come-on! Repent of your wanton sinfulness, and get on-board with Jesus.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That is an okay, in some context important, worthwhile, and true message\u2026. \u00a0However: we do not know that such is this woman\u2019s story. We do not know that she\u2019s such a floosy. We do not know that she is, indeed, a \u201cwanton \u2013 i.e., un-virtuous \u2013 woman\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For, in fact: If this woman\u2019s life is anything like the lives of too many women throughout history, her life may have gone something like this\u2026.<\/p>\n Yes, she has had 5 husbands. The reason is because of a long and sad history\u2026 It could be<\/em>\u2026 She was molested as a young girl by a \u201c<\/strong>friend\u201d<\/strong> of her family. Upon finding it out, her father, considering her spoiled goods, unfit for a husband to take her on and take care of her later, beat her; her older brothers followed their father\u2019s example. As was the custom in those days, she did not select someone to marry; marriages were arranged. Since she was spoiled goods, her father settled-on whoever \u2013 anyone \u2013 who would take her; and that turned out to be someone as abusive as he was. This new husband, soon enough, turned her away \u2013 as was permitted by the law. Her father nor brothers would take her back; she had been married already and turned away by her first husband, but eventually she did find a young widower who needed a young woman to work and cook for him, so he accepted her in marriage. But he was abusive, too, so eventually she ran for her life. Then she wandered from village to village, trying to escape her reputation.<\/p>\n Women, in that society and culture \u2013 like too many cultures now \u2013 could have no job, could own no property, could do very little, if anything, without a man\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n Man-after-man she lives with, finally taken in by a distant relative, a distant cousin on her mother\u2019s side, a man and his wife<\/em>. (The text does not tell us anything about the man with whom she is living and to whom Jesus refers, nor does it tell us specifics of the living-arrangement of her life. What I speculate here, could be! We do not know this woman\u2019s story\u2026. And, in fact, we don\u2019t know lots<\/u><\/em> of people\u2019s stories\u2026 lots of people, some of them, upon whom we pass judgment, or people who we casually pass every day.<\/p>\n Based on current \u2013 and past \u2013 realities, it could very well be that this is a woman who experienced abuse and rejection all her life, and had spent her adult life seeking<\/em> the necessary support of a man as demanded by society; and all the while yearning<\/em> for kindness and compassion.<\/p>\n And then, in the heat of the noon-day sun, to avoid the whisperings and stares and glares of other women, she goes to fetch water, and she meets Jesus, who kindly<\/em> engages her conversation, who seems to know her story, who looks at\u00a0 her with compassion, and does not condemn her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 12.03.2023 | Andrew Weisner | Ex 17:1-7;\u00a0Ps 95:1-9 | The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) Antioch Lutheran Church, Dallas, North Carolina Sunday, March 12, AD 2023 — Lent 3 — Antioch Exodus 17:1-7 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the\u00a0Lord\u00a0commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,845,157,108,110,1347,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-17290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exodus","category-at","category-andrew-f-weisner","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-17-chapter-17-exodus","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17290"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17676,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17290\/revisions\/17676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17290"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=17290"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=17290"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=17290"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=17290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFrom the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the\u00a0Lord\u00a0commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.\u00a02<\/sup>The people quarreled with Moses, and said, \u201cGive us water to drink.\u201d Moses said to them, \u201cWhy do you quarrel with me? Why do you test he\u00a0Lord?\u201d\u00a03<\/sup>But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, \u201cWhy did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?\u201d\u00a04<\/sup>So Moses cried out to the\u00a0Lord, \u201cWhat shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.\u201d\u00a05<\/sup>The\u00a0Lord\u00a0said to Moses, \u201cGo on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.\u00a06<\/sup>I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.\u201d Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.\u00a07<\/sup>He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the\u00a0Lord, saying, \u201cIs the\u00a0Lord\u00a0among us or not?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\nTherefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,\u00a02<\/sup>through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.\u00a03<\/sup>And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,\u00a04<\/sup>and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,\u00a05<\/sup>and hope does not disappoint us, because God\u2019s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6<\/sup>For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.\u00a07<\/sup>Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person\u2014though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.\u00a08<\/sup>But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nSo he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.\u00a06<\/sup>Jacob\u2019s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.\u00a07<\/sup>A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, \u201cGive me a drink.\u201d\u00a08<\/sup>(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)\u00a09<\/sup>The Samaritan woman said to him, \u201cHow is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?\u201d (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)\u00a010<\/sup>Jesus answered her, \u201cIf you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, \u2018Give me a drink,\u2019 you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.\u201d\u00a011<\/sup>The woman said to him, \u201cSir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?\u00a012<\/sup>Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?\u201d\u00a013<\/sup>Jesus said to her, \u201cEveryone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,\u00a014<\/sup>but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.\u201d\u00a015<\/sup>The woman said to him, \u201cSir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.\u201d\u00a016<\/sup>Jesus said to her, \u201cGo, call your husband, and come back.\u201d\u00a017<\/sup>The woman answered him, \u201cI have no husband.\u201d Jesus said to her, \u201cYou are right in saying, \u2018I have no husband\u2019;\u00a018<\/sup>for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!\u201d\u00a019<\/sup>The woman said to him, \u201cSir, I see that you are a prophet.\u00a020<\/sup>Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.\u201d\u00a021<\/sup>Jesus said to her, \u201cWoman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.\u00a022<\/sup>You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.\u00a023<\/sup>But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.\u00a024<\/sup>God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.\u201d\u00a025<\/sup>The woman said to him, \u201cI know that Messiah is coming\u201d (who is called Christ). \u201cWhen he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.\u201d\u00a026<\/sup>Jesus said to her, \u201cI am he, the one who is speaking to you.\u201d 27<\/sup>Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d or, \u201cWhy are you speaking with her?\u201d\u00a028<\/sup>Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people,\u00a029<\/sup>\u201cCome and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?\u201d\u00a030<\/sup>They left the city and were on their way to him.\u00a039<\/sup>Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman\u2019s testimony, \u201cHe told me everything I have ever done.\u201d\u00a040<\/sup>So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.\u00a041<\/sup>And many more believed because of his word.\u00a042<\/sup>They said to the woman, \u201cIt is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n