Ignored at the Well
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
For March 15, 2020:
Ignored at the Well
by Mary Austin
John 4:5-42
“Here’s the message it sends: once again we are not good enough,” a friend of a friend Tweeted about Elizabeth Warren’s departure from the Presidential race. A pastor friend in Alabama, seeing this as a reflection on all women, wrote, “We are never, ever going to be good enough for you.”
As Senator Warren leaves the race, her departure is evoking feelings of grief from women who see their own story reflected in hers. People who appreciated her as a candidate, and then voted for someone else in the primaries, offer some version of “I would vote for a woman, but this is about electability.” “I don’t think the country is ready for a woman. I am, of course, but not other people.” Words like “shrill” and “schoolmarm-ish,” never applied to male candidates, reappeared this election season. A professional counselor in Michigan observed, “While we all could see this coming over the past month, it still stings. It hurts to see the voting public once again turn up its collective nose at an exceptionally qualified female candidate. It hurts to hear the postmortem of where she failed to connect with voters, all arguments that are never made against male candidates: her intellectualism, her serious demeanor, her progressivism, her pragmatism and willingness to compromise (i.e. her effectiveness)… and so on. Bernie is even more progressive, he’s also arguably much more stern and serious. Joe is pragmatic and has an even more extensive record of compromising in the name of effectiveness.”
The woman at the well may well have felt the same way. Overlooked. Misjudged by anyone who thought about her. Never good enough. The people of the town know her circumstances, and they know the reason for the five husbands and the current partner, even though we never learn the story. Apparently, it isn’t important to Jesus.
The woman at the well offers us an interesting view into the way women experience Presidential-level politics, and to the way we react to them.
In the News
A columnist for Yahoo News, who is a man, pondered, “Warren was a deft, tireless campaigner who looked like the Democratic favorite as recently as last fall. Her unraveling is one of the bigger puzzles of the campaign so far.”
Meanwhile, women didn’t seem to be too puzzled. An opinion piece in the New York Times, written by a woman, observes, “This is one of the vexing realities that plague highly accomplished female candidates like Ms. Warren or Hillary Clinton, women whose résumés outstrip those of many of their male rivals. They have been told their whole lives that they have to outwork and outperform the men in order to be taken seriously — only to discover that it’s not enough. It was one thing when Mrs. Clinton lost the 2008 nomination to Barack Obama. Despite his relative inexperience, he was a rare political talent with the added appeal of making history as America’s first black president. But to lose in 2016 to Donald Trump? Winning the popular vote is cold comfort in a race that should never have been close.” She adds, “It’s hard for any candidate to get the formula right. For women, it is harder because of a host of unconscious biases. As often noted, there have been reams of research on this topic, most of it discouraging. The problem goes beyond voters who hold traditional views of gender roles or admit that they wouldn’t be comfortable with a Madam President. More subtly, ambitious women are viewed more negatively than men, while women leaders are often considered less legitimate than men, in the United States, at least. Studies also show that, whatever their particular pros and cons, women candidates are regarded as inherently less electable.”
The Atlantic’s columnist, also a woman, sees a paradox for women in political life, one that can never be resolved by the candidate herself. “One of the truisms of the 2020 campaign — just as it was a truism in 2016, and in 2008 — is that women candidates are punished, still, for public displays of ambition. (One resonant fact of Hillary Clinton’s political life is that she was much more popular, in opinion polls, during her tenure as secretary of state — a role for which she did not campaign, and in which she served as at the pleasure of the president — than she was when, just a few years after that, she sought the presidency herself.)”
The NBC News opinion piece, also penned by a woman, conveyed the feeling of political dismay, mixed with personal sorrow. “And so more voters than not got cold feet and decided the right thing to do was to pick between two elderly men: one with great big progressive ideas and a new heart problem; and the other with a long résumé as a moderate, an association with a beloved past president and apparent memory problems. Both felt, to me, a lot riskier than voting for a woman who is nearly 10 years younger and in excellent health with plans to realize some of the same big ideas — and even bigger ones. But, you know, no one asked me, a woman. That's why the erasure of Warren — the smartest, most thoughtful and arguably best candidate for the presidency, with a plan for damn near everything — stings so much. Voters have spoken, and we’re marching backward because — didn’t you know — now is not the time to select a woman to run against an unpopular, corrupt, and impeached president. We need a fella for that.”
In the Scriptures
The woman who meets Jesus at the well doesn’t appear to have any ambitions for herself that we can see. In spite of the disappointments in her life, she’s willing to engage with a stranger — even a foolish stranger, who seems to be without the bucket that wise travelers carried with them. Her questions are astute, and she’s a worthy conversation partner for Jesus.
This woman’s story gives us an interesting contrast with Nicodemus, who appears in the chapter before this. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and this woman meets Jesus in the bright light of noonday. He has stature in the community, and she does not. He has things to lose, and she has apparently already lost more than we can imagine. Divorce wasn’t available to women, so she has either been divorced by a husband or left a widow five times. Nicodemus goes away thinking, and she goes away to act on what she has learned from Jesus.
In her commentary on this gospel [John: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries] Karoline Lewis suggests that Jesus and this woman have more in common than we see right away. “Jesus is tired, yet another reminder of his finitude. The trip between Jerusalem and Galilee would have taken about three days. Jesus is worn out. He needs water, as does she. He is vulnerable, in need, and she can be the source of his need. There is a mutuality of need present before the two ever utter words to each other.” We are accustomed to people receiving things from Jesus: food, healing, wisdom, a kick in the spiritual pants. In this meeting, each of them gains something from the other.
In the Sermon
In her commentary, Karoline M. Lewis asks, about the woman, “what did she leave behind at the well? The verb can also be translated “let go.” She leaves behind her ostracism, her marginalization, her loneliness, because Jesus has brought her into his fold. She leaves behind her disgrace, her disregard, and the disrespect she has endured to enter into a new reality, a new life that is abundant life. The juxtapositions of what she leaves behind and what she gains are striking.” The sermon might look at what we need to leave behind / let go to meet Jesus in this season of Lent.
The sermon might also consider what biases we need to leave behind in our church community, our city, or our nation, so we’re not leaving other people behind. What worldview do we need to shed to take in a wider view of the future?
Or the sermon might look at who gets overlooked, on a national level and in smaller ways. A member of my church told me her Lenten practice — which works all year, too — is to notice janitors, rest room attendants, bus drivers and other people we don’t usually see, and compliment them on their work. Moving outward from that, who do we render invisible in our political and social spheres?
The counselor from Michigan, quoted above, concludes, “The short version is that these traits — really any leadership traits — are unbecoming in a woman, and furthermore that powerful and ambitious women are unwanted. We don’t like them as a society, but we can’t admit that to ourselves, so we arbitrarily point to anything else to justify our reflexive distaste.” The people who meet the woman at the well follow her lead, and literally follow her back to Jesus, where he spends several days teaching. Jesus is willing to talk with her, a woman and a foreigner, and her neighbors are willing to hear her enthusiastic testimony. She doesn’t come back and say, “Sorry, no one would listen.” What would it take for us to have the same open-mindedness about leaders who look different than what we’re used to?
The woman at the well starts out overlooked and misjudged, and her encounter with Jesus changes her sense of herself, and her role in her community. May we all have the same transforming encounters with Jesus this Lent.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Keep Calm, and Carry On
by Dean Feldmeyer
Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; John 4:5-42
Hot, tired, and thirsty, the children of Israel were fed up with what they saw as the ineffective leadership of Moses. He led them into a desert. What’s wrong with him? Didn’t he know that deserts are called deserts because they don’t have water? Did he give even a moment’s thought to what they were going to drink when they got thirsty, as thirsty they would certainly get. It is a desert after all.
“Did you free us from slavery just so you could drag us out into this desert to die of thirst?” They asked. “We were better off back in Egypt,” They said. “Give us water,” they demanded. Some were so angry that Moses feared for his life, afraid that they might stone him to death.
But, with the miracle at Massah, where Moses struck the rock with his staff and water came gushing out, the crisis was averted. Or was it?
Out, Out Darned Spot
Two friends of mine recently retired and moved into a senior citizens community in Florida. Not long after they settled in, there came a call for volunteers to join a Community Emergency Response Team. As the name implies, this team would respond in times of emergency (mostly hurricanes, this being Florida), to assist their neighbors in whatever ways were required, most often in crowd and evacuation control before the emergency, and in search and rescue after.
My friends thought that, being of relatively sound mind and body, this would be an area in which they could help out their neighbors and meet other folks who were of like mind and inclination. Besides, they told me, they got to wear cool uniforms complete with hats and badges and they got to boss other people around, always a plus for a retired pastor.
In order to get certified as a member of the team — a requirement if you want to wear the uniform — each member would have to undergo some thirty hours of training over the course of six Saturdays.
Three weeks into the training, the couple who were leading it left on a week-long Caribbean cruise to celebrate a benchmark wedding anniversary. The trainees had been informed that there would be an interruption in their training. They knew that the classes would be moved back a week and they were all fine with that. No problem, right?
Well, not so fast, there, friends.
When the trainers returned, they came to the gate at the entrance of the retirement community, and, in the course of some pleasant small talk, told the guard what a lovely Caribbean cruise they had just returned from, whereupon they were immediately denied entry onto the grounds. They would not be allowed to enter, they were told, until they had proved that they were free of Coronavirus symptoms for at least two weeks.
Now, maybe — and this is a big MAYBE -- this policy would make sense if every outsider who had been out of the country in the past two weeks was denied entry, but that probably isn't the case. The folks who live there have friends and family visiting all the time. They pass the security people at the front gate with a wave and a smile and are admitted, simply by virtue of their relatives having placed their names on the list of official visitors. Never are any of them asked about their recent travels. And if they were, at least some of them would probably have the common sense to lie about it in order to gain entry and see their parents and/or grandparents.
Then, of course, there are the vendors and service people who regularly come in to stock the cafeteria larders and repair air conditioners and dishwashers and cable connections, none of whom are interrogated about where they’ve been before being allowed to pass through the gate.
I commend management for taking steps to protect the residents of that senior community from the Coronavirus, but their half-way measures at the gate seem born more of panic than common sense. I can’t help but wonder if just a modicum of rational thought might dictate that there are more practical and effective ways of dealing with their concerns.
Panic As An Act Of Unfaith
And, speaking of pan, let’s get this straight: There is no link between the Corona-virus and Corona beer. Is everyone clear about that? No linkage. None. Nada.
I bring this up because last week, 5W Public Relations, an independently-owned PR agency, conducted a phone survey of 737 U.S. residents who considered themselves beer drinkers and that survey revealed that 38 percent of beer-drinking Americans would not buy Corona beer under any circumstances, now. Among those who said they usually drink Corona, 4 percent said they would stop drinking Corona. Fourteen percent said they wouldn’t order Corona in a public venue.
Meanwhile, 16 percent of beer-drinking Americans were confused about whether Corona beer is related to the Coronavirus. But, just for good measure, we’ll say that again: No linkage. None. Nada.
The beer brand, which is the third most popular beer in the United States, gets its name from the sun’s corona.
Fortunately for Constellation Brands, the parent company of Corona and many other beers, the sales slump they are experiencing is not the result of American Coronavirus panic but rather the reduced amount of partying in China, this year, as Chinese New Year celebrations are being curtailed and even canceled in an effort to stem the spread of the virus in Asia. With no parties to go to, the Chinese are drinking a lot less beer, of which American brands are among their favorites.
This story, however, does point out the power of ignorant panic.
The run on surgical style face masks is another case in point. Americans saw videos of people in Asia wearing face masks and immediately jumped to the conclusion that this is an effective prophylactic in protecting people from the virus. It is not.
Viruses are so small that they can easily go through the fabric of a surgical mask. The only way such a mask is effective is if an infected person wears one in order to keep them from not coughing or sneezing on someone else. So panicked are many people that they refuse to believe even the most basic science and they ignore the chiding of their leaders.
Online, sales of virus protection products have skyrocketed, up 817% in the last two months.
The demand for hand sanitizers has gotten so great that people hoping to cash in are selling the stuff on eBay for as much 30 times its regular price. Two bottles of Purell that normally retail for about nine bucks were recently offered at the bargain price of only $299. Both eBay and Amazon have reportedly removed thousands of ads from their sites for price gouging.
That people in a capitalist economy would try to cash in on a disease panic is not all that surprising. That some would actually pay those prices, is.
The stock market has, this past week, plunged and recovered only to plunge again, like a rollercoaster, in surges of wild, unreasonable selling that arise out of panic. Pundits have put the blame on fear of the effect of the Coronavirus on international trade and the economy in general but, be that as it may, there is at least one other reason for the panicky behavior we have seen on Wall Street and that is panic, itself. People panic over this or that thing in the news (today it’s the Coronavirus) and they sell their stocks. Others see them selling and, panicking, they sell theirs as well. Now the stampede is on as people sell their stock like cattle running for no other reason than their perception that the cow next to them is running so they probably should, too.
In a wonderful article in the Washington Post writers Maura Judkis and Avi Selk draw a spot-on picture of the kinds of crazy behaviors that come as a result of Coronavirus panic — a door knob becomes an existential threat; a checkout lane touch screen inspires horror; a trip on public transportation brings on feelings of inescapable doom — all of which are absolutely unnecessary if people would act faithfully and rationally.
Panic is generally defined as: sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly unthinking behavior. As such, it is an act of demonstrable unfaith. Panic is giving into the fear that it’s all up to me, that I have to take care of me and mine because no one else will, that I have to save myself and, if necessary, trample over others to do so.
It assumes that the worst is inevitable. It imagines itself at the center of want and lack even while plenty is plainly in evidence. And, worst of all, it takes God out of the equation.
When we panic, especially like the panic we’re seeing around the Coronavirus, we renounce our faith in a God of love and grace and the son who proclaimed that grace and even gave his life as evidence of it.
A Call To Faith
This was exactly the position of the children of Israel as they suffered the heat, thirst, and general privation in the desert. In a panic, they threatened to kill the one who had, time after time, saved them — from slavery in Egypt, from slaughter at the Red Sea, from starvation with manna and quail.
So, in response to Moses’ pleas, God sends Moses and some of the leaders of the people to Horeb. There, atop a 200-foot hill, stands a giant, five-story boulder that is, today, split down the center. As instructed, Moses strikes the boulder with the staff that he used to part the Red Sea and water gushes out of it.
The people are happy.
But God isn’t. YHWH is angry that the people whined and complained and cursed and threatened Moses because they were thirsty. They didn’t trust in the Lord. After all that had happened up to that time, they still weren’t sure whether or not God was on their side.
The psalm for today tells the rest of the story. Basically, two things happen:
First, God names the place of the rock, Massah and/or Meribah, both of which mean, basically, “Is God on our side or not?”
Secondly, and this is the really serious one, God sentences the people to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, until the oldest generation among them, the adults who did the whining and kvetching and doubting, has all died off and only their children and grandchildren are left to enter the Promised Land.
Because of their lack of faith, the lack which led them to panicky behavior, they will not be able to reap the rewards of faith.
No one is arguing against taking reasonable precautions, many of which are the same ones our public health officials have been begging us to take in their annual battles against the flu: Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Avoid close contact (less than 3 feet) with people who are sick. Stay home when you are sick.
To take reasonable precautions is to affirm that God made us reasonable people with the ability to think and act reasonably and with faith that, whatever the outcome in this particular case, “all things work together for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28).
When panic threatens to overwhelm us, we would do well to remember the plight of Joshua who was assigned to be Moses’ successor and given the job of leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land. I can imagine that he was probably freaking out at all that responsibility and the thought of everything that could possibly go wrong.
It was then, you may recall, that YHWH came to Joshua and, after telling him that he would be in charge and what it was that he was to do, gave him these words of comfort: “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
If we hear those words and take them to heart, there is simply no room left for panic.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:
Exodus 17:1-7
The wanderers do a lot of grumbling and complaining. They get hungry, they get thirsty, they get afraid, they get tired of manna, and the Lord keeps working through Moses to rescue them. This started before they had escaped Egypt. As Pharoah’s army advanced on them and the Sea of Reeds stood before them, they said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” [Exodus 14:11] They remember Egypt fondly, even though they were slaves.
In the case of Exodus 17, they are afraid because they do not have water and they also need water for their livestock. It’s interesting that the names given to the place where Moses was able to bring water out of rock, Meribah, which means “contention,” and Massah, which means “test” or “trial,” commemorate not the miracle of water coming from rock and saving the people and their animals, but the (bad) behavior of the Israelites.
If you’re looking for a little levity (I know, I know it’s Lent, so perhaps this isn’t the time.) Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, is not only The Troll Capital of the World, but also the home of the National Mustard Museum. There was a time when Mount Horeb, Wisconsin was the site of the only college dedicated to the science of mustard production. It was called Poupon U. You can still buy coffee mugs and sweatshirts that honor this august institution.
* * *
Psalm 95
Polytheism is assumed by the psalmist. Our God is greater than all the others, and therefore worthy of praise and worship. From v. 7b through the end of the psalm God is speaking, and none too happy with the Israelites. The Lord recalls their contention and need for proof from this morning’s reading from Exodus. They remind the Lord that the Lord “loathed” the Israelites and made them wander 40 years. This psalm does not end happily, “Therefore in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
* * *
Well, well, well
There are two Hebrew terms that are often rendered into English as “well.” One is ﬠ. It can also be rendered “spring,” as in the place from which water gushes. This is also the word for “eye,” which makes some sense when one considers that tears spring from eyes.
The other is בּאּרּ pronounced “beer.” This one appears frequently in place names, eg. Beer-Sheba.
While the definitions and uses of the terms are somewhat fluid, (Ooh, that one just bubbled up, sorry.) generally ﬠיּנּ refers to places from which water rises, while בּאּרּ refers to holes that have been dug into the ground to reach water.
If you want to make a nifty connection to English, one cannot make beer without what comes from a בּאּרּ.
* * *
We need water
While Jesus discusses “living water” with the woman at the well in the reading from John, it’s important to remember that water is essential for life. Clearly he is speaking metaphorically, but people can only survive for around three days without water.
In an arid climate like Samaria getting water was an essential task every single day. Very different from our being able to get as much water as we want by turning on a tap.
* * *
We fight over water
It should come as no surprise that one of the contentious issues that keep the Palestinians and the Israelis from reaching a peace agreement is access to water. Water is necessary for agriculture and for life itself. The conflict over water is often overlooked, but must be resolved if there will ever be peace in the Middle East. Here’s a lot more information about the history of this issue.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:
The central themes in today’s lectionary readings are faith and hope.
* * *
Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, had an affair with a 22-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky, while he was in office. The sexual relationship lasted two years, from 1995 to 1997. When the affair became public in 1998, it was received as a national scandal. A four-part documentary series was released on Friday, March 6, 2020. The series is titled Hillary. In the documentary, Bill Clinton described the affair as being motivated by life’s “pressure and disappointments and terrors, fears of whatever, things I did to manage my anxieties for years.” A contributing factor to the affair is the pressures he endured as President. Clinton also described these, “You feel like you are staggering around, you have been in a 15-round prize fight that was extended to 30 rounds and here is something that will take your mind off of it for a while. That is what happens.”
* * *
Sting was the lead singer for the musical group Police, and later became a solo artist. He has sold more than 100 million records and has 17 Grammy Awards. Some of his best-known songs are “Every Breath You Take” and “Fields of Gold” and “Desert Rose.” He was born Gordon Summer in 1951. He grew up Wallsend, England, which is a shipyard town. The massive ships were so large, that according to Sting, they blocked the view of the sun. In an interview published in March 2020, he described his desire to leave Wallsend and become a musician, “They would get a famous celebrity to launch a ship, and I remember seeing the Queen Mother in her Rolls-Royce at the age of eight and thinking, ‘Why can’t I have that life?’ I suppose that’s what feed my ambition to escape.”
* * *
Ben Affleck, who was born in 1972 in Berkley, California, has won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards for his acting. He may be best known for the three movies when he portrayed Bruce Wayne as Batman. After a twelve-year marriage to actress Jennifer Garner ended in divorce in 2018, his concern for his three children caused Affleck to begin drinking uncontrollably. He entered a rehab facility to correct his obsession for alcohol. In an interview published in March 2020, he reflected on that experience. Affleck described his recovery as, “The biggest thing for me is just a sense of freedom.” He went on to say, “I find it liberating.”
* * *
On February 24, 2020, Harvey Weinstein was convicted by a jury of seven men and five women of rape and a criminal sexual act. The five days of deliberation followed a seven-week trial. Prior to his arrest, Weinstein was the studio chief of Miramax and Weinstein Company. He was accused of sexually molesting over 80 women. Annabella Sciorra testified at his trail about his abusive behavior. Sciorra is best known for playing Gloria Trillo on the HBO drama series The Sopranos, which ran from 1999 to 2007. She offered this as the reason she spoke at the trial, “I spoke for myself and the 80-plus victims of Harvey Weinstein in my heart.” After his conviction, Sciorra said, “For speaking truth to power, we pave the way for a more just culture, free of the scourge of violence against women.”
* * *
Melissa McCarthy is an actress, comedian, writer, producer and fashion designer. She is best known for playing the character Megan in the comedy movie Bridesmaids, which was released in 2011. In a March 2020 interview, she was asked how she deals with the new social media. McCarthy responded. “I’ve seen so many hateful things written on Twitter that just shake me to my core. I don’t want to read that and have that in my brain or my heart.” She went on to say, “What do you care what somebody in a different state who you’ll never meet thinks of you?”
* * *
Hillary Clinton, who served as a New York senator from 2001 to 2009, was serving in the Senate when terrorists attacked the country on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. This is better known to us as 9/11. As the Senator representing New York City she visited the city to view where the two World Trade Center buildings were rammed into by two passenger jet liners flown out of Boston. Each building had collapsed from the deliberate cash. The rubble from the fallen buildings was extensive, as each building was over 1,300 feet in height, with one building being 80 stories tall and the other 110 stories tall. Recalling seeing the stricken buildings Clinton said, “I went that day. It looked like hell. I mean, any depiction Dante’s Inferno paled in comparison. It was the most terrible site I’ve ever personally seen. I think about it all the time.”
* * *
In Tom Wilson’s cartoon, Ziggy, the character always seems to be struggling with his place in life. Ziggy is a nondescript cartoon character, with a round face and oversized nose. He is drawn purposely bland to be the caricature of every man and woman who is perplexed by life. In one episode Ziggy is looking at the reader, sitting in a chair, leaning forward with both elbows on his knees and his chin resting in the palms of both of his hands. He has a very baffled look on his face. Ziggy then shares his thoughts with the reader, “…I don’t know what’s worse…either that I’m none of the things I wanted to be when I grew up…or that, maybe, I’m not grown up yet!”
* * *
Matthew McConaughey is an actor who has been in numerous movies. His breakout role came as a supporting actor in the movie Dazed and Confused, which was released in 1993. He was the commencement speaker in 2015 at the University of Houston. In his address to the students McConaughey said, “Life is not a popularity contest. Be brave, take the hill, but first answer the question, ‘What is my hill?’”
* * *
Alecia Moore, better known to us as the singer Pink, was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania in 1979. She may be best known for her second studio album Missundaztood, which was released in 2001 and has sold over 13 million copies. In a 2016 interview Pink shared that she is involved in the organization No Kid Hungry, which provides meals for children, many of whom only have one meal a day, and that is at school. Pink has involved herself in combating child hunger because she wants to help another mother who feels “powerless” in providing for her children. Pink said, “There are so many problems that seem insurmountable in this world, but this one is solvable, and I’m watching them get it done.”
* * *
Allison Janney is an actress. She was born in 1959 in Boston. In 2017 she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, playing LaVona Golden in the comedy I, Tonya. In the movie LaVona Golden was Tonya Harding’s abusive mother. Janney has become involved in Justice for Vets, which ministers to veterans with mental health conditions, as she feels an obligation to assist those who have served our country. In a June 2016 interview Janney said, “I’ve never been an actor-vist, but I lost my brother to substance abuse and I feel like it’s my honor and duty to be a part of this. As an actress I live in such a little bubble, it feels good to help men and women in service.”
* * * * * *
WORSHIP
by George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: O come, let us sing to our God.
People: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Leader: Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving.
People: Let us make a joyful noise to God with songs of praise!
Leader: O come, let us worship and bow down before our Maker!
People: For this is our God, and we are the people of his pasture.
OR
Leader: Come to the waters of life and live in God.
People: We are thirsty and long for refreshment.
Leader: God is the source of all that we need.
People: We come to God to find the water of life.
Leader: God freely gives it to us abundantly so we can share.
People: We rejoice in God’s generosity and will share with others.
Hymns and Songs:
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELW: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
Fill My Cup, Lord
UMH: 641
PH: 350
AAHH: 447
NNBH: 377
CH: 351
CCB: 47
In the Cross of Christ I Glory
UMH: 295
H82: 441/442
PH: 84
AAHH:
NNBH: 104
NCH: 193/194
LBW: 104
ELW: 324
W&P: 264
AMEC: 153
Spirit Song
UMH: 347
AAHH: 321
CH: 352
W&P: 352
Renew: 248
Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
UMH: 349
NNBH: 195
ELW: 284
W&P: 472
Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me
UMH: 361
H82: 685
AAHH: 559
NNBH: 254
NCH: 596
CH: 214
LBW: 327
ELW: 623
W&P: 384
AMEC: 328
It Is Well with My Soul
UMH: 377
AAHH: 377
NNBH: 255
NCH: 438
CH: 561
ELW: 785
W&P: 428
AMEC: 448
O Come and Dwell in Me
UMH: 388
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
UMH: 400
H82: 686
PH: 356
AAHH: 175
NNBH: 166
NCH: 459
CH: 16
LBW: 499
ELW: 807
W&P: 68
AMEC: 77
STLT: 126
Seek Ye First
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
W&P: 349
CCB: 76
As the Deer
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
Something Beautiful
CCB: 84
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is the cool stream slaking all our thirsts:
Grant us the wisdom to seek you in our needs
that we may be truly satisfied with the water of life;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship you, O God, because you are the cool stream that slakes our thirst. In you we find all of our needs satisfied as you lead us into life eternal. Help us to always seek you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we seek after things that do not satisfy.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a people who are thirsty for life. We want meaning for our lives and our relationships. We want to know that our lives count for something. Yet we seek for answers where there are none. We try to draw water from dry wells. Yet all this time we have you, O God, offering us the living water that leads to life eternal. Forgive our foolish ways and empower us with your Spirit to turn once again to you and your Christ. Amen.
Leader: God desires to quench our thirst for life. God offers us God’s own self to satisfy our needs. Receive God’s gift and share the living water with others.
Prayers of the People
We praise you, O God, because you are life itself and the source of our lives. You are the fountain that never runs dry.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a people who are thirsty for life. We want meaning for our lives and our relationships. We want to know that our lives count for something. Yet we seek for answers where there are none. We try to draw water from dry wells. Yet all this time we have you, O God, offering us the living water that leads to life eternal. Forgive our foolish ways and empower us with your Spirit to turn once again to you and your Christ.
We give you thanks for all the ways you bring life to us and us to life. We thank you for your presence in the midst of our hectic lives and the people you send to bring us comfort and solace. We thank you that you never forsake us or give up calling us to yourself.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who thirst for physical water that is fit to drink and for those who seek for spiritual water. We pray for those who find their lives dry and empty because of the evil and hatred around them. We pray for those who are working to bring all types of water to those who need it.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about a time when you were thirsty and how good it felt when you finally got a cool drink. Share how in the Bible water often means more than just something to drink. Water is what gives us life. Most of our body is water. We need it for life and we use it for cleaning, refreshing, and recreating our lives. God gave us lots of good water on this earth to meet our needs. God also gives us peace and joy in Jesus.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Water! Water! Get me Water!
by Chris Keating
John 4:5-42
Gather ahead:
A pitcher of water
Small paper cups (which can be easily recycled afterwards)
Pictures of places where people get drinking water from wells.
Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well is a lengthy story that is filled with several significant theological movements critical to John’s narrative. The story provides many places that would be appropriate for teaching to children, but perhaps the easiest for them to grasp would be her conversation with Jesus in verses 5-15, and her excited response to Jesus in verses 28-30, and 39-42.
After the children gather, pour enough water for each of them to have a little cup. You can engage them in a little bit of “did you know” type of conversation about the benefits of drinking plenty of water. For example, did you know:
In fact, there are many places today that depend on wells for their water, even in many communities near our towns. A well is something we build to get water from out of the ground. In some places in the world, wells are the only way people have access to safe and clean drinking water — that really is an example of “living water.”
Just as he sat down, the woman came to get water for her family and home. She would have gone to the well at least twice a day to get water. She sets down her big jar, and then Jesus asks her, “Can I have drink?” (At this point, you may wish to read the story directly from scripture.) She’s surprised at Jesus’ request. The woman was a Samaritan, and typically Samaritans and Jewish people did not get along (like the story of the “Good Samaritan.”) She wonders why Jesus has asked her for water, and then he says something really surprising! (Go ahead and fill up the cups again.)
“If you knew who it is that was speaking to you, you would ask me for the gift of living water!”
The woman is astonished; the well is very, very, very deep. Jesus does not even have a cup, let alone a bucket and a rope. How will he get this “living water?”
He is referring, of course, to the gifts God gives us. He knows that as people come to know him, they will discover the life God wants them to live. They will find real happiness and joy. People who drink this sort of “water” that God gives will never, ever be thirsty.
Wonder with the children: “How could that be?”
One way it could happen today is by helping children and families who do not have access to clean water drill wells where they can find water that will bring them life. The Water Project (thewaterproject.org) gives examples of how people in the United States can help provide safe water in Africa. Another way we could help people find “living water” is by sharing God’s love for our planet. Recycling, cleaning up rivers and streams, and taking care of the earth, will help all of God’s people find the water they need. Sometimes, too, “living water” can be the wonderful things we do for others, or even the water we use for baptism. By sharing God’s love, just as you have shared the cups of water today, we make sure all people can discover the joy that the woman finds after meeting Jesus.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 15, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
- Ignored at the Well by Mary Austin — The woman at the well offers us an interesting view into the way women experience Presidential-level politics, and to the way we react to them.
- Second Thoughts: Keep Calm, and Carry On by Dean Feldmeyer — “Keep Calm and Carry On” was a message the British government placed on a poster that was posted all over the United Kingdom in 1939 in preparation for World War II. The poster was intended to raise the morale of the British public, threatened with widely predicted mass air attacks on major cities. With the Coronavirus threatening to become a pandemic, our government seemingly without a plan and unable of putting together a coherent message concerning how they are going to respond to the threat, the stock market in freefall, and hand sanitizer selling for $300 a bottle on eBay, we could probably use a couple of those posters.
- Sermon illustrations by Tom Willadsen and Ron Love.
- Worship resources by George Reed that focus on thirst/frustration; thirst/desires.
- Children’s sermon: Water! Water! Get me Water! by Chris Keating — Jesus’s encounter with the woman at the well is a lengthy story that is filled with several significant theological movements critical to John’s narrative.
Ignored at the Wellby Mary Austin
John 4:5-42
“Here’s the message it sends: once again we are not good enough,” a friend of a friend Tweeted about Elizabeth Warren’s departure from the Presidential race. A pastor friend in Alabama, seeing this as a reflection on all women, wrote, “We are never, ever going to be good enough for you.”
As Senator Warren leaves the race, her departure is evoking feelings of grief from women who see their own story reflected in hers. People who appreciated her as a candidate, and then voted for someone else in the primaries, offer some version of “I would vote for a woman, but this is about electability.” “I don’t think the country is ready for a woman. I am, of course, but not other people.” Words like “shrill” and “schoolmarm-ish,” never applied to male candidates, reappeared this election season. A professional counselor in Michigan observed, “While we all could see this coming over the past month, it still stings. It hurts to see the voting public once again turn up its collective nose at an exceptionally qualified female candidate. It hurts to hear the postmortem of where she failed to connect with voters, all arguments that are never made against male candidates: her intellectualism, her serious demeanor, her progressivism, her pragmatism and willingness to compromise (i.e. her effectiveness)… and so on. Bernie is even more progressive, he’s also arguably much more stern and serious. Joe is pragmatic and has an even more extensive record of compromising in the name of effectiveness.”
The woman at the well may well have felt the same way. Overlooked. Misjudged by anyone who thought about her. Never good enough. The people of the town know her circumstances, and they know the reason for the five husbands and the current partner, even though we never learn the story. Apparently, it isn’t important to Jesus.
The woman at the well offers us an interesting view into the way women experience Presidential-level politics, and to the way we react to them.
In the News
A columnist for Yahoo News, who is a man, pondered, “Warren was a deft, tireless campaigner who looked like the Democratic favorite as recently as last fall. Her unraveling is one of the bigger puzzles of the campaign so far.”
Meanwhile, women didn’t seem to be too puzzled. An opinion piece in the New York Times, written by a woman, observes, “This is one of the vexing realities that plague highly accomplished female candidates like Ms. Warren or Hillary Clinton, women whose résumés outstrip those of many of their male rivals. They have been told their whole lives that they have to outwork and outperform the men in order to be taken seriously — only to discover that it’s not enough. It was one thing when Mrs. Clinton lost the 2008 nomination to Barack Obama. Despite his relative inexperience, he was a rare political talent with the added appeal of making history as America’s first black president. But to lose in 2016 to Donald Trump? Winning the popular vote is cold comfort in a race that should never have been close.” She adds, “It’s hard for any candidate to get the formula right. For women, it is harder because of a host of unconscious biases. As often noted, there have been reams of research on this topic, most of it discouraging. The problem goes beyond voters who hold traditional views of gender roles or admit that they wouldn’t be comfortable with a Madam President. More subtly, ambitious women are viewed more negatively than men, while women leaders are often considered less legitimate than men, in the United States, at least. Studies also show that, whatever their particular pros and cons, women candidates are regarded as inherently less electable.”
The Atlantic’s columnist, also a woman, sees a paradox for women in political life, one that can never be resolved by the candidate herself. “One of the truisms of the 2020 campaign — just as it was a truism in 2016, and in 2008 — is that women candidates are punished, still, for public displays of ambition. (One resonant fact of Hillary Clinton’s political life is that she was much more popular, in opinion polls, during her tenure as secretary of state — a role for which she did not campaign, and in which she served as at the pleasure of the president — than she was when, just a few years after that, she sought the presidency herself.)”
The NBC News opinion piece, also penned by a woman, conveyed the feeling of political dismay, mixed with personal sorrow. “And so more voters than not got cold feet and decided the right thing to do was to pick between two elderly men: one with great big progressive ideas and a new heart problem; and the other with a long résumé as a moderate, an association with a beloved past president and apparent memory problems. Both felt, to me, a lot riskier than voting for a woman who is nearly 10 years younger and in excellent health with plans to realize some of the same big ideas — and even bigger ones. But, you know, no one asked me, a woman. That's why the erasure of Warren — the smartest, most thoughtful and arguably best candidate for the presidency, with a plan for damn near everything — stings so much. Voters have spoken, and we’re marching backward because — didn’t you know — now is not the time to select a woman to run against an unpopular, corrupt, and impeached president. We need a fella for that.”
In the Scriptures
The woman who meets Jesus at the well doesn’t appear to have any ambitions for herself that we can see. In spite of the disappointments in her life, she’s willing to engage with a stranger — even a foolish stranger, who seems to be without the bucket that wise travelers carried with them. Her questions are astute, and she’s a worthy conversation partner for Jesus.
This woman’s story gives us an interesting contrast with Nicodemus, who appears in the chapter before this. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and this woman meets Jesus in the bright light of noonday. He has stature in the community, and she does not. He has things to lose, and she has apparently already lost more than we can imagine. Divorce wasn’t available to women, so she has either been divorced by a husband or left a widow five times. Nicodemus goes away thinking, and she goes away to act on what she has learned from Jesus.
In her commentary on this gospel [John: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries] Karoline Lewis suggests that Jesus and this woman have more in common than we see right away. “Jesus is tired, yet another reminder of his finitude. The trip between Jerusalem and Galilee would have taken about three days. Jesus is worn out. He needs water, as does she. He is vulnerable, in need, and she can be the source of his need. There is a mutuality of need present before the two ever utter words to each other.” We are accustomed to people receiving things from Jesus: food, healing, wisdom, a kick in the spiritual pants. In this meeting, each of them gains something from the other.
In the Sermon
In her commentary, Karoline M. Lewis asks, about the woman, “what did she leave behind at the well? The verb can also be translated “let go.” She leaves behind her ostracism, her marginalization, her loneliness, because Jesus has brought her into his fold. She leaves behind her disgrace, her disregard, and the disrespect she has endured to enter into a new reality, a new life that is abundant life. The juxtapositions of what she leaves behind and what she gains are striking.” The sermon might look at what we need to leave behind / let go to meet Jesus in this season of Lent.
The sermon might also consider what biases we need to leave behind in our church community, our city, or our nation, so we’re not leaving other people behind. What worldview do we need to shed to take in a wider view of the future?
Or the sermon might look at who gets overlooked, on a national level and in smaller ways. A member of my church told me her Lenten practice — which works all year, too — is to notice janitors, rest room attendants, bus drivers and other people we don’t usually see, and compliment them on their work. Moving outward from that, who do we render invisible in our political and social spheres?
The counselor from Michigan, quoted above, concludes, “The short version is that these traits — really any leadership traits — are unbecoming in a woman, and furthermore that powerful and ambitious women are unwanted. We don’t like them as a society, but we can’t admit that to ourselves, so we arbitrarily point to anything else to justify our reflexive distaste.” The people who meet the woman at the well follow her lead, and literally follow her back to Jesus, where he spends several days teaching. Jesus is willing to talk with her, a woman and a foreigner, and her neighbors are willing to hear her enthusiastic testimony. She doesn’t come back and say, “Sorry, no one would listen.” What would it take for us to have the same open-mindedness about leaders who look different than what we’re used to?
The woman at the well starts out overlooked and misjudged, and her encounter with Jesus changes her sense of herself, and her role in her community. May we all have the same transforming encounters with Jesus this Lent.
SECOND THOUGHTSKeep Calm, and Carry On
by Dean Feldmeyer
Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; John 4:5-42
Hot, tired, and thirsty, the children of Israel were fed up with what they saw as the ineffective leadership of Moses. He led them into a desert. What’s wrong with him? Didn’t he know that deserts are called deserts because they don’t have water? Did he give even a moment’s thought to what they were going to drink when they got thirsty, as thirsty they would certainly get. It is a desert after all.
“Did you free us from slavery just so you could drag us out into this desert to die of thirst?” They asked. “We were better off back in Egypt,” They said. “Give us water,” they demanded. Some were so angry that Moses feared for his life, afraid that they might stone him to death.
But, with the miracle at Massah, where Moses struck the rock with his staff and water came gushing out, the crisis was averted. Or was it?
Out, Out Darned Spot
Two friends of mine recently retired and moved into a senior citizens community in Florida. Not long after they settled in, there came a call for volunteers to join a Community Emergency Response Team. As the name implies, this team would respond in times of emergency (mostly hurricanes, this being Florida), to assist their neighbors in whatever ways were required, most often in crowd and evacuation control before the emergency, and in search and rescue after.
My friends thought that, being of relatively sound mind and body, this would be an area in which they could help out their neighbors and meet other folks who were of like mind and inclination. Besides, they told me, they got to wear cool uniforms complete with hats and badges and they got to boss other people around, always a plus for a retired pastor.
In order to get certified as a member of the team — a requirement if you want to wear the uniform — each member would have to undergo some thirty hours of training over the course of six Saturdays.
Three weeks into the training, the couple who were leading it left on a week-long Caribbean cruise to celebrate a benchmark wedding anniversary. The trainees had been informed that there would be an interruption in their training. They knew that the classes would be moved back a week and they were all fine with that. No problem, right?
Well, not so fast, there, friends.
When the trainers returned, they came to the gate at the entrance of the retirement community, and, in the course of some pleasant small talk, told the guard what a lovely Caribbean cruise they had just returned from, whereupon they were immediately denied entry onto the grounds. They would not be allowed to enter, they were told, until they had proved that they were free of Coronavirus symptoms for at least two weeks.
Now, maybe — and this is a big MAYBE -- this policy would make sense if every outsider who had been out of the country in the past two weeks was denied entry, but that probably isn't the case. The folks who live there have friends and family visiting all the time. They pass the security people at the front gate with a wave and a smile and are admitted, simply by virtue of their relatives having placed their names on the list of official visitors. Never are any of them asked about their recent travels. And if they were, at least some of them would probably have the common sense to lie about it in order to gain entry and see their parents and/or grandparents.
Then, of course, there are the vendors and service people who regularly come in to stock the cafeteria larders and repair air conditioners and dishwashers and cable connections, none of whom are interrogated about where they’ve been before being allowed to pass through the gate.
I commend management for taking steps to protect the residents of that senior community from the Coronavirus, but their half-way measures at the gate seem born more of panic than common sense. I can’t help but wonder if just a modicum of rational thought might dictate that there are more practical and effective ways of dealing with their concerns.
Panic As An Act Of Unfaith
And, speaking of pan, let’s get this straight: There is no link between the Corona-virus and Corona beer. Is everyone clear about that? No linkage. None. Nada.
I bring this up because last week, 5W Public Relations, an independently-owned PR agency, conducted a phone survey of 737 U.S. residents who considered themselves beer drinkers and that survey revealed that 38 percent of beer-drinking Americans would not buy Corona beer under any circumstances, now. Among those who said they usually drink Corona, 4 percent said they would stop drinking Corona. Fourteen percent said they wouldn’t order Corona in a public venue.
Meanwhile, 16 percent of beer-drinking Americans were confused about whether Corona beer is related to the Coronavirus. But, just for good measure, we’ll say that again: No linkage. None. Nada.
The beer brand, which is the third most popular beer in the United States, gets its name from the sun’s corona.
Fortunately for Constellation Brands, the parent company of Corona and many other beers, the sales slump they are experiencing is not the result of American Coronavirus panic but rather the reduced amount of partying in China, this year, as Chinese New Year celebrations are being curtailed and even canceled in an effort to stem the spread of the virus in Asia. With no parties to go to, the Chinese are drinking a lot less beer, of which American brands are among their favorites.
This story, however, does point out the power of ignorant panic.
The run on surgical style face masks is another case in point. Americans saw videos of people in Asia wearing face masks and immediately jumped to the conclusion that this is an effective prophylactic in protecting people from the virus. It is not.
Viruses are so small that they can easily go through the fabric of a surgical mask. The only way such a mask is effective is if an infected person wears one in order to keep them from not coughing or sneezing on someone else. So panicked are many people that they refuse to believe even the most basic science and they ignore the chiding of their leaders.
Online, sales of virus protection products have skyrocketed, up 817% in the last two months.
The demand for hand sanitizers has gotten so great that people hoping to cash in are selling the stuff on eBay for as much 30 times its regular price. Two bottles of Purell that normally retail for about nine bucks were recently offered at the bargain price of only $299. Both eBay and Amazon have reportedly removed thousands of ads from their sites for price gouging.
That people in a capitalist economy would try to cash in on a disease panic is not all that surprising. That some would actually pay those prices, is.
The stock market has, this past week, plunged and recovered only to plunge again, like a rollercoaster, in surges of wild, unreasonable selling that arise out of panic. Pundits have put the blame on fear of the effect of the Coronavirus on international trade and the economy in general but, be that as it may, there is at least one other reason for the panicky behavior we have seen on Wall Street and that is panic, itself. People panic over this or that thing in the news (today it’s the Coronavirus) and they sell their stocks. Others see them selling and, panicking, they sell theirs as well. Now the stampede is on as people sell their stock like cattle running for no other reason than their perception that the cow next to them is running so they probably should, too.
In a wonderful article in the Washington Post writers Maura Judkis and Avi Selk draw a spot-on picture of the kinds of crazy behaviors that come as a result of Coronavirus panic — a door knob becomes an existential threat; a checkout lane touch screen inspires horror; a trip on public transportation brings on feelings of inescapable doom — all of which are absolutely unnecessary if people would act faithfully and rationally.
Panic is generally defined as: sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly unthinking behavior. As such, it is an act of demonstrable unfaith. Panic is giving into the fear that it’s all up to me, that I have to take care of me and mine because no one else will, that I have to save myself and, if necessary, trample over others to do so.
It assumes that the worst is inevitable. It imagines itself at the center of want and lack even while plenty is plainly in evidence. And, worst of all, it takes God out of the equation.
When we panic, especially like the panic we’re seeing around the Coronavirus, we renounce our faith in a God of love and grace and the son who proclaimed that grace and even gave his life as evidence of it.
A Call To Faith
This was exactly the position of the children of Israel as they suffered the heat, thirst, and general privation in the desert. In a panic, they threatened to kill the one who had, time after time, saved them — from slavery in Egypt, from slaughter at the Red Sea, from starvation with manna and quail.
So, in response to Moses’ pleas, God sends Moses and some of the leaders of the people to Horeb. There, atop a 200-foot hill, stands a giant, five-story boulder that is, today, split down the center. As instructed, Moses strikes the boulder with the staff that he used to part the Red Sea and water gushes out of it.
The people are happy.
But God isn’t. YHWH is angry that the people whined and complained and cursed and threatened Moses because they were thirsty. They didn’t trust in the Lord. After all that had happened up to that time, they still weren’t sure whether or not God was on their side.
The psalm for today tells the rest of the story. Basically, two things happen:
First, God names the place of the rock, Massah and/or Meribah, both of which mean, basically, “Is God on our side or not?”
Secondly, and this is the really serious one, God sentences the people to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, until the oldest generation among them, the adults who did the whining and kvetching and doubting, has all died off and only their children and grandchildren are left to enter the Promised Land.
Because of their lack of faith, the lack which led them to panicky behavior, they will not be able to reap the rewards of faith.
No one is arguing against taking reasonable precautions, many of which are the same ones our public health officials have been begging us to take in their annual battles against the flu: Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and warm water. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Avoid close contact (less than 3 feet) with people who are sick. Stay home when you are sick.
To take reasonable precautions is to affirm that God made us reasonable people with the ability to think and act reasonably and with faith that, whatever the outcome in this particular case, “all things work together for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28).
When panic threatens to overwhelm us, we would do well to remember the plight of Joshua who was assigned to be Moses’ successor and given the job of leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land. I can imagine that he was probably freaking out at all that responsibility and the thought of everything that could possibly go wrong.
It was then, you may recall, that YHWH came to Joshua and, after telling him that he would be in charge and what it was that he was to do, gave him these words of comfort: “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
If we hear those words and take them to heart, there is simply no room left for panic.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Tom Willadsen:Exodus 17:1-7
The wanderers do a lot of grumbling and complaining. They get hungry, they get thirsty, they get afraid, they get tired of manna, and the Lord keeps working through Moses to rescue them. This started before they had escaped Egypt. As Pharoah’s army advanced on them and the Sea of Reeds stood before them, they said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” [Exodus 14:11] They remember Egypt fondly, even though they were slaves.
In the case of Exodus 17, they are afraid because they do not have water and they also need water for their livestock. It’s interesting that the names given to the place where Moses was able to bring water out of rock, Meribah, which means “contention,” and Massah, which means “test” or “trial,” commemorate not the miracle of water coming from rock and saving the people and their animals, but the (bad) behavior of the Israelites.
If you’re looking for a little levity (I know, I know it’s Lent, so perhaps this isn’t the time.) Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, is not only The Troll Capital of the World, but also the home of the National Mustard Museum. There was a time when Mount Horeb, Wisconsin was the site of the only college dedicated to the science of mustard production. It was called Poupon U. You can still buy coffee mugs and sweatshirts that honor this august institution.
* * *
Psalm 95
Polytheism is assumed by the psalmist. Our God is greater than all the others, and therefore worthy of praise and worship. From v. 7b through the end of the psalm God is speaking, and none too happy with the Israelites. The Lord recalls their contention and need for proof from this morning’s reading from Exodus. They remind the Lord that the Lord “loathed” the Israelites and made them wander 40 years. This psalm does not end happily, “Therefore in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”
* * *
Well, well, well
There are two Hebrew terms that are often rendered into English as “well.” One is ﬠ. It can also be rendered “spring,” as in the place from which water gushes. This is also the word for “eye,” which makes some sense when one considers that tears spring from eyes.
The other is בּאּרּ pronounced “beer.” This one appears frequently in place names, eg. Beer-Sheba.
While the definitions and uses of the terms are somewhat fluid, (Ooh, that one just bubbled up, sorry.) generally ﬠיּנּ refers to places from which water rises, while בּאּרּ refers to holes that have been dug into the ground to reach water.
If you want to make a nifty connection to English, one cannot make beer without what comes from a בּאּרּ.
* * *
We need water
While Jesus discusses “living water” with the woman at the well in the reading from John, it’s important to remember that water is essential for life. Clearly he is speaking metaphorically, but people can only survive for around three days without water.
In an arid climate like Samaria getting water was an essential task every single day. Very different from our being able to get as much water as we want by turning on a tap.
* * *
We fight over water
It should come as no surprise that one of the contentious issues that keep the Palestinians and the Israelis from reaching a peace agreement is access to water. Water is necessary for agriculture and for life itself. The conflict over water is often overlooked, but must be resolved if there will ever be peace in the Middle East. Here’s a lot more information about the history of this issue.
* * * * * *
From team member Ron Love:The central themes in today’s lectionary readings are faith and hope.
* * *
Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, had an affair with a 22-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky, while he was in office. The sexual relationship lasted two years, from 1995 to 1997. When the affair became public in 1998, it was received as a national scandal. A four-part documentary series was released on Friday, March 6, 2020. The series is titled Hillary. In the documentary, Bill Clinton described the affair as being motivated by life’s “pressure and disappointments and terrors, fears of whatever, things I did to manage my anxieties for years.” A contributing factor to the affair is the pressures he endured as President. Clinton also described these, “You feel like you are staggering around, you have been in a 15-round prize fight that was extended to 30 rounds and here is something that will take your mind off of it for a while. That is what happens.”
* * *
Sting was the lead singer for the musical group Police, and later became a solo artist. He has sold more than 100 million records and has 17 Grammy Awards. Some of his best-known songs are “Every Breath You Take” and “Fields of Gold” and “Desert Rose.” He was born Gordon Summer in 1951. He grew up Wallsend, England, which is a shipyard town. The massive ships were so large, that according to Sting, they blocked the view of the sun. In an interview published in March 2020, he described his desire to leave Wallsend and become a musician, “They would get a famous celebrity to launch a ship, and I remember seeing the Queen Mother in her Rolls-Royce at the age of eight and thinking, ‘Why can’t I have that life?’ I suppose that’s what feed my ambition to escape.”
* * *
Ben Affleck, who was born in 1972 in Berkley, California, has won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards for his acting. He may be best known for the three movies when he portrayed Bruce Wayne as Batman. After a twelve-year marriage to actress Jennifer Garner ended in divorce in 2018, his concern for his three children caused Affleck to begin drinking uncontrollably. He entered a rehab facility to correct his obsession for alcohol. In an interview published in March 2020, he reflected on that experience. Affleck described his recovery as, “The biggest thing for me is just a sense of freedom.” He went on to say, “I find it liberating.”
* * *
On February 24, 2020, Harvey Weinstein was convicted by a jury of seven men and five women of rape and a criminal sexual act. The five days of deliberation followed a seven-week trial. Prior to his arrest, Weinstein was the studio chief of Miramax and Weinstein Company. He was accused of sexually molesting over 80 women. Annabella Sciorra testified at his trail about his abusive behavior. Sciorra is best known for playing Gloria Trillo on the HBO drama series The Sopranos, which ran from 1999 to 2007. She offered this as the reason she spoke at the trial, “I spoke for myself and the 80-plus victims of Harvey Weinstein in my heart.” After his conviction, Sciorra said, “For speaking truth to power, we pave the way for a more just culture, free of the scourge of violence against women.”
* * *
Melissa McCarthy is an actress, comedian, writer, producer and fashion designer. She is best known for playing the character Megan in the comedy movie Bridesmaids, which was released in 2011. In a March 2020 interview, she was asked how she deals with the new social media. McCarthy responded. “I’ve seen so many hateful things written on Twitter that just shake me to my core. I don’t want to read that and have that in my brain or my heart.” She went on to say, “What do you care what somebody in a different state who you’ll never meet thinks of you?”
* * *
Hillary Clinton, who served as a New York senator from 2001 to 2009, was serving in the Senate when terrorists attacked the country on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. This is better known to us as 9/11. As the Senator representing New York City she visited the city to view where the two World Trade Center buildings were rammed into by two passenger jet liners flown out of Boston. Each building had collapsed from the deliberate cash. The rubble from the fallen buildings was extensive, as each building was over 1,300 feet in height, with one building being 80 stories tall and the other 110 stories tall. Recalling seeing the stricken buildings Clinton said, “I went that day. It looked like hell. I mean, any depiction Dante’s Inferno paled in comparison. It was the most terrible site I’ve ever personally seen. I think about it all the time.”
* * *
In Tom Wilson’s cartoon, Ziggy, the character always seems to be struggling with his place in life. Ziggy is a nondescript cartoon character, with a round face and oversized nose. He is drawn purposely bland to be the caricature of every man and woman who is perplexed by life. In one episode Ziggy is looking at the reader, sitting in a chair, leaning forward with both elbows on his knees and his chin resting in the palms of both of his hands. He has a very baffled look on his face. Ziggy then shares his thoughts with the reader, “…I don’t know what’s worse…either that I’m none of the things I wanted to be when I grew up…or that, maybe, I’m not grown up yet!”
* * *
Matthew McConaughey is an actor who has been in numerous movies. His breakout role came as a supporting actor in the movie Dazed and Confused, which was released in 1993. He was the commencement speaker in 2015 at the University of Houston. In his address to the students McConaughey said, “Life is not a popularity contest. Be brave, take the hill, but first answer the question, ‘What is my hill?’”
* * *
Alecia Moore, better known to us as the singer Pink, was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania in 1979. She may be best known for her second studio album Missundaztood, which was released in 2001 and has sold over 13 million copies. In a 2016 interview Pink shared that she is involved in the organization No Kid Hungry, which provides meals for children, many of whom only have one meal a day, and that is at school. Pink has involved herself in combating child hunger because she wants to help another mother who feels “powerless” in providing for her children. Pink said, “There are so many problems that seem insurmountable in this world, but this one is solvable, and I’m watching them get it done.”
* * *
Allison Janney is an actress. She was born in 1959 in Boston. In 2017 she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, playing LaVona Golden in the comedy I, Tonya. In the movie LaVona Golden was Tonya Harding’s abusive mother. Janney has become involved in Justice for Vets, which ministers to veterans with mental health conditions, as she feels an obligation to assist those who have served our country. In a June 2016 interview Janney said, “I’ve never been an actor-vist, but I lost my brother to substance abuse and I feel like it’s my honor and duty to be a part of this. As an actress I live in such a little bubble, it feels good to help men and women in service.”
* * * * * *
WORSHIPby George Reed
Call to Worship:
Leader: O come, let us sing to our God.
People: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Leader: Let us come into God’s presence with thanksgiving.
People: Let us make a joyful noise to God with songs of praise!
Leader: O come, let us worship and bow down before our Maker!
People: For this is our God, and we are the people of his pasture.
OR
Leader: Come to the waters of life and live in God.
People: We are thirsty and long for refreshment.
Leader: God is the source of all that we need.
People: We come to God to find the water of life.
Leader: God freely gives it to us abundantly so we can share.
People: We rejoice in God’s generosity and will share with others.
Hymns and Songs:
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
UMH: 140
AAHH: 158
NNBH: 45
NCH: 423
CH: 86
ELW: 733
W&P: 72
AMEC: 84
Renew: 249
Fill My Cup, Lord
UMH: 641
PH: 350
AAHH: 447
NNBH: 377
CH: 351
CCB: 47
In the Cross of Christ I Glory
UMH: 295
H82: 441/442
PH: 84
AAHH:
NNBH: 104
NCH: 193/194
LBW: 104
ELW: 324
W&P: 264
AMEC: 153
Spirit Song
UMH: 347
AAHH: 321
CH: 352
W&P: 352
Renew: 248
Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
UMH: 349
NNBH: 195
ELW: 284
W&P: 472
Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me
UMH: 361
H82: 685
AAHH: 559
NNBH: 254
NCH: 596
CH: 214
LBW: 327
ELW: 623
W&P: 384
AMEC: 328
It Is Well with My Soul
UMH: 377
AAHH: 377
NNBH: 255
NCH: 438
CH: 561
ELW: 785
W&P: 428
AMEC: 448
O Come and Dwell in Me
UMH: 388
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
UMH: 400
H82: 686
PH: 356
AAHH: 175
NNBH: 166
NCH: 459
CH: 16
LBW: 499
ELW: 807
W&P: 68
AMEC: 77
STLT: 126
Seek Ye First
UMH: 405
H82: 711
PH: 333
CH: 354
W&P: 349
CCB: 76
As the Deer
CCB: 83
Renew: 9
Something Beautiful
CCB: 84
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELW: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day/Collect
O God who is the cool stream slaking all our thirsts:
Grant us the wisdom to seek you in our needs
that we may be truly satisfied with the water of life;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We worship you, O God, because you are the cool stream that slakes our thirst. In you we find all of our needs satisfied as you lead us into life eternal. Help us to always seek you. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins and especially the ways in which we seek after things that do not satisfy.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a people who are thirsty for life. We want meaning for our lives and our relationships. We want to know that our lives count for something. Yet we seek for answers where there are none. We try to draw water from dry wells. Yet all this time we have you, O God, offering us the living water that leads to life eternal. Forgive our foolish ways and empower us with your Spirit to turn once again to you and your Christ. Amen.
Leader: God desires to quench our thirst for life. God offers us God’s own self to satisfy our needs. Receive God’s gift and share the living water with others.
Prayers of the People
We praise you, O God, because you are life itself and the source of our lives. You are the fountain that never runs dry.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We are a people who are thirsty for life. We want meaning for our lives and our relationships. We want to know that our lives count for something. Yet we seek for answers where there are none. We try to draw water from dry wells. Yet all this time we have you, O God, offering us the living water that leads to life eternal. Forgive our foolish ways and empower us with your Spirit to turn once again to you and your Christ.
We give you thanks for all the ways you bring life to us and us to life. We thank you for your presence in the midst of our hectic lives and the people you send to bring us comfort and solace. We thank you that you never forsake us or give up calling us to yourself.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for one another in our need. We pray for those who thirst for physical water that is fit to drink and for those who seek for spiritual water. We pray for those who find their lives dry and empty because of the evil and hatred around them. We pray for those who are working to bring all types of water to those who need it.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ who taught us to pray together saying:
Our Father....Amen.
(Or if the Our Father is not used at this point in the service.)
All this we ask in the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk to the children about a time when you were thirsty and how good it felt when you finally got a cool drink. Share how in the Bible water often means more than just something to drink. Water is what gives us life. Most of our body is water. We need it for life and we use it for cleaning, refreshing, and recreating our lives. God gave us lots of good water on this earth to meet our needs. God also gives us peace and joy in Jesus.
CHILDREN'S SERMONWater! Water! Get me Water!
by Chris Keating
John 4:5-42
Gather ahead:
A pitcher of water
Small paper cups (which can be easily recycled afterwards)
Pictures of places where people get drinking water from wells.
Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well is a lengthy story that is filled with several significant theological movements critical to John’s narrative. The story provides many places that would be appropriate for teaching to children, but perhaps the easiest for them to grasp would be her conversation with Jesus in verses 5-15, and her excited response to Jesus in verses 28-30, and 39-42.
After the children gather, pour enough water for each of them to have a little cup. You can engage them in a little bit of “did you know” type of conversation about the benefits of drinking plenty of water. For example, did you know:
- Our bodies are 60 percent water, and our blood is 90 percent water;
- Water lubricates our knees, spine, and joints so that they work correctly;
- Water makes sure our mouths don’t get too dry. If we drink too many sweetened drinks, our teeth can be damaged.
- Water brings oxygen throughout our body.
- Water makes your skin look beautiful and healthy!
- Water keeps your body cool when it gets hot, and reduces the chances of heat strain.
- You need water to make sure your food gets digested!
- It spreads minerals around the body.
- It makes sure our internal organs like our kidneys work properly.
In fact, there are many places today that depend on wells for their water, even in many communities near our towns. A well is something we build to get water from out of the ground. In some places in the world, wells are the only way people have access to safe and clean drinking water — that really is an example of “living water.”
Just as he sat down, the woman came to get water for her family and home. She would have gone to the well at least twice a day to get water. She sets down her big jar, and then Jesus asks her, “Can I have drink?” (At this point, you may wish to read the story directly from scripture.) She’s surprised at Jesus’ request. The woman was a Samaritan, and typically Samaritans and Jewish people did not get along (like the story of the “Good Samaritan.”) She wonders why Jesus has asked her for water, and then he says something really surprising! (Go ahead and fill up the cups again.)
“If you knew who it is that was speaking to you, you would ask me for the gift of living water!”
The woman is astonished; the well is very, very, very deep. Jesus does not even have a cup, let alone a bucket and a rope. How will he get this “living water?”
He is referring, of course, to the gifts God gives us. He knows that as people come to know him, they will discover the life God wants them to live. They will find real happiness and joy. People who drink this sort of “water” that God gives will never, ever be thirsty.
Wonder with the children: “How could that be?”
One way it could happen today is by helping children and families who do not have access to clean water drill wells where they can find water that will bring them life. The Water Project (thewaterproject.org) gives examples of how people in the United States can help provide safe water in Africa. Another way we could help people find “living water” is by sharing God’s love for our planet. Recycling, cleaning up rivers and streams, and taking care of the earth, will help all of God’s people find the water they need. Sometimes, too, “living water” can be the wonderful things we do for others, or even the water we use for baptism. By sharing God’s love, just as you have shared the cups of water today, we make sure all people can discover the joy that the woman finds after meeting Jesus.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, March 15, 2020 issue.
Copyright 2020 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
