March 12: The Third Sunday of Lent

The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for March 12, 2023 was preached in response to John 4:5-42 based on the manuscript below.

“Then the woman left her water jar 

and went back to the city.”

While many of us know that Lent

is a time of fasting,

its ancient focus and purpose

has largely gotten lost

in popular portrayals —

and devotions.

Lent is not a six-week meditation

on Jesus’ crucifixion.

Nor is it a six-week meditation

on how bad we are

and all the things wrong

we’ve ever done.

The season of Lent focuses us again

on re-learning how to live as one of Jesus’ disciples.

Fasting, the most well known practice,

is done so that we’re ready to meet Jesus

by the well,

to meet him by the font

at the Easter Vigil.

In today’s text from John

Jesus is by a well.

It’s noon, and his disciples have gone into the city

to buy food.

A Samaritan woman,

someone Jewish folk would have seen

as ritually unclean

because of their ethnic lineage

and different worship patterns

comes to draw water. 

It’s noon and she’s alone,

but drawing water is usually 

a morning and evening activity

done in groups.

Jesus asks her for a drink

which astounds her.

A man is initiating conversation

with a woman

and they’re kinds of people

who do not get along or share.

Jesus tells her

that if she knew who was asking for water

she would have asked for living water.

In a typical fashion of John

there’s a miscommunication that leads to confusion. 

She thinks he’s offering her

water that flows

rather than from a cistern!

Except he doesn’t have a bucket. 

Jesus uses this miscommunication

to get more explicit. 

“Everyone who drinks of this water 

will be thirsty again, 

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.”

A spring of water gushing up to eternal life

sounds pretty great to this woman,

though she’s still focused on the well

on literal water.

She’s asked for living water,

but Jesus still wants her to know

that he is the living water

that he is the Messiah

whose existence and teaching

lead to eternal life.

To use her words,

Jesus tells her everything she’s ever done.

We don’t know what she’s had five husbands

nor who this new sixth paramor is.

What we know is that her life

is one on the margins

for whatever reasons.

We see this in her coming at noon

and not in the morning.

We see this in her coming to the well alone

and not with the other women of the town

who need to get water too.

In the way that he knows her

this woman knows Jesus

is at least a prophet.

She asks him about worship

and who is doing it right.

While he gives her an answer,

it’s basically that it doesn’t matter.

She understands that!

A prophet-like-Moses is coming back

and will teach them the true right ways

of worshiping God

and of following God’s commandments.

Having taught her about living water,

gotten her to ask for it,

shown her who that he knows her

Jesus then tells her

that he is that prophet. 

He is the Messiah. 

Then the woman left her water jar 

and went back to the city. 

She said to the people, 

“Come and see a man 

who told me everything 

I have ever done! 

He cannot be the Messiah, 

can he?” 

They left the city 

and were on their way to him.

Jesus is the living water

who knows everything we’ve ever done

and calls us still to the well

of that living water.

The season of Lent focuses us again

on re-learning how to live as one of Jesus’ disciples.

Fasting, the most well known practice,

is done so that we’re ready to meet Jesus

by the well,

to meet him by the font

at the Easter Vigil.

We confess mightily on Ash Wednesday

and pray deeply on the First Sunday in Lent

with the Great Litany.

Jesus has come to bring us

and to be for us

a spring of water 

gushing up to eternal life.

Last week we heard

about needing to be born from above

by water and the Spirit.

We’re working our way to the font

the womb of the church.

Today we’re hearing about gushing,

living water,

Jesus’s life and teaching.

Next week we’ll hear 

about a man being sent to wash in a pool

and then receiving his sight.

If we need to be reminded of the Good News

of Jesus the Christ,

it’s here.

God dwelling among us

bringing salvation to creation

Jesus is here.

From that reminder

when we have the living water

that gushes, bubbles, and burbles 

we’re expected to leave our jars too,

go into town,

and tell people what we’ve experienced.

It’s been a bleak week

if we have our eyes on how our trans siblings

are being portrayed in media

and by legislators.

In some places trans panic 

is bleeding into attacks on queerness in general.

It’s been a bleak 18 months 

for women’s healthcare choices.

Some places seem committed to hiding the truth

about who our country has been

from its founding

and committed to shutting down

those who would work 

for us to live up to our failed ideals.

Belief in Jesus,

even belief that leads to changed behaviors

doesn’t automatically or magically

fix any of that.

Drinking deeply of Jesus

God made flesh dwelling among us

 a spring of water gushing up to eternal life

isn’t an easy way out.

It does, however, refresh us.

It keeps us cool and focused

refreshed in the face of bleakness

so that we can go out to love our neighbors

and show them God’s love. 

Then the woman left her water jar 

and went back to the city. Amen

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