Watch Your Tone

John 4:1-26
Our gospel reading for today contains a conversation that I would really like to have heard. I say that because the tone taken by the Samaritan woman in her responses to Jesus would tell us a great deal about her mindset. Take this exchange for example: "Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink," you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?'" (John 4:10-12). Now the woman may have been asking an honest question of Jesus when she asked whether he was greater than Jacob. Or this may have been a sarcastic wise crack, along the lines of, "just who do you think you are? Do you really think you are greater than Jacob?" We know the truth, but the point is that the woman didn't and therefore had no reference point by which to gage Jesus' words.

All of which makes me wonder what sort of tone I take with God. Are my prayers and supplications honest and straightforward? Do they rise as a genuine expression of faith? Or do I offer something less than honesty to God, do I try to manipulate the divine response to my needs, do I challenge God's sovereign authority to be who God is? What sort of tone do I take with God, and what does that tone say about me? Maybe I should quit wondering about the Samaritan woman and start "listening" to myself for a change. I'm sure I would be surprised.

Prayer: Lord God, forgive us when we fail to honor you with our word and our actions. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.