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.

Difficult Faith

John 4:43-54

According to commentator Lamar Williamson Jr. is his book Preaching the Gospel of John: Proclaiming the Living Word, our text from the fourth gospel today is a story in which a man’s life is transformed by his desperate search for a miracle. “Then (Jesus) came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe’" (John 4:46-48).

For me the challenging part of the text comes in Jesus’ initial rebuff of the official. It is only when the man persists that Jesus heals the son (from a distance) and as a result plants the seeds of faith. But would Jesus really have allowed the son to die had the father not continued to beg? There is no way to tell. We only know what we read which is that Jesus did act and the boy did recover as a result. If nothing else, though, this passage should remind us that faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is to be taken very seriously. If we want signs and wonders for our own delight, if we seek a good luck charm that we can keep in a dresser drawer for special occasions, if we are only interested in Jesus on our terms (what can Jesus do for me?) then we will find that we have no faith at all. But if we are willing to trust Jesus as Lord of our lives all the time, to remain attuned to the message of the gospel even when it is not to our liking, to allow Jesus to work through us as vessels of grace for others, then Jesus is already calling us to respond.

As difficult as it is, the story about the royal official’s son is a reminder of the demands that faith places upon us, of the claims it makes on our time and talents. Faith, too, is difficult, but as a gift from God nothing is more important in our lives.

Prayer: Lord grant us the faith we need to live as your people all the days of your lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Parenthetically Speaking

John 4:16-26

The translation of scripture into a particular language is not always the best guide to the passage’s intent, but the way the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible renders part of our gospel reading for today is interesting. Jesus is speaking with the woman at the well in Samaria. “The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you’” (John 4:25-26). My question is why is the phrase “who is called Christ” placed in parenthesis? This is not a part of the woman’s remarks—the NRSV leaves the parentheses outside of the quotation marks. So if the woman didn’t pause to more fully define “Messiah,” who did? The answer is the author of John did, or at least the NRSV Bible assumes he did. And if the author of John added the words “who is called Christ” it would appear to be for the benefit of those who will encounter the text in years to come; which, by the way, includes you and me.

Think of it this way then: sitting by the well we see Jesus, a Samaritan woman, and everyone who will ever read the account as shared in John’s gospel. That’s us, bound up by the parenthesis, those who can hear the stage whisper, as though the woman herself was saying, “Pssst, I know you’re there, now pay attention,” at which point Jesus himself nods his agreement. Reading scripture should never be taken as a passive encounter. To interact with the word of God is to be subsumed into the story. We may not be characters per se, but we have a role to play. We are to listen, to learn, to grow, and then to share with others which is pretty much what the Samaritan woman did in this story.

John was writing for our benefit, and the benefit of millions of others over the centuries. The parentheses of John 4:25 is just one small reminder that we can not hide unnoticed. We, the readers and hearers of scripture, have been shoved into the scene and given a role to play. This is how story, too.

Prayer: Lord, help us to hear your word and to live out its meaning in our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Priorities

John 4:1-15

"Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" (John 4:12). According to our reading from John this morning a Samaritan woman asked this question of Jesus. In hindsight it is an ironic thing to ask. Of course the Son of God, the Word Incarnate, is greater than Jacob and his sons. But in a contemporary setting the woman's inquiry should probably give us pause. I know that I ask similar questions just about daily. Oh, they are not as pointed, of course, but behind the choices that I make, behind the decisions that I reach, there lies a fundamental conflict.

"Jesus, are you greater than the things I want to buy with MY money?"

"Jesus, are you greater than the rights I claim as a citizen of a nation?"

"Jesus, are you greater than the platform of any political party or any candidate or any administration?"

"Jesus, are you greater than what I think I know to be true about the church before I even ask?"

The answer is always yes, of course, but the fact that I ever find myself dealing with such issues is telling. Humility before the Lord is sometimes tough to manage, but the alternative puts us at odds with God's will. Today we all have another chance to get our priorities in order. Thanks be to God.

Prayer: Lord, help me to know you and to follow you with justice, kindness, and a humble spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.