Old Testament: Exodus 17:1-7
Gospel: John 4:5-42
Epistle: Romans 5:1-11
Welcome to the third week of
Lent. The time of preparation continues as we are about half way through
Lent. Hopefully this time of intentional
preparation and drawing closer to God is of some benefit to you. Unfortunately, sometimes we want to slow down
and have more time for God and others in our lives, but life events get it in
the way. Even in the midst of our
business and circumstances though it is vital we remember that it is in Christ
that we find meaning, hope, love, and salvation. God, revealed in Christ, and
present in us through his Spirit must be the center of our lives, busy or not.
This week our Old Testament passages focus on the rebellion of the Israelites in the wilderness and the two words Meribah and Massah; meaning “test” and “quarrel.” This is an example of a time when the people of God tested the Lord and the Lord judged them so that they couldn’t go into the Promise Land.
The John passage is the story
of the Samaritan woman at the well. This
is a well-known story of Jesus breaking pretty much every social barrier possible,
to engage the women and lead her and her town to follow Jesus. This story is interesting on so many levels
and has an air of authenticity for those who might doubt the account the
Gospels tell, because who would make this story up. Especially for the time in which this happened and
when it was recorded. Jesus reveals his
willingness to engage anybody and everybody to invite them into the family of
God. In fact, he cuts through the
religious debate of the day between the Jews and the Samarians over who is
worshiping the right way. Neither of
them have it the way it will be in the future when people will worship the
Father in spirit and truth. The woman
then says that she believes what Jesus is saying, but when the Messiah comes he
will reveal even more and clarify Jesus' kind of vague language. And then Jesus does something strange and says
something he only alludes to one other time before his trial; he confesses that
he is the Messiah, or Christ. (the other occurrence is Mark 9:41) This is also
the first time in John where he uses one of the I AM statements to describe
himself. He answers the woman by saying
"I AM, the one to whom you are speaking."
This instance in 4:46 isn’t usually counted in the seven I AM sayings,
but as the first one and the one in which he declares he is the Christ, I think
it is important.
Last week we kind of muddled
through the Romans passage and I must confess that I find myself even more
confused this week. Perhaps Romans is
best read in its entirety before one tries to tackle it piece-by-piece. That is probably good advice for any book of the
Bible or any literature actually. But this
week in particular I feel like Paul’s arguments are so densely pack we don’t
have time to deal with them properly.
I know this week is short. I
apologize for that, but some weeks are extra-long so things even out. This week may we continue in a repentant and
humble spirit as we fast, reflect, and seek to grow closer to God in our daily
lives. May the love of God live in us
and through us this week.
Grace and Peace.
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