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| Moses Striking the Rock Marc Chagall |
At this
point in the Book of Exodus the people have fled from Egypt and successfully
crossed “the sea of reeds.” They now find themselves in the vast wilderness of
the Sinai and their elation changes to complaint. Moses is attacked as a leader
and he, in turn, complains to God. God responds with the miracle of water at
Massah and Meribah (Hebrew words that mean “test” and “find fault,” thus the
place is a memorial not to the miracle, but to the people’s unfaithfulness).
17:1 From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites
journeyed by stages, as the Lord
commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to
drink. 2 The people quarreled with
Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you
quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”
3 But the people thirsted there for
water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us
out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people?
They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The
Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead
of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your
hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will be standing there in front of you on
the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the
people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah,
because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord,
saying, “Is the Lord among us or
not?”
Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing to the Lord; *
let us shout for joy
to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his
presence with thanksgiving *
and raise a loud
shout to him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King
above all gods.
4 In his hand are the caverns
of the earth, *
and the heights of
the hills are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made
it, *
and his hands have
molded the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down, and
bend the knee, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture and
the sheep of his hand. *
Oh, that today you
would hearken to his voice
8 Harden not your hearts,
as your forebears did in the
wilderness, *
at Meribah, and on
that day at Massah, when they tempted me.
9 They put me to the test, *
though they had seen
my works.
10 Forty years long I detested
that generation and said, *
“This people are
wayward in their hearts;
they do not know my
ways.”
11 So I swore in my wrath, *
“They shall not enter
into my rest.”
The
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-11
5:1 Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom
we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our
hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And
not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering
produces endurance, 4 and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, 5
and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right
time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed,
rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person
someone might actually dare to die. 8 But
God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for
us. 9 Much more surely then, now
that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the
wrath of God. 10 For if while we
were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more
surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
reconciliation.
The
Holy Gospel: John 4:5-42
We began our Lenten journey with individuals from John’s Gospel last
week with Nicodemus. Each of these
characters is faced with surprising newness from Jesus. Here newness comes through his speaking to
the woman at the well in the first place, his honesty with her, and his talk of
“living water” available even to her, a Samaritan. She gradually comes to understand
who Jesus is and her announcement of his dealings with her are the first public
witness in John’s Gospel. In later Christian tradition (especially in the
East), she is known as Photini, “enlightened.”
4:5 Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground
that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s
well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well.
It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan
woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy
food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said
to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
(Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no
bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob,
who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of
this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.” 15 The woman said to
him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep
coming here to draw water.” 16 Jesus
said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no
husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one
you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you
are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors
worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must
worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus
said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the
Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22
You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for
salvation is from the Jews. 23 But
the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must
worship in spirit and truth.” 25 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.” 26
Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” 27 Just then his disciples came. They were
astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you
want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then
the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people,
29 “Come and see a man who told me
everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to
him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples
were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But
he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely
no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus
said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his
work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months
more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the
fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The
reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so
that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For
here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did
not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” 39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in
him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.”
40 So when the Samaritans came to
him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word.
42 They said to the woman, “It is
no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for
ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
The
Scripture quotations (except for the psalm) are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the
Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ
in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.
All rights reserved. The Collect
of the Day and the Psalm translation are from The Book of Common Prayer. Commentaries
are copyright © 2017, Epiphany ESources, 67 E. Main St., Hornell, NY 14843, www.epiphanyesources.com. All
rights reserved. Permission is granted
to copy for group study with attribution.
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