March 2008
Reflections - "Love is at the Well"
In the Gospel Reading (John 4:5-42) for the Third Sunday in Lent, Jesus, tired out by his journey sits by Jacob’s well. Jacob’s well lay at a crossroads west to Galilee and north to Bethshan. A deep well at a crossroads would be like a fuel stop along the interstate highways today. After all, camels and people do need to fill up with water. And men on the road, as all those interstate spas suggest, can want more than just coffee and apple pie. Although women were assigned the tedious task of drawing water, decorum insisted that they go to get water in a group. An unaccompanied woman going to draw later by herself…….doing business at a local truck stop…..well. Theologian Alice Camille writes, "So when Jesus meets the woman at the well, the suggestion of a liaison is in the air from the start. Asking her for water is not quite the same as asking ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ but her sharp reply is a no nonsense way of showing Jesus she is not a woman to mess with. After their spirited exchange about living water, however, the woman is intrigued by the idea of a beverage that quenches thirst for good. It is this notion of the bottomless drink that prompts Jesus to bring up the woman’s 5 previous husbands and the man she is presently living with. After all this woman has been coming up thirsty and dry every time in her relationships. So Jesus offers to replace her merry-go-round of romance with something lasting that she can count on. Jesus does not keep her, or for that matter you and me, waiting, for at the end of the conversation he says sincerely, "I am he. I am Messiah. I am living water for you." For this world weary seeker, this woman, this Samaritan, this five time loser, it was enough. She ran to the city and told everyone what she knew, and about the one who knew her. Love is at the well.
God’s revelation, God’s encounter, God’s invitation is not in a remote far off place from day to day living. It is smack dab right in the middle of everyday life at a well, in a bush, at the office, in people we cross paths with, summoning us to look at the world in a different way, to take on a late vocation, a second career, to be a part of God’s boundary breaking healing of the world. Grateful for God’s mercies, God’s eternal food and drink, God’s call, God’s graces that abound, we run with the Samaritan woman and the women at the Cross and Tomb to share with the world what we know, and about the One who lovingly knows us. Blessed Lent/Holy Week and Joyous Easter!
When I visited St. Katherine’s Monastery in the Sinai last summer, I was shown the well where tradition has it that Moses met the daughters of Jethro, eventually marrying one of them. In the Old Testament the well is a place where couples meet. It is at a well that Jacob meets Rachel and falls in love with her. It is at a well where the servant of Isaac goes looking for a woman for his master and finds Rebekah. Love is at the well is a familiar theme in ancient stories. Seeing the ancient water source at St. Katharine’s was interesting, but what fascinated and surprised me was that within 20 feet of this historic well was the Burning Bush where Moses would encounter God, taking off his shoes before Holy Ground. God’s revelation to Moses was not in a remote far off place from day to day living, it was smack dab right in the middle of everyday life in a bush that people would have passed hundreds of times in a year. Yet one day God appears in the ordinary to summon Moses to look at the world in a different way, to take on a late vocation, a second career to free his people from Pharoah’s slavery in Egypt. Love is at the well.
