Daily Office Readings for Thursday of the Second Week of Epiphany: Year 2
Morning, Psalm 37:1 to 18; Evening, Psalm 37:19 to 42;
Genesis 11:1 to 9; Hebrews 6:13 to 20; John 4:1 to 15:
“A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 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.)” (John 4:7 – 9)
Many of Jesus’ teachings, as well as his miracle stories, take place with people outside of the Israelite people. In this particular case the woman at the well is not only a Samaritan, she is also a woman who may not be liked in her own community. She has had many husbands; she goes out at noon, in the heat of the day alone, when no one else is at the well. All of this speaks of her isolation. She is not only estranged from Jesus, she is estranged from her own community.
It seems Jesus had to be free of his cohorts in order to have this exchange. They might have interfered. We’ve seen where the apostles wanted to send hungry people home rather than feed them; keep children away from Jesus, stop a blind man that needed our Lord Jesus and other such instances where the apostles tried to “protect” Jesus. Jesus, nor we, need protection from people just because they are different from us. That is, when they are not the same sex, orientation, nationality, language, so called race, religious affiliation or political stripe. But like Jesus, we might have to get away from our regular crowd of influencers in order to be honest with those who differ from us, and with ourselves.
When we hear a stranger ask us how it is that we will be with them given that we are so different, we will know then that we’ve made it. Thank You Lord Jesus.
As we listen to what the Spirit is saying to us, let us live to love, to serve, and to teach, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 