Exodus 17.1-7

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 quarrelled 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 quarrelled and tested the Lord , saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’

 

 

REFLECTION

 This seems like a strange match up with the woman at the Well. I think it is a contrasting event. Mses is faced with the complaints of the people for water. Moses' response, 'Why do you test God?' I believe the statement is about their wanting him to ask God for water and Moses does not see it as a necessary request of God. It is like Moses has decided what is important to ask God. Moses doesn't go to God asking out of love for the people, but out of frustration. God gives Moses instructions to go and strike a rock. When Moses does as requested the water comes. The reading ends with a focus on the people testing God. What is not in this reading is that because of this event Moses would not enter the promised land (Numbers 20:12, Deuteronomy 32:51-52). Moses did not look to God, but to his own understanding/ideas/opinion and did not trust God. He acted in anger at the people rather than the love God had for the people.

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Psalm 95

1 O come, let us sing out to the Lord:

let us shout in triumph to the rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before his face with thanksgiving:

and cry out to him joyfully in psalms.

3 For the Lord is a great God:

and a great king above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth:

and the peaks of the mountains are his also.

5 The sea is his and he made it:

his hands moulded dry land.

6 Come, let us worship and bow down:

and kneel before the Lord our maker.

7 For he is the Lord our God:

we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

8 Today if only you would hear his voice—

‘Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah:

as on that day at Massah in the wilderness;

9 ‘When your forebears tested me:

put me to proof, though they had seen my works.

10 ‘Forty years long I loathed that generation and said:

“It is a people who err in their hearts,

for they do not know my ways”;

11 ‘Of whom I swore in my wrath:

“They shall not enter my rest.”’

 

 

Romans 5.1-11

1 Therefore, 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.

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REFLECTION

Can you read Paul's joy at the water and food of God's grace? Paul is so excited about the gift of God's salvation, the living water, that he boasts about his suffering. Paul has learnt to grow endurance, character and hope out of his suffering. I love that in this verse he acknowledges the place of the Holy Spirit in the life of our faith. Paul tries to express the love God and Jesus have for us in that he died for those who broke/break the relationship with God through their thoughts, words and deeds. In this act though Jesus pours more life and grace into our lives.  

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John 4.5-42

5 So he 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 worshipped 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 worshippers 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 labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’ 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 for 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 Saviour of the world.’

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REFLECTION

The story is a popular one and sees the Samaritan woman lost in her sin and yet expressing a faith in God's salvation. The conversation starts with a request for water and yet Jesus never gets the water and instead offers her water. God reaches out to this woman. Why? There were a number of reasons to justify Jesus ignoring her and even resenting her, but he reaches out to her. I don't think it was all about the woman, she was the road into the village. Through her God would bring the message of salvation to the people. When Jesus revealed that he knew her life situation and offered her the water of life that she needed, and declared he was the Messiah, her focus changed. She ignored her shame and hardship and rejoiced and went and shared the Good News. 

Interestingly, the woman forgot about her water and when asked Jesus did not need the food.

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Jesus tells his disciples that the field/world is ready for harvesting, but of what? we can look at it in two ways. The first is that God has sent prophets, messengers and teachers into the world since Adam and Eve and that the time is right to bring those who have been prepared to God, like the Samaritan woman. Those who sowed will not reap. The disciples will harvest the works of Elijah, Moses, Samuel and others.

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Are we still in the harvest? I think that we go in waves of times where people are not interested in God and the gift of grace. Then events happen and there is a time where people's hearts are open and calling for God's grace. The churches prayers and search are to know their place in the cycle. Are we in a time of sowing and planting the seed which will lead to the harvest, or are we in a time of reaping, going to gather those hungry and thirsty for God's grace?

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Maybe even more relevant is whether my heart is hungry and thirsty for the grace of God?

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