First Word

three Wise Women

The Samaritan Woman

Friday, January 19


The First Word 


John 4: 41-42

41 Many more believed because of his word, 42 and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this one is truly the savior of the world.”

Do you remember the girl that was hiding?  Jesus’ love can transform someone from the witness protection program to the actual ‘witness program’.  This hiding woman becomes the great witness to her community. She is the one who introduces people to this “Jesus”.  The “many more” part of her community believed Jesus because of his word.  But they also acknowledged that she was the first word spoken to them. 

Your words today might not be the transforming word - in fact - our words will fall short of bringing transformation apart from the follow up of Jesus’ words.  Her word didn’t do it, but transformation wouldn’t have begun without her first word.  She brought Jesus to people.  She spoke a word about Him that invited others to hear what this Jesus had to say.  The rest is history. 

I wonder if that is all that is needed in our world today, just a simple introduction.  

Would you be willing to be the first word?  What will it require?  It requires - 

  1. for you to come out of hiding.  Don’t be afraid, let your life speak as a witness.

  2. for you to simply point and introduce.  Don’t worry about answering questions - hey, Jesus didn’t do it all the time.  Out of the 187 questions he was asked in the Gospels, he only answered 3 of them.  He asked over 300 by the way.  The first word isn’t a trumpet shout, but most likely a question that leads to further inquiry. 

  3. for you to simply just begin.  Trust God for the rest.    


Prayer

God, thank you for the one who invited me to know you. Amen


Vegetable Gardens

three Wise Women

The Samaritan Woman

Thursday, January 18


Vegetable Gardens


John 4: 35b-38

Look, I tell you: open your eyes and notice that the fields are already ripe for the harvest. 36 Those who harvest are receiving their pay and gathering fruit for eternal life so that those who sow and those who harvest can celebrate together. 37 This is a true saying, that one sows and another harvests. 38 I have sent you to harvest what you didn’t work hard for; others worked hard, and you will share in their hard work.”


Friends with vegetable gardens are good to have.  Even better are friends with chicken wing gardens.  Someone needs to invent those, and I need friends who will plant chicken wings and share in the excess of their harvest.  


Friends with vegetable gardens will come around with a bunch of stuff for your salads and you get to add all sorts of cool stuff onto your plate without having to get your hands dirty.  This is essentially what Jesus is saying to his disciples.  These verses are some of the most forgotten in this chapter because of the back and forth with the Samaritan Woman.  But aren’t they interesting? 


I don’t know if we fully appreciate them.  There are things that you will be able to benefit from today because someone else did the work necessary to plant or begin something.  The fields are indeed ripe for harvest and I don’t know if I remember doing the work of planting them.  Someone else did.  We get to be beneficiaries of those who have come before us.  What will happen today that you can easily acknowledge as an example of this?


How will that change your day?  Are you able to plant and begin something even if you're not the one to benefit from it?  Are you willing to get your hands dirty so that someone else might be able to enjoy it?  Don’t forget the blue cheese by the way.  That is a necessary part of any chicken wing garden. 


Prayer

Lord, I may plant or I may harvest, but in either one I will give you thanks.  Amen 


Talking Religion

three Wise Women

The Samaritan Woman

Wednesday, January 17


Talking Religion


Yesterday, Jesus revealed something miraculous to the Samaritan Woman.  He knew her story, or at least he knew of her infamous story in the community.  


Here is her response - 

John 4: 19-20

19 The woman said, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you and your people say that it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem.”


Someone must have not told her that you shouldn’t talk about religion in public.  You can understand why she or people in general want to talk about religion with a ‘vocationally religious person’.  It makes sense.  People want to know what it is like or what pastors (or prophets) might do with their time.  This is what is happening with the Samaritan Woman and Jesus.  She responds to Jesus’ statement with an affirmation of his knowledge - hence the - you are a prophet, thing.  Then she jumps into some religious debate.  We worship here - you guys say we should worship there.  What’s the deal?  Who’s right?  Why is this so?  


Do you see questions or debates like this going on in faith conversations today?  Once church or religion makes its way into a conversation, our inquiry meter jumps through the roof.  But her inquiry is redirected not to an answer to her question, but to a coming reality and present truth of what her searching will hope to discover.  Jesus is going to show how he is the answer that she has been searching for all along.  He is willing to do the same for you too.   


Their conversation isn’t about water or wells anymore.  It is about something much deeper than any well.  Next time someone wants to talk about religion to you will you direct them to the one who is the answer to all of our longing spiritual inquiries? Or will you talk about different styles of worship, different denominations, or about differing statements of faith or belief systems?  Why not just point to Jesus? 


Prayer

Lord, you are what my heart has been searching for. Amen 


Take it Easy

three Wise Women

The Samaritan Woman

Tuesday, January 16


Take it Easy


John 4: 17-18

17 The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.” “You are right to say, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus answered. 18 “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you are with now isn’t your husband. You’ve spoken the truth.”


Based upon what Jesus just said to the Samaritan woman, we can become pretty quick to judge or pretty quick to look down our own noses at her.  But before we dive deeper into this woman’s character or life, let’s take a moment to consider a few things.  Let’s take it easy. 


Was she divorced? This is our first assumption, but take it easy on the judgment for a moment.  Here are some things to consider: Hillel, a prominent 1st century interpreter of the law, taught that the grounds for a man to divorce his wife included:

  • Poor cooking

  • Speaking disrespectfully of the husband’s family in his hearing 

  • Speaking loudly enough to be heard in the next house.

    

If this were the case today - how many of us might be in danger or not lasting?  Remember that women didn’t have a choice in this matter.  


What about Infertility? Was she divorced because she couldn’t have children? That was a common problem at that time. If a woman couldn’t bear a child, she was viewed as a burden.  By the way, no one considered that it could have been the man’s inability to conceive children. It was always blamed on the woman. 


Considering these possibilities, let’s seek to understand.  Our seeking to understand doesn’t have to equal our affirmation of such choices.  Though in that world, one might see how these decisions were more based upon survival rather than a lack of a moral compass.  


She is a mystery to us, but not to Jesus.  Our lives and choices are a mystery to others, but not to Jesus.  If he is one who finds us while we are hiding, could we learn to trust that he knows our deepest need?  


When we look at others, it is easy to place them into our defined understanding of limiting morality.  We judge - often too easy at times.  If you don’t think so - just remember that it is probably happening to you as well.  If we do it to others and others do it to us, is there any hope? I believe there is.  It is found in the person of Jesus.  Jesus speaks to this woman and to us in a way that will engage our deepest longing and inquiry.  If we only get surface level with those that we judge, then this our reaped reward.  But imagine the possibilities if we could hold off judgment for just a second to see people as Jesus sees them.  


Prayer
Lord, help me to see others as you see them.  Amen


The Empty Well

three Wise Women

The Samaritan Woman

Monday, January 15

The Empty Well 

John 4: 6b-7

It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.”

The Samaritan Woman story (found in John 4) is a story that we are familiar with.  Not just because we have learned about it in Sunday school or church, but because it is our story.  This week we will unpack the meaning of the woman at the well, and us a bit more. 

It was noontime and the Samaritan Woman came to draw water.  She did this most likely to avoid others in the community that she didn’t want to engage with.  You see, it is not the wisest decision to do manual labor during the hottest part of the day.  Or perhaps this would have also been a time when others (not all) might hold onto the older traditions of noontime prayer.  So most would either be napping in the shade or going to worship and pray at this hour.  The well would have been deserted.  

Is she just an extreme introvert?  Do people freak her out?  Maybe there is another reason.  So either she is not very smart or she is very smart for what she needs.  She comes at noon because she has to.  She has to hide.  If you don’t know the reason why, we will learn that tomorrow.  But before that - I want you to consider this question - 

Where are you hiding? 

Are you putting on a mask? Are you hiding in your work? Are you too afraid to let your true self be known?  Is it easier to just get the water at noon rather than face what others might think or say about you?  

It is in the places of our hiding when we often discover Jesus is already waiting for us there.  There he is waiting to engage her in conversation.  The story continues.  He is waiting for you too.  In the place of your fear-filled reserved quietness, he is already there.  Talk to him.  You don’t have to hide anymore.  

Prayer

Lord, help me not to hide from what is before me today.  Amen 


Victory and Defeat

three Wise Women

Rahab

Friday, January 12

Victory and Defeat

Joshua 2: 22-24

They departed and went into the hill country and stayed there three days, until the pursuers returned. The pursuers had searched all along the way and found nothing. Then the two men came down again from the hill country. They crossed over, came to Joshua son of Nun, and told him all that had happened to them. They said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt in fear before us.”


Whose voices do we hear; whose stories do we leave unheard?

Old Testament stories often challenge us to ask tough questions about the Bible and ourselves.  Take for example the story of the conquest period of Joshua.  Moses and the wandering in the wilderness time is going to be soon over.  Egypt is a thing of the past, but the wounds of Egypt run deep.  When given the opportunity, they found ways to repeat the hurt and trauma done unto them and visit it upon others.   We are left with questions like - Would God choose to give lands to one people over another? Is it really God's will for people to melt in fear?


Not every story has a pretty bow on top of it.  All is not neatly wrapped up and settled without consequences.  For the people of God, part of our story is the truth that, it does not take long for those who were oppressed to become oppressors.  The spies are scouting out the city to take it over.  This is how we run into Rahab, and how she is included in the story.  

What is the redeemable quality to a story like this?  Is there anything we can learn or gather about the human condition?  What hope do we have? 


I invite you to remember that Rahab becomes part of the people of God. She becomes the great-great grandmother of King David and part of the lineage of Jesus. Rahab is remembered as a hero of faith.  She shines a hopeful spotlight on what seems to be a one-sided story of victory.  Still, we also see the reality of defeat for others.  


Rahab’s story requires us to wonder about the voices not heard, the people not saved. In somber reflection, we must ask, “What inhabitants of the land today melt in fear because of us? Whose voices do we hear; whose stories do we leave unheard?”


Prayer    

God, I'm listening. I'm listening for you. Amen


Shake On It

three Wise Women

Rahab

Thursday, January 11

Shake on it

Joshua 2:17-21 

The men said to her, “We will be released from this oath that you have made us swear to you if we invade the land and you do not tie this crimson cord in the window through which you let us down, and you do not gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your family…. She said, “According to your words, so be it.” She sent them away and they departed. Then she tied the crimson cord in the window.

So be it. 

Do you remember the days of the old-fashioned handshake?  Business deals were even done in this way at times.  You knew that someone was going to stick to their word because they “shook on it.”  In some way, this is exactly what the spies and Rahab were doing.  They didn’t have time to draw up a contract, they didn’t even have to shake on it.  Rahab simply said that she was going to take them at their word.  “According to your words, so be it.”  But the spies and Rahab also worked out an outward symbol that would be the sign of their “deal.”  The crimson cord in the window was the proverbial handshake agreement.  If the spies did what they promised, and Rahab put that cord in the window, the deal was done, their trust established, and ultimately Rahab’s life would be spared.  

What does it take to trust someone?  Who are the people you would trust with your life?  It might have to go beyond a handshake.  You are in their hands.  They make a deal, an arrangement upon which all their lives are at risk, through which all their lives may be saved. As their stories connect, they become people who've placed their lives and futures in each other's hands.

Is it their mutual faith in each other that brings them together? Is it their desperation?  It might be a little bit of both.  Faith and desperation sometimes go hand in hand. The confident spies place their faith in someone else.  Rahab now has to place her faith in strangers and outsiders.  She may have had home-field advantage, but there won’t be much of her home left in a few days.  Each side is vulnerable. 

Don’t view life’s challenges as hopelessness.  Along the way you will have an opportunity to respond to these challenges.  You will be invited to trust others.  You may find that the challenge before you actually represents an opportunity to trust.  Say, “so be it,” and trust.  To whom will you turn? In whom will you place your trust?

Prayer

Lord, we are in your hands.  Teach us to trust you with our lives. Amen


Letting Them Go

three Wise Women

Rahab

Wednesday, January 10

Letting Them Go

Joshua 2:16

She said to them, “Go toward the hill country, so that the pursuers may not come upon you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned; then afterward you may go your way.” 

We have to trust in others, even when we cannot see the end results.

Rahab gives instructions to the spies she has saved. She is now telling them what to do to save themselves as well as what she would need them to do to save her and her family. These strangers' stories have connected, and now they need each other to survive.

In our world today, we value independence and what we can each acquire and accomplish. We need each other, though.  Rahab had to place a lot of trust in the spies she set free.  She had to trust that they would keep their promise.  This is certainly saying a lot.  In a world where it might be difficult to trust even our closest friends, Rahab is an example of trusting even in our enemies.  She was able to see the good or potential hope that they would make the right decision.  Do you view people in the same light?  

She also couldn’t hold onto them to make sure they followed through.  She had to let go, let them leave, and trust what would come.  Many times the reason we struggle in our trust is that we are simply just holding on for too long or too tight.  They couldn’t stay with her, they had to leave.  Perhaps the fulfillment of your promise might be somewhere out beyond your grasp or reach.  You can’t hold onto it more than Rahab could have made the spies stay.  We have to trust in others, even when we cannot see the end results. This is the danger of community, but community is also a very beautiful thing.  

Whom do you need? Who needs you?

Prayer

Lord, help me remember that people need me and I need them, too. Amen


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