Morning Prayer 17th August 1997
Based on John 4:4-42 (The Samaritan woman at the well)
Background to the service
I was given very little time to prepare for this service; something which may well have had an impact on the way it subsequently turned out. I didn't initially set out with the idea of producing scripture-based liturgy (indeed, had never heard the phrase); it just seemed to emerge, the more I thought about the text. All the liturgical elements seemed to be there and the notion of letting scripture dictate the shape of the service became more compelling, the more I thought about it.
The idea of dramatising the confrontation between Jesus & the woman was an early thought but there was a practical difficulty. Two readers had been chosen for the service, both male, and neither seemed suitable for a piece of drama. So I got them to read the whole passage at the start of the service to set the scene.
I decided to use only straightforward texts from the Alternative Service Book because these would offer familiar fixed points to the congregation. There was no sermon as such; instead I offered a running commentary/reflection throughout the service. It looks as if I said a lot, perhaps too much, but apparently not.
The service had a huge impact. We left St Mary's, Ealing, where this service took place, in 1999. On a return visit in 2006 someone came up to me and said, "I just want to thank you for a service you led on the woman at the well. It made a big impact on me and helped me a great deal." Other, contemporary, responses were also much more positive than usual.
André Previn: You’re playing all the wrong notes!
Eric: I’m playing all the right notes—but not necessarily in the right order.
RS: This service is going to be the same: all the usual parts of Morning Prayer—prayers, Bible readings, confession, creed, hymns & songs, sermon—will be there, but not necessarily in the right order. For instance, there is no sermon as such. The whole service is really the sermon as it will follow the pattern and teachings of the Bible passage. I will guide and draw out a few themes, but in one sense we will all be preaching to each other.
Readers return to their seats
Firstly, Jesus & his disciples had found themselves in a bit of bother. It’s not entirely clear what it was—some rivalry with John the Baptist’s followers, perhaps. A feeling that the people were missing the point and that it was time for his ministry to move on, perhaps. Or more likely, since John mentions that the Pharisees had heard about Jesus’ “success” it was because they were in danger of attracting unwelcome attention. After all, if wasn’t long after this that John was arrested. Or perhaps it was a combination of things.
But for whatever reason, Jesus decided to go back up North, to Galilee, his home land. And the way he chose to go was through Samaria. There were other ways to go (despite what the gospel says—perhaps there is some sense of imperative response to God’s will here), but this appears to have been the most common. However, it wasn’t always the most trouble-free. Luke tells of a journey that Jesus made in which a Samaritan village refused them hospitality because they were going southwards—towards Jerusalem.
In fact, there was a history of bad feeling between the Jews and Samaritans which went back centuries. Samaria was the name of the capital built by Omri after the civil war between Solomon’s sons split the Jewish nation into two: the Northern kingdom, composed of the ten tribes, and the Southern, with its capital in Jersualem, composed of Judah & Benjamin.
When the Northern kingdom was captured & taken into exile, other nations were encouraged to send settlers to the land. When the Northerners returned from exile they inter-married with these foreigners—which meant paying attention and worship to the foreign gods as well. When the southerners returned under the leadership of Nehemiah & Ezra they fell out with the Samaritans and purged the priesthood of those who had inter-married.
Over the following years the Jews and the Samaritans grew further apart, each claiming the truth. The Samaritans built a temple on Mount Gerizim, where they claim the sacrifice of Isaac took place. They claimed allegiance to the Torah alone, downplaying or denying the importance of the prophets. In 126 BC John Hyrancus destroyed the temple and relations worsened even further.
So, with religious and political differences between them we have a situation like Northern Ireland or Bosnia. Doubtless it was only the Pax Romana which kept travellers safe from real trouble.
Such was the background to Jesus’ journey—personal stress in his own ministry; political & religious stress in the countryside through which he was travelling.
ˇ Man comes to front and sits down
It was the 6th hour—noon, the height of the day, the heat of the day. Jesus was tired and thirsty. (It is interesting to note that John, who is the most insistent of the evangelists of Jesus’ divine nature is also the one who is least afraid of reminding us of Jesus’ very human nature and weaknesses.) So he sat down by the well while his disciples went off to get some food from the nearby village. He did not have a bucket to draw water so he could not get a drink. Instead he waited.
ˇ Woman comes to front
ˇ Dialogue:
M: Would you give me a drink of water?
W: How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?
M: If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living, water.
W: Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?
M: Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I will give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.
W: Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again.
The exchange between the woman and Jesus is happening at a number of different levels. On the first, he asks for water; she shows amazement; he teases her with a reference to ‘living’ (that is flowing, spring), water.
This is a remarkable event. Jesus would be defiled by taking water from such a person—a Samaritan (we’ve already talked about the enmity between Jews & Samaritans); a woman (it was considered inappropriate for a Rabbi to speak to a woman alone); an adulteress (according to the Torah, she should be stoned to death). She could hardly be a more inappropriate person for him to ask. But thank God that he did and that he still does. Nothing, it seems, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
She misunderstands Jesus’ response to her all too understandable amazement but is somehow impressed (she calls him, “Sir”). But like so many of us when we encounter Jesus she does not accept him easily. Instead she challenges him: she asks him if he thinks he is greater than Jacob (who was also known as Israel and was the founding father of all twelve tribes of Israel).
Jesus doesn’t get caught up in her argument or her mindset. That would be fruitless. Instead he continues to emphasise what is positive in his offer: his says that his water will quench thirst for ever, unlike Jacob’s. His water will flow from within giving eternal life. Clearly, he is speaking metaphorically or symbolically now.
The woman asks for the water—so that she will never thirst & so that she won’t have the drudge of filling her water jar each day.
Does she misunderstand? Is she returning his humour? Or is she indicating a deeper and growing understanding—that Jesus’s gifts are about the whole person; body, soul and spirit.
Jesus asked for what he wanted. The Samaritan woman asked for what she wanted. So also do we as we are led in prayer…
m Water for cleansing
m Water for living
m Water for healing
m Water for cooling
m Water for play
M: Go call your husband and then come back.
W: I have no husband.
M: That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.
W: Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshipped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?
M: Believe me, woman, the time is coming when the Samaritans will worship the father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has in fact come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.
It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.
W: I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.
M: I am he. You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.
Jesus’ innocuous suggestion, “Go call your husband…” leads to an amazing piece of dialogue. At one level he is confronting the woman with details of her private life which he could not possibly have known in a natural way. No wonder she was impressed.
At another level he was confronting her with her sinfulness—remember that there were many who would stone her. Yet he simply states the fact, there is no apparent sign of judgement or condemnation.
Further, the five husbands may also refer to the strange gods worshipped by the Samaritans, or rather to the five peoples also settled in Samaria with the Israelites on their return from captivity. (Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath & Sepharvaim). Cf imagery of God as Israel’s husband in Hosea 2:7.
This interpretation gains weight when we consider that the evangelist has only just (at the end of the previous chapter) had John the Baptist speaking of Jesus as “the bridegroom”.
However, we mustn’t assume this passage is allegorical. The nature of the dialogue and the immediacy of the events must surely indicate an narrative based on a true encounter. Jesus did indeed meet this woman.
One message from this passage, as from many others in John, is that when Jesus speaks to us, whether through the Bible, or by the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our conscience or by the ministry of someone else, what He says is often true on more than one level.
If He says to me, “Don’t be so stubborn.” I will say, “I’m not being stubborn!” But even when I’ve have heard Him and am prepared to say sorry and change my ways, I need to be aware that Jesus isn’t just concerned with my behaviour. He is also speaking to me about my deeper attitudes and character. My stubbornness is a symptom of my wrong relationship with God. It’s no good treating the symptoms but leaving the disease in place.
So, when I turn to God in confession and ask him for healing, I need to bring the depths of my being to Him and not only my surface behaviour.
I also need to recognise that He knows my state of health even when no-one else does—even when I hide it from myself. Standing before Him I am completely exposed; no masks, no pretence—standing, naked, just as I am.
Take some moments to become aware of what it is that Jesus knows about you—things that you’d probably rather he didn’t know. Things that the rest of us here certainly don’t know.
Now let us bring our need for healing to him in the words of the confession at section 5 on page 48 [ASB]:
So, Jesus does not reject because of outward form.
He does not reject because of gender or religion.
But even more radically he does not reject because of sin or dissolute life style.
She is, after all, an adulteress for whom the Mosaic law requires death by stoning. We know from John 8 that he doesn’t condone this. But he does not condemn. He accepts.
The radical nature of this acceptance is shown in the woman’s response. What does she do, this woman whose secret life has just been exposed by a passing stranger? She goes and tells all her friends! Apparently she does not feel burdened down with guilt or shame after her encounter with Jesus. Quite the reverse.
It is the same with us. We are accepted, too. But do we always feel that liberation that comes from our acceptance and forgiveness. For some of us it can be hard. So let’s grasp that freedom and new life together and say together the words of absolution: (section 6, page 49)
The woman’s appreciation of Jesus has gone up another notch. Grudging respect is no longer enough. He is a prophet—although since the Samaritans did not recognise the validity of the OT prophets this, too, may have been double edged. Perhaps, though, she is already beginning to wonder whether Jesus is the prophet foretold in Deut 18:15—a foreshadowing of the Messiah (or the Taheb, as the Samaritans called him).
But still she wants to debate with him; are her questions genuine attempts to discover more or are they merely devices intended to throw up barriers and put off the moment of decision? It’s difficult to tell.
And frankly, it’s often difficult to tell with our questions, too. We are not called to blind faith—Jesus would not have performed signs and wonders if he’d wanted unthinking obedience—but there does come a time when we have to put doubts and questions aside and take that step (though it might feel like a leap) of faith.
She asks Jesus about worship—on the mountain appointed by God (Mt. Gerizim (Deut 11:29) or in Jerusalem.
Jesus is clear about the ‘superiority’ of the Jews, for salvation is from the Jews.
Yet she is not to worry, for the time is coming—indeed, has already come—when the time and the place will not matter. What will count—what does now count—is a form of worship in which our spirit engages with the Spirit of God. This is also truthful worship; very hard to do, especially if we start from ourselves. Instead we must be open to the Spirit and he will guide us into all truth.
This kind of worship does not come from us. It starts with the Father, via the Sprit, and what we do is our Spirit-led response to his goodness, mercy and grace.
We here have a long way to go before we are really worshipping in Spirit and Truth yet we must not be downhearted. There is a longing for true worship in this place and God is faithful. If we pray for the gift of worship he will give it to us.
So let us try to use music and singing to help us with a mood of attentiveness and responsiveness. Let us try to be open to the spirit and let us respond from our hearts to the Lord.
Finally, Jesus lets the cat out of the bag:
I am he.
The words “I am” are the words that God spoke to Moses from the burning bush.
From a man, they verge on the blasphemous. From Jesus they are simple truth.
Her witness has a number of elements
She did not keep it to herself
She urged others to ‘come & see’
She told of the effect on herself—she is authentic, not trying to manipulate or use clever words or stratagems.
She asked questions, rather than proclaiming dogmas.
She leads others to Jesus; she does not ‘convert’ them.
ˇ Prayer for mission
ˇ Prayer for church
ˇ Prayer for God’s work in politics & government
ˇ Prayer for us in the world
Finally, after having spent two days in Jesus’s presence, the villagers come to believe for themselves.
No longer is theirs a second-hand faith, but one lived and experienced.
The more time we spend in Jesus’s company, the deeper and more real our faith will become.
So let us end our service of worship today by affirming our faith together, using the words of the creed.