Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name, we ask it.  Amen

It’s been a long journey to this town in Samaria, and Jesus’ plan is to catch a few winks while his disciples go into town for some food.  And what better place is there to rest at high noon than a well.  After all, no one, at least in her right mind, comes for water at this hot hour.  So Jesus sits down stretches his arms, and leans against the wall of the well.  But his nap is soon interrupted.  I imagine that he opened one eye just wide enough to see a woman trudging up to the well with a heavy clay jar on her shoulder.  What must have been immediately obvious to Jesus, though maybe not so to you and I, is that this woman must have been living a life that was terribly, terribly alone.

You see, as I said, it was about noon, in other words, the hottest time of the day, and Samaria is located in a region that has a desert-like climate.  Sensible people didn’t wander out from the shade of their homes into the smoldering heat at this hour.  An errand, which required a great amount of manual labor such as filling large clay jars with water, was done in the cool of the morning or at the setting of the sun.  So, why did this woman come to draw water from Jacob’s well at noon as the sun beat down with merciless, scorching heat?  Well Jesus knows.  Her life story is written in the wrinkles on her face.  The wounds of five broken romances are gaping and festered.  Each man who had left her had taken a piece of her heart.  And, now she wasn’t sure there was anything left.  Jesus says to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.”  The woman responds, “I have no husband.”  Then Jesus, in a knowing not judging way, says, “You are right in saying I have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.” 

Why was the woman at the well alone drawing water during the hottest part of the day?  Well at least one plausible answer is that she was a social pariah.  The woman was drawing water at noon precisely because there were no other people present or so she thought.  Generally speaking, in Jesus’ day, rabbis did not allow people to marry more than three times.  This woman had been married to five men, and was now living with a sixth man outside of wedlock.  Even today, people would raise an eyebrow toward a woman or a man who had a similar life situation.  In Jesus’ day, even women with perfect reputations were considered property and given little to no power and few rights.  A woman with a questionable character would be a social outcast and for the most part ignored and disregarded by the people who lived around her.  Indeed, it is a fair to assume that this woman must have been terribly, terribly alone.

It is right here in the midst of the painful reality of her life that Jesus makes an amazing and unexpected offer—in fact, a life-changing offer.  Jesus, standing by a well full of water which is necessary for physical life, offers the Samaritan woman something to drink that has even greater purpose and power—something even more valuable and life-giving than the water in Jacob’s well which has kept generations of people alive.  Jesus offers the woman His living water.  He says to her, “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.”  Jesus offers the woman the very source of eternal life—a life that extends beyond our emotional pain and broken physical existence. 

The Divine surgeon, Jesus, has gone to work with the needle of faith and the thread of hope.  Jesus offers this woman the nourishment and abundance that her broken heart so desires.  As Jesus stitches this woman’s wounded heart back together, he whispers into her ear, “The hour is coming…”

This eternal life, which Jesus offers the woman at the well, has, at least, two levels of meaning.  Eternal life is life that is everlasting—life forever with God.  Eternal life is also the experience of abundant and meaningful living in the here and now.  When we enter into a relationship with God in Christ, we experience the meaning and fulfillment that we all desire right now.  We don’t have to feel alone any longer.  We can have a life right now that transcends both our painful past and our own poor choices.  Our life can have purpose, direction, and a sense of fullness.  We can experience healing and wholeness despite the bumps and potholes that exist along the road we travel in life. 

So how do we come into this life giving relationship with God in Christ?  How do we discover meaning, which is the fundamental question of human existence?  How do we experience healing and wholeness?  How do we drink deeply from the living water that wells up to eternal life?  Well, it begins like all relationships begin by inviting someone into your life.  In this case, that someone is Jesus Christ.  Perhaps you are familiar with “altar calls”—we are, after all, Texans here so I know you have at least heard of one.  At revivals and in some protestant churches, altar calls are the moment in the service when the minister invites people forward to receive prayer and to give their lives to Jesus Christ. 

I hope I don’t make too many of you uncomfortable with this next statement.  Whether you realize it or not, we have an altar call in the Episcopal Church every Sunday and often during the week.  We call it Holy Eucharist.  Each time we come forward to receive communion, the food and drink of new and unending life, we are called to the altar and we are presented the opportunity to invite Jesus into our lives—for the first time or the thousandth.  We are offered the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord.  We are invited to drink deeply from the living water that Jesus offers us just as he did to the woman at the well. 

We don’t know what led to the Samaritan woman’s unfortunate past.  Was she widowed five times and had no one to care for her so she entered into this sixth relationship for protection and security?  Had she been physically or emotionally abused by the five previous husbands who all left her alone and now she feared marriage once again?  Had this sixth man promised to marry her, and then not made good on his promise after she moved in with him?  Perhaps she did make some questionable decisions of her own along the way.  I don’t have the answer.  However, the good news is that she was never beyond God’s healing love—and neither are we.  If we want to experience the abundance that God desires for us, all we have to do is invite Jesus, the living water, into our lives.  Maybe when you come to the altar today it will be the day for you.  It doesn’t take much maybe nothing more than a word uttered somewhere deep within yourself—maybe even less.

Let me share a final thought.  It’s not good enough for us to come to this well, this altar, this church, and experience God’s unconditional love and acceptance only to then turn a blind eye to those in pain around us.  The very fact that God has reached out to us with arms of love necessitates our willingness to do the same.  You see the Samaritan woman’s story should sound familiar to us because it is the story of so many people in our world.  People who for lack of good looks or questionable character or insufficient earning power wander our cities and streets unwanted and unapproachable. 

Hard to believe?  I could tell you countless stories about the mentally challenged, AIDS victims, the terminally ill, single parents, alcoholics, divorcees, the physically disabled, and on and on.  All, at times, are treated as pariahs, lepers, and outcasts—all at times are shunned by the “normal” world.  Society doesn’t know what to do with them.  And, sadly, often the church doesn’t either.  These people would often find a warmer reception at a bar on sixth-street than in a worship service. 

But Jesus would find a place for them.  After all, he did for me and does for you.  He would find a place for them because he loves us—all of us.  And he loves us unconditionally—despite our wounds and imperfections.  No one would have blamed Jesus for ignoring the woman at the well.  To turn a blind eye would have been easier, less controversial, and not nearly as risky.  But, God who made her couldn’t do that.  And we who have invited Jesus into our own lives and experienced His love can’t either.  Amen.    

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