March 17, 2017

Not Again!

(Image: Pixabay)

When people have experienced a windfall (not always in
the form of money), we may describe their experience
as a real rags-to-riches story. It usually depicts a one-hundredeighty-
degree shift in their circumstances, representing a significant
increase.

Imagine, if you will, the full impact of the literal truth of
having nothing and then gaining everything. This is an understatement
of God’s gift of forgiveness, We had nothing and were
nothing, yet God’s greatest gift was given to us while we lived
in this state of being. We brought nothing to the table; God
brought the entire meal. Paul wants us to understand the greatness
of the gift. He points out the enormity of God’s gift, even if
sin had not been our issue. How much more, then, is it a gift of
unbelievable proportions, given our low estate.

God’s love and grace are magnanimous, deep and wide, and
all-encompassing. The gift is amazing in its sacrificial nature, its
perfection, the intended recipients, and its perpetual nature. We
could not have acquired it on our own, and we have not earned
it. It is as if Paul says that when we are at our worst, God is at
God’s best! God saves the ungodly and assures the godly of their
salvation. We boast only in what God has done for us!

Who among us can fathom extending love on that basis,
much less receiving it? Yes, when we are at our most unlovable,
God loves us all the more. What God has done for the entire
world (all people for all time), God has done for you and me!

Now that’s a real nothing-to-everything story!

Lord, thank you for your all-or-nothing love. In you, we have everything. Amen.

Pray the Scriptures Using Audio Lectio
Read John 4:5-42

John 4:5-42

⁵ He came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, which was near the land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there. Jesus was tired from his journey, so he sat down at the well. 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.” ⁸ His disciples had gone into the city to buy him some food. ⁹ The Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other.) ¹⁰ Jesus responded, “If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where would you get this living water? ¹² You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty and will never need to come here to draw water!” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, get your husband, and come back here.” 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.” 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.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you and your people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You and your people worship what you don’t know; we worship what we know because salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the time is coming—and is here!—when true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth. The Father looks for those who worship him this way. ²⁴ God is spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one who is called the Christ. When he comes, he will teach everything to us.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I Am—the one who speaks with you.” ²⁷ Just then, Jesus’ disciples arrived and were shocked that he was talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ The woman put down her water jar and went into the city. She said to the people, ²⁹ “Come and see a man who has told me everything I’ve done! Could this man be the Christ?” ³⁰ They left the city and were on their way to see Jesus. ³¹ In the meantime the disciples spoke to Jesus, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” ³² Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” ³³ The disciples asked each other, “Has someone brought him food?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “I am fed by doing the will of the one who sent me and by completing his work. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four more months and then it’s time for harvest’? 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.” ³⁹ Many Samaritans in that city believed in Jesus because of the woman’s word when she testified, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 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.”

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Lectionary Week

March 13–19, 2017

Scripture Overview

All the readings af rm God’s benevolent care of those who place their well-being in God’s hands. While imperishable, God’s love can be frustrated by human pride and faithlessness. Water is an important symbol of God’s sustaining grace. In Exodus 17 the Israelites’ dependence on water becomes a statement about their dependence on God. The manner in which they obtain their water stands as commentary on human pride and arrogance. The psalm recounts this episode as a means of warning the people against the kind of obstinacy that impedes grace. John 4 focuses on the full actualization of God’s love in Jesus Christ through the “living water.” Paul speaks of God’s love being “poured into our hearts,” a grace that comes in the death and life of Jesus Christ.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

• Read Exodus 17:1-7. When have you complained to God about a situation, only to discover God had already begun to forge a way through?
• Read Psalm 95. How does weekly worship allow you to hear God’s voice? How do you testify to God’s goodness?
• Read Romans 5:1-11. Reflect on a time when your suffering produced endurance and ultimately character.
• Read John 4:5-42. How do the words of Paul to Timothy about a worker “who correctly handles the word of truth” serve as a bridge between the “truth hurts” and the “truth will set you free”?

Respond by posting a prayer.

I join many of those who will pray for you as you seek to discern what you are called to be at this moment. May God grant you the courage to fulfill that calling. May we all open our eyes and see the misery, open our ears and hear the cries of God’s people, and, like God through the Lord Jesus Christ, be incarnate amongst them.”

View a growing list of resources for the spiritual work of overcoming racism.

—Rev. Sidwell Mokgothu, Limpopo Synod Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa and board member for Africa Upper Room Ministries

Not Again!

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Not Again!

Romans 5:6-11

John 4:5-42

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