Lent 3: Psalm 95: Justified

 This is the Third Sunday of Lent. That means that Lent is almost half over. If you took on a special Lent discipline, this is a good time to evaluate how it’s going. Sometimes we think we can earn God’s approval and love by our actions. Especially in Lent we give up, or take on, a special discipline to repent and be better. The lessons today are about being justified, through God’s action and not our own.

What exactly does it mean to be ‘justified’? The theological definition is to be “made righteous in the sight of God.” We can also say something is justified if it is done for a good reason, or is reasonable or logical. In writing and printing we also make margins justified when they are aligned. Perhaps to be justified with God, then, is to be aligned with God. As the Epistle (Romans 5:1-11) says, God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us….we have been justified by his blood…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. We are justified with God by Jesus on the Cross—a gift of grace that invites all the world into union and unity with God.

Today’s Psalm is 95 which starts out joyfully praising God. At verse 8, the Psalmist warns us to harden not your hearts (don’t be stubborn) your forebears did in the wilderness, at Meribah, and on that day at Massah. This incident is recounted in the Sunday Old Testament reading from Exodus 17:1-7 when the Israelites during the Exodus complain to Moses about not having water. So, Moses called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” When we test God, harden our hearts, or are stubborn (Easy To Read Version) we are not justified or in line with God’s way. When we are aligned with God, we can see God at work.

The Gospel today is a reminder that Jesus reached across cultural and religious lines to break down barriers. We hear the story of the Samaritan Woman, or Photini as the Eastern Orthodox name her. Photini was an outsider in her community, having had five husbands and currently living without marriage to a man. As a Samaritan, she was someone no Jew would speak to. Yet Jesus breaks down the centuries high wall of distrust and hatred to share with her the truth of his Messiahship. She became justified simply by being herself. She shares her hope in the coming of Messiah. The Epistle says, 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. Photini finds this to be so true that she runs to tell her neighbors come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?

Are you feeling aligned with God this Lent? Are your Lenten disciplines helping you feel justified and reconciled? 

Lent is a time of turning from things that separate us from God’s love so that we are justified. Then we can come and worship him with songs of thanks. Let us sing happy songs of praise to him.

This image is of a split rock in Saudia Arabia that some have claimed is the actual rock at Meribah that Moses split to produce the water during the Exodus. While it probably isn’t, it is an impressive place that might make us ponder what rocks God is splitting in our lives this Lent so that living water can flow in our lives. 

Is there something hard in your life that keeps you from full justification with God?

Psalm 95 1 Come, let us sing to the Lord; * let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * and raise a loud shout to him with psalms. 3 For the Lord is a great God, * and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the caverns of the earth, * and the heights of the hills are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, * and his hands have molded the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, * and kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. * Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice! 8 Harden not your hearts, as your forebears did in the wilderness, * at Meribah, and on that day at Massah, when they tempted me. 9 They put me to the test, * though they had seen my works. 10 Forty years long I detested that generation and said, * “This people are wayward in their hearts; they do not know my ways.” 11 So I swore in my wrath, * “They shall not enter into my rest.” (Book of Common Prayer)

Come, let us sing praise to the Lord! Let us shout praises to the Rock who saves us. 2 Come and worship him with songs of thanks. Let us sing happy songs of praise to him. 3 For the Lord is a great God, the great King ruling over all the other “gods.” 4 The deepest caves and the highest mountains belong to him. 5 The ocean is his—he created it. He made the dry land with his own hands. 6 Come, let us bow down and worship him! Let us kneel before the Lord who made us. 7 He is our God, and we are the people he cares for, his sheep that walk by his side. Listen to his voice today: 8 “Don’t be stubborn, as you were at Meribah, as you were at Massah in the desert. 9 Your ancestors doubted and tested me, even after they saw what I could do! 10 I was angry with them for 40 years. I said, ‘They are not faithful to me. They refuse to do what I say.’ 11 So in my anger I made this vow: ‘They will never enter my land of rest.’” (Easy to Read Version)

 

Pentecost: Photini

 Since the beginning of June, and the beginning of the church season of Pentecost (or Ordinary Time) we’ve been looking at the stories of some Bible women and how God met them in the ordinariness of their daily lives. God meets us there, too.

Today we'll meet the Samaritan Woman. Photini is the name given by the Orthodox Church to her. The story is in John 4. Most of us know the story. Jesus is going through Samaria on his way to Jerusalem and stops at Sychar. This is traditionally the site of a well which the patriarch Jacob dug centuries earlier. Jesus sits down near the well while the disciples go into the city to get food. All this is quite surprising and uncomfortable for the disciples. To say Jews and Samaritans disliked each other would be an understatement. There were deep differences in their worship and way of life. Each despised the other. But Jesus decides to travel through Samaria and pauses at a Samaritan town. I wonder if we sometimes find ourselves traveling through areas we don't really like and forget that God is there, too. 

Photini comes to draw water later in the day than most of the town’s women. We can speculate about her reasons and most likely it has to do with her lifestyle. She admits to having five husbands and to currently living with a man not her husband.

The act of getting water from the well was a daily necessity before running water. A lot of community building would happen as the women gathered, visited, and got their water. Photini was outside of that circle. She came later to the well. And because she did, in that very ordinary, daily task, her life was changed.

Jesus asks her for water and a conversation ensues with Photini challenging Jesus several times. She decides he is a prophet and continues, ‘I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ (John 4:25)

Jesus’ response changes everything. Even though he rarely admits the Messianic ‘secret,’ he tells Photini—a woman and a Samaritan, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’ (John 4:26) Amazed and transformed, Photini leaves her water jar and runs to tell everyone in Sychar the amazing news that Messiah is sitting at their well.

The rest of the people are impressed enough to ask Jesus to stay for a couple days. Then they agree with her saying, ‘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 Savior of the world.’ (John 4:42) I wonder how Photini felt when they dismissed her witness so cavalierly. Was she angry or resigned to ‘that’s the way it is’?

Photini had an unexpected encounter with God at the well and it changed her. God is always surprising God’s people. God meets Elizabeth in her barrenness, Bathsheba in her bath, Ruth and Naomi in their friendship…the list goes on and on.

Has there been a time in your life when you’ve felt the presence of God as you do some mundane, daily job?

Do you find it hard to recognize God in the day-to-day?