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?

Out of Control-When your Rope is Fraying

Last time we shared a conversation between Leah and Moses who both learned that only when they really let go of their agendas was God able to work. Like them we try and try to make ‘our way’ work out. But then we discover we are hanging by a fraying rope and hoping that it doesn’t break, rather like this story:

There was a monastery high on a cliff. The only access was by way of riding in a basket which several monks hauled up to the top. Obviously the ride over the rocky jagged terrain was steep, and in a wicker basket it was terrifying to all but the naively fearless. One visitor, however, got exceedingly nervous. Roughly halfway up he saw that the rope by which he was being hauled was rather frayed and splitting. Shaking in his boots but unable to move, he frantically asked the monk who was seated next to him how often they changed the rope. Thinking for a moment, the monk answered, "whenever it breaks."

Miriam in the Old Testament and the Samaritan Woman in the New are two women who know a bit about frayed ropes and what happens when they break.

Miriam, as Moses’ sister was important to the Children of Israel during the Exodus. You may recall she led the victory dance after the Red Sea crossing (Exodus 15:20-21). However, when she tried to prove who was a better leader and more in control, she found herself exiled outside the camp with leprosy. (Numbers 12:1-15)

The Samaritan Woman (John 4:7-30) had clearly been trying to get her life in order and be in control of it for a long time. Jesus tells her “You have had 5 husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.” She has had extremely bad luck with husbands, for whatever reason. In a world where a woman was dependent on the man in her life, this was not a good thing. In fact, she is reduced to living with a man she isn’t married to in order to get that protection.

Miriam and the Samaritan Woman were looking for power and security in the wrong place. Miriam was angry because Moses seemed to have all the power, and she felt he misused it because he “married a Cushite woman.” She forgot that it was God who was really in control of the Exodus until she and Aaron are confronted by the Lord. “Come out, you 3, to the tent of meeting,” God says. He then reminds them that “with [Moses] I speak face to face…and he beholds the form of the Lord.”

Miriam is reminded that God is in control “when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow.” This dread disease was feared in the ancient world and anyone with it was an outcast. So, she is “shut up outside the camp 7 days…and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.” During that time, she learned to trust God a bit more and to control her pride.

The Samaritan Woman, too, is an outcast in the community. She comes to draw water at the sixth hour rather than in the early morning like the other women of Sychar. Being considered perhaps a pariah (or at least gossiped about as immoral) because of her lifestyle gave her the opportunity to meet Jesus and engage in a theological conversation with him.

First he asks her for a drink, much to her amazement. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” That a man and a Jewish man, at that, spoke to her at all was cause to be astonished!

Jesus responds by saying he can give ‘living water.’ To her mind living water is running water (like a spring or well) rather than well water and she knows there is not a spring nearby. The woman is confused even more when he announces, “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst; the water that I shall give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” She desires this, even though she really doesn’t understand. Jesus goes on to tell her that “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the such the Father seeks to worship him.”

Both Miriam and the Samaritan Woman encounter God when the frayed rope of ‘being in control’ snapped and they found themselves outcast from their community. I’ll bet there are times you have felt like an outcast, too.

God comes to each of us when we feel that we’ve reach a point of no return-be it a job loss, or health crisis, or faith challenge. Look around-God is right there waiting to give you living water and heal the leprosy. Just today I read a blog post that puts it all in perspective:

“So go get the milk and take out the trash and throw in the laundry and wave giddy to the neighbors because there is a plan and there is a purpose and there is a God in heaven who didn’t just ink you onto the palm of His hands but etched your name right into Himself with nails and He’s hasn’t just got your number, He’s got your heart. He sees you, hidden in Him, and you aren’t ever forgotten because God can’t forget those right in Him. You’ve never missed the boat when you’re holding onto the Cross.
So really — you’ve got to believe it for your 16 year-old-self and 56 year-old-self and for yourself right now: really, it’s all working out okay.
Because God’s writing your story and He never leaves you alone in your story, and His perfect love absorbs all your fear and His perfect grace carries all your burdens, and your story is a happily ever after because Christ bought your happily ever after so you always know how this story ends:
You’re going to be okay.”

(you can read the rest here) 

Next time we'll look at what can happen when you really let God be in control. For one thing you don't have to worry about the loose ends of fraying ropes that leave us feeling frightened and out of control! 

Peace of God

We have seen that Paul gives advice on living a holy life in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 and Philippians 4:4-9. He says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.” (download the citations here) As we look to the Lord in joy, prayer and thanksgiving something amazing happens. We find that the Spirit of the Lord gives us peace.


Paul says we will “not quench the Spirit” when we look to God in prayer and joy (1 Thessalonians 5:9) and that the “God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:9). Isn’t peace a wonderful thing to seek? And even better to obtain? But how…? We seek God-with prayer, thanksgiving, and rejoicing.

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘peace’? Does a dove, like the one in this blog pop into your head? Is it the absence of violence or a calm, quiet place? Certainly peace can be like that, but I am almost always reminded of the hymn “They cast their nets in Galilee” by William Alexander Percy. It gives a different picture of what the ‘peace of God’ really is.

They cast their nets in Galilee
Just off the hills of brown
Such happy simple fisherfolk
Before the Lord came down


Contented peaceful fishermen
Before they ever knew
The peace of God That fill'd their hearts
Brimful and broke them too.
Young John who trimmed the flapping sail,
Homeless, in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
Head-down was crucified.
The peace of God, it is no peace,
But strife closed in the sod,
Yet, brothers, pray for but one thing -
The marvelous peace of God.

The hymn is a reminder that the Peace of God is active and calls us to step out of our comfort zone, like the disciples did. The result may not be what we anticipate but God is with us if we just look around for His presence. Sometimes it is our very hurts that put us face to face with God. And then we find peace.

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5-38) she was a seeker. Because of her lifestyle, she was ostracized from the townsfolk of Sychar. Yet, it was that very shunning that put her in a position to meet Jesus. She came to draw water at an unusual time of day (the 6th hour), separate from the other women. Getting water at noon was unusual. Most women came early in the morning so they could do their daily chores. The Samaritan woman comes later, when the gossips were busy in their homes. I imagine she was hurt by their contempt and so she avoided them.

Jesus tells her “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst…the water…will become a spring of water welling up for eternal life” and she responds, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst.” (John 4:14-15) I am reminded of the image of an artesian well, which is basically a spring bubbling up from the ground and not needing a pump because the pressure below pushes the water out. God’s peace is like that, bubbling up and giving drink to our souls in good times and bad. Sometimes the droplets are lovely things like sunsets and kittens, at others the drops contain sorrow or pain. God is in all the water drops-offering and providing peace.

The Samaritan Woman might add another verse to the hymn:

She came seeking water that day
A woman wanting peace of heart.
Jesus offered living water,
And peace she raced to impart.

The peace of God is living water refreshing our souls in the ups and downs of life. Each day offers a new start, a new chance to find God in each event. With the hymnist, we should “pray for but one thing - The marvelous peace of God.”

Next week we’ll look at ways to practice all that Paul suggests-the prayer, rejoicing, thanksgiving and seeking the peace of God.