A Cycle – 3rd Sunday of Lent 26

Jn. 4:5-42

Is God in your midst or not? It is an interesting question for us to reflect on as we enter the third week of Lent.  By now many of you have failed to adhere to your Lenten sacrifices, devotions, or services.  For those of you who have maintained your commitments, perhaps you do not feel any significant spiritual growth. What you should ask is has Lent been the catalyst for a greater sense of God’s presence.  Or has your experience been no different than the Israelites the Moses was leading to the promised land.  Do you feel the presence of God or not?  Perhaps w like the Israelites allow the circumstances surrounding our lives influence our perception of Gods’ presence with us.  

   Our expectations of God are too low and that makes us depend on predictable rituals to relate to God.  Comfortable things which are a barrier to growing in our trust in God’s promises.  Keep in mind those grumbling Israelites had witnessed the plagues that God inflicted on Pharoh. They witnessed the Red Sea parting and then swallowing up Pharos army.  You would think those things would have given them a belief that God would never abandon them or fail to provide for them.  Yet our faith like theirs is fickle because it demands a belief in things we cannot see or on outcomes that seem impossible.  Hence that question of Moses is relevant to us today – Is God with us or not. 

The simple truth is God is constantly revealing Himself to us, but we fail to recognize those moments of grace.  Remember the story of Moses: whose mother put him in a basket and placed it among the reeds of the Nile to prevent him from being killed by the Egyptians.  He was rescued and raised by Pharo’s daughter. For all intents and purposes Moses was an Egyptian when he killed an Egyptian guard brutalizing a Jewish slave. He fled the land of Pharoh and God went to him and spoke to him revealing how Moses would be the one to set God’s chosen people free. God went to him, called him, soke to him and he responded. Jesus went to the woman at the well and to Saul of Tarsus.  God is seeking that moment to speak to you and fill you with His presence.

We know Moses was a reluctant instrument of God’s grace for he did not deem himself capable of being God’s instrument.  But in his reluctance, we can easily see a pattern of behavior we all share with Moses.  We need that spectacular moment, something to get us out of our hiding place.  Something that demands a response that reveals how little our trust in God is and how reliant we ae on predictability.  But instead, we like Moses say, not me Lord, for I am not eloquent, or gifted, or weak in our understanding of theology. Or like the woman at the well we know our sin and hide because of it.    

We ignore the times God knocks on the doors of our hearts seeking a response. We feel that nudge but shake it off as impossible for we are sinners who would rather discuss theology as the women at the well did with Jesus. We would rather enroll in a spiritual growth program and maintain control over our spiritual journey.  We would rather depend on rituals and the comfort of predictability than the uncertainty of following Jesus.  Jesus went to the disciples and called them to follow Him.  Jesus went to the Pharisees and pointed out their hypocrisy and none of them responded. Yet uneducated fishermen followed Him, a despised tax collector followed Him, and a sinful woman invited Him into her heart. Listen to Him God told Peter, James and John and is telling us that today.   

Jesus deliberately went to Samaria and by doing so is revealing something to us about God. Because of her reputation she went to the well at midday only that day Jesus was waiting for her.  Did you ever think a simple task you do daily is done to avoid a conversation with Jesus?  Do we adhere to routine practices because we know our sins and failings put a barrier between us and God?  How many times do we deflect a conversation with God because we do not want to deal with the unpleasant stuff we keep hidden? If you take away anything from today’s gospel note this one fact.

Jesus broke many laws that day to get her attention. He came to fulfill the law not to abolish it.   He is the law and all the laws are complete in Him. Love the Lord your God with all our hearts is the one law that we all fail to keep.  Yet Jesus by speaking to her he broke the law. By drinking for an unclean cup, He broke the law to be present to her.  What is He doing to get your attention.  Are we trapped like her and would rather debate theology than receive what He was offering her.      

Perhaps we should examine our dependence on the law, rituals or the comfort of a practiced faith than have an encounter with Jesus.  The reason is because those things do not demand anything from us but time.  Whereas, following Jesus demands we act on faith and a deep belief that God is with us. Even in the storms of our lives God will come to us and show us what believing demands of us.  Trust that He has what we need the most and He offers it to us if only we would ask Him to satisfy our thirst.