Dear All
Today we celebrated the third Sunday of Lent.
As I mentioned last week The Ignatian Spirituality Centre is offering a course for Lent, available online or from a book. This year the theme is “Lives to Inspire” it is set in the usual context of a piece of art, music, biblical text and reflection. The ISC courses are always excellent, so I thoroughly recommend this as a resource for Lenten Devotions. Books are available at church or online at onlineprayer.net.
Helen has made a request for a couple of volunteers to go on the church cleaning rota. Anyone willing to help please contact Helen or me.
The Bishop’s lent Appeal this year is for the Mothers’ Union’s Away From It All (AFIA) project which provides holidays for families who would not otherwise be able to get away for a break.
There are several ways of giving
- Take a lent box home and return to the church after Easter
- Donate in the basket which will be on the coffee table during the remainder of Lent
- Make a payment to the church bank account, clearly labelled Lent Appeal. The account is St Andrew’s Church Vestry, sort code 80-08-98 account number 00794929
There is also a Just Giving page online – Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway is fundraising for Mothers Union Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway (justgiving.com)
This Week
Tuesday – 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Wednesday – 3.30pm Vestry
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House
Looking ahead – we plan another church walk on Saturday 1st April – more details to follow nearer the time.
Readings for next Sunday – 4th Sunday of Lent, Mothering Sunday – 1 Samuel 16:1-13 Ephesians 5:8-14 John 9:1-41
Today’s readings – Exodus 17:1-7 Romans 5:1-11 John 4: 5-42
I was very surprised by a phone call I had this week, a friend who I had not seen or spoken for many, many years out of the blue rang me. Apparently the day before she had been loading her dishwasher when she suddenly recalled a memory of me and her together chatting by my dishwasher with several dogs inside the machine already starting to work! Rather a random recollection – but it was a great surprise and lovely to hear her voice again.
But so often in life it’s the unexpected events that do take us by surprise. We can spend quite a lot of our time worrying about things that simply don’t happen but quite often the pivotal moments in our lives come upon us unexpectedly. So life can be full of surprises But God is full of surprise!
The story we just heard of Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman at the well is a story full of surprises. John in his gospel is a master storyteller, and this is one of his best. It shows Jesus acting and speaking unconventionally, doing what he thinks is right, subverting current thought and practise and so, encouraging and teaching a new outlook and perspective.
God is a God of surprises, and this story illustrates just that.
The first surprise is that the conversation happens at all. The barriers to it are great. Jesus is a Jew and the woman is a Samaritan. Jews did not speak to Samaritans. Furthermore, in those days men and women did not talk to each other in public. It was also odd that the women was at the well at noon, the hottest time of day. It was work that women would do in the company of each other, and yet she comes alone. She appears to be rejected by her own people.
So, it’s a surprise, therefore, that this conversation even happens. But the conversation itself contains more than one surprise. It’s a surprise that Jesus promises living water. Living water is water that flows, that runs, that sparkles. Unlike still or even stagnant water from wells.
At first the woman presumes that Jesus is talking about such water, some hidden stream. But what Jesus promises is a source of life in her heart, so that she can truly live. She is confused about what he offers, yet she understands it is something she needs and needs desperately.
It’s a surprise that Jesus knows the details of this stranger’s life. That she had five husbands and seems alone and exiled her from her neighbours. The woman is surprised that Jesus knows the truth about her. She is even more surprised that, knowing the truth, he accepts her. For her, this is an encounter with the holy. The man must be a prophet!
And so, we come to another surprise. The woman asks Jesus about the correct place to worship. Which temple? here or Jerusalem? The surprise comes when Jesus raises the issue to a new level. True worship will no longer be dependent on location but will be a matter of spirit and truth.
The conversation ends with one more surprise. The woman confesses her faith in the Messiah who is to come, and Jesus says that he is that messiah! The conversation then ends because the disciples come back from their trip to buy food, but the surprises do not end.
The woman leaves her water jar there at the well. It is valuable, yet it is heavy, and she wants to be unencumbered as she runs back into the city. There she tells people to come and see Jesus. Soon a large crowd appears. It is a surprise that people have listened to her. But they have!
Perhaps we may surprise ourselves this Lent as we study the scriptures the events of Holy week and prepare to celebrate Easter – the resurrection. The greatest surprise of all time which brings hope to us.
Hope is what we need now for our anxious world and its people. Whatever surprises life may have in store for us, we need to remember the words of St Paul said in his letter to the Romans this morning.
“We boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings,
because we know that suffering produces perseverance.
perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:2-5
Amen