Along Wilderness Roads: May 14, 2006

5th Sunday in Easter (Year B)

Welcome. Our focus in Easter is the presence of the risen Christ, through which we discover new life for ourselves. Today's keyword is "movement." We seek Jesus in movement along the roads of life. At the same time we reflect on our national observance of Mothers' Day. Feminine and maternal images are biblical and historic means of discerning the divine. Our 9:30 worship also includes the Baptism of Tyler Jacona, son of Amanda and Anthony. Do you know God as paternal or maternal, as near or far? How does Christ's Spirit manifest itself along the journey of your life? How are we called to nurture and display tender and self-sacrificing love in God's world?

Gospel Lesson
John 4:5-15

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." (via)

Sermon - Along Wilderness Roads Rev. Jack Abel
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