Sunday of the Samaritan Woman 2023

Ambon Prayer (optional) 75

Appearance of the Sign of the Cross to Emperor Constantine; The Holy Martyr Acacius

Title

Crossing Boundaries that We may be One

Outline

We love to set up boundaries

We are the favored people in this or that way and you are not; you are an intruder.

Our ethnic group is the true group, perhaps in religion, and all you others are not

Sometimes it means expanding our boundaries to incorporate other groups, not as equals, but as digested and absorbed

The Church of God transcends ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and national boundaries, for God is God of all the earth.

Jesus shows this in Samaria

He starts by asking for common hospitality from a woman

That crosses two boundaries: first, she is a woman and Jesus is not asking for hospitality from her husband and, second, she is a Samaritan, from a group in a hostile relationship with Jews whom the Jews considered unclean or taboo and water was a good way to communicate this tabooness.

That catches her attention and raises questions, which Jesus answers by pointing to “living” water, i.e. “running” normally, but Jesus means “life-giving”, a typical double meaning for him.

When she asks for such water, he asks her to call her husband, culturally appropriate, which leads to his revealing his prophetic knowledge of her state: she has been married 5 times and lost them through death (cf. Tobit) or divorce and now she is in the household of a man who does not live with her as a wife, so she is something of a housekeeper - that likely means that he is afraid to touch her.

That revelation leads her to bring up the either-or of Samaritan faith and Judaism, Mt Gerazim or Jerusalem, which Jesus bypasses by pointing to a new age in which true worship is “in Spirit” and “in truth” (emeth, faithfulness) not “in” a place. True worship transcends place.

Finally, Jesus reveals that he is the hoped for Anointed One, a hope her faith shared with Judaism: ““I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.””

And as faith springs in her heart she becomes an evangelist. The disciples do not get this, not even when they see the townsfolk coming to Jesus. So Jesus has to point out that the “harvest” transcends racial, religious, and national boundaries: “I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest.”

This universality of faith will be repeatedly taught in scripture

Acts chapter 11 is our example today.

Persecution spreads believers who evangelize as they go, but only Jews, until some Hellenistic Jews come to Antioch and share with “Greeks” - i.e. non Jews or gentiles.

People believe and Jerusalem hears and sends Barnabas to check if they were really Christians. They were, and Barnabas’ gifts enabled the church to grow so much that he needed help and went to Tarsus to get Saul/Paul who had grown up with some education in the Greek world but knew the Hebrew Scriptures and Judaism well, so was bi-cultural. The church continued to grow and the Greeks named them Christianoi for they used Christos rather than Messiach.

However, there was no split between the more Greek Church in Antioch and the decidedly Jewish/Aramaic Church in Jerusalem as is seen by the provision of relief funds to Jerusalem in a time of need.

That unity in diversity is what we are called to live

As we go we do not avoid the outsider linguistically, culturally, economically, or religiously, but rather do what is needed to make human contact.

We lead them to eventually realize that we can transcend our differences if we commit to God’s Prophet, Priest, and King, Jesus. This is what brings God’s gift of life to us.

Then as people commit we gradually integrate them into the one Church - not two churches or three or three thousand, but one centered around and run by Jesus, even if it must use diverse languages and customs. The unity of the Church is seen in love for one another and joint mission, for we are all in the one Christ and joined in the one mission.

If we understand that, Brothers and Sisters, blessed are we if we live that way.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 5-14-2023: Sunday of the Samaritan Woman or Fifth Sunday of Pascha

EPISTLE

Acts 11:19–26, 29–30

19  Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord. 22 News of this came to the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the Church, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians.

29 And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea; 30 and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 5-14-2023: Sunday of the Samaritan Woman or Fifth Sunday of Pascha

GOSPEL

John 4:5–42

5  So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9  The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14  but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18  for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21  Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. 24  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” 26  Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

27 Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, “What do you wish?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people, 29  “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the city and were coming to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples begged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32  But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has any one brought him food?” 34  Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. 35  Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. 36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37  For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42  They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) (5-7-2023: Sunday of the Samaritan Woman or Fifth Sunday of Pascha)

SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2023 | PENTECOSTARION

Sunday of the Samaritan Woman or Fifth Sunday of Pascha

Bright Vestments

Matins Gospel John 20:1–10

Epistle Acts 11:19–26, 29–30

Gospel John 4:5–42