Sunday of the Samaritan Woman 2022

Our venerable father Pachomius the Great; Our Venerable Father Isaiah the Wonderworker

Ambon Prayer (optional) 75

Title

The Progress of Evangelism

Outline

The Church Develops, but it develops in careful stages

If it were to go suddenly from A to Z there would be negative reactivity

By developing in stages, God’s plan is worked out

Our first example is found in Antioch

The good news had spread to Greek-speaking Jews, who worshipped in Greek and were acculturated to the Greek world.

When that group was persecuted due to the martyrdom of Stephen, that group was scattered, some not going back to their native lands, but to Antioch in Syria.

They naturally shared the good news with Greek speakers, Gentiles, for the synagogue may well have functioned in Aramaic or have been hostile to them because they had heard about Stephen.

News of the turning of Gentiles to Christ gets to Jerusalem, and the leaders send Barnabas, a conciliatory person from a Greek-speaking area.

Barnabas realizes he needs help, so he gets Paul, who was well-educated in Judaism and yet got in trouble in Jerusalem for his interactions with Greek-speaking Jews.

The team is effective, so effective that the Greek term for Messiah, Christianos, is applied to Christians in general.

But they are also in unity with Jerusalem, so hearing of a need there they send relief funds.

Our second example is the woman at the well

Jesus stops at a well outside of a Samaritan town, while the disciples go into town to purchase food - quite normal.

When a woman comes to the well to draw water, Jesus asks for a drink - a normal request for hospitality except that Jesus was a Jew who should not accept especially liquids from a Samaritan, especially a woman

Jesus counters her query with the offer of “living water” that could mean “running water” or “life-giving water.”

She wants “running water,” but balks when told to get her husband (an not unusual request). That allows Jesus to reveal that he knows that through death or possibly divorce she has had 5 husbands. She concludes he is prophet.

She wonders if a prophet can clear up the rivalry between Jews and Samaritans about the place of worship. But he responds by saying, “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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Then he responds to her question about the Messiah by revealing that he is the Messiah, which implies for the Samaritans as well as for the Jews.

The woman leaves under the, perhaps hostile, eyes of the disciples and tells the news to the city.

The townsfolk come out to Jesus and he speaks with them and many believe, some because of the woman’s testimony and others because of their experience: ““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.”

Notice that Jesus is more satisfied by this gradual process than by food, for he is doing the Father’s will: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. 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.”

Brothers and sisters, here is contrast and similarity

In both cases the good news crosses a cultural barrier from a ritually pure people to a ritually tainted people.

In one the agent is Jesus who evangelizes and then uses the Samaritan woman. The process takes two or three hours initially and three days in all.

In the other the agent is Greek-speaking Jewish converts of Christianity who end up in Syrian Antioch rather then their homelands. The process includes initial success, approval from Jerusalem, the Jerusalem leader recruiting a skilled evangelist, and then eventually their signalling their solidarity with Jerusalem via a charitable gift. A good guess would be that it was a three to five year process.

In both cases the evangelism proceeds in steps, the initially crossing of the cultural barrier, the explanation and facilitation in a way that kept the two cultures unified, and in the end the acceptance of both the good news and its messengers. One cannot separate one from the other.

So share the good news, brothers and sisters, share it with those cut off and of course share it with those more in contact. But share it in steps, allowing the other to take the initative as much as possible. Be willing to take time and real interest in the other person.

This will, of course, change the church as the good news crosses cultures, but more importantly, it will change your lives and God works through you and the lives of those who receive the good news as they come into the joy you have found.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 5-22-2022: 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) 5-22-2022: 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) (5-15-2022: Sunday of the Samaritan Woman or Fifth Sunday of Pascha)

SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2022 | 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