WEBVTT 00:00:01.389 --> 00:00:03.770 Because you don't go to a well at noon unless 00:00:03.770 --> 00:00:07.150 you don't want to. You see, the hour tells the 00:00:07.150 --> 00:00:11.410 story before the woman ever speaks. Jesus wasn't 00:00:11.410 --> 00:00:22.269 waiting at that well by accident. The sun is 00:00:22.269 --> 00:00:24.350 still hanging high over Jacob's well, pressing 00:00:24.350 --> 00:00:28.109 heat into stone and silence into the air. Ajar 00:00:28.109 --> 00:00:33.460 sits unforgotten. Ajar, sits forgotten in the 00:00:33.460 --> 00:00:37.920 dust. Two strangers remain, one who came to avoid 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:40.460 the crowd and one who crossed every line to meet 00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:43.640 her there. The rope is still coiled, the water 00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:47.640 is still deep, but something has shifted. Thirst 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:51.240 has been named, truth has been spoken without 00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:54.799 a raised voice, and the Messiah has revealed 00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:59.689 himself, not in a temple, not on a throne. but 00:00:59.689 --> 00:01:04.109 in an ordinary place in the glare of noon. And 00:01:04.109 --> 00:01:06.650 now here we are, plates scraped clean in the 00:01:06.650 --> 00:01:09.750 small town fellowship hall, the hum of conversation 00:01:09.750 --> 00:01:12.750 fading, chairs scooting back into place. Supper's 00:01:12.750 --> 00:01:16.170 over now, the word is next. And wherever you 00:01:16.170 --> 00:01:19.150 come from tonight, farm road, highway, hospital 00:01:19.150 --> 00:01:22.790 shift, hard day, you've stepped into this room 00:01:22.790 --> 00:01:25.849 with us. So open your Bible, set your jar down 00:01:25.849 --> 00:01:28.430 for a minute. Tonight, we're going to go to the 00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:31.290 well with Jesus and the Samaritan woman, and 00:01:31.290 --> 00:01:41.030 I will see you on the other side. And I think 00:01:41.030 --> 00:01:43.629 that makes us all a little bit skeptical, trying 00:01:43.629 --> 00:01:47.469 to find our way back in faith and dealing with, 00:01:47.569 --> 00:01:49.469 I mean, the truth of the matter is a lot of people 00:01:49.469 --> 00:01:53.170 have spiritual trauma from growing up in bad 00:01:53.170 --> 00:01:59.819 situations. And it's real, yeah? All right, Wayne 00:01:59.819 --> 00:02:01.700 is giving me his thumbs up. I'm going to go ahead 00:02:01.700 --> 00:02:03.840 and begin. We're going to talk tonight about 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:06.659 Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. And 00:02:06.659 --> 00:02:09.919 we're going to start off with setting the scene, 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:14.800 okay? So it's noon. Now, I start with that because 00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:18.919 that actually matters more than most sermons 00:02:18.919 --> 00:02:24.349 actually recognize. And let's imagine why. Noon 00:02:24.349 --> 00:02:27.669 is important to us. The sun is straight overhead, 00:02:27.810 --> 00:02:31.930 pinning everything in place like a thumb pressing 00:02:31.930 --> 00:02:36.270 a moth against a wall. No long shadows to soften 00:02:36.270 --> 00:02:39.110 the edges. No cool morning air to make conversation 00:02:39.110 --> 00:02:43.729 linger a little longer. The stones around Jacob's 00:02:43.729 --> 00:02:47.189 well have been baking all morning, holding their 00:02:47.189 --> 00:02:51.900 heat the way old places hold on to memory. Not 00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:54.780 because they choose to, because that's what stones 00:02:54.780 --> 00:02:58.500 do. It absorbs. It endures. It doesn't get to 00:02:58.500 --> 00:03:03.340 vote. The ground gives off this dry mineral smell 00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:06.319 that tells you rain isn't coming anytime soon. 00:03:07.460 --> 00:03:10.379 The kind of air that sticks to the back of your 00:03:10.379 --> 00:03:13.680 throat reminds you thirst isn't just a metaphor 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:20.199 out here. It's a clock. Cause. Nobody sensible. 00:03:21.289 --> 00:03:26.710 goes to a well at noon. Morning is when the women 00:03:26.710 --> 00:03:30.710 come together. Morning is when the jars clink 00:03:30.710 --> 00:03:33.930 against the lip of the stone and voices overlap 00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:37.729 and news gets traded quietly along with the water. 00:03:38.490 --> 00:03:41.569 Morning is when community happens without anyone 00:03:41.569 --> 00:03:45.210 calling it that, a sacrament disguised as routine, 00:03:45.409 --> 00:03:50.949 a liturgy of rope and play and gossip. Noon is 00:03:50.949 --> 00:03:54.650 when you come when you don't want to be noticed. 00:03:56.169 --> 00:03:59.289 You've learned the math of avoidance the way 00:03:59.289 --> 00:04:03.909 some people learn a skill. You know when the 00:04:03.909 --> 00:04:07.050 village empties out. You know how long it takes 00:04:07.050 --> 00:04:10.090 to draw water without rushing but also without 00:04:10.090 --> 00:04:14.150 lingering. You know to keep your eyes forward 00:04:14.150 --> 00:04:16.670 and your answers short and your story tight. 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:20.819 As a garment, you never unfold in public. You 00:04:20.819 --> 00:04:27.519 have rehearsed invisibility so thoroughly it 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:32.199 has become your default setting. Your jar hangs 00:04:32.199 --> 00:04:35.779 heavy at your side, not full yet, but already 00:04:35.779 --> 00:04:39.699 a burden. You've carried it enough times to know 00:04:39.699 --> 00:04:42.860 exactly where it will bruise your hip if you 00:04:42.860 --> 00:04:46.879 carry it wrong. You've carried other things too, 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:51.199 arrangements, reputations, the weight of a name 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:53.980 that gets said in rooms you're no longer welcome 00:04:53.980 --> 00:04:58.240 in. You've been carrying so long, you've forgotten 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:00.720 what your hands feel like when they're empty. 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:07.259 And then you see him, a man sitting on the edge 00:05:07.259 --> 00:05:11.779 of a well. And that's wrong. Everything about 00:05:11.779 --> 00:05:15.480 it is wrong. The hour is wrong. The posture is 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:19.279 wrong. The person is wrong. He's Jewish. You 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:21.819 can tell before he ever even opens his mouth 00:05:21.819 --> 00:05:25.639 the way his garment falls, the dust on his sandals 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:30.000 that says he has come from Judea. It'd take the 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.699 long way around Samaria like so many did, like 00:05:33.699 --> 00:05:37.379 it was a disease they might catch. He's alone, 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:41.870 Dusty. Clearly tired from travel, not standing 00:05:41.870 --> 00:05:44.449 like someone guarding territory or staking a 00:05:44.449 --> 00:05:48.050 claim. He's just sitting. Like someone who's 00:05:48.050 --> 00:05:50.089 used up all of his strength and made the quiet 00:05:50.089 --> 00:05:53.769 decision not to pretend anymore. Something almost 00:05:53.769 --> 00:05:58.589 reckless about the way he rests there. Like a 00:05:58.589 --> 00:06:00.870 man who isn't afraid of what the next moment 00:06:00.870 --> 00:06:03.850 holds because he already knows what it does. 00:06:05.709 --> 00:06:09.050 And you slow down without meaning to. Your sandals 00:06:09.050 --> 00:06:12.350 scrape the dry ground. You feel the shift in 00:06:12.350 --> 00:06:16.189 your chest, that old alarm system, honed by years 00:06:16.189 --> 00:06:19.230 of being the wrong person in the wrong place 00:06:19.230 --> 00:06:24.050 at the wrong time. This is not how this place 00:06:24.050 --> 00:06:28.209 works. And before you can decide whether to turn 00:06:28.209 --> 00:06:30.870 back or press forward, he looks up and speaks, 00:06:31.009 --> 00:06:37.240 John 4 and 7, give me a drink. No greeting, no 00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:41.899 apology, no explanation for why a Jewish rabbi 00:06:41.899 --> 00:06:44.959 is sitting on a Samaritan well at the hottest, 00:06:45.180 --> 00:06:48.459 emptiest part of the day, asking a woman he's 00:06:48.459 --> 00:06:52.139 never met for something he has no cultural right 00:06:52.139 --> 00:06:57.139 to respect or to expect. He just has a need. 00:06:57.819 --> 00:07:00.819 Spoken plainly, like a man setting a stone on 00:07:00.819 --> 00:07:03.300 the ground between two strangers and saying, 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:08.120 here, let's start with what's real. That sentence 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:13.319 is small, but it carries history like a fault 00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:17.720 line, carries his tectonic weight. It's quiet, 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:21.639 maybe unnoticeable on the surface, ancient and 00:07:21.639 --> 00:07:27.069 violent underneath. Jewish people do not go to 00:07:27.069 --> 00:07:31.870 Samaritans for water. The boundary was stacked 00:07:31.870 --> 00:07:35.370 in stones generations before either of you were 00:07:35.370 --> 00:07:41.089 born. Men do not initiate conversation with women 00:07:41.089 --> 00:07:46.069 like this. Not here, not now, not without a chaperone 00:07:46.069 --> 00:07:50.649 or a transaction or a reason. Other men might 00:07:50.649 --> 00:07:54.800 just accept over dinner. Rabbis? Do not speak 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:59.079 casually across lines it took centuries to harden. 00:07:59.459 --> 00:08:04.240 Lines drawn in blood and exile and the slow grinding 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:09.079 erosion of people deciding who counts and who 00:08:09.079 --> 00:08:13.639 doesn't. And what we see isn't a social misstep. 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:18.579 This is a collapse of categories. And it happens 00:08:18.579 --> 00:08:23.060 so simply. almost miss the earthquake underneath 00:08:23.060 --> 00:08:28.720 it. He's asking for something he has no right 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:33.620 to expect. He's placing himself also below you 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:37.879 in the transaction. A thirsty man needs a woman 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:42.299 with a rope and a jar. He's making himself dependent 00:08:42.299 --> 00:08:46.919 on your mercy. And mercy is a currency you didn't 00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:51.440 even know you still carried around. So you answer 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:54.120 the way someone answers who survived knowing 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:56.460 the rules better than the people who wrote them. 00:08:56.580 --> 00:09:01.279 You name the boundary, the line. John 4, verse 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:05.580 9. How is it that you, she says, being a Jew, 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:12.019 ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? And instead 00:09:12.019 --> 00:09:16.399 of retreating or correcting himself, instead 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:20.529 of pretending that this is normal, hoping she'd 00:09:20.529 --> 00:09:23.370 play along. He says something that doesn't belong 00:09:23.370 --> 00:09:26.769 in either of their scripts. John chapter 4 and 00:09:26.769 --> 00:09:30.669 10. If you knew the gift of God and who it is 00:09:30.669 --> 00:09:35.429 who says this to you, give me a drink, you would 00:09:35.429 --> 00:09:37.470 have asked him and he would have given you living 00:09:37.470 --> 00:09:43.350 water. Living water. Not still water drawn up 00:09:43.350 --> 00:09:46.330 from a deep hole, carried home in a jar, leaks 00:09:46.330 --> 00:09:49.080 a little bit when you're not careful. Running 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:52.559 water. Fresh water. Water that doesn't stagnate 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:54.539 in the dark. That doesn't settle at the bottom 00:09:54.539 --> 00:09:59.279 as ancient and old as a well. You glance at that 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:03.320 well. Deep. Old as the patriarch who dug it. 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:08.120 Reliable. The way things are reliable. When they've 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:10.200 been doing the same job for a thousand years 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:13.659 without one complaint. But then you glance back 00:10:13.659 --> 00:10:20.340 at his hands. Empty. No rope, no bucket, no jar, 00:10:20.460 --> 00:10:23.320 just open palms and a claim that doesn't add 00:10:23.320 --> 00:10:26.480 up. And you ground the conversation where you've 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:28.960 learned to keep your footing in the practical, 00:10:29.240 --> 00:10:33.159 in the measurable, the verifiable. Sir, you have 00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:39.340 nothing to draw with and the well is deep. It's 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:44.000 not sarcasm, it's realism. You lived long enough 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.259 to know the difference between poetry and provision. 00:10:47.759 --> 00:10:52.299 Between a beautiful idea and a full jar. Between 00:10:52.299 --> 00:10:54.940 a man who talks about water and a woman who has 00:10:54.940 --> 00:10:59.259 to carry it home. Friends, tonight our scripture 00:10:59.259 --> 00:11:01.320 comes to us from the gospel account according 00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:04.419 to the Apostle John chapter 4 beginning verse 00:11:04.419 --> 00:11:08.440 13. Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:11.440 again. Whoever drinks of the water that I will 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:16.029 give him will never thirst again. Sir. Give me 00:11:16.029 --> 00:11:18.409 this water so that I won't go thirsty. Neither 00:11:18.409 --> 00:11:23.169 come all the way here to draw. Go. Call your 00:11:23.169 --> 00:11:28.789 husband and come here. I have no husband. You 00:11:28.789 --> 00:11:31.409 said, well, I have no husband, for you've had 00:11:31.409 --> 00:11:35.990 five husbands. And he whom you have now, he is 00:11:35.990 --> 00:11:40.769 not your husband. The hour comes, and now is. 00:11:41.870 --> 00:11:44.330 when the true worshipers will worship the Father 00:11:44.330 --> 00:11:49.470 in spirit and in truth. I am he, the one who 00:11:49.470 --> 00:11:52.970 speaks to you. Thus ends the reading of the word 00:11:52.970 --> 00:11:57.750 tonight. And in the story, this is where the 00:11:57.750 --> 00:12:01.669 air begins to change. You can feel it. The way 00:12:01.669 --> 00:12:07.549 we can feel the storm coming in, not in the sky 00:12:07.549 --> 00:12:12.059 yet, but in the stillness beforehand. Up until 00:12:12.059 --> 00:12:15.080 this point, the conversation had been intriguing, 00:12:15.340 --> 00:12:18.860 even hopeful. He's talking about water that lasts, 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:22.419 about thirst that doesn't come back, about a 00:12:22.419 --> 00:12:25.120 gift that doesn't need to be earned or bartered 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:28.620 for or purchased with respectability that you 00:12:28.620 --> 00:12:34.759 ran out of long ago. And then he says it. Go 00:12:34.759 --> 00:12:40.179 call your husband. And this... This is where 00:12:40.179 --> 00:12:42.399 most of us would have preferred Jesus to keep 00:12:42.399 --> 00:12:47.919 it metaphorical. Because he was being kind. He 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:51.120 was being interesting. He was being safe. Or 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:53.980 at least he was being the version of safe that 00:12:53.980 --> 00:12:56.320 tells you to stay in the conversation without 00:12:56.320 --> 00:13:00.659 having to open the closet door. And now, standing 00:13:00.659 --> 00:13:02.960 in front of that door with his hand on the knob. 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:09.720 And when you answer him, Chose precision over 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:14.500 performance. I have no husband. Four words. You 00:13:14.500 --> 00:13:18.740 don't explain. You don't embellish. You don't 00:13:18.740 --> 00:13:21.840 offer the back story or the justifications or 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:27.100 the defenses you've rehearsed. You have rehearsed 00:13:27.100 --> 00:13:29.899 in your head the hundreds of times you have walked 00:13:29.899 --> 00:13:34.799 to this well. You hand him the shortest, truest 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:37.870 sentence you've got. and you wait to see what 00:13:37.870 --> 00:13:41.889 he does with it. And he doesn't contradict you. 00:13:42.710 --> 00:13:45.389 He completes the sentence you were never going 00:13:45.389 --> 00:13:49.269 to finish out loud. Five husbands. A current 00:13:49.269 --> 00:13:52.070 arrangement that doesn't carry a name anyone 00:13:52.070 --> 00:13:58.110 wants to say in public. A history that, in that 00:13:58.110 --> 00:14:03.470 culture, pause, could mean widowhood, abandonment, 00:14:03.470 --> 00:14:08.230 economic desperation, or all three. Because the 00:14:08.230 --> 00:14:11.950 truth is here, my dear friends, we don't know 00:14:11.950 --> 00:14:16.210 how much of her story was sin and how much of 00:14:16.210 --> 00:14:20.470 it was just the brutal math of survival. We do 00:14:20.470 --> 00:14:23.049 know she's been surviving more than thriving. 00:14:24.070 --> 00:14:28.860 And we know this, in her world, Women didn't 00:14:28.860 --> 00:14:35.519 end marriages. Men did. Which means five husbands 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:40.559 may tell us a lot less about her character than 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:45.480 her endurance. We know the arithmetic of a woman 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:48.360 in the ancient world whose options were never 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:53.440 really her own. And notice what he doesn't do. 00:14:55.500 --> 00:14:57.980 He doesn't call her immoral. He doesn't launch 00:14:57.980 --> 00:15:01.779 into a moral lecture. He doesn't start with repent. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:08.519 He starts with relationship and revelation. He 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:12.000 doesn't threaten her with consequences or wave 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:16.340 the law at her like a weapon. He doesn't turn 00:15:16.340 --> 00:15:19.500 this into a sermon about purity or lecture her 00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:25.559 about her life choices. He tells the truth. accurately, 00:15:25.559 --> 00:15:31.000 completely, without flinching. And then he stays 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:37.440 seated. Grace doesn't blur our reality. Grace 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:40.480 meets it face to face and decides not to look 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:47.460 away. And then the strangest thing happens. She 00:15:47.460 --> 00:15:52.580 stays. She doesn't run. She doesn't shut down. 00:15:53.389 --> 00:15:56.909 She doesn't lash out or deflect or grab her jar 00:15:56.909 --> 00:15:59.789 and disappear into the heat the way she's done 00:15:59.789 --> 00:16:02.850 a hundred times before. She shifts the conversation 00:16:02.850 --> 00:16:07.929 upward. Verse 19. Sir, I perceive that you are 00:16:07.929 --> 00:16:11.929 a prophet. And this isn't deflection, it's instinct. 00:16:12.929 --> 00:16:16.230 Kind of instinct belongs to people who survived 00:16:16.230 --> 00:16:18.990 hard conversations by somehow finding a higher 00:16:18.990 --> 00:16:23.809 ground. Like, if we talk theology, maybe we can 00:16:23.809 --> 00:16:28.009 breathe again. If we stay focused on worship, 00:16:28.169 --> 00:16:30.309 maybe we can stay in the room without bleeding 00:16:30.309 --> 00:16:35.710 out. So she raises the oldest argument in the 00:16:35.710 --> 00:16:38.350 book. the one between the Jewish people and the 00:16:38.350 --> 00:16:40.730 Samaritan people and who really are God's people. 00:16:40.870 --> 00:16:43.570 Another Bible study for another night. But it 00:16:43.570 --> 00:16:47.950 is a conversation, one where her people and his 00:16:47.950 --> 00:16:51.350 people have been having since the kingdom split. 00:16:52.409 --> 00:16:57.210 Where does worship really happen? On this mountain 00:16:57.210 --> 00:17:01.149 or in Jerusalem at the temple? With us or with 00:17:01.149 --> 00:17:04.509 them? Where does a person have to stand before 00:17:04.509 --> 00:17:08.559 God will listen? And instead of choosing sides, 00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:12.579 instead of planting his flag on one hill or the 00:17:12.579 --> 00:17:15.680 other the way every other rabbi and priest have 00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:18.720 done before him, Jesus does something instead 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:21.980 that loosens the ground between the two mountains. 00:17:22.900 --> 00:17:29.500 The hour comes and now is. Not someday. Not after 00:17:29.500 --> 00:17:32.500 the temple is rebuilt. Not after you've sorted 00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:35.279 out your theology or your living situation or 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:41.759 your reputation. Now, Jesus is saying, the hour 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:45.599 is now. Worship is not about your geography. 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:50.799 It's about presence and honesty. Spirit and truth. 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:58.680 Not spirit to escape truth. Not some ecstatic 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:02.059 flight that lets you leave your body and your 00:18:02.059 --> 00:18:07.500 history somehow behind. And not truth without 00:18:07.500 --> 00:18:12.559 spirit to hold it. Not cold clinical accuracy 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:15.859 that tells you exactly what's wrong with you 00:18:15.859 --> 00:18:20.019 and then walks away. Both spirit and truth together 00:18:20.019 --> 00:18:26.589 like breath and lungs. And then quietly. Without 00:18:26.589 --> 00:18:29.589 ceremony, without witnesses, without the kind 00:18:29.589 --> 00:18:32.150 of audience a revelation like that is supposed 00:18:32.150 --> 00:18:43.609 to require, he says this, I am he. This is the 00:18:43.609 --> 00:18:47.349 first recorded self -revelation of Jesus as the 00:18:47.349 --> 00:18:49.809 Messiah in the gospel account according to John. 00:18:51.910 --> 00:18:56.329 And he gives it to her. Not to the disciples, 00:18:56.569 --> 00:18:59.549 not to the Pharisees, not to the powerful, the 00:18:59.549 --> 00:19:03.970 connected, or the credentialed. To a Samaritan 00:19:03.970 --> 00:19:07.710 woman with five ex -husbands and no name the 00:19:07.710 --> 00:19:13.210 gospel even bothers to record. At noon, at a 00:19:13.210 --> 00:19:19.029 well, in a place where people avoid. This is 00:19:19.029 --> 00:19:22.440 also. the longest recorded conversation Jesus 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:25.720 has with any single person in the four gospel 00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:30.440 accounts. And he has it with someone the world 00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:33.579 had already decided wasn't worth the time of 00:19:33.579 --> 00:19:41.200 day. Not literally, right? We've all been there. 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:46.220 We've all had our noon moments. We have them 00:19:46.220 --> 00:19:48.940 in church. Not literally, like I said, but... 00:19:50.010 --> 00:19:52.789 Sometimes we'll slip into the back queue late 00:19:52.789 --> 00:19:55.849 enough it might as well have been. We've figured 00:19:55.849 --> 00:19:59.309 out when it's safest to show up. We've learned 00:19:59.309 --> 00:20:02.890 which versions of ourselves were acceptable in 00:20:02.890 --> 00:20:04.789 the building and which ones had to wait out in 00:20:04.789 --> 00:20:10.549 the car. We've kept jars that make us functional 00:20:10.549 --> 00:20:14.869 but never full. Just enough religion to keep 00:20:14.869 --> 00:20:18.049 people from asking questions. Just enough performance. 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:25.880 Pass inspection. Where did you learn to hide 00:20:25.880 --> 00:20:31.220 in plain sight? Sit with that for a second. Don't 00:20:31.220 --> 00:20:34.799 rush past it. The answer might be older than 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:41.259 you think. And what would it take to believe 00:20:41.259 --> 00:20:43.500 that the person sitting at the well already knows 00:20:43.500 --> 00:20:55.660 your story and stayed anyway? Because there is 00:20:55.660 --> 00:20:59.200 a counterfeit gospel that is circulating in churches 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:03.019 that says grace means God won't ask hard questions, 00:21:03.299 --> 00:21:07.200 that love means never being confronted with the 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:10.599 truth about yourself, that acceptance and honesty 00:21:10.599 --> 00:21:15.920 are somehow enemies. Jesus refuses that gospel 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:20.579 at this well. He doesn't bypass her story. He 00:21:20.579 --> 00:21:24.000 doesn't pretend her history doesn't exist. But 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:27.619 he enters into it without weaponizing it. He 00:21:27.619 --> 00:21:31.519 names it without using it against her. He holds 00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:34.980 truth and tenderness together in the same hand. 00:21:35.180 --> 00:21:38.980 And he doesn't drop either one. And if you've 00:21:38.980 --> 00:21:41.819 ever tried to do that in a marriage, in a friendship, 00:21:42.019 --> 00:21:44.920 in a pew, in a pulpit, you know it is the most 00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:50.269 demanding kind of love there is. Because it would 00:21:50.269 --> 00:21:54.930 be easier to choose one or the other. Truth alone 00:21:54.930 --> 00:22:02.250 is simpler. Tenderness alone is safer. Jesus 00:22:02.250 --> 00:22:05.690 refuses the simplicity and the safety of both. 00:22:06.750 --> 00:22:11.390 What truth are you carrying to assume would end 00:22:11.390 --> 00:22:14.849 the conversation if Jesus named it back out loud 00:22:14.849 --> 00:22:20.859 to you? And what if that naming is exactly the 00:22:20.859 --> 00:22:25.980 way the living water gets in? The story doesn't 00:22:25.980 --> 00:22:28.940 become holy because she cleans up. It becomes 00:22:28.940 --> 00:22:34.279 holy because she's seen and held by God. It's 00:22:34.279 --> 00:22:37.460 the miracle at this well. Not that she changes, 00:22:37.539 --> 00:22:42.119 but that she's known and not abandoned. The transformation 00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:49.079 comes later. Staying comes first. And Grace is 00:22:49.079 --> 00:22:52.980 not allergic to complexity. Grace specializes 00:22:52.980 --> 00:22:57.539 in complexity. Grace built its house on the corner 00:22:57.539 --> 00:23:00.680 of messy and unlikely streets and hung out a 00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:03.799 sign that said, come as you are, we'll sort this 00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:09.500 out together. When she leaves, the text tells 00:23:09.500 --> 00:23:15.029 us something quiet but seismic. John 4, verse 00:23:15.029 --> 00:23:24.930 28. The woman left her water jar. She came to 00:23:24.930 --> 00:23:28.329 the well for water. She leaves with witness. 00:23:29.390 --> 00:23:34.089 And she doesn't walk. She runs back to the same 00:23:34.089 --> 00:23:38.630 village she's been avoiding. Back to the same 00:23:38.630 --> 00:23:42.700 people whose eyes she's learned to dodge. And 00:23:42.700 --> 00:23:46.440 the first thing she says isn't a creed or a confession 00:23:46.440 --> 00:23:51.039 or a carefully constructed testimony. She says, 00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:55.319 verse 29, come see a man who told me everything 00:23:55.319 --> 00:24:02.039 I did. That's not shame talking. That's freedom. 00:24:03.579 --> 00:24:08.059 Some jars are necessary for survival. Some jars 00:24:08.059 --> 00:24:11.759 are habits we've mistaken for life. Some jars 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:14.539 are the containers we keep carrying to wells 00:24:14.539 --> 00:24:17.559 we've outgrown because we forgot we were allowed 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:23.200 to set those jars down anyway. What jar are you 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:28.359 still carrying that you no longer need? Church, 00:24:28.359 --> 00:24:34.019 Jesus is still sitting at wells, still showing 00:24:34.019 --> 00:24:37.640 up in the wrong hour, wrong place, wrong people. 00:24:39.079 --> 00:24:41.339 Still asking for drinks he doesn't need from 00:24:41.339 --> 00:24:43.339 people who don't think they have anything worth 00:24:43.339 --> 00:24:47.039 to offer him. Still telling the truth gently 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:50.259 enough to be survived. And still offering the 00:24:50.259 --> 00:24:51.960 living water to people who didn't think they 00:24:51.960 --> 00:24:57.339 were allowed to want it on purpose. If you came 00:24:57.339 --> 00:25:02.380 here today at noon, if you timed your arrival 00:25:02.380 --> 00:25:04.880 to avoid the crowd, if you carried your jar to 00:25:04.880 --> 00:25:07.640 the edges where nobody watches too closely, you 00:25:07.640 --> 00:25:11.500 didn't miss him. He's been waiting for you since 00:25:11.500 --> 00:25:16.220 you left the house. Amen. Amen. Thanks, guys. 00:25:25.099 --> 00:25:28.140 Somewhere under that noonday sun, a woman walked 00:25:28.140 --> 00:25:31.940 back into town lighter than she came. The jar 00:25:31.940 --> 00:25:35.319 still at the well. The heat still pressing down. 00:25:35.519 --> 00:25:40.400 That well still deep. She was no longer carrying 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:43.660 what she thought she had to carry. She had been 00:25:43.660 --> 00:25:48.759 seen, fully, truthfully, and not dismissed. And 00:25:48.759 --> 00:25:51.480 that's the part that comforts and convicts us 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:54.640 at the same time. Because if Jesus could name 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:57.740 the truth without shaming the soul, then maybe 00:25:57.740 --> 00:26:00.720 the thing you've kept folded tightly doesn't 00:26:00.720 --> 00:26:03.920 disqualify you either. Maybe it's the doorway. 00:26:04.870 --> 00:26:08.450 Maybe the living water starts right there. The 00:26:08.450 --> 00:26:11.170 place you were most certain God wouldn't sit 00:26:11.170 --> 00:26:15.549 down. Now, listen, friend. If something landed 00:26:15.549 --> 00:26:17.970 tonight, if you heard a phrase a little differently, 00:26:18.170 --> 00:26:21.690 if a piece of your story felt less alone than 00:26:21.690 --> 00:26:25.170 it did 30 minutes ago, throw that old like in 00:26:25.170 --> 00:26:27.069 the offering plate. That just lets us know you 00:26:27.069 --> 00:26:30.690 were here, that it mattered. And if you'd like 00:26:30.690 --> 00:26:32.890 to keep walking with us into the new year, go 00:26:32.890 --> 00:26:36.809 ahead and tithe that subscribe. That way you'll 00:26:36.809 --> 00:26:39.029 know when we're meeting for church again. And 00:26:39.029 --> 00:26:41.150 until then, friend, be blessed.