WEBVTT 00:00:00.330 --> 00:00:04.190 Today, as we've just heard, is the Sunday of 00:00:04.190 --> 00:00:09.109 the Samaritan woman. And there are several events 00:00:09.109 --> 00:00:15.669 in the Gospels in which Samaritans figure prominently. 00:00:16.089 --> 00:00:19.750 And you should notice that the Samaritans are 00:00:19.750 --> 00:00:24.510 always the good guys. They're always the ones 00:00:24.510 --> 00:00:31.660 that are doing what is unexpectedly good. Of 00:00:31.660 --> 00:00:33.920 course, the one that should probably come to 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:37.899 our minds first is the good Samaritan. When that 00:00:37.899 --> 00:00:42.840 fellow was wounded by travelers and a priest 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:48.079 and a Levite or a deacon went to the other side 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:53.560 and passed him by. But it was a Samaritan. This 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:57.439 is the irony. Jesus says it was the Samaritan 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:01.539 that came and helped him. And then another event, 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:05.420 of course, is the ten lepers that are cured by 00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:12.579 Jesus. And one comes back to thank him. And Jesus 00:01:12.579 --> 00:01:17.079 remarked, where are the other nine? And he said, 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:22.920 only this one, a foreigner, presumably a Samaritan, 00:01:23.099 --> 00:01:29.260 came to give thanks. This is one of the reasons 00:01:29.260 --> 00:01:34.340 why the apostles were amazed when they came back 00:01:34.340 --> 00:01:37.920 and saw Jesus speaking to that Samaritan woman 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:44.099 at Jacob's well. First, also behind that is one 00:01:44.099 --> 00:01:46.959 of the conventions of the cultural conventions 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:51.579 at the time was that men didn't strike up a conversation 00:01:51.579 --> 00:01:56.510 with women that they didn't know. He just didn't 00:01:56.510 --> 00:02:01.790 behave that way. But this Samaritan woman and 00:02:01.790 --> 00:02:05.209 this beautiful dialogue that ensues about Jesus, 00:02:05.510 --> 00:02:10.210 she comes to get water and he promises her living 00:02:10.210 --> 00:02:14.090 water. The Samaritan woman, of course, particularly 00:02:14.090 --> 00:02:17.349 in the Eastern Church, in Eastern tradition, 00:02:17.650 --> 00:02:26.500 she's a saint, Saint Fotini. Well thought of 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:30.840 for, isn't one of your icons here? No, maybe 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:35.460 it's another church. Okay. There's an icon of, 00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:39.599 isn't it back there? Okay, it's not my mind. 00:02:39.620 --> 00:02:43.219 I haven't lost it yet. Okay, yeah, there's a 00:02:43.219 --> 00:02:50.439 fresco back there. What is this living water 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:58.909 that Jesus promises her? The richer the symbol 00:02:58.909 --> 00:03:03.310 is, the more it allows various interpretations. 00:03:05.349 --> 00:03:10.050 To me it is, and many of the commentators believe, 00:03:10.129 --> 00:03:13.509 that it is the whole life of communion with God. 00:03:14.009 --> 00:03:18.590 That's the living water. And once we find that 00:03:18.590 --> 00:03:23.050 life of communion with God, we'll never thirst 00:03:23.050 --> 00:03:27.840 again. Never. And, of course, the life of communion 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:33.419 with God begins sacramentally at baptism, and 00:03:33.419 --> 00:03:38.060 the life of communion with God is nourished by 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:44.599 the reception of the sacraments, by prayer, and 00:03:44.599 --> 00:03:48.379 also by reading Holy Scriptures. We draw from 00:03:48.379 --> 00:03:52.509 the waters of godliness and read. God's word. 00:03:52.770 --> 00:03:57.789 We should do that daily. Once we are in communion 00:03:57.789 --> 00:04:03.550 with God, we never thirst again. This reminds 00:04:03.550 --> 00:04:06.689 me of a different event and a different story 00:04:06.689 --> 00:04:12.810 that was very influential when I read this in 00:04:12.810 --> 00:04:17.329 my first year of college. It is the life of St. 00:04:17.610 --> 00:04:21.970 Augustine called his Confessions. And he begins 00:04:21.970 --> 00:04:25.910 his autobiography, he wrote this himself, his 00:04:25.910 --> 00:04:31.350 autobiography, with much the same thought. He 00:04:31.350 --> 00:04:35.290 says, thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, 00:04:35.529 --> 00:04:40.629 and our heart is restless until it finds rest 00:04:40.629 --> 00:04:46.870 in thee. St. Augustine, part of his conversion, 00:04:46.870 --> 00:04:53.000 of course, he was just... Some say he might have 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:58.500 exaggerated the faults of his youth, but be that 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:03.519 as it may, his mother was Saint Monica, another 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:09.100 prominent saint, and she prayed every day for 00:05:09.100 --> 00:05:13.199 her son's conversion to Christ. I think that's 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:18.399 an example especially to mothers and all parents. 00:05:19.230 --> 00:05:22.850 to keep their children in their prayers. And 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:25.149 then occasionally children that are brought up 00:05:25.149 --> 00:05:30.230 in the church wander away. And so that really 00:05:30.230 --> 00:05:33.709 tugs at a parent's heart. So what you should 00:05:33.709 --> 00:05:37.850 do is pray earnestly, of course, for that person 00:05:37.850 --> 00:05:43.199 to return to an active Christian life. But also 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:47.800 St. Augustine tells us he joined different philosophical 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:53.899 groups. And then he came to here. He was visiting 00:05:53.899 --> 00:05:57.980 in Ambrose. He was very well trained in rhetoric. 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:02.199 So he was attuned to how people spoke. And he 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:06.740 heard St. Ambrose preach. And St. Augustine tells 00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:12.819 us it was the preaching of Ambrose the Lord. 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:18.319 These two prominent Western saints, Ambrose and 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:22.220 Augustine, I enjoy reading their sermons because 00:06:22.220 --> 00:06:26.120 they are so pastor, they're informative and they 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:36.120 are also pastorally oriented. So he is the author 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:39.639 of a number of very important documents as well. 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:47.019 But What's important here is that he found rest 00:06:47.019 --> 00:06:52.319 when he turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. To use 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:56.220 an expression we as Orthodox don't prominently 00:06:56.220 --> 00:07:01.879 use, he made Jesus his Lord and Savior. And of 00:07:01.879 --> 00:07:05.540 course, we don't talk that way normally, but 00:07:05.540 --> 00:07:07.579 that's what we've done. That's what we did at 00:07:07.579 --> 00:07:13.060 baptism. Jesus became our Lord and Savior. And 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:18.439 there we find rest with him. And he offers us 00:07:18.439 --> 00:07:23.399 this living water that once we have drunk of 00:07:23.399 --> 00:07:27.839 it, we will never thirst again. And then later 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:30.980 on in this dialogue, which is a fascinating dialogue 00:07:30.980 --> 00:07:36.389 between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. He tells 00:07:36.389 --> 00:07:41.290 her to go and get her husbands. And you know, 00:07:41.370 --> 00:07:46.470 you just heard that. And she said, Lord, I perceive 00:07:46.470 --> 00:07:53.910 that you are a prophet. And Jesus said, I who 00:07:53.910 --> 00:07:58.910 speak to you am he. I am the promised Messiah. 00:07:59.550 --> 00:08:04.269 And of course, the Samaritans, who were despised 00:08:04.269 --> 00:08:08.290 by the Jews, as I said earlier, because they 00:08:08.290 --> 00:08:13.110 adopted some of the non -Jewish cultural patterns 00:08:13.110 --> 00:08:16.810 of life. And then what's probably the worst thing, 00:08:16.949 --> 00:08:21.410 they set up a rival temple in Mount Gerizim. 00:08:21.529 --> 00:08:25.810 That's what's behind that exchange. Jews tell 00:08:25.810 --> 00:08:28.069 us that we're supposed to worship in Jerusalem. 00:08:28.629 --> 00:08:33.110 And Jesus' reply is, time will come when all 00:08:33.110 --> 00:08:37.740 who worship him will worship him in spirit and 00:08:37.740 --> 00:08:41.639 in truth, not in a particular location necessarily. 00:08:42.340 --> 00:08:46.120 So the Samaritan woman goes back and gets some 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:49.860 of the townsfolk, and they come and they hear 00:08:49.860 --> 00:08:53.440 the gospel message that Jesus preaches to them 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:59.379 as this Messiah. And then the conclusion is, 00:08:59.620 --> 00:09:07.139 this is the... pronouncement that many of the 00:09:07.139 --> 00:09:11.539 gospel events take place with a pronouncement, 00:09:11.539 --> 00:09:14.639 a word that's meant at the end of this event 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:19.279 speaks to us as well as to the people involved 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:23.519 in the original gospel story. The Samaritans 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:28.799 say, now we have come to believe, not because 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:32.759 of your words to the Samaritan woman. but because 00:09:32.759 --> 00:09:37.340 we have heard and seen for ourselves and have 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:41.379 come to know that this is indeed the Christ, 00:09:41.620 --> 00:09:46.600 the Savior of the world. So today I think our 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:51.679 prayer should be like St. Augustine's and the 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:57.639 Samaritan woman. O Lord, make our hearts restless 00:09:57.639 --> 00:10:04.090 until they find rest in you. And give us this 00:10:04.090 --> 00:10:08.690 living water so that once having drunk it, we 00:10:08.690 --> 00:10:13.710 will never thirst again. Amen. Christ is risen.