Sunday 03/23/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Jesus offers us living water”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 95
New Testament Scripture Lesson: Romans 5:1-11
Gospel Lesson: John 4:5-42
Brothers and sisters,
welcome on this the Third Sunday in this season of Holy Lent. This is the season
where we prepare our hearts, our minds, and our bodies, for the death and the resurrection
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In this season, we a challenged to root out
of ourselves all that keeps us from God, and all that keeps us from being more
holy. In this season, Jesus calls us to draw closer to his love, and to give
his love away to others.
In this way,
in this brief sermon that I will give this morning, I will discuss how “Jesus
offers us living water.”
In first
looking at the Old Testament reading from Psalm 95 from this morning, the
Psalmist begins the Psalm by writing, “O Come, let us sing to the LORD, let us
make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” The Psalmist then says, “Let
us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him
with songs of praise!” For brothers and sisters, God is good, and Jesus Christ,
the Lord of life, “offers us living water” in the form of salvation and eternal
life through him. The Psalmist goes on to say in Psalm 95, “O that today you
would listen to his voice! Do not harden your hearts.” If we are open to the
saving grace of God, of Jesus Christ, then we will receive “living water.”
In the Apostle
Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, or Romans from this morning, the Apostle
Paul begins by saying in 5:1-2, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of
sharing the glory of God.” “Jesus offers us living water.” The Apostle Paul
tells us further that in our sufferings, that they produce “endurance,” and
that “endurance produces character,” and that “character produces hope,” and
that “hope does not disappoint us.”
The Apostle
Paul then says in 5:8, “But God proves his loves for us in that while we still
sinners Christ died for us.” The Apostle Paul then concludes this piece of his
letter to the church in Rome, by telling the church, “we even boast in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
“Jesus offers us living water.”
In our rather
lengthy gospel reading from the gospel of John for this morning, Jesus comes to
a city in Samaria called “Sychar.” Once in the city of Sychar, the gospel tells
us that Jesus was sitting by the well around the time of 12:00 pm noon, when a
Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus asked this woman to give him a drink
of water. The gospel then says that the
Samaritan woman said to Jesus, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a
woman of Samaria?” The gospel then says, “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.”
This woman
taking Jesus literally, then asks Jesus how to obtain this “living water” that
he spoke of. Jesus then tells the woman that everyone who drinks of this water
from the well, from this well of Jacob, will be thirsty again. Jesus then says
but, “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing
up to eternal life.” The Samaritan woman, then asked Jesus for some of this
water.
Jesus already
knowing all that there was to know about the Samaritan woman asked her to get
her husband and return to him. The Samaritan woman said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus then agrees with her and says, “for you have had five husbands, and the
one you have now is not your husband.”
Completely
awestruck, the Samaritan woman said to Jesus, “Sir, I see that you are a
prophet,” and Jesus then tells the Samaritan woman that, “the hour is coming,
and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth.”
Jesus then tells the Samaritan woman that he is the Messiah, the Savior.
Many
Samaritans in the city called Sychar came to believe because of the Samaritan
woman’s testimony, as she said of Jesus, “He told me everything I have ever
done.” Many of the people even said in the Samaritan city of Sychar that Jesus
was “truly the savior of the word.”
You
see my brothers and sisters, like the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus came
and still comes to all manner of people to “offer us living water.” Whether
these people are the most outcast and rejected people, or whether they be high
and mighty, Jesus comes to us all equally.
Our
guest speaker today, Missionary and Campus Minister Kathleen Youngs, ministers
to all manner of people. She preaches to all people that she meets that “Jesus
offers us living water.” Let us now greet and hear from Sister Kathleen. Amen.
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