The Well

Pastor Laura's Blog

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

In Jesus' time, the town well was the place where people gathered and shared news and ideas. It was also the place they could be refreshed. In the book of John, chapter 4, the town well was where Jesus offered his living water to the Samaritan woman. In this blog, I will offer some thoughts on upcoming Scripture passages that I will be preaching on. Each week, I will post some thoughts and ideas about the passage on Monday, and I welcome your thoughts, questions and insights into the passage in conversation with me. Your feedback will help me as I pray about what word from God I can bring to people in the sermon. Please check in weekly and send me your thoughts via email through our Contact Us form. (Please send your thoughts by Thursday morning if possible. I will not mention which question or insight came from who unless I ask your permission first.)

July 25, 2005

After the trials and tribulations of getting to Portland last week, I was looking forward to finally turning my attention to church business as I began to attend workshops as part of the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). But life kept intruding. Someone very dear to me was going through a rough time, and my thoughts were with her as much as with the things happening around me. "Wouldn't it be nice if we could just focus on church business for a while without interruptions?", I found myself thinking. And then it hit me. There's no such thing. First of all church business is an oxymoron, and secondly, Jesus' ministry was all about interruptions. That's what ministry is!

I'm so grateful to Jon Dahl for sharing his wisdom and insight with Living Water while I have been away. And I am very eager to return to worship with my home community. The worship on this trip has been interesting at times, but there's nothing like worshipping with people you know and love. This next Sunday I will be preaching on the story of Balaam's donkey. It's a humorous story that has some great lessons for us, too. I love how God is a character in the story. What are your questions as you read through it? Send them to me on our Contact Us form and I'm try to answer them as best I can!

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July 18,2005

I am vacationing with my family this week, and instead of studying about the plagues, we've been experiencing some of our own! We suffered through some expected plagues of mosquitos and flies while camping at Yellowstone. But it was the death of our 12-year-old van that really made us wonder what God was saying to us. First it was transmission and cooling problems, and then the air conditioning conked out. After much prayer and stomach-churning, we traded in the old van for a new one, and we're now ready to head to Portland for the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I'm so glad that Jon Dahl was able to preach at Living Water and bring a new perspective to this ancient story. My family ended up worshipping in the (old) van on Sunday morning as we made our way through the Grand Tetons. God provided the "graphics" for us, and we sang songs of praise for the beauty of creation. We shared where we had felt God's presence on this trip, and whenever we started going up a big hill, we prayed really hard.

This week, Jon will be preaching about the Ten Commandments. These rules for living have been in the news a lot lately, and I have to wonder what God thinks about all of that. It seems to me that God would much rather have the words written upon our hearts than written in our courtrooms. But are these 10 rules really possible to keep? Can anyone keep from coveting? And if not, why did God command us to not covet? I look forward to hearing what Jon has to teach us about these most-important rules.

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July 11, 2005

It was such a nice break to read the charming story of Isaac and Rebekah last week. I wanted to know more about Rebekah - what was she thinking and feeling as she was traveling to a new land to marry a man she'd never met? According to Biblical-era standards, she is a great woman of faith who followed where God took her. According to today's standards, I wouldn't recommend marrying someone you've never met before! I had someone comment from the blog last week that it's interesting that we don't know the name of Abraham's servant. He is the main character, even the hero, of the story. He showed great loyalty to his master and great faith in God. His prayer and worship are models for us to follow. Yet, we don't know his name. There are so many saints, great men and women of faith, whose names history has not recorded. But I believe that human history is not the only history. In God's keeping of history, this servant is surely a very important man who cooperated with God on a very important mission. His name is known to the Author of life.

Next week, I will be traveling with my family. We will have a guest preacher, Jon Dahl, who is a Messianic Jew. Jon will take us through the story of the Ten Plagues this week, and the Ten Commandments next week. He is a very good teacher, and we should learn a lot from him about these passages and about the practices of Messianic Jews. As I read the story of the Ten Plagues, I am most troubled by the fact that God "hardened Pharaoh's heart." Why would God send the plagues knowing that they wouldn't convince Pharaoh anyway? If you have other questions or comments, send them to me through the Contact Us form, and I'll send them to Jon. Grace and peace to you!

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July 4, 2005

Whew! We made it through the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. I guess it was kind of brave/stupid of me to pick that story for the July 4th weekend, but I figured if we wanted to know what kind of nation pleases God, maybe we needed to look at what kind of nation does not please God. The violence and utter disregard for others that Sodom displayed led God to finally wipe them off the face of the earth - like a surgeon removes a dangerous cancer. I received a question from the blog about the conversation between God and Abraham in the second half of chapter 18. "It sounds like Abraham is testing God. Is he?" That conversation is one of the most interesting in the Bible. Abraham is indeed testing God, or more accurately, teaching God about who God is! An early version of the text even says that God stood before Abraham, as if Abraham was the teacher and God was the student. In verse 19, God says that He has chosen Abraham so that, "he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just..." In verse 25, Abraham tells God what this righteousness and justice should look like: "Far be it from you to do such a thing - to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike." In other words, Abraham is saying, "You want me to practice justice? Then show me how it's done." One of the gutsiest conversations ever recorded in the Bible!

This week we move on to the happier story of Isaac and Rebekah in Genesis 24. It is a little strange that this chapter tells the story, then tells it all over again. One of my Bible professors frequently reminded us, "If it's repeated, it must be important." I wonder what's so important about this story that it had to be told twice? What does this passage teach us about prayer? Send me your thoughts and questions on the Contact Us form and we'll explore this story together!

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June 27, 2005

In looking at the story of the Tower of Babel, someone asked if humanity was now in the process of overcoming the obstacle of different languages by becoming a global community with the common language of computers. Would God be opposed to that? It wasn't humanity's cooperation in building the tower that displeased God. It was humanity's rejection of God's command to scatter, to "fill the earth", that upset God so much. God said to scatter, and we decided to settle. The tower was a monument to that rejection of God's plan. But I would have to think that cooperation and unity among the people of the earth would be something that would please God greatly.

This Sunday , we're going to tackle one of the most difficult stories in the whole Bible - the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18:16-19:29. It's kind of a strange story to cover on July 4th weekend when we should be singing patriotic songs and thanking God that we live in this country. And we will pray prayers of thankfulness this weekend. But this story is about a community that dishonored God in such a profound way, that God had no choice but to destroy it. If we want to understand what it truly means to be a community or a country that honors God, then this is an important story to read. My main questions as I read it have to do with what the whole conversation with Abraham and God is about, and what kind of father is Lot that he would offer up his virgin daughters to an angry mob so that they could be raped? A very disturbing story indeed. What are your questions? Send them in on our Contact Us form, and we'll discuss them in worship or Act(s) II this Sunday.

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June 20, 2005

Last week, someone asked about the three visitors who came to announce to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son within a year's time. Whenever they speak, the text says, "The Lord said," but it isn't clear if it is all three visitors speaking or what's going on. It's a good question. I wish I had a good answer. It seems obvious that these three people are messengers of God, but it is not clear if all three are angels, or if it is God and two angels, or some other possibility. We know that all appear to be human, although perhaps there is something regal about them because Abraham goes all out to welcome them and serve them. But when Sarah overhears their prediction that she will have a baby, she laughs. That indicates to me that the visitors must look like three average guys or Sarah wouldn't have had the nerve to laugh at what they said.

This week we're moving backward chronologically to the story of the Tower of Babel. (I moved the Abraham and Isaac story ahead a week so we could talk about fathers on Fathers' Day.) This short story is found in Genesis 11:1-9. Some scholars have suggested that it is simply the ancient way of explaining how different languages developed. But it seems very closely related to the story of Adam and Eve to me. Someone recently asked me if the story of Pentecost was a reversal of the story of Babel. That's an interesting thought. Send me your thoughts and questions using our Contact Us form, and I'll do my best to include them in the sermon or Act(s) II this Sunday!

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June 13, 2005

One question I received from last week's blog is whether God rejected Cain's offering because Cain was disobedient. My response is that it doesn't say anywhere in the story that God required an offering or a sacrifice from Cain or Abel. It appears that they gave an offering because their parents had told them of God's graciousness (and they had experienced it themselves), and they simply wanted to show their gratitude. The text seems to indicate that Abel gave the best he had to give - the fat portions and firstborn - representing what is later called a firstfruits offering to God. This means that he gave the first part of his own wealth, without any guarentee that more would come later. This indicates a relationship of great trust in a God who will provide. Cain's offering, on the other hand, simply says "some of the fruits of the soil" - indicating perhaps he gave God what he thought he could spare, the leftovers. God did not want Cain's empty ritual of gratitude. God wanted a relationship built on trust.

This week's story is in preparation for Father's Day. It is the story about God's promise to Abraham of a son. It is found spread out over several chapters, Genesis 17:15-22; 18:1-15; 21:1-7. The question that comes to my mind as I read it is why did God wait so long between the time of the promise and when it was actually fulfilled? And why did God pick people that were so old to be the parents of a new nation? Send me your thoughts and questions over these passages using our Contact Us form, and I'll do my best to include them in the sermon or Act(s) II this Sunday!

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June 6, 2005

Last week's blog yielded questions about why there are two versions of the Creation story (collected from different groups of Israelites, perhaps wanting to honor both traditions and not leave out any details) and what it means that Eve came from Adam's rib (I speculated that once sin entered the world, people had to work the land in order to survive. Women would now be dependent on men for survival, and men must protect women as they would protect their own bodies. Or if you want to be romantic, the rib is closest to the heart!)

This week we look at the kids in Adam and Eve's family in Genesis 4. Can anyone say "dysfunctional?" Wow, sin has barely raised its ugly head and we already have one brother killing another. And what's all this about God accepting one sacrifice and not the other? I think it's very telling that I have searched through 10 different children's Bibles looking for a version of this story, and I can't find one anywhere. Apparently, the authors of children's Bibles feel that this is one Bible story children can't understand. I'm not sure adults can do much with it, either. Send me your questions and thoughts, and I'll do my best to answer them on Sunday!

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May 30, 2005

This is an experiment. We don't really know how many people will take the time to read this blog, read the Scripture passage and send in comments. After all, life is pretty crazy for all of us, and carving out time in our week to read the Bible on our own is usually not a high priority. It's so much easier to just show up on Sunday and let the pastor explain to us what it all means. (I'd like to do that myself!) But God did not intend the Bible to be read by only a few selected seminary graduates. The Bible is your book! It's okay, and even preferable, for all of us to bring our questions and doubts to our reading of this Book. But when we allow ourselves time and space to really dwell in these life-giving stories, we discover that they are our stories; they are about us.

So, here we go. Genesis 1-3. Creation. Adam and Eve. Paradise lasts exactly two chapters. The whole rest of the Bible is God's response to this. Everything God wanted for creation, for humanity, has been lost. And human beings are totally incapable of getting it back. So, it's up to God. But did God set us up to fail? If God had really wanted us to live in paradise forever, couldn't He have put that tree somewhere else?

And what does all this say about the theory of evolution? If we believe what science teaches, does that mean we don't believe the Bible (and vice-versa)? Send me your thoughts and questions about the way the Bible begins.

Who is Pastor Laura?

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