At the Well

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John”—although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized—he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:1-15

Wondrous Creator, you moved over the waters

creating our world and supplying us with life

so much of our surfaces are covered with snow

and you call us to do deep for the water of life.

You met the Samaritan woman at the well

inviting her to go deeper and gain new life

welcoming her as a neighbor and friend

sharing your love with those once enemies.

We live in a shattering cold, divided world

we divide by party, theologies and race

yet you would have us see all as relatives

going deeper to the well of your eternal love.

Help us to find common sources for all

make us ambassadors of your love today

give us the strength to go deeper for you

make us the instruments of your loving peace. Amen.