Hi, Zane.
I just returned from a little jog with the dogs. It was chilly with frost on the ground in our area. But it’s sure a beautiful clear fall morning.
We’ll be heading off soon to a memorial for our friend Mick Owings. I already know that it will not be a setting of grieving as much as one of celebration and rejoicing over our collective knowing of where he is— along with the imagination of what he is doing. I already know that it will be my favorite kind of funeral/memorial.
The encounter Jesus had with the Samaritan woman in our reading today is quite a fascinating and theologically revealing exchange. I think we are all wise to carefully process it. Jesus offers some very awesome and revolutionary statements about Himself, Father God, and worship.
Hoping you have a great day. Love and prayers—Tua (Ray)
The debate over how to worship, when to worship, and where to worship seems to be quite alive and well today among those who are held captive to religious form and tradition. That issue comes up in this exchange between Jesus and the woman he encounters at the Samaritan well. The woman is a bit shaken by the fact that this man (Jesus) knows a lot more about her than any normal person could. She says, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem” (4:19-20). It would seem that she purposely shifts the attention of the conversation to this debate so as to side-step the discomfort she was suddenly feeling with too much attention being drawn to her personally. Jesus responds, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…Yet A TIME IS COMING AND HAS NOW COME when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21, 23-24).
There seems to me to be only one way to understand these words of Jesus. He is disclosing to this woman the great theme and objective of the Gospel, indeed of the New Testament—indeed of the entire Bible. It is an internalization and individualization of the Kingdom of God. I believe Jesus is stating, in so many words, that how, when, and where one worships is not so important. That one DOES worship from a sincere heart (HEART AFTER GOD) through the mediation of the redemptive heart-changing work of Christ is very, VERY important.
I hope you will not tire of my repetition, but I think the central idea of Jesus’ words is pretty well summed up in the theme I continually quote—“Christ in you, the hope of Glory” (Colossians 1:27). Think about it.
You really don’t need a fancy new recipe or method for worship. You don’t need to emphasize some special time. You don’t need to run off to some special place. Those are clearly vestiges of religion—religious formalism (superficial legalism). What you need is to simply DO IT. And, DO IT NOW—right where you are—continually.