“Lent: A Life Affirming Time”

John 4:1-15

Welcome to the Christian Season of Lent.

It is a time of preparation for the death and resurrection of Jesus

In the early church it was a time to prepare new converts

To be received into the Christian community.

It is often a time where people feel compelled to give up something

That they like- chocolate, television, meat, dessert.

The liturgical color for Lent is purple

which is symbolic of penitence, pain and suffering

and also royalty, resurrection and newness of life.

Usually we would read the story of Jesus’ forty days of temptation

on the first Sunday in Lent to remind us why Lent is 40 days long.

But you may have noticed that during the past four weeks

We have focused on one Gospel each Sunday and

Today is our Sunday to focus on the Gospel of John

Along with our Discipleship Bible study classes.

So instead of hearing the story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness

We hear instead the story of his encounter with the Samaritan women.

The Gospel of John is the only one of the four Gospels that

Doesn’t have a temptation story.

And yet the story of the Samaritan women can be seen

As a temptation story and a lot more.

First, the story takes place as Jesus was traveling from Judea to Galilee.

He travels through Samaria, which for the Jesus,

was like traveling in the wilderness.

Jesus is hungry but instead of the angels ministering to him

He encounters a Samaritan woman who he asks for a drink of water.

And he is tempted by power, food and worship.

The power temptation is in the first line, where the Pharisees observe:

“Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John.”

The ‘not living by bread alone’ temptation comes when the disciples

Offer him food and Jesus says: “My food is to do the will of him

Who sent me to complete his work.”

And the worship temptation is when Jesus and the woman are arguing

About where the proper place to worship is and Jesus says:

“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the

Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”

So in a sense Jesus is tempted in the Gospel of John

By the Pharisees, the Disciples and the Samaritan women

But the real power in this encounter is not what Jesus doesn’t do

But who he is and what he does do.

He gives the women hope:

“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 encounter gives us the best clue about what Lent really is about.

It is preparing for Jesus- his teaching, his death and his resurrection.

But it is not so much about what we give up to prepare for Christ

but about what we receive from Christ as we share a kindness

- new possibilities, new hope, new life.

Jesus promises the women “living water”.

If you watched the Super Bowl last week and more importantly

The commercials that aired during the Superbowl,

There were several water and drink commercials

That promised a certain liveliness.

The SoBe Life Water commercial with the Supermodel and the

Lizards suggested that even lizards would get lively

And learn to dance drinking the water

And the Diet Pepsi Commercial suggested that even if you are falling asleep

That you would suddenly be alive and your head would be bobbing

with the music if you drink their product.

So apparently we like the Samaritan woman are searching for

Water that will give our lives a shot in the arm.

What Jesus is offering though is not a one time jolt of caffeine or ginseng

To get us going in the morning but rather a fountain of life giving

water bubbling up from the well of his very being.

Jesus calls it: “A spring gushing up to eternal life.”

John Calvin noted that “Living water is not so call from its effect.

It is called living water because it flows from a living fountain.”

Of course Calvin is talking about Jesus Christ as that fountain.

And that is the invitation that Jesus offers to us this Lent.

Tap into the real, life giving force that is Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of John is filled with these invitations from Jesus.

The introduction of the Gospel, John 1:4 says “in Him was life”;

In John 6:35 Jesus calls himself ‘The bread of Life”;

In John 6:68 Jesus offers “words of life”;

In John 6:33 it says that Jesus came:

“To give life to the word.”

So the real objective this Lent is not to starve ourselves,

Or deprive ourselves but to open up our eyes and ears and hearts

To the life that God offers in Christ this Lent.

In my own life, I can remember a time when my life had become dead.

I was busy, successful according to the world’s standards-

money and power and prestige as a consultant in D.C.

but I had lost track of when Easter was.

I was busy successful but dead inside.

That year God called me back to the church,

Back to the faith I had grown up with

and back to life that God intended for me.

The journey would eventually lead to seminary but the

First and most important step was to reconnect with

The faith community and to rekindle

my personal relationship with God.

IT was a life giving moment

And the moment didn’t end.

The life that God breathed into me through Christ,

The living water that I experienced didn’t stop.

It really was gushing as I taught kindergarten in the church

And felt the affirmation and energy of the young kids.

It continued as I helped to pick up furniture in the church’s

Outreach program and delivered the furniture to

People in need.

I can feel the living water gushing up when I gave a children’s

message in church one Sunday and I fell in love

with the spontaneity and unpredictability

of young kids.

I feel the water welling up in me whenever I have gone

on mission trips to Mexico, Texas, Israel/Jordan,

or youth trips to Westminster Woods or Colorado;

or Men’s Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning.

You see what Jesus was telling the Samaritan women

And what Jesus is telling us is that this is not a one shot offer

This living water that Jesus offers, changes our life for the better

For the rest of our lively lives.

The was a movie that came out several years ago called “Chocolat”

About a French town that was so fearful of doing anything wrong

That the people were completely stifled.

Fear paralyzed them and took all the joy out of life.

When a confectioner (played by Juliette Pinoite) came to town

she challenged the rules that divided people into camps,

dampened their spirits and created fear.

She offered a wonderful assortment of chocolates

That had the almost magical effect of releasing people

From their fear and pain to enjoy the chocolate

And to enjoy each other,

And to enjoy life.

The story is really a parable about grace.

And the new life people receive when they receive this grace.

Unfortunately the story also is about the costliness of grace

As the confectioner is alienated by the very community

She tried to reach out to in love.

There is a cost to grace and reluctance for people to receive

Even a good gift when they have been conditioned to distrust

Anything that is different from what they know.

That is the message of Jesus this Lent.

Receive the gift of grace, the living water that Jesus offers you.

If you give up something this Lent that is distracting in life,

Take it as an opportunity to receive something

That is life giving, life affirming and

Life building.

Take this Lent as a time to do what both Andrew

and the Samaritan woman did “Come and See” what Christ is doing

and then go and tell others what you have seen and heard.

Andrew went to tell his brother Peter,

The Samaritan women went to tell the village.

Who will you tell about the life giving water

That you receive in Jesus Christ?

Amen