Discipling Life

Today's post consists of my notes for a sermon I preached August 25, 2013 at Kitty Hawk UMC. John 4:5–42 She lives in a small town, the kind where everyone knows everyone else’s business—and often adds their own opinions to it. We can picture her walking through the dusty streets, feeling the weight of the whispers. Years of broken relationships, painful choices, and sideways glances have taught her how small towns can turn gossip into a prison. So, she learns to schedule her life around other people’s routines. When the women of Sychar go to draw water early in the morning, she waits until the noon sun burns hot, when no one else is there. It’s not just about water—it’s about avoiding shame. It’s about living an invisible life, excluded and exhausted. Many of us know something about that. We may not draw water from a well, but we know what it’s like to feel outside the circle—to carry things we hope no one else notices. Lent is a season when those quiet, hidden wounds come to ...

  A Lenten reflection on Exodus 17:1–7; Psalm 95; Romans5:1–11; John 4:5–42 as we prepare for The Third Sunday of Lent (Year A in the Lectionary). This week we have been looking at the four passages above. These four passages give us a picture of what it means to be human before God—thirsty, searching, sometimes stubborn, yet always met by grace. During Lent, we walk through the wilderness with Israel, we listen to the warnings of the Psalmist, we receive the hope Paul describes, we stand beside the Samaritan woman at the well, and we meet Christ for ourselves like the townspeople. Together, these scriptures remind us that God meets us in our deepest needs and invites us into a life shaped by trust. In Exodus 17, the people are thirsty and afraid. They ask, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7). Their question is honest. Many of us have asked the same thing in our own wilderness moments. Yet even in their doubt, God provides water from the rock. God does not abandon the...

The story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well is one of the most beautiful encounters in Scripture. It begins with one tired traveler and one lonely woman, but it ends with an entire town running toward grace. During Lent, when we pay attention to our own thirsts and longings, this passage reminds us that Christ’s living water is never meant to stop with us—it is meant to overflow into the lives of others. Jesus meets the woman in the heat of the day, when most people stayed indoors. She comes to the well carrying more than an empty jar. She comes in isolation and with a complicated past ( See more in yesterday’sdevotion ). Yet Jesus speaks to her with dignity. He knows her story, and he still offers her living water—water that restores, heals, and renews. When she realizes who Jesus is, she leaves her water jar behind. The very thing she came to fill no longer matters. Her heart is full, and she runs back to town with a message that is simple and honest: “Come and see a m...

John 4:5-42 tells the story of Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at the well. It’s one of the longest conversations Jesus has with anyone in the Gospels, and it happens to someone who least expected to be noticed by him. The woman came to the well at noon, perhaps when she thought no one else would be there. But Jesus was waiting for her. He asked her for a drink, and in that simple act, he broke barriers—between men and women, Jews and Samaritans, the righteous and the outcast. We often make a lot of assumptions about this woman. We often assume she must have been a woman of questionable morals. Why did she have so many husbands? And now she isn’t married to the man she is living with. Don’t we love a good scandal? Perhaps there is a little more to the picture than what we have been told to see. Why DID she have so many husbands? Levirate marriage gives us one possible, compassionate lens for seeing the Samaritan woman’s story, but it is not the only way to understand her situat...

Today we read how Paul says that “while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That is the heart of the gospel, and it’s the heartbeat of Lent. Christ did not wait for us to be ready, perfect, or spiritually strong. He met us in our weakness and gave himself for us. That is grace—pure and undeserved. During Lent, we remember that grace again. We remember that nothing we do can add to or take away from the love God has already shown us in Christ. And we remember that this grace holds us steady when life feels uncertain. Paul gives us a clear and simple word in these verses: because of what Christ has done, we have peace with God. That peace is not something we earn; it is a gift received through faith. Verse 1 says, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Justified—made right; faith—the way we receive it; peace—the new relationship that follows. Lent is a season that helps us notice what separates us from Go...

As we move deeper into the season of Lent, our hearts are often turned toward quiet reflection and self-examination. But this week, our scripture from Psalm 95 starts with a bit of a joyful noise. It invites us to sing, to make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation, and to come into God’s presence with thanksgiving. 1 O come, let us sing to the Lord;     let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;     let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! Psalm 95 begins with an invitation to praise. It calls us to lift our voices, to bow in worship, and to remember that the Lord is our Creator and Shepherd. There’s a sense of joy and gratitude—God is good, and all creation belongs to him. Psalm 95, known as the Venite (Latin: “O come”), has been used as a call to worship for millennia. Originating as a song for Israel’s Temple festivals and Sabbath, it ...