Readings for February 24

Psalm 95 1 Come! We must shout for joy to Adonai; for the Rock that Protects, shout us in triumph. 2 we come to meet him with thankful songs, we shout for him in triumph! 3 Because God is the Mighty Adonai And, ruling all gods, the Mighty King.[1] 4 He fits the country fields in his hand, the tallest mountains fail to reach his height 5 The sea is his because he is its creator, and he shaped the land with his hands. 6 We must go in, bow down, and on our knees fall,[2] in front of Adonai our creator, 7 Because he is our God, we are people in his flock, his daily chosen sheep, if we listen to his voice. 8 “Do not be stubborn-hearted like at Meribah, Like that day in the wilderness at Massah 9 Where your fathers lost faith in me, tested me, and then saw what I could do. 10 For forty years I despised that generation, I said, ‘these people’s hearts wander around, because they refuse to learn my road.’ 11 So I took an oath in my anger that they would not enter my rest.”[3]	Exodux 17:1-7 1 All of the Children of Israel were traveling together from the Desert of Syn, by their stages, which Adonai had set. They camped at Rephidim where there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So the people vented their charges against Moses: “Give us water and let us drink.” Moses responded, “why are you accusing me and why are you putting Adonai on trial?” 3 But the people were thirsty there and they murmured against Moses, “Why did you bring us up here from Egypt, to kill us and our kids and our livestock with dehydration?” 4 Moses cried out to Adonai, “What am I going to do to this people since they are almost ready to stone me?” 5 Then Adonai said to Moses, “Go in front of the people with the elders of Israel, walking with the staff you used to strike the river.” 6 Listen, I am about to stand in front of you there on the rock in Horeb, and hit the rock and water will flow from it, and the people can drink it.” So, Moses did so while the elders of Israel watched.” 7 So he called that place Massah and Meribah, because the Children of Israel brought charges against him and put God on trial, asking, “Is Adonai among us?”
John 4:5-42 5 He came to a Samarian city called Sychar, near the land that Jacob gave his son Joseph 6 where the Well of Jacob was. Jesus sat down by the well, in the middle of the day, tired from the journey. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus asked her, “give me something to drink,” 8 (since his disciples had gone into the city to buy food). 9 So, the Samaritan woman asked him, “you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman, what are you doing talking to me?” Since Jews and Samaritans are segregated. 10 Jesus answered her, “if you knew the gift of God and who it is who is asking you, ‘give me a drink,” you would demand that he give you living water.” 11 The woman answered, “Sir, you have no bucket and the well is deep, so, how could you have living water?”[4] 12 Are you better than our father Jacob, who gave us this well? He drank from it, along with his children and herds.”[5] 13 Jesus answered her, “Anyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks from the water I give him will not be thirsty ever again because the water I give will become a spring inside him, bubbling up to eternal life.”[6] 15 “Sir, give me some of this water so that I will not have to come out here to get water.” She said to him. 16 Jesus answered, “Go call your husband and come back here.” 17 The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.” Jesus responded, “you are telling the truth when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ 18 You have had five husbands and now you have someone who is not your husband . . . you told the truth.” 19 She replied, “Sir, I get that you’re a prophet 20 . . . our fathers worshiped at this mountain but you (Jews) say that one must worship in Jerusalem . . . [7] 21 “Believe me, Ma’am,” Jesus said to her, “The time is coming when you will not worship the Father at this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You worship by what you don’t know, we worship by what we do know . . . afterall, ‘Salvation comes from the Jews.’ 23 However, the time is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshiper that the father is seeking for himself. 24 So, God is a spirit and those worshiping him must worship in spirit and truth.” [8] 25 The woman told him, “I know that the Messiah (the one called ‘anointed’) is coming, when he comes, he will answer everything.” 26 Jesus told her, “I, with whom you are speaking, am he.”[9] 27 While this was happening, his disciples came and were surprised that he was talking with a woman, nevertheless, no one said, “What do you want?” or “why are you talking with her?” 28 So, she left her water jar and went into the city and told the people, 29 “Come - see a man who told me everything I ever did; perhaps he is the ‘Anointed.’ 30 They came out of the city and started toward him; 31 in the mean time his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 He told them, “I have food to eat which you do not understand.”[10] 33 The disciples asked each other, “Certainly no one could have brought him anything to eat, could they?” 34 Jesus told them, “My food is to do what the One Who Sent Me wants me to do and to complete his task. 35 Don’t you keep saying, ‘harvest comes in four months?’ I say lift up your eyes and look at the fields[11] because they already look white with the wheat that is ready for harvest. 36 The harvester gets his pay and gathers wheat that results in eternal life.[12] 37 This situation is proves the saying: ‘one plants and another one harvests,’ true. 38 I sent you to harvest something for which you did not work, others did the work and you took part in their effort.” 39 Many of the Samaritans out of that city believed because of the word the woman told them, “he told me everything I did.” 40 Therefore, when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, so he stayed there for two days. [13] 41 So many more believed because of his word and 42 they said to the woman, “we don’t believe in him because of what you said anymore, because we have heard and have seen for ourselves that he is truly the Savior of the World.”
	Romans 5:1-11 1 Therefore, being declared innocent of our crimes, we have peace with God because of our Lord Jesus Christ; 2 because[14] of whom we also have the right to enter by faith into this gift[15] within which we now exist and we take joy in hope of the glory of God; 3 not only this but we also take joy in our distress, because we know that distress results in[16] patient endurance 4 and patient endurance results in character and character results in hope; 5 and hope is no disgrace, because the love of God is poured into our hearts through the Spirit of Holiness, which he gave to us. 6 For Christ died for the ungodly at the right time: while we were still weak. 7 Sure, rarely, someone might face death for a guiltless person -perhaps for a good person someone might be brave enough to die- 8 but this is how God proves his love for us: while we were still criminals, Christ faced death for us. Therefore, we will be rescued from punishment by him, all the more now that we have been declared innocent because of him. 10 for since we were made right with God through the death of his son while we were his enemies, how much more, being put into a right relationship, will we be saved by his life? 11 Not only that but we also take joy in God because of our Lord, Jesus Christ, because of whom we are placed in a right relationship with God.
	John 15:12-17 Jesus is saying that his sacrifice is for those who love each other in the same way that made him give his life. If you are not willing to sacrifice your life, the sacrifice of his life is not for you. 12 "This is my command: ‘you must love one another, just like I have loved you.’ 13 No one has greater love than this: love that requires one to lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants anymore, for the servant does not know what his Master is doing; but I have called you friends, for I have let you know all the things that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you, and appointed you to go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would last, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name he may give to you. 17 I command this: you must love one another.

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[1] This is an example of henotheism: the early Israelites did not view God as the one and only God, but rather the only God worth serving, to whom all other gods must answer.

[2] This could be a reference to temple worship.

[3] The last four verses are a warning, Come in and rejoice in the temple when you triumph, but don’t forget who you are when you are in the desert.

[4] Living water is an expression commonly used to describe flowing water, she is asking how he could get down to the dart of the spring where the water is moving to get that water.

[5] She is saying, “Jacob was happy enough drinking the still waters on top, are you too good to do the same?”

[6] She is hearing, “if you drink this stuff, it flows inside of you forever.”

[7] She thinks that he is a prophet going around testing people and telling riddles and then giving supernatural rewards to those who answer wisely. She thinks that perhaps she can trap him by stumping him with an impossible riddle.

[8] Spirit (p?e?µa) has various meanings which overlap in many languages: Spirit or spirit: from Latin origins, was at one time synonymous with wind and ghost; soul came to mean the same thing in Byzantine Greek, although a soul (????) was supposed to include both elements that make up life: spirit and body; mind or intellect is occasionally used in the New testament, though ???? is much more common which is related to attitude or disposition: an uncommon use but not unheard of - it seems that I John uses spirit (p?e?µa) as “attitude” throughout, though translators almost always get it wrong there. The woman probably heard “mind” or “attitude,” which would be a prophetic wordplay similar to Hebrew prophets, the author probably intended us to hear “Spirit” or “spirit,” Jesus may have intended polyphony or multiple meanings (voices) to show through.

[9] Probably a reference both to her assertion and to the divine name ('???)“I am.”

[10] They think that he is saying, “You didn’t know about the food that I had to eat.”

[11] I think that Jesus intends the double meaning “neighborhoods” here. They hear “look at the fields,” but he means something like, “look at the little communities . . . there is a big (spiritual) harvest to bring in outside Jerusalem.”

[12] They hear something like: “ . . . and gathers (enough) fruit that he could live on it forever.”

[13] It would be very scandalous for a Jew to stay with a Samaritan, and would, according to rabbinic practice, make him unclean for a certain period of time.

[14] Greek students in their first two years would cringe at this translation because they are taught to say “through Jesus” in passages like this, but “through,” in this case really means “by means of;” “because” means “by cause of,” which is virtually identical in meaning and sounds much better to modern ears.

[15] Or “Grace”

[16] Or “Causes”