Preaching the Scriptures

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 4:5-42 Christ in the Face of the Stranger More than four decades ago, Henri Nouwen wrote: “In our world full of strangers, estranged from their own past, culture and country, from their neighbors, friends and family, from their deepest self and their God, we witness a painful search for a hospitable place where life can be lived without fear and where community can be found. Although many, we might even say most, strangers in this world become easily the victim of fearful hostility, it is possible for men and women, and obligatory for Christians, to offer an open and hospitable space where strangers can cast off their strangeness and become our fellow human beings. The movement from hostility to hospitality is hard and full of difficulties. Our society seems to be increasingly full of fearful, defensive, aggressive people anxiously clinging to their property and inclined to look at their surrounding world with suspicion, always expecting...

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson John 4:5-42 Desire This is a story about desire.   It's about those things that desire drives us to do – transgress boundaries, take chances.   The story begins with a basic human need – thirst: the desire for water.   Jesus was thirsty.   And this woman has a bucket.   And a well.   And the well is deep and full of water.   Disregarding her ethnicity and gender, or perhaps disregarding his own ethnicity and gender, Jesus asks for a drink.   And in that moment, the woman – unnamed in this story – is very much aware of her ethnicity and gender, or perhaps is very much aware of his ethnicity and gender.   None of this was supposed to happen.   A Jew wanders into Samaritan territory – into Sychar.   A Jew wanders into Palestinian territory – into the West Bank.    A man walks into the “ wrong ” neighborhood and drinks from the wrong water fountain.   Someone is s...