Samaritan Woman 2024 Fr. James Jorgenson

Today, as we've just heard, is the Sunday of

the Samaritan woman. And there are several events

in the Gospels in which Samaritans figure prominently.

And you should notice that the Samaritans are

always the good guys. They're always the ones

that are doing what is unexpectedly good. Of

course, the one that should probably come to

our minds first is the good Samaritan. When that

fellow was wounded by travelers and a priest

and a Levite or a deacon went to the other side

and passed him by. But it was a Samaritan. This

is the irony. Jesus says it was the Samaritan

that came and helped him. And then another event,

of course, is the ten lepers that are cured by

Jesus. And one comes back to thank him. And Jesus

remarked, where are the other nine? And he said,

only this one, a foreigner, presumably a Samaritan,

came to give thanks. This is one of the reasons

why the apostles were amazed when they came back

and saw Jesus speaking to that Samaritan woman

at Jacob's well. First, also behind that is one

of the conventions of the cultural conventions

at the time was that men didn't strike up a conversation

with women that they didn't know. He just didn't

behave that way. But this Samaritan woman and

this beautiful dialogue that ensues about Jesus,

she comes to get water and he promises her living

water. The Samaritan woman, of course, particularly

in the Eastern Church, in Eastern tradition,

she's a saint, Saint Fotini. Well thought of

for, isn't one of your icons here? No, maybe

it's another church. Okay. There's an icon of,

isn't it back there? Okay, it's not my mind.

I haven't lost it yet. Okay, yeah, there's a

fresco back there. What is this living water

that Jesus promises her? The richer the symbol

is, the more it allows various interpretations.

To me it is, and many of the commentators believe,

that it is the whole life of communion with God.

That's the living water. And once we find that

life of communion with God, we'll never thirst

again. Never. And, of course, the life of communion

with God begins sacramentally at baptism, and

the life of communion with God is nourished by

the reception of the sacraments, by prayer, and

also by reading Holy Scriptures. We draw from

the waters of godliness and read. God's word.

We should do that daily. Once we are in communion

with God, we never thirst again. This reminds

me of a different event and a different story

that was very influential when I read this in

my first year of college. It is the life of St.

Augustine called his Confessions. And he begins

his autobiography, he wrote this himself, his

autobiography, with much the same thought. He

says, thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord,

and our heart is restless until it finds rest

in thee. St. Augustine, part of his conversion,

of course, he was just... Some say he might have

exaggerated the faults of his youth, but be that

as it may, his mother was Saint Monica, another

prominent saint, and she prayed every day for

her son's conversion to Christ. I think that's

an example especially to mothers and all parents.

to keep their children in their prayers. And

then occasionally children that are brought up

in the church wander away. And so that really

tugs at a parent's heart. So what you should

do is pray earnestly, of course, for that person

to return to an active Christian life. But also

St. Augustine tells us he joined different philosophical

groups. And then he came to here. He was visiting

in Ambrose. He was very well trained in rhetoric.

So he was attuned to how people spoke. And he

heard St. Ambrose preach. And St. Augustine tells

us it was the preaching of Ambrose the Lord.

These two prominent Western saints, Ambrose and

Augustine, I enjoy reading their sermons because

they are so pastor, they're informative and they

are also pastorally oriented. So he is the author

of a number of very important documents as well.

But What's important here is that he found rest

when he turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. To use

an expression we as Orthodox don't prominently

use, he made Jesus his Lord and Savior. And of

course, we don't talk that way normally, but

that's what we've done. That's what we did at

baptism. Jesus became our Lord and Savior. And

there we find rest with him. And he offers us

this living water that once we have drunk of

it, we will never thirst again. And then later

on in this dialogue, which is a fascinating dialogue

between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. He tells

her to go and get her husbands. And you know,

you just heard that. And she said, Lord, I perceive

that you are a prophet. And Jesus said, I who

speak to you am he. I am the promised Messiah.

And of course, the Samaritans, who were despised

by the Jews, as I said earlier, because they

adopted some of the non -Jewish cultural patterns

of life. And then what's probably the worst thing,

they set up a rival temple in Mount Gerizim.

That's what's behind that exchange. Jews tell

us that we're supposed to worship in Jerusalem.

And Jesus' reply is, time will come when all

who worship him will worship him in spirit and

in truth, not in a particular location necessarily.

So the Samaritan woman goes back and gets some

of the townsfolk, and they come and they hear

the gospel message that Jesus preaches to them

as this Messiah. And then the conclusion is,

this is the... pronouncement that many of the

gospel events take place with a pronouncement,

a word that's meant at the end of this event

speaks to us as well as to the people involved

in the original gospel story. The Samaritans

say, now we have come to believe, not because

of your words to the Samaritan woman. but because

we have heard and seen for ourselves and have

come to know that this is indeed the Christ,

the Savior of the world. So today I think our

prayer should be like St. Augustine's and the

Samaritan woman. O Lord, make our hearts restless

until they find rest in you. And give us this

living water so that once having drunk it, we

will never thirst again. Amen. Christ is risen.