John 4:16-26 - ”Who is God?” - Abundant Life (Gospel of John)

Good morning.

Our Old Testament reading this morning

from Isaiah 54:1-10.

Isaiah 54:1–10

Sing, oh barren one, who did not bear;

break forth into singing and cry aloud,

you who have not been in labor. For the

children of the desolate one will be

more than the children of her who is

married, says the Lord.

Enlarge the place of your tent, and let

the curtains of your habitations be

stretched out. Do not hold back,

lengthen your cords and strengthen your

stakes.

For you will spread abroad to the right

and to the left, and your offspring will

possess the nations and will people the

desolate cities.

Fear not, for you will not be ashamed.

Be not confounded, for you will not be

disgraced. For you will forget the shame

of your youth and the reproach of your

widowhood you will remember no more.

For your maker is your husband, the Lord

of hosts is his name, and the holy one

of Israel is your redeemer, the God of

the whole earth he is called.

For the Lord has called you like a wife

deserted and grieved in spirit, like a

wife of youth when she is cast off, says

your God.

For a brief moment I deserted you, but

with great compassion I will gather you.

In overflowing anger for a moment I hid

my face from you.

But with everlasting love I will have

compassion on you, says the Lord, your

redeemer.

This is like the days of Noah to me, as

I swore that the waters of Noah should

no more go over the earth. So I have

sworn that I will not be angry with you

and will not rebuke you.

For the mountains may depart and the

hills be removed, but my steadfast love

shall not depart from you. And my

covenant of peace shall not be removed,

says the Lord who has compassion on you.

And our New Testament reading from John

chapter 4:16-26.

Jesus said to her,

"Go, call your husband and come here."

The woman answered him,

"I have no husband."

Jesus said to her, "You are right in

saying, 'I have no husband,' for you

have had five husbands, and the one you

now have is not your husband. What you

have said is true."

The woman said to him,

"Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain,

but you say that in Jerusalem is the

place where people ought to worship."

Jesus said to her,

"Woman, believe me, the hour is coming

when neither on this mountain nor in

Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know.

We worship what we know, for salvation

is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming and is now here,

when the true worshippers will worship

the Father in spirit and truth. For the

spot that Father is seeking such people

to worship him. God is spirit, and those

who worship him must worship in spirit

and truth."

The woman said to him,

"I know that Messiah is coming, he who

is called Christ. When he comes, he will

tell us all things."

Jesus said to her,

"I who speak to you am he."

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be

to God.

So, um

a little secret that uh is not so well

kept, but I have been divorced. I have.

It wasn't my choice, it was 23 years

ago, and uh my wife at the time had

decided that she there were greener

pastures somewhere else, and it was a

hard hard time. I also was in my first

year of ministry when that all happened.

So you can imagine it was quite the

experience.

My

kids, who were I think one and three at

the time,

uh no, two and four

uh when that happened. Well, my oldest

ended up in kindergarten the next year.

And I was invited to one of these uh

Christian schools. Of course, put them

in a Christian school, but this was not

like no Christian school I'd ever seen.

It was a Lutheran church Christian

school. Now, most Lutherans I've met are

pretty easy and chill. These guys were

right out of northern Germany. Like

these guys ran that place.

Um I don't know I didn't know there was

a um

brown shirt Lu- Lutheran um

movement.

Some of you got that joke.

Um the kids were not allowed to raise

their voices. It was a very strict

environment, but I was putting them

there because, you know, when you're

working with an ex, you go to wherever

they tell you to put them.

And I went to this dinner,

and I'll never forget the dinner.

Um it was one of these things where, you

know, you go to the dinner and they want

money, right? And how they get you there

is they do your your kid does a skit,

right? And they do a little song and

dance, and I'm sitting around this table

of 15 people, big table.

And you look around, there's probably 10

of these tables.

And as I'm sitting there, I'm staring,

this lady notices that I'm by myself.

She says, "Oh, could the the wife not

make it?" And I said, "Well,

unfortunately,

I'm a

I I'm uh she's left me. I'm separated."

And she goes, "Oh, I thought you were a

minister." And I said, "Yeah, yeah, it

happens to us, too." And uh

she goes, "Well, don't feel bad, I am as

well. I'm single as well. I've been

divorced, too."

And I said, "Oh, well, that's weird.

Maybe they're trying to put do

matchmaker here." And we both laughed.

It was just fun.

And then we all of a sudden started to

realize that nobody seemed to be a

couple at our table.

And then we thought, "We are the table

furthest away from everybody."

Like they've got us way in the back.

So me being me, I started going around

and saying, "Hey, let's play a game. Are

you married?"

And I played this game.

Out of the 15 people there, nobody and

everyone had been divorced.

Now, they were either trying a new

dating show or

there was something wrong with being

divorced.

So I just to prove my point, cuz anyone

who knows me knows I will do this,

I got up and I made sure I went around

to the more arrived people's, and I

asked them if they were all married, and

yes,

they were all married.

First time I felt like an outsider.

It was interesting. I actually felt And

and they literally physically put us

outside.

You know, we've done real bad with

divorced people.

We really have as a church.

And you know what? I've been in ministry

now 25 years, and can I tell you a

secret?

I'm not the only one.

There's lots of people who's had their

worlds turned upside down because

somebody didn't want to stay married.

What does God think of all this?

How does God handle things like that?

That's the question I get from those who

have a heart or broken because their

spouse left.

Or screwed people who screwed up and

their house and they did something

wrong. But they always ask me the same

"Where is God?"

Well, today we're going to find out.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you

for who you are.

We thank you for your love.

We pray that you will breathe upon this

text,

that you'll give us eyes to see and ears

to hear.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

For those of you who are around, we are

following this lady called the Samaritan

woman. We've had the first few chapters,

I think it was the first 10, where Jesus

runs into her, offers her the living

water. She thinks he means a literal

water, they're by Jacob's well, and he

never she doesn't understand it, but

he's trying to tell her that whoever is

coming here asking you for a drink is

much greater. He can give you this

eternal drink, he says, and she still

doesn't get it, and she ends up leaving.

"Well, I'll take your water just so I

don't have to come up here anymore."

So she hasn't understood Jesus at all.

And it's right after that we get into

this discussion. And I'm going to tell

you one thing, this is one of the

poorest interpreted texts I've heard

from pulpits in my past, and it crushes

me because the beauty of what's being

said here is unbelievable.

Jesus comes up to her

and says, "I will raise up for them a

Oh, sorry.

Wrong one. Jesus said to her, "Go, call

your husband and come here."

Now, that's an unusual request.

An unusual request? Why is Jesus doing

it? He just offered her water. He didn't

bring that up right away. And now he

wants the husband.

The woman answered him, "I have no

husband."

Okay?

And then Jesus shows her something

incredible. Now, I wanted you to

remember something about these

Samaritans. They believed a prophet was

coming, okay? They believed in the first

five books

of the Bible.

And there's a text in Deuteronomy

that promises a prophet one day will

come. It says, "I will raise up for them

a prophet like you from among their

brothers, and I will put my words in his

mouth, and he shall speak to them all

that I commanded them. This prophet is

going to come,

and he's going to show them all things."

So, Jesus is here, and the woman

answered her, and then he says something

that couldn't help her think that maybe

he was the prophet. The problem was he

was a Jew,

and Samaritans hate Jews as much as Jews

hate Samaritans.

He's sitting there. He shouldn't even be

talking to her. No Jewish man has ever

talked to her, cuz no Jewish man would

be so brazen.

And yet he says to her, "You have no

husband." Jesus says to her, "You are

right in saying." The first thing he

does is praise her for being honest. Do

you see that?

I say that because most people think

that Jesus asked her this so he could

see look how much of a sinner you are.

Cuz in this text we're going to find out

she has five she's had five husbands,

and the current one she's living with

isn't.

But not once do we get the sense that he

slams her for her morality.

He only actually praises her.

He says, "You have said So, you have

spoke You are right in saying, I have no

husband, for you have had five husbands,

and the one you have now

is not your husband." And then he

praises her twice.

"What you have said is true."

There is no sense that he's come to

condemn her here.

There's no sense that she Hey, the sixth

husband she's not living with, according

to Jewish law, don't get me wrong,

that's sin.

But he's actually trying to say

something deeper. Why would he want to

bring this up? Why would he want to

bring up, knowing her past, her marital

history?

Well, the only way you're going to

understand this text is understand the

Old Testament.

I got a compliment today. It was a best

compliment of this week that I've ever

had. They said, "Emery, you made me like

the Old Testament."

So many of us don't realize how

important this book is.

Now, if you understand marriage and

covenant, you will understand what Jesus

is doing.

Right from Genesis, how does How does

John start? In the beginning. How does

Genesis start? In the beginning.

So, we're always looking back at that,

right?

And in the Genesis account, God makes

humanity in his image, male and female.

And the two become one flesh. You have

this covenant made, but it's always a

mirror of the covenant between God and

his people that bears his image. So,

marriage was always seen as an image

of the ultimate covenant that God makes

with his people.

And interestingly, when they fall,

you've heard about this, when they try

and be like God knowing good from evil,

what is the curse that happens?

Up until chapter 3, humanity is

together. They're covenantally together.

The two became one flesh. We have this

There's no sense that these two priestly

figures there is anything wrong. Chapter

3, they fall, and all the genders just

fall apart.

All of a sudden the man wants to possess

the the the woman, and the woman wants

to possess the man.

And you've got contemporary gender

destruction according to the Bible.

So, what you end up with right from the

beginning of Genesis on

is the fallenness of humanity with God,

and the fallenness of humanity with each

other, the genders.

And what we see again and again in the

Old Testament is God reaches out to

Israel to have a covenant partner,

what he describes metaphorically as

their husband.

And Israel continues to turn away.

And every time Israel turns away to the

false gods, he doesn't call them

idolaters,

he calls them adulterers,

cuz they are breaking the covenant he

has with them.

So, right from the beginning of

scripture, there's this idea that

covenant is good,

and covenant between genders is good,

but we laid it asunder, and we are now

out of covenant with God.

So, then what is the constant promise in

the Old Testament that's never

fulfilled? What do the prophets say

again and again?

They say one thing.

One day God's going to be our husband

again.

Look at Isaiah.

Isaiah, by the way, this section in

Isaiah is right after Isaiah 53, where

it says the lamb of God will take the

sins upon himself. This is the whole

prophecy of the cross.

Right after this, this is the promise of

what might happen.

"Fear not, for you will not be ashamed.

Be not confounded," the prophet says,

"for you will not be disgraced. For you

will forget the shame of your youth and

the reproach of your widowhood." There's

covenant brokenness.

"You will remember no more,

for your maker is your"

See that?

Don't lose sight of it. In the Old

Testament, it's always about God

becoming the husband. "The Lord of hosts

is his name, and the holy one of Israel

is your redeemer, the God of the whole

earth he is called.

For the Lord has called you like a

wife." Do you see this?

"Deserted and grieved in spirit, like a

wife of youth when she is cast off,"

says your God.

"For a brief moment I deserted you, but

with great compassion I will gather

you." So, the constant hope

in the Old Testament that they never got

to see fulfilled

was this time where God would do

something incredible, and the people of

God would become the wife of the groom

again. The covenant. These are

metaphors, you do understand that.

But that this covenant will be resealed.

This covenant that leads us away from

God

will be made right again.

That God would be the bridegroom.

Okay? Do we agree with this?

So far? Okay, good.

Now, what's John's gospel been up to?

All of a sudden we have this guy that

shows up. What's the first thing we find

ourselves at in his gospel where he does

his first sign?

A wedding

in Cana. Remember?

Something's going on. Something about

covenant is starting to go on.

He breaks the covenant with a temple

cult.

Then he comes and he runs into

Nicodemus, and he offers him the exact

same things that he's going to go offer

this despised Samaritan woman.

And then he runs into John the Baptist.

And John the Baptist

has his disciples come and say, "Hey,

Jesus, hold on.

These guys are coming, and they keep

baptizing more." He's talking about

Jesus' disciples. And John the Baptist's

disciples are jealous. And they say,

"Jesus' disciples are baptizing more.

What's going on? It's about us." And

what was John the Baptist's response,

cuz this will give us another hint in

what's going on here.

"You yourselves bear witness that I

said, I am not the Christ, but I have

been sent before him.

The one who has the bride is the

bridegroom."

Jesus He's saying, "I'm not that

person." So, who is?

Jesus.

The friend of the bridegroom, the friend

being John, the bridegroom being Jesus,

"who stands and hear him hears him,

rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's

voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is

now complete."

John the Baptist just said,

"I'm just the friend. There's a

bridegroom." Who was the bridegroom in

the Old Testament, go folks?

God.

So, who is Jesus if he's the bridegroom?

Do you see it?

It's all wrapped around this covenant

nature.

So, he runs into this woman who has a

messed up life living in a messed up

world cuz she's a part of broken

humanity.

And he asks her this question, "Where is

your husband?"

And what is she She responds, "I have no

husband. I have no covenant."

He says, "Yeah, you've had it five

times."

Well, you can't blame her for those five

times cuz

widowhood happened all the time. Maybe

three of her husbands died because they

just were killed in in violence or

starvation.

Maybe two were terrible human beings and

just divorced her cuz she wasn't good

enough.

We don't know anything about the five,

but we know something about the sixth.

The sixth, she's given up trying. You

notice that?

Number six, she's not even trying to

live in covenant. It's obviously not cuz

she didn't once believe in trying to

highlight covenant, now she doesn't

care.

She's at the epitome of brokenness.

Well, what does the number six mean in

Jerusalem in in Jewish language? Now,

the numbers are really important.

The Bible, the number six represents

humanity, human weakness, imperfection,

and sin.

So, in this point of her journey,

life has kicked the crumb out of her,

and she's now living

in a world of human weakness,

imperfection,

and sin.

She's hopeless.

She's shamed.

Who's talking to her right now?

Who's talking to her?

Jesus.

What did we just tell ourselves Jesus

was?

Bridegroom.

Number seven is talking to her.

What's the number of seven?

In the Bible, the number seven

significant significant signifies

completeness, perfection, and divine

fulfillment.

It appears over 700 times, frequently

representing God's work, holiness, and

rest.

She's had six where she's completely

sinful, and number seven, God's

perfection and redemption is there. What

is he trying to be for her?

The bridegroom.

Redemption.

This woman, he didn't go in and say,

"Oh, you little sinful bad girl." Did

he?

In fact, John says, "I did not come to

condemn the world, but to save it."

Right?

He has decided to come in as the one who

can redeem her and make her right with

her God, to give her a covenant that's

everlasting.

It's the most incredible moment in

scripture.

And you say, "Well, seven, six, what do

you mean?" Well, I'm going to tell you

how they use it. They use it all the

time. John's gospel, seven I am sayings,

seven

festivals, seven

um

What was the other thing? Signs.

Seven, six, they're all over the way the

Jews thought.

There was no Jew who read this and

didn't see what was being said. And the

most incredible part

is this God, this beloved, this Jewish

beloved

is coming for a sinful, pagan, half-Jew

Samaritan.

And she gets the first offer.

That doesn't blow your mind.

I mean, there is no God like this. You

can't read this in any other religious

text.

He is incredibly comes in and he notes

that.

So, now what she does is she's like,

"Okay, hold on a sec. Before we start

talking about this covenant thing, are

you sure you're right? Because"

she goes, "I perceive that you are the

prophet." Remember, that's what they're

waiting for, the Taheb.

So, now she thinks he might be this

prophet that they promised. "Our

fathers," she said, "worshipped on this

mountain, but you say in Jerusalem is

the place where we ought to worship."

This was a big fight amongst them.

And Jesus says,

"Woman, believe me,

the hour is coming." Well, that's going

to tell us how the marriage is going to

happen.

What does the hour is coming mean? We

saw it once before, and we saw it at a

wedding.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, looks over at

Jesus and says, "Hey,

the wine's not enough."

And he goes, "Why are you bothering me,

woman?" Same word. "My hour hour has not

come."

The hour in John's gospel is the cross.

It's God's divine hour where he's going

to set everything to right. So, he says,

"Woman," just like he said to his

mother.

"Believe me, the hour is coming." This

will be the moment where everything

changes, the cross.

"When neither on this mountain nor in

Jerusalem will you worship." Remember,

she said, "Our fathers." He says, "The

Father."

"The Father. You worship what you do not

know."

He's saying the Jews are right. Even

though we just saw Nicodemus, they don't

understand what they're right about.

But he's saying the story has come out.

You worship what you don't know. We

worship what we know, for salvation is

from the Jewish story.

Of course, those same Jews who are

supposed to know it are going to put him

on a cross. So, let's not put them on a

pedestal yet.

But his main point to her is she has to

turn her head around to what the truth

is, and the truth is through this story.

That's who Jesus is living out.

But, and he says it the second time.

Remember what I've told you. When you

see something said twice, that's like

putting an exclamation mark on the end.

But the hour is coming. It's all

pointing to the cross.

That's when the bridegroom gets his

bride. That's the moment of the service,

the ceremony where he completes the

covenant.

And is now here because Jesus is there,

when true worshipers will worship the

Father in spirit and truth.

A lot of people are wondering, "What is

that?

You mean do we tell we don't tell lies?

What is a spirit and truth?"

Maybe my Pentecostal friends are like,

"I told you so."

It's a joke.

>> [snorts]

>> He says, "For the Father is seeking such

people to worship him. God is spirit,

and those who worship him must worship

in spirit and truth." What did I say

about saying something twice?

He says it twice.

This is the emphasis. This is the point.

You want to worship the Father, you got

to worship in spirit and in truth. Well,

what does he mean by the spirit?

Well, guess where I'm going to take you.

Are you ready for this?

The Old Testament.

>> [snorts]

>> Ezekiel.

Ready for this?

The prophet prophesying in the future,

"And I will give a new heart and a new"

"And I will put within you, and I will

remove the heart of stone from your

flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

This is the promise.

And then if you know Ezekiel, oh, read

your Old Testament, please. It's so

good.

There's the valley of the dry bones. Do

you remember that? And then he breathes

upon them, they become living beings. Do

you remember that?

And right after that, that's in between

that statement, is this statement,

"And I will put my spirit within you,

and you shall live."

The spirit is that which gives us life,

which gives us hope, which gives us joy,

which gives us the fulfillment of who we

are, and we will come to know that as

the Holy Spirit. Agreed?

Pentecost. Please agree with me.

So, the Father wants the worship in the

spirit, and then what's this truth

thing?

Ah.

Don't even have to go to the Old

Testament here.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way and

the"

Now, I'm going to ask you to take a

moment.

The time is coming where the Father is

going to want you to worship

with the spirit and the truth.

Father, Holy Spirit, Jesus.

What does that

mean across?

That's true worship.

He doesn't care about where you worship.

He cares that you worship

right.

And this new thing is the triune God of

grace. That's what Jesus is

representing, and that's what you become

when you become a bride of the

bridegroom.

When the covenant is set to rights, and

he's saying to the smelly, cuz she would

have been to him,

Samaritan woman,

"This is what I want." Every Notice who

he's not saying this to?

Any serious Jew.

Wow.

And then it ends.

That's a lot there, but he ends, and

it's just like the crescendo of an

opera.

"The Messiah," the woman said, "I know."

Remember she said the prophet was

coming? That was the Remember I told you

that was a Samaritan way? The Jews

believed in Messiah. She's already

switched.

Instead of saying a prophet is coming,

she goes,

"I know that the Messiah is coming."

She's using Jewish language.

I didn't Jew it. The Messiah's coming.

He was called the anointed one. When he

comes, he will tell us all things. And

then Jesus said to her, and this is so

unbelievable. The first person since

Moses is going to hear directly from

God's mouth this.

You ready?

And this is the worst way to translate

it.

What he really says is,

"I am

speaking to you."

Ego emi.

I am.

Where have you heard that in the Old

Testament?

Right?

And God said to Moses,

"I am who I am.

Ego

a me.

Jesus is going to say him seven times in

this gospel.

And the first person he says it to

is that Samaritan woman.

Five broken covenants.

Sixth, living in sin.

And what does he do? He comes in and

then he says, "The bridegroom is here.

Here's how you worship. And by the way,

the God of the Exodus

is the one telling you this."

If you're not blown away by that, I have

nothing better to show you.

This is not God mad at a lady who's

living badly out of marriage. This is

God who walks into a broken world to

bring freedom and healing, and he shows

her how it's going to happen.

Why do you think she leaves and runs and

leaves her little pot? She's not even

interested in the water she came to get.

She's going to run down to become the

first evangelist to anyone,

a woman.

Sorry, you who don't think they can.

I didn't write this.

She's going to be one that's going to

have her whole community coming back.

Who is she going to be like?

She's like Moses.

Moses, he got the name and he ran to

Israel to be a deliverer. She gets his

name and runs down to her people.

Mhm.

Our God is a God of covenant renewal.

He wants to take your life and my life

and set it right.

Now, I don't know what your background

is.

I know mine.

And I've had moments where things have

happened that haven't been good.

Like having a wife leave.

And I've had other things where I was

the reason the bad things happened.

Anybody else here?

So, what do we do? Do we stick all those

people like her in a back table

hoping that maybe she'll meet someone

else and then they can be second-class

couple in the church?

Or we introduce her

and me and all those people to the God

who wants to be the covenant bridegroom?

You know what's crazy?

Is we're about to do something that's so

profoundly cool.

We're going to go and

have

dinner with Jesus.

He's going to give himself here.

And we're going to eat, drink the wine,

and what does he say when we take the

wine? What did he say?

"This is the new

covenant."

What is that language, folks?

Marriage.

It's a new marriage.

The bridegroom.

"Sealed in my blood."

He wants to have covenant with you, and

he wants you to know that because he

wants you to have assurance and peace.

The everlasting covenant which God has

made with Jesus and through Jesus with

all his beloved people individually is

the strong ground of consolation amidst

the tremblings of human hope,

the fluctuation of creature things, and

the instability of all the earth calls

good. This is meant for us.

He came to come in the worlds just like

people who have lost

loved ones, who's been in brokenness,

who are just You know, how about those

people who just like her given up?

He comes in and he wants to create an

everlasting covenant.

And he's willing

to face the garbage of our lives.

How far is he willing to go?

The hour has come.

Over Easter, I watched The Passion of

the Christ again. Do you guys see that?

If you can watch that movie and not be

absolutely

broken,

then you're a better person than I.

All I could think was not just what he

was willing to go,

but how much I was a part of him being

there.

He comes into the Samaritans world and

reestablishes covenant. How?

He becomes the bridegroom cuz he goes

through the cross.

Only at the cross of Christ does God

does man see fully

what it is that separates him from God.

Yet it is here alone that he perceives

that he is no longer separated from God.

Nowhere else does the inv-

violable holiness of God, the

impossibility of overlooking the guilt

of man stand out more plainly,

but nowhere else does the limitless

mercy of God,

which utterly transcends all human

standards, stand out more clearly and

plainly.

Our God came into the world for people

like the Samaritan woman.

Five broken covenants

and one

total mess of life

to set it right.

And he did it through the cross.

So, who is God?

He's not a God you're going to go find

in a building.

You can't go to Mecca or the Vatican.

He doesn't live there.

He transcends that. He's going to be

found in the place of the weak and the

broken, including here cuz I know for a

fact we have people here just like me

that are weak and broken.

He's going to be found in the pubs and

the office spaces.

And he's going to be going to places

where the outcast has long been

forgotten.

Cuz that's what he does.

In fact, it's the opposite

if we think we should go somewhere to

meet him.

The opposite of Jerusalem and Gerizim

and all temples made with hands. And we

can apply it

and say the opposite of Rome,

Wittenberg, Geneva, Canterbury.

Even the superficial interpretation of

liberal there is something. The opposite

of all of this is Jesus.

God is now opposed against religion in a

place and a time.

He is the timeless God who's present

every day

to reestablish covenant with us

anywhere.

This triune God of grace in this text

is the only way.

No other God

can set you right

to make a covenant with you like this.

No other God will ever carry a cross for

you

nor rise for you.

And thank God he's the living God.

Because he's the God that has branding

said Jesus comes for sinners.

For those outcast and those cut up in

squalid choices and failed dreams.

Like the Samaritan woman.

My advice and my only advice

is run back to him.

Run into his arms.

Cuz he's also the only person

that will fulfill that emptiness in be

loved

and to love.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you

for your amazing grace to us.

We thank you that you come into the

dirty parts of the world that we call

forsaken.

That you come to a table of a bunch of

divorcees and love them.

That you come into the Samaritans world

and make her a proclaimer of the gospel.

Thank you that you tell her,

not Nicodemus,

that you are the God of Israel,

the God of the heavens.

May we run to you.

As we take communion, may the depth of

the promise of this sacrifice remind us

that we who are our bridegroom and we

are your bride

because of the cross.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We