Repository of
Sermons
/ Calendar of Events /
Activities
Third Sunday in
Lent
February 27, 2005
Sermon by Rev. Peggy Tuttle, Interim Rector
Jesus, thirsty from his
journey, has come to a well where he asks a Samaritan woman to draw
water for him. Surprised that a Jew would ask her to draw him water, she
questions him. But Jesus, being Jesus, answers her with what almost
sounds like a riddle. He says, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it
is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him,
and he would have given you living water.” “Everyone who drinks of this
water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I
will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will
become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Jesus went on to tell the woman everything about her life and she in
turn witnessed to others in the village. And the scriptures tell us that
many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s
testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.”
Jesus knew her heart and he healed her.
Almost every Sunday we begin our liturgy with the Collect for Purity
printed in the worship booklet from page 355 in the Book of Common
Prayer.
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from
you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the
inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and
worthily magnify your holy Name.
The “thoughts of the heart” are different from the “thoughts of the
mind.” The Bible tells us that the heart is the center of our being. It
is where our feelings, evaluations, and resolves originate. My heart
aches at the cruelty of this world. My heart aches when my children are
unhappy. My heart aches when my husband and I disagree and harsh words
are spoken. My heart aches not my head. The headache comes because my
heart is hurting.
Author and spiritual leader Frederick Buechner, tells the story of how
his father committed suicide on Sunday morning:
The elder Buechner came from a prominent family. He had excelled at
college and everyone expected him to have a successful career. Then the
Great Depression came along. He was unable to get the kind of job he
wanted to provide the kind of life he wanted for his family. Finally, in
utter despair, he got up early one Sunday morning, carefully closed the
garage door and turned on the ignition in the car. He died of
asphyxiation before anyone knew what had happened.
Years later when someone asked Frederick about his father’s death, the
younger Buechner simply said that “he died of heart trouble.” He added,
“This was in a measure true, you see. He had a heart and it was greatly
troubled.”
The Psalmist writes, “Harden not your hearts,” yet sometimes, in defense
of the pain all around us a hard heart is our only defense. There is a
healer of hearts. Remember the words, “Almighty God, to you all hearts
are open, all desires known and from you no secrets are hid.” There are
no secrets we can hide from God and God is the true healer, the one who
can cleanse our hearts, the one who looks into our hearts and knows our
hearts desire. All we have to do is invite this healing of the heart.
God forgives all our sins, all our shortcomings, all our offenses. Being
forgiven is one of the greatest healing gifts.
Our hearts begin to heal when we realize that the whole story of
creation is about how much God loves us. We begin to heal when we
realize that the story of Noah and the Ark is about a deep abiding love
God has for this creation. We begin to heal when we realize that the
story of Moses and the Exodus and the wandering in the wilderness is
about us. We truly begin to heal when we come to understand that we, you
and I, like the woman at the well, are thirsty for life giving water.
Water that cleanses the thoughts of our hearts and makes us worthy to
stand or kneel at the altar railing to receive the sacraments offered
there.
Jesus did not turn away from the Samaritans. He did not drink from the
well and then desert them.
Nor will he fail to provide and care for us. Of course, it may not
always be when and how and as we expect. Not only does he provide us
with food and clothing, home and family and friends, but also he
provides for us the constant reassurance of his abiding love and
forgiveness, his gifts of discernment and determination, the strength
and nurture of the gospel and the sacraments, the power and pleasure of
his presence.
Our lives are full of so many changes. Some of us are still recovering
from the last great challenge to our faith: a frightening prognosis for
our health, the death of someone who has given our lives deep joy and
stability, the departure of your spiritual leader, a severe threat to
our relationship with our spouse or our children or our parents, some
staggering blow to our job or career. Others of us are still in the
midst of crisis. For others of us, some unknown challenge lies ahead.
But this is the life we have. We are here because we have recognized
that our lives are not our own, that we belong to God, and we are
grateful. We have responded to his call to follow, in faith, our Lord.
We now seek to live by God's grace, his love beyond all our deserving on
this life journey.
God is much more interested in the future than in the past more
concerned about what we can still become than what we used to be.
We don't have yesterday, it is gone. Today is a gift. That is why it is
called "the present". And this is where we are: in "the present".
Let us give thanks to God for the present; the here and the now in which
we live and breathe and have our being.