Sunday’s Message for Third Sunday in Lent (3/15/20)

Sunday’s Message for Third Sunday in Lent

March 15, 2020

Prayer of the Day

Merciful God, the fountain of living water, you quench our thirst and wash away our sin.  Give us this water always.  Bring us to drink from the well that flows with the beauty of your truth through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

First Reading   Exodus 17:1-7

Psalm 95

Second Reading  Romans 5:1-11

Gospel  John 4:5-42

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Suffering cannot be avoided but it can be endured.  We are finding that out in a big way with the pandemic that is altering our lives.  Even with the world knowing that the coronavirus was on its way, there was no way of escaping it.  But we will endure.  God has seen to that.  God is faithful!

“God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”  1 Corinthians 10:1-13

We are tested when we suffer.  And here is the good news; when we are tested the Lord is present with us.  This is the message of the cross.  “Christ crucified” means that God has entered into human suffering in order to be with us and to deliver us.  This is how we are able to endure any kind of suffering.

In Romans 5, St Paul reminds us that suffering produces endurance.  Adversity strengthens us in ways that might surprise us.  I am confident that we will come out of this current crisis stronger than ever as individuals, as a church family, and as a nation. 

Friedrich Nietzsche is credited with saying “What does not kill me makes me stronger.”   So it is with suffering.  God uses it to our benefit in God’s own way and time.

Some might say, “But what about when suffering does kill me?”  It is a legitimate question. During the present pandemic we are saddened by the loss of life resulting from this virus.  It clearly is preying upon vulnerable members of the community.  But the Gospel reminds us that even in death God has found a way to be with us and to deliver us.  Jesus is present and provides.  He died on the cross and is present with all who die.  Death could not hold him.  On the third day he rose from the dead.  He made a way out of death and into the resurrected life.  Jesus has promised the same way out of death for us!

Jesus is present to suffering people and provides for them.  That is the theme of today’s scriptures.  The Israelites had escaped from Egypt and were in the Sinai wilderness and they were thirsty and it looked like there was no relief in sight.  Quite unexpectedly, water came gushing forth from a rock.  “And the rock was Christ.”  1 Corinthians 10:4  The Lord was in the midst of their suffering and quenched their thirst.

John ch. 4 recounts how a Samaritan woman was met by Jesus at the local well.  She was suffering.  We don’t know all the details but we are told that she had been married five times and the man she was currently with was not her husband.  Whether all of her marriages resulted from a husband dying or from divorce we do not know.  Either way, she had experienced a lot of adversity and suffering.  She was thirsty for a sense of well-being.  Jesus quenched her thirst by befriending her and promising her that eternal life (eternal well-being) was hers for the asking.  He also revealed himself to her as the Messiah.

Jesus meets us in our time of need and provides for us also.  When we are thirsty he gives us a drink in ways we might not expect.  When we are fearful, he is our calm.  When we are broken, he is our healer.  When we die, he is our eternal life. 

Jesus gives a drink to the thirsty.  His love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.  He gives himself to us to satisfy our needs so that we may endure.  Because he loves us there is always a way through and out of suffering. 

In this time of the world’s present suffering Jesus is with us.  He is strengthening us.  He is making himself know to us as Lord and God.  He has made it possible for us to survive anything life and death can throw at us.   Amen.

 Together or apart, we are one in the Lord, and let us be together in prayer for one another, for our neighbors and for the whole of God’s good creation.

Peace and blessings,

Pastor Bill McKee