Coracle Trust E-Reflections
Lent: A word awaits you
Sunday 20 March 2011
The details of Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well are so ordinary that the story would not look out of place if it had happened today in a service station on the M6.
Junction 38, M6 service station. Helen Wilkinson
A trip to the local mall
The details of Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well are so ordinary that the story would not look out of place if it had happened today in a service station on the M6. In this story, Jesus breaks his journey northwards on the outskirts of a town called Sychar. Tired as he is from the journey and the heat of the midday sun, he sits down by a well. His disciples head off into the town to buy him something to eat. A woman is there with a bucket; Jesus asks her for water. So far so good. The elements of this story are the familiar building blocks of our everyday lives: journeying and resting; food and water; shopping and spending; a chat with a stranger. Never mind Jesus and the woman at the well: the outward elements of this story could be any one of us out on a shopping trip to the local mall.
The humdrum and the God of surprises
But there comes a difference. The moment Jesus opens his mouth, everyone gets a surprise. The woman finds herself known to the point of embarrassment. Her friends are curious to meet the stranger. The returning disciples are startled to find Jesus talking with an outsider - worse, a woman. And what does he mean, "I have food to eat...?" Surprise after surprise rolls from Jesus' lips, like a well-crafted song that steers clear of predictability with every phrase. Jesus keeps everyone guessing. So take heart, and beware. If this Lent feels just like any other; if the fabric of your faith at this season feels familiar to the point of boredom; if the humdrum details of everyday life lie heavy upon you, like chain-mail - then a word awaits you, an encounter with the God of surprises. No circumstance is too ordinary for this: far from it. It is precisely in the daily struggle - in tiredness and hunger and thirst - that we meet the One who breaks open our lives with a living word. Duncan MacLaren