March 15 2020 Spiritual Growth - Alone with Jesus

March 15, 2020 Exodus 17.1-7  * John 4.5-15 “Spiritual Growth: Alone with Jesus” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

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We all have in our minds names of landmarks that orient us to where we are going and where we have been. There are landmark highways, bi-ways and waterways. We know highways 422, 76 and 73. Ellis Woods Road is a bi-way – an out of the way, way – a shortcut – to 422 as opposed to going straight down Bethel Church Road. Then there are waterways, on which we swim, travel by boat, kayak, canoe, and once the coronavirus dissipates, we will board cruise ships once again.

Statues, such as the Statue of Liberty,  can also be landmarks that help us see where we are and where we are going. Jacob’s well was a high profile landmark.

When our two confirmands and their sponsors the Hoffmans visited B’Nai Jacob synagogue last week, we learned that B’Nai Jacob means “son of Jacob.” Our Jewish brothers and sisters hold the name “Jacob” in high esteem. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel which means “one who wrestles with God.” We all may know something about wrestling with God, pushing every which way in the hopes of receiving God’s blessing.  The country and the people are named Israel because Jacob was a significant ancestor.

Jacob was born over 1500 years before Jesus. The fact that Jacob provided his family with a well that had not run dry was a sure sign of God’s blessings. Jacob’s well is a very important landmark in our religious history.

Jacob’s well is not mentioned in the Old Testament. The well is mentioned In the New Testament by a woman from Samaria. This woman from Samaria was not considered a classy woman. She broke the rules of being a lady. She had too many men flocking around her. She was not among the rich and famous. She was not treated as if she were someone special or important. There was no particular reason to think that any good could come from Samaria. Still this unnamed Samaritan woman could recite the rich legacy of Jacob’s well to Rabbi Jesus when none of the Old Testament shared it.

The 4,000 year old well still exists near Sychar. Christians, Muslims and Jews all agree it is located in an Eastern Orthodox monastery called the Holy Monastery of Jacob’s well.   In the monastery is a church that was built around Jacob’s 135 foot well.  The well is still flowing with living water that Jesus talked about when he spoke to the Samaritan woman. He went out of his way to speak with this woman, to share with her the concept of living water. 

I recall being in a service with a prayer line. Several people were waiting to be anointed with oil and prayed for by a certain preacher who was known and trusted as one who spoke words of life that made a significant difference. The words were considered edifying as well as mystifying. One couple stood before the preacher and the preacher said, “Your relationship is dead.” Later it was revealed that one member of the couple coming for prayer already had a spouse back home. Perhaps they were like a couple Pastor Robert Morris of Gateway church mentioned. A couple came to him saying they were in love even though they were married to other people. They were spending time reading the bible and praying. One even claimed that God was speaking to them. Pastor Morris reminded them that it was not God who was speaking to them and justifying their unfaithful relationships. It was Satan who was speaking to them. Their relationship was dead. It was not alive with God’s blessings.

Sources indicate that the church of the well is on the edge of a refugee camp called Balata or Neblus. It has 30, 000 people living within 15 square miles. It is one of 59 Palestinian refugee camps. I like to think that Jesus’ presence is still there, speaking to all who pass that way even if living in a refugee camp is not life at all.

No doubt God blessed Jacob with this fresh spring. As God prospered him, he paid the price for the well to be dug and maintained. Jacob was the man. And he did all he could to make sure the well was available to give life to his family, his workers, and his animals.

I watched the film Concussion yesterday.  It was based on a true story of Dr. Bennett Omalu a brilliant forensic neuropathologist who worked as coroner in Pittsburg.   Dr. Omalu autopsied the body of Mike Webster famous center for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had 22 seasons and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Webster died by suicide after abandoning his family, living homeless for 18 months in his car, in debt, confused. He was only 50. According to the movie, twelve other Pittsburgh Steelers died young with psychological turmoil and cognitive disruptions.  CT scans and autopsies showed normal brains, but further research after death indicated that player’s brains were traumatized, thus damaged, by the hundreds and hundreds of concussions experienced while playing football.   Dr. Omalu said he learned how his patients lived by the stories their bodies told after they died.

In 2011 football players started suing the NFL because they put players back on the field no matter what. They used needles, tape, Zoloft, Vicodin, Toradol, Lidocaine, and Lexapro. Mike Webster once came to the game on crutches and played with torn cartilage and had the surgery right after. Football is known for its grace and excitement. As a sport, it has high-reaching benefits providing thousands of jobs, scholarships, and charitable events. Football is also known for being a mindless and violent game with the same greed and corruption found in many areas of life. They cause death, but Jesus wants to bring us life.

Living water flowed from Jacob’s well. If was refreshing and clean and crystal clear. Water that is kept in containers like cisterns can become stagnant with time -  murky, slimy,  mixed with dead bugs and all kinds of debris with nowhere else to go. The living water that Jesus offered the Samaritan woman is the same water that he offers us. When we are alone with Jesus, we become refreshed and clean and we can see ourselves as clearly as Jesus sees us. We can see the good, the bad, and the ugly. That is what the Lenten season is all about.

The other day, Jim was playing a perfect Lenten song for communion. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. Calling for you and for me.  Come home, come home. Ye who are weary come home. O for the wonderful love He has promised. Promised for you and for me. Though we have sinned He has mercy and pardon. Pardon for you and for me. Come home, come home,you who are weary come home…

May we find time during this Lenten season to be alone with Jesus and be refreshed and cleansed until we see ourselves as clearly as Jesus sees us!  Let us pray: 

God who knows all things. You know the details of our distress and the chaos of the virus that has us occupied our minds and hearts this day. Take away our fear and fill us with faith. Denounce our doubts and increase our determination to depend on you. Bless us to reach out and care instead of running away in this time of trouble. Deepen our desire to trust in you.

Bless those who are concerned about their next paycheck, health care, relationships, school aged children as well as the sick, injured, hopeless, helpless, heedless, leaderless and scattered, the persecuted and tortured, the detained and dispossessed. Hear our cry for mercy, our confidence that with you all things are possible, that we can cast our cares upon you because you care for us and you love us with an everlasting love. We bow down to you, our hope and our strength. Amen.