Feeding on the Mission

John 4:19-34

Rev. Chris Harbin, Appomattox Ministerial Association Lenten Mid-week Service
St. Anne's Episcopal Church

02 March 2005

There are times we get so busy with life that we forget what we are about. We take care of business, eat, drink, sleep, make needed purchases, and ignore the larger picture. Where does God fit into the picture of our lives aside from clocking in at the holy places of public worship? Where do we get real sustenance beyond the mundane quality of existence?

While the disciples went into town to get food, Jesus stopped at the well. When she came to draw water, she did not expect conversation. Jesus was a man, and beyond that, a Jew. He spoke anyway, ignoring all the taboos and boundaries of appropriate behavior. When the shock wore off, she finally recognized there was something special about this man—more than the fact that he ignored the taboos of society and asked her for water.

Ah, the prophet! Now is the chance to ask the burning question and get to bottom of the real issue between Jews and Samaritans! Now that I have the chance, I’ll ask the big one: “Where is the true place for worship, here or in Jerusalem?”

Jesus brushed it aside as being of little importance. It was a big issue for her! It was one of the factors that polarized Jews and Samaritans and defined for them who was right and who was wrong! It was at the heart of the division, bitterness, and gall between them! Even so, Jesus brushed it aside, saying, “What matters is the attitude on the inside.” It is the spiritual things that count, not the physical and external issues.

The disciples returned just as she recognized Jesus as Messiah. She abandoned her jar. Drawing water suddenly wasn’t very important, anymore. “I’ve found something better—I’ve got to go and tell!”

The disciples were at a loss. Jesus was not hungry. He had sent them for food, but when they came back, he was not interested! Had they gone into town for nothing? They didn’t want to be there in the first place, but they had been sent, so they had faithfully gone. Now they find Jesus talking with a no-account Samaritan woman and he has no appetite for the food they brought. Did they bring the wrong food? Yes.

Sent for food, they forgot the greater mission. They were too busy and too focused on the busyness of living. She started out too preoccupied with the issues of her day, who was worthy, who could talk with whom, where was the proper place to worship, all those things that we used to divide and separate ourselves. Once she got beyond them, the greater mission took center stage.

The disciples went to town intent on getting food, setting their greater mission aside. She left the water jar at the well and let the greater mission take over. The disciples returned with nothing but food. This no-account woman returned with the whole town. They set mission aside, she made it her focus. “The true worshippers worship in spirit and in truth.”

The disciples had a lot to learn from this woman. Her life was in shambles and her reputation was a wreck. She didn’t concern herself with those things, only with becoming a prophet to her people.

How do we respond to God’s calling upon our lives? What do we allow to sidetrack us from doing the will of God? Can we honestly proclaim with Jesus that, “It is fulfilling the will of God that sustains me?”

Would Jesus have been upset if the disciples had gotten so busy sharing the news of God’s reign with the villagers that they forgot to bring food back with them? Perhaps our Lenten preparation should include much less of our own issues. Perhaps we are just too busy with daily life and forget the purpose of God’s call. Perhaps we need to release our grip on the water jar so that we can go and tell.

Will we feed ourselves at market, or will we feed the market on God’s mission?

—©Copyright 2005 Christopher B. Harbin

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