D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "The Woman of Samaria" (March 15, 1981)

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	(beeping)	0:03
	(chiming bell music)	0:16
	(soft bell music)	6:51
	(upbeat bell music)	7:29
	(bright bell music)	10:01
	(upbeat bell music)	14:22
	(paper rustling)	17:43
	(somber organ music)	18:21
	(upbeat organ music)	21:22
-	Oh, come let us worship and bow down.	24:31
	Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker,	24:35
	for he is our God	24:39
	and we are the people of his pasture	24:41
	and the sheep of his hand.	24:43
	Seek the Lord while he may be found.	24:46
	Call upon him while he is near.	24:49
	Let the wicked forsake his way	24:52
	and the unrighteous, his thoughts.	24:55
	Let him return to the Lord	24:58
	that he may have mercy upon him	25:00
	and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.	25:03
	"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,	25:08
	"neither are your ways my ways,"	25:10
	says the Lord.	25:14
	For we, like sheep, have gone astray,	25:17
	let us confess to God that our ways are not his ways.	25:20
	Be seated.	25:26
	Oh, Lord, holy and righteous God,	25:38
	we acknowledge before you that we do not fear you	25:42
	and that we do not love you above all things.	25:47
	We do not delight in prayer,	25:51
	nor take pleasure in your word.	25:54
	We do not really love our neighbor.	25:57
	We lack the conscience	26:00
	that should accompany our own Christian profession.	26:02
	Our hearts are divided,	26:06
	crossed by doubts and guilty desires.	26:09
	We accuse ourselves before you, oh God,	26:13
	we implore you, whose nature and whose name is love,	26:17
	to forgive us, and in forgiving,	26:22
	to heal us so that in our lives	26:26
	something will finally be changed.	26:29
	Hear these words of assurance from Saint Paul.	26:52
	"For at the very time when we were still powerless,	26:56
	"then Christ died for the wicked.	27:00
	"Even for a just man, if one of us would hardly die,	27:03
	"though perhaps for a good man,	27:07
	"one might actually brave death.	27:09
	"But Christ died for us while we were yet sinners	27:12
	"and that is God's own proof of his love towards us."	27:17
	Therefore, let us give thanks,	27:23
	for God is good and God's love is everlasting.	27:26
	Thanks be to God whose love has made us.	27:31
	Thanks be to God whose mercy forgives us.	27:35
	Thanks be to God whose promise secures us.	27:39
	Amen.	27:44
	We welcome you to the worship of God in Duke Chapel	27:49
	on this second Sunday in Lent.	27:52
	We pray God's blessings upon you	27:55
	in this season of penitence and preparation	27:57
	for the sacrifice of our Lord upon the cross.	28:02
	Whether you live, work, or study among us,	28:06
	or you are a visitor to us this day,	28:10
	be assured that, because this is the Father's house,	28:14
	and we are all his children,	28:18
	you are quite literally at home with us in this hour.	28:21
	We especially welcome the Bell Choir	28:28
	of the First Baptist Church of Henderson, North Carolina.	28:31
	They will be playing a brief concert	28:35
	after the prelude, this morning.	28:37
	After the postlude, forgive me.	28:41
	We also welcome our guest preacher today,	28:45
	who is in reality no guest to us at all.	28:47
	Dr. D. Moody Smith is the professor	28:51
	of New Testament Interpretation,	28:54
	both in the Divinity School	28:56
	and the graduate department of religion of the university.	28:58
	Dr. Smith, we welcome you to our pulpit again.	29:02
-	Let us pray.	29:14
	Oh, Lord, our God,	29:18
	you have given your word to be a lamp unto our feet	29:20
	and a light unto our path.	29:24
	Grant us grace to receive your truth in faith and love	29:27
	that by it, we may be prepared	29:32
	unto every good word and work,	29:34
	to the glory of your name	29:37
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	29:40
	Amen.	29:43
	The Old Testament lesson is from Genesis,	29:46
	chapter 12, verses one through eight.	29:49
	Now the Lord said to Abram,	29:54
	"Go from your country and your kindred	29:56
	"and your father's house	30:00
	"to the land that I will show you.	30:02
	"And I will make of you a great nation	30:06
	"and I will bless you and make your name great	30:08
	"so that you will be a blessing.	30:12
	"I will bless those who bless you	30:16
	"and those who curse you, I will curse.	30:19
	"And by you, all the families	30:23
	"of the Earth shall bless themselves."	30:25
	So Abram went as the Lord had told him	30:29
	and Lot went with him.	30:33
	Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Harran,	30:36
	and Abram took Sarai, his wife,	30:42
	and Lot, his brother's son,	30:45
	and all their possessions which they had gathered,	30:47
	and the persons they had gotten in Harran.	30:51
	And they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.	30:55
	When they had come to the land of Canaan,	31:00
	Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem	31:02
	to the oak of Moreh.	31:07
	At that time, the Canaanites were in the land.	31:10
	Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said,	31:15
	"To your descendants, I will give this land."	31:18
	So he built there an altar to the Lord	31:22
	who had appeared to him.	31:25
	Thence, he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel	31:28
	and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west	31:32
	and Ai on the east.	31:35
	And there, he built an altar to the Lord	31:38
	and called on the name of the Lord.	31:41
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.	31:45
	Amen.	31:48
	(joyful bell music)	31:57
	Will the congregation please stand	36:34
	for the reading of the gospel lesson?	36:36
	The gospel lesson is from the Gospel According to John,	36:43
	chapter 4, verses five through 26.	36:47
	So Jesus came to a city of Samaria called Sychar	36:52
	near the field that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.	36:57
	Jacob's well was there and so Jesus,	37:01
	wearied as he was with his journey,	37:05
	sat down beside the well.	37:07
	It was about the sixth hour.	37:10
	There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.	37:13
	Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink,"	37:17
	for his disciples has gone away into the city to buy food.	37:21
	The Samaritan woman said to him,	37:26
	"How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me,	37:28
	"a woman of Samaria,	37:32
	"for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."	37:34
	Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God,	37:38
	"and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink,	37:43
	"you would've asked him	37:48
	"and he would've given you living water."	37:49
	The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with,	37:54
	"and the well is deep.	37:59
	"Where do you get that living water?	38:01
	"Are you greater than our father, Jacob,	38:04
	"who gave us the well, and drank from it himself,	38:08
	"and his sons, and his cattle?"	38:12
	Jesus said to her,	38:16
	"Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,	38:18
	"but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him,	38:23
	"will never thirst.	38:26
	"The water that I shall give him will become, in him,	38:29
	"a spring of water welling up to eternal life."	38:33
	The woman said to him,	38:37
	"Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst,	38:39
	"nor come here to draw."	38:44
	Jesus said to her,	38:47
	"Go call your husband and come here."	38:50
	The woman answered him, "I have no husband."	38:53
	Jesus said to her,	38:58
	"You are right in saying I have no husband	38:58
	"for you have had five husbands	39:02
	"and he whom you now have is not your husband."	39:05
	The woman said to him,	39:11
	"Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet.	39:13
	"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain	39:17
	"and you say that in Jerusalem is the place	39:20
	"where men ought to worship."	39:23
	Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me.	39:25
	"The hour is coming when neither on this mountain	39:29
	"nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.	39:32
	"You worshiped what you do not know.	39:37
	"We worship what we know,	39:40
	"for salvation is from the Jews,	39:43
	"but the hour is coming and now is,	39:46
	"when the true worshipers will worship the Father	39:49
	"in Spirit and truth,	39:53
	"for such the Father seeks to worship him.	39:55
	"God is Spirit and those who worship him	39:59
	"must worship in Spirit and truth."	40:03
	The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming,	40:07
	"he who is called Christ.	40:12
	"When he comes, he will show us all things."	40:15
	Jesus said to her,	40:20
	"I, who speak to you, am he."	40:22
	Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson.	40:27
	Amen.	40:30
	(somber organ music)	40:32
-	Let us pray.	41:40
	May the words of my mouth	41:43
	and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable	41:44
	in thy sight, oh Lord, our strength, and our redeemer.	41:48
	Amen.	41:53
	The story of the woman of Samaria is an intriguing story	41:56
	and a great story.	42:00
	It's a good story.	42:03
	It's not a short story, though.	42:04
	And even our gospel reading	42:07
	for this morning does not tell the whole story,	42:09
	although it ends on one of its climactic points.	42:13
	Jesus reveals to the woman that he is the Messiah	42:18
	and yet, the story continues from there	42:24
	as the disciples come back, the woman leaves,	42:26
	and the Samaritans arrive on the scene,	42:31
	but we didn't have time for all of that	42:36
	in our gospel lesson.	42:39
	The Gospel of John is, in some ways, a strange book,	42:42
	and one of the outstanding testimonies	42:47
	to its character occurred here	42:49
	in this chapel a number of years ago.	42:51
	A student was reading the Scripture,	42:55
	John 14:18-24 was the announced lesson.	42:58
	And I was listening as one, I must admit,	43:05
	sometimes listens to Scripture,	43:07
	attending and then not attending,	43:10
	and suddenly I realized we were in chapter 15.	43:14
	That's a little long, I thought.	43:20
	Then, chapter 16,	43:24
	and I thought maybe he will read all	43:29
	of the Farewell Discourses.	43:30
	That would make some sense but not as the morning lesson.	43:33
	I remember distinctly we were not standing for the gospel,	43:38
	on that occasion.	43:42
	I thought surely he would stop at the end of chapter 16,	43:45
	but, all of a sudden, Jesus lifted up his eyes to pray	43:48
	and I realized we had begun chapter 17.	43:53
	One of my boys had taken off his jacket, about chapter 15,	43:58
	and now he removed his tie.	44:04
	And I thought, well, maybe it will end	44:08
	at the end of the prayer,	44:11
	but no, Jesus and his disciples go out	44:13
	across the Kidron Valley	44:16
	and we're in the Passion Narrative proper, chapter 18.	44:19
	And I'm wondering if it will ever end,	44:23
	but just where it says that Peter was standing	44:27
	and warming himself,	44:30
	hands reached up and pulled the young man down from behind.	44:33
	Thus endeth the reading of the gospel.	44:40
	(congregation laughs)	44:42
	The sermon, mercifully, was a little shorter that morning.	44:46
	As I then scrutinized the Order of Worship,	44:52
	I decided the lector must have thought	44:55
	that 14 colon, 18 hypen 24,	44:57
	meant through the 24th chapter of the Gospel of John.	45:02
	Of course, we were then clearly headed for trouble	45:08
	because the Gospel of John ends with the 21st chapter.	45:11
	It would have been interesting to see	45:15
	whether we would have gone on into the book of Acts,	45:17
	looking for a 24th chapter.	45:20
	But fortunately, we shall never know.	45:22
	Now, I think there was something wonderful	45:25
	about this bizarre interlude	45:27
	and I wouldn't take anything for having been here	45:30
	when it happened.	45:33
	Of course, there were a few moments of puzzlement	45:35
	and embarrassment all around.	45:38
	Actually, the only people who should have been embarrassed	45:41
	were those of us who might have briefed the young lector	45:44
	more thoroughly on his assignment.	45:47
	However that may be,	45:51
	I found this out-of-the-ordinary occurrence	45:53
	quite appropriate to the character	45:55
	of the Gospel According to John, and in two ways.	45:57
	First, John, unlike the other gospels,	46:02
	contains lengthy episodes, conversations, and debates.	46:07
	As in the case of the woman of Samaria,	46:11
	it's sometimes hard to know where you ought to stop.	46:14
	In addition, John's gospel is full of surprises,	46:18
	particularly the people who talk with Jesus are surprised,	46:23
	and shocked, and perplexed.	46:27
	The Samaritan woman certainly was,	46:31
	and sitting in this chapel on that morning,	46:34
	I, with several hundred other worshipers, was surprised,	46:36
	shocked, and perplexed.	46:41
	But there was something genuinely, if vaguely, right	46:44
	about that scene.	46:49
	For in John's gospel,	46:51
	the people who encounter Jesus must think,	46:52
	"This can't be happening or	46:56
	I can't believe what I'm hearing."	46:59
	Jesus' conversation with the woman of Samaria is like that.	47:03
	He asks her for a drink.	47:07
	She cannot understand how a Jew can ask that of a Samaritan.	47:09
	And we're told that the Jews had no dealings	47:13
	with the Samaritans.	47:16
	Although maybe what John meant is	47:18
	that Jews do not drink from the same utensils as Samaritans	47:20
	and that would explain the woman's surprise, too.	47:25
	But either way, it amounts to the same thing.	47:27
	And then Jesus says, in effect,	47:31
	if you knew anything worth knowing,	47:32
	you'd have asked me for a drink instead	47:34
	and I would have given you living water.	47:36
	It could mean, and be translated, running water,	47:39
	and the Evangelist plays upon that double meaning.	47:44
	Running water, living water.	47:47
	The woman is thinking of running water	47:50
	from the spring or well,	47:52
	while Jesus means the living water, which he dispenses.	47:55
	They are not the same.	48:00
	The woman does not know it,	48:02
	but Jesus knows it and the reader is invited to learn it.	48:04
	Meantime, the woman's consternation is great.	48:10
	"Can Jesus be greater than Jacob,	48:13
	who gave us the well in the first place?"	48:15
	"Hardly," she thinks.	48:18
	And yet, John wants us to understand	48:21
	that Jesus, in fact, is greater.	48:24
	Jesus then tells the woman that the water he gives,	48:28
	unlike the well water or any other water,	48:31
	will quench thirst forever and never run out.	48:35
	And she says, "All right, give me this water,	48:39
	that I may not thirst nor come here to draw."	48:42
	Now, if anything is plain in this story,	48:47
	it is that Jesus and the woman are talking	48:50
	on different levels.	48:53
	He understands her but she doesn't understand him.	48:55
	He knows there is a living water different	49:00
	from any earthly water.	49:03
	She does not know it and is perplexed.	49:05
	And the result is that they talk past each other.	49:09
	The woman does not comprehend Jesus.	49:13
	He may understand her but, in the story,	49:16
	there is no indication that Jesus even hears her	49:18
	and if you take it on the level of ordinary conversation,	49:22
	Jesus seems unspeakably rude.	49:26
	But then, this is no ordinary conversation.	49:30
	Every sign and hint in the narrative shows	49:33
	that it's an extraordinary conversation.	49:37
	How can the woman ever understand Jesus,	49:42
	unless he gets down on her level?	49:46
	And we have no assurance	49:49
	that they will come to any meeting of the minds.	49:51
	Just when it seems that the conversation is going	49:57
	to go off in, or has gone off, in opposite directions,	50:00
	a break occurs.	50:05
	"Go call your husband and come here."	50:06
	"I have no husband."	50:10
	"You're right in saying I have no husband	50:12
	for you have had five husbands	50:14
	and the man you are now living with is not your husband."	50:17
	"Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet."	50:22
	So Jesus knows this woman thoroughly.	50:26
	He announces to her the character of her life	50:30
	and she is astonished.	50:33
	How did he know this?	50:35
	Well, we may, with the woman, draw our own conclusions.	50:38
	He is a prophet and, as she will later muse,	50:42
	even the Christ.	50:46
	And Jesus will go on to reveal	50:50
	that he is, indeed, the Christ.	50:52
	But before that, he has, so to speak,	50:54
	revealed to this woman who she is.	50:58
	And only now may she begin to appreciate	51:03
	what he may be for her.	51:08
	Crucial to our understanding of this text is the link	51:13
	between Jesus' revelation of the woman's past	51:18
	and her consciousness of her thirst.	51:22
	I want to think, to reflect, about that	51:26
	for a moment or two.	51:29
	She wants the kind of water that can quench earthly thirst	51:31
	and she wants it in unlimited supply.	51:36
	She wants the water she already knows	51:40
	for a thirst she knows that she has	51:45
	and that she will experience again and again.	51:47
	Her thirsting is this-worldly, down to earth.	51:50
	So is her desire for water.	51:55
	She wants the water she already knows to continue forever.	51:58
	Now, the woman's desire to have a kind of assurance	52:04
	that her water supply will be permanent	52:07
	can very easily be trivialized.	52:10
	Maybe she is just stupid or without any sense	52:13
	of what Jesus is about.	52:16
	She wants an everlasting waterworks.	52:18
	But I don't think it's quite so simple.	52:23
	Her desire to have this water is the expression	52:26
	of a natural human longing	52:29
	to be assured of those good things	52:31
	that meet our needs and make our lives meaningful.	52:34
	This is the same	52:39
	as our wanting the things we have possessed,	52:40
	and know to be good in neverending supply.	52:44
	I wanted Arthur Ashe always to play Davis Cup for the USA.	52:49
	I wanted Walter Cronkite always	52:55
	to give the CBS Evening News,	52:57
	and before that, Eric Sevareid to tell us what it meant.	52:59
	I wanted Arthur Fiedler always to conduct the Boston Pops,	53:05
	and Gene Banks and Kenny Dennard always	53:11
	to play forward for Duke, but alas.	53:13
	All these wonderful things and people run their course.	53:19
	We have them and we have them not.	53:23
	They cannot be for us a well of water leaping up	53:27
	to eternal life.	53:31
	The woman's thirst and Jesus' revelation	53:34
	of her past are bound together.	53:37
	She wants a neverending water supply	53:41
	and she has had five husbands and a lover.	53:44
	Sometimes John tells us more than we want to know,	53:49
	other times not enough.	53:54
	This time he does not tell us enough.	53:55
	What exactly do the five husbands mean?	53:58
	Are they the five gods,	54:02
	the five false gods, of the Samaritans,	54:03
	as some commentators say?	54:05
	There's nothing explicit about that in the text.	54:08
	Do they reflect on the character of this woman?	54:12
	Probably.	54:14
	She is no paragon of virtue,	54:16
	but her immorality is not the point.	54:19
	But what if they represent her quest	54:23
	for fulfillment in life?	54:25
	Can it be that the Samaritan woman is the counterpart	54:29
	of so many modern quests for self-realization?	54:32
	Self-fulfillment?	54:37
	While on a trip last weekend, I had the car radio on	54:40
	and for the first time, and I hope for the last,	54:45
	I heard an awful ballad,	54:48
	which must be called "Alice Doesn't Love You Anymore."	54:50
	Probably cribbed from "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore."	54:56
	I don't remember all of the sordid details,	55:00
	but the ballad is sung from the standpoint of the husband.	55:02
	His wife has just dropped off the children,	55:07
	put the dog out, taken the car,	55:11
	and left town, and him, for good.	55:15
	She leaves behind a note.	55:19
	She has gone away to seek whatever it is	55:22
	that life may hold for her,	55:25
	because it sure hasn't held much so far.	55:27
	Now, there's a familiar story.	55:32
	We've all seen Kramer vs. Kramer.	55:36
	That film was popular for many reasons,	55:40
	but one of them was its accuracy in showing a slice	55:43
	of contemporary human life.	55:47
	People, not just wives, people leave responsibilities	55:50
	and break off human relationships	55:53
	because they don't live up to their expectations.	55:56
	Our days pass, our lives pass with them.	55:59
	It's not simply a matter of unfulfilled sexual desire.	56:04
	More likely, it's fulfilled sexual desire,	56:08
	accompanied by emptiness.	56:12
	The promise of youth is not fulfilled.	56:15
	Hopes dry up and aspirations wither.	56:18
	The story is basically the same	56:23
	in many times and many places.	56:24
	You can fill in the names.	56:26
	Now, John does not say all of this,	56:29
	but he suggests it.	56:32
	The unfulfillment, the longing,	56:35
	the estrangement of the Samaritan woman's life are mirrored	56:38
	in her five husbands plus one.	56:42
	If so, she is, indeed, an ancient counterpart	56:46
	of many uneasy and unnerving quests	56:49
	for personal fulfillment in our own day.	56:53
	But she is more than that.	56:57
	She is the symbol of our own thirsting	57:00
	for the water of life.	57:03
	Thus, the woman's thirst for water	57:09
	and Jesus' revelation of her life belong together.	57:12
	She desires the assurance of the good things of this world,	57:18
	even as her own quest has led her to and fro,	57:21
	away from any steadfastness and stability in her life.	57:26
	She knows of her need,	57:31
	so she jumps at the chance to be fulfilled,	57:34
	to have her thirst quenched,	57:38
	quenched by the miraculous water that Jesus can supply.	57:41
	Still, she really does not know what,	57:47
	or whence, he is.	57:51
	Now, this is far from the end of the story	57:56
	and we'll not go through all of it this morning.	57:58
	But we have reached an important vantage point.	58:02
	The woman of Samaria has had her life	58:06
	and her need exposed, revealed, by Jesus.	58:09
	And Jesus presents himself as the giver of water,	58:13
	the giver of water that can quench the thirst	58:18
	of unfulfilled human life.	58:21
	The woman recognizes Jesus to be a prophet	58:26
	and then asks that religious question	58:30
	about where people ought to worship,	58:34
	here or in Jerusalem?	58:37
	Now, as a clergyman,	58:41
	I have some sense of what is happening here.	58:42
	I am sitting on a plane or at a well,	58:46
	and having a good conversation	58:49
	and it comes out that I am some kind	58:51
	of professional religious person.	58:53
	So, the conversation immediately shifts ground.	58:56
	The tone and the subject matter change.	59:00
	In the presence of a person of the cloth,	59:04
	people tend to assume a different style.	59:07
	They may tell me about Aunt Sarah,	59:09
	who saw spooks and heard voices.	59:12
	While in seminary, I had a barber whose rich, human insights	59:15
	and wisdom were couched in exquisite obscenities	59:20
	and I would never tell him who I was	59:25
	for fear, or in the certain knowledge,	59:28
	I would never hear from him again.	59:31
	Well, the analogy with Jesus and the woman of Samaria is,	59:34
	of course, not exact,	59:37
	but it is a fact that she does now send the conversation	59:39
	in a new direction	59:43
	and that gives Jesus the opportunity	59:45
	of speaking about worship in Spirit and in truth.	59:47
	Spirit and truth.	59:53
	What do they mean?	59:56
	First, they do not mean invisible and abstract.	59:57
	Jesus is not here contrasting sacrificial worship	1:00:02
	with a Quaker meeting.	1:00:06
	Spirit and truth are the Spirit of God	1:00:08
	and the truth of God as Jesus brings and reveals them.	1:00:11
	God, in fact, is Spirit and seeks true worshipers	1:00:15
	who will worship him in that way.	1:00:19
	Now, our woman never gives much indication	1:00:22
	that she has understood.	1:00:24
	She goes away still amazed	1:00:27
	that Jesus could tell her the most intimate details	1:00:29
	of her personal life.	1:00:32
	She testifies, and many of her fellow Samaritans believe,	1:00:34
	and later on in the story, these Samaritans meet Jesus	1:00:38
	and invite him to stay with them.	1:00:42
	The woman's report about Jesus' startling revelation	1:00:46
	then becomes the beginning point	1:00:49
	and not the end of their faith and they say to the woman,	1:00:52
	"It is not longer because of your words that we believe,	1:00:55
	for we have heard ourselves and we know	1:01:00
	that this is indeed the Savior of the world."	1:01:04
	The Savior of the world.	1:01:08
	Perhaps the noblest title ascribed to Jesus	1:01:12
	in the New Testament and yet, it was also,	1:01:15
	in antiquity, ascribed to the Roman emperor.	1:01:18
	But apart from Spirit and truth,	1:01:22
	apart from the living water,	1:01:26
	that title, Savior of the world, is so universal,	1:01:29
	so grandiose, as to be nearly meaningless.	1:01:33
	We do not need the Savior of the world	1:01:38
	so much as we need living water.	1:01:41
	Jesus, the Samaritan woman is told, gives the water of life,	1:01:46
	the water that makes possible a different quality of life,	1:01:52
	the water which wells up into eternal life,	1:01:57
	and that water was available to the Samaritan woman,	1:02:00
	as little as she may have understood.	1:02:04
	Can it also be available to us?	1:02:08
	"The hour is coming and now is	1:02:13
	when the true worshipers will worship the Father	1:02:16
	in Spirit and truth."	1:02:19
	And now is.	1:02:24
	That now is the now in which we,	1:02:27
	as well as the Evangelist, live.	1:02:30
	The hour has come, it is present with us.	1:02:34
	Here we are at worship.	1:02:39
	Can this be what John is about?	1:02:41
	What Jesus means?	1:02:45
	It's all too easy to say, of course,	1:02:48
	this is what Jesus means.	1:02:50
	Christ is the answer, whatever the question.	1:02:52
	Christ is available to us here today as we worship.	1:02:54
	It's all too easy to say that,	1:03:00
	but it's not, in principle, wrong to say that.	1:03:03
	John the Evangelist speaks as one who knows Christ.	1:03:10
	Whether he was an eyewitness and disciple,	1:03:15
	scholars may debate.	1:03:18
	What is not debatable is John's strong sense	1:03:20
	of the presence and the reality of Jesus Christ.	1:03:23
	"Do you believe because you have seen?	1:03:28
	Blessed are those who have not seen	1:03:31
	and yet believe."	1:03:35
	Those who have not seen and yet believe know Christ	1:03:38
	through tradition and through eyewitness, that's true.	1:03:42
	But they also know him in worship.	1:03:46
	What John says about Jesus	1:03:50
	and in the name of Jesus is inconceivable	1:03:52
	apart from a worshiping community.	1:03:55
	And John is one of those who worships	1:03:58
	in Spirit and in truth.	1:04:02
	Are we?	1:04:06
	Yes, we may be.	1:04:08
	No, I'd go farther than that.	1:04:10
	Yes, we are such a community.	1:04:12
	Our worship does not depend on pious, or good feeling,	1:04:15
	or even upon our liturgy.	1:04:19
	It depends, in the first instance, on our act,	1:04:22
	our response of faith,	1:04:26
	however questioning in coming here,	1:04:29
	in gathering in the name of Jesus.	1:04:32
	Our being in this place is a significant response	1:04:36
	to the word from John,	1:04:39
	that God seeks those who will worship him	1:04:41
	in Spirit and in truth.	1:04:44
	Even in this predominantly Protestant setting,	1:04:47
	perhaps particularly	1:04:50
	in this predominantly Protestant setting,	1:04:52
	the significance of our gathering for worship needs	1:04:56
	to be underscored.	1:05:00
	That we are here is cause for reassurance	1:05:02
	and ought to raise high expectations.	1:05:07
	Therefore, in conclusion, it is good and fitting	1:05:15
	that this congregation should be concerned	1:05:19
	with how, and under what conditions, we worship.	1:05:21
	Worship is at the basis of what we say and do as Christians.	1:05:27
	Then ought we to spend $24,000 for altar pieces?	1:05:33
	Or should we spend a lot more to air-condition this place?	1:05:38
	If you'd been here on that warm August morning	1:05:43
	some years ago when four chapters of John were read,	1:05:46
	you might agree that we should spend that money	1:05:49
	to air-condition this place, but seriously,	1:05:51
	we can certainly worship truly without either	1:05:55
	and maybe we should.	1:05:59
	New Testament Christians could not afford such tokens	1:06:02
	of affluence, but then again,	1:06:05
	New Testament Christians could not afford	1:06:09
	a chapel like this.	1:06:11
	There's a sense in which we have already decided,	1:06:14
	that is, the community has decided historically	1:06:17
	and, in principle, about the character	1:06:20
	of this place of worship.	1:06:22
	How we appoint and furnish it is a matter	1:06:25
	of serious practical and ethical importance,	1:06:28
	as well as taste.	1:06:32
	But unless we forgo the building	1:06:35
	and the use of houses of worship such as this,	1:06:36
	the answer to these	1:06:40
	and related questions is not immediately obvious.	1:06:41
	In fact, John gives us no explicit guidance	1:06:45
	and I don't propose to make a judgment this morning.	1:06:48
	Such decisions require the illumination	1:06:52
	of all the relevant facts	1:06:56
	and the considered judgment of the community.	1:06:58
	They're serious business.	1:07:01
	Whether and how we worship really is important.	1:07:04
	The water of life, about which Jesus speaks,	1:07:09
	is the meaning and the fulfillment that he gives to life.	1:07:12
	He is not, or is obviously not, the only source of meaning	1:07:19
	or apparent meaning.	1:07:23
	That is, people draw meaning	1:07:25
	and fulfillment of different sorts from different sources.	1:07:26
	But if Jesus is anything,	1:07:31
	he is the source of meaning and fulfillment	1:07:33
	for those whose other sources have run dry	1:07:37
	and that, sooner or later, is all of us.	1:07:41
	As important as our encounters	1:07:45
	with our fellow human beings may be,	1:07:47
	in revealing our true disposition toward Jesus,	1:07:50
	and they are very important, that is not all there is.	1:07:53
	The worship that we render,	1:07:59
	whether in community or alone,	1:08:01
	is the touchstone of our participation in Christ	1:08:05
	and in just that sense,	1:08:10
	it becomes the channel	1:08:12
	through which the living water comes to us.	1:08:15
	So be it.	1:08:20
	Amen.	1:08:21
	(somber organ music)	1:08:29
	(choir faintly singing)	1:09:16
	(somber organ music)
-	Let us affirm what we believe.	1:12:41
	We believe in God who has created, and is creating,	1:12:45
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	1:12:50
	to reconcile and make new,	1:12:53
	who works in us and others by the Spirit.	1:12:55
	We trust God, who calls us to be the Church,	1:12:59
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	1:13:03
	to love and serve others,	1:13:06
	to seek justice and resist evil,	1:13:09
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	1:13:12
	our judge and our hope.	1:13:16
	In life, in death, in life beyond death,	1:13:18
	God is with us.	1:13:23
	We are not alone.	1:13:25
	Thanks be to God.	1:13:27
	The Lord be with you.	1:13:29
-	The Lord be with you.	1:13:31
-	Let us pray.	1:13:32
	Let us pray for the Church Universal	1:13:48
	that she may be the true and spiritual servant of her Lord.	1:13:51
	And for this chapel,	1:13:56
	that it may always be the true	1:13:58
	and faithful servant of Christ's Church.	1:14:00
	Let us pray for the infirmed,	1:14:09
	those whom each of us know by name,	1:14:12
	and those whom we all know in spirit,	1:14:16
	that they may find relief from their suffering	1:14:19
	and release from their affliction.	1:14:23
	Let us pray for the poor	1:14:33
	whom Christ has named the children of God,	1:14:35
	that they may find comfort from their physical distress	1:14:39
	and consolation from their spiritual anguish.	1:14:44
	And let us pray for ourselves who are rich,	1:14:54
	that we may turn from the impossibility	1:14:59
	of passing through the needle's eye	1:15:02
	and seek Christ's kingdom among the least of his children.	1:15:05
	Let us pray that we who are Christ's Church	1:15:15
	may be the servants to the infirmed,	1:15:19
	the bearers of good news to the poor,	1:15:22
	that we may love as Christ has loved us.	1:15:26
	Let us pray for this nation,	1:15:35
	that it may truly be one nation under God	1:15:39
	and that we, and our leadership,	1:15:43
	may never confuse our obedience to our Lord	1:15:46
	with our loyalty to country.	1:15:50
	In these troubled times,	1:15:54
	may we not sacrifice the needs of the infirmed and the poor	1:15:57
	for the sake of social and economic advantage.	1:16:02
	In these confused times,	1:16:08
	may we cease the insanity of capital murder	1:16:10
	under the guise of just punishment	1:16:14
	and a search for social stability.	1:16:17
	In these frightening times,	1:16:22
	may we escape the terror of passion and brutality.	1:16:26
	Pray especially for frightened children	1:16:32
	and bereaved parents in Atlanta, Georgia.	1:16:35
	Pray especially for the growing company of hostages	1:16:41
	who are the senseless victims of arrogance and extremism.	1:16:46
	Pray especially for the masses of El Salvador,	1:16:53
	caught between oppressions,	1:16:58
	and longing only for life and peace.	1:17:01
	Let us pray for this university	1:17:09
	that she may teach the truth	1:17:13
	and that she may be the true and faithful steward	1:17:17
	to that one Spirit who is the way,	1:17:21
	the truth, and the life.	1:17:25
	Let us pray the prayer that our Lord has taught us to pray.	1:17:32
	Our Father, who art in heaven,	1:17:37
	hallowed be thy name.	1:17:39
	Thy kingdom come,	1:17:42
	thy will be done,	1:17:43
	on earth as it is in heaven.	1:17:45
	Give us this day our daily bread	1:17:48
	and forgive us our trespasses	1:17:51
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	1:17:53
	And lead us not into temptation	1:17:58
	but deliver us from evil.	1:18:00
	For thine is the kingdom	1:18:03
	and the power and the glory, forever.	1:18:04
	Amen.	1:18:09
	(somber bell music)	1:18:20
	(paper rustling)	1:21:51
	(bright bell music)	1:22:09
	(grand organ music)	1:23:52
	Oh, Lord our God,	1:25:01
	receive our praises and prayers	1:25:03
	and these, our offerings, which we present before thee.	1:25:06
	And with them, ourselves, our souls and our bodies,	1:25:10
	a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to thee	1:25:16
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	1:25:21
	Amen.	1:25:24
	(grand organ music)	1:25:27
	(choir faintly singing)	1:26:07
	(grand organ music)
	The peace of God, which passes all understanding,	1:29:37
	keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love	1:29:42
	of Christ Jesus.	1:29:45
	And the blessing of God Almighty,	1:29:49
	Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be among you	1:29:52
	and remain with you always.	1:29:57
	Amen.	1:30:03
	(joyful organ music)	1:30:06
	(joyful bell music)	1:33:29
	(congregation applauding)	1:35:34
	(muffled speaking)	1:35:43

Item Info

Title:

D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "The Woman of Samaria" (March 15, 1981)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 41:56. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 1:08:22.
In this sermon on Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well, the preacher invites the congregation to examine their own need for self-fullment and self-gratification instead of worship. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "Can it be that the Samaritan woman is the counterpart of so many modern quests for self-realization? Self-fullment?"

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r48w38g9k

Date:

March 15, 1981

Speaker:

Smith, D. Moody, Jr.

Liturgical Calendar:

Lent

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-1145
ref7506_6zn
uachapelsermaud
duke:320646
dcrau002022
ark:/87924/r48w38g9k
68a7be38-381b-49e1-bc21-65500c7be5c1

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "The Woman of Samaria" (March 15, 1981)

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