1 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:13,160 So our teaching scripture this morning comes from John chapter 2 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:17,920 4, beginning in verse 7 all the way through to verse 30. 3 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:22,960 The scriptures say this, A Samaritan woman came to draw 4 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:26,480 water and Jesus said to her, give me a drink. 5 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,760 His disciples had gone to the city to buy food, and the 6 00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:35,400 Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, ask a 7 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:39,600 drink of me, a woman of Samaria? Jews do not share things in 8 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,560 common with Samaritans. And Jesus answered her, If you 9 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:47,040 knew the gift of God and who it is as asking you, give me a 10 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:50,840 drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you 11 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:54,680 living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you 12 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:58,080 have no bucket, and the well is deep, where do you get that 13 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:00,640 living water? Are you greater than our 14 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:04,480 ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his 15 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:08,440 flocks drank from it? And Jesus said to her, Everyone 16 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,200 who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. 17 00:01:11,720 --> 00:01:14,840 But those who drink of the water that I will give them will never 18 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:18,000 be thirsty. The water that I will give will 19 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,200 become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. 20 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:26,320 And the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I 21 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:30,200 may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water. 22 00:01:30,960 --> 00:01:35,640 And Jesus said to her, Go call your husband and come back. 23 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:38,800 And the woman answered him, I have no husband. 24 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:42,760 And Jesus said to her, You are right and saying, I have no 25 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:47,240 husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you have 26 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,520 now is not your husband. What you have said is true. 27 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,400 The woman said to him, Sir, I see that you're a prophet. 28 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:58,200 Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain. 29 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:01,720 But you say that the place where people must worship is in 30 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,720 Jerusalem. And Jesus said to her, Woman, 31 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,479 believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father 32 00:02:08,479 --> 00:02:10,880 neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 33 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:13,640 You worship what you do not know. 34 00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:18,400 We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews, but 35 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:21,520 the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshippers 36 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:25,800 will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father 37 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:28,360 seeks such as these to worship Him. 38 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:33,120 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in 39 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:37,560 spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know 40 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:41,280 that Messiah is coming. He was called the Christ, and 41 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:44,400 when He comes, He will proclaim all things to us. 42 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:50,640 And Jesus said to her, I am he the one who is speaking to you, 43 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:55,920 Jesus. Then just then his disciples 44 00:02:55,920 --> 00:02:59,480 came, and they were astonished that he was speaking with a 45 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:02,280 woman. But no, no one said, what do you 46 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:04,320 want or why are you speaking with her? 47 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:08,000 And then the woman left her water jar and went back to the 48 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,040 city. She said to the people, come and 49 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,280 see a man who told me everything I have ever done. 50 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:16,840 He cannot be the Messiah, can he? 51 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:20,360 They left the city and were on their way to him. 52 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:22,680 This is the word of the Lord Good. 53 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:30,160 Morning. When you preach at 37 weeks, 54 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:39,840 they get you a stool. I have a strong disposition 55 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:42,400 toward media that makes me feel good. 56 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:47,360 I'll take a happy go lucky musical over a sad and dramatic 57 00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:52,160 play any day if I can avoid it. I will never watch a war movie 58 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,440 because my tolerance for violence is extremely low. 59 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,120 There's enough real tragedy and horror in the world that I just 60 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:03,200 have no desire to imbibe an entertainment, however formative 61 00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:06,440 and well done, that draws me toward fictional disaster. 62 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:11,120 I feel it's so real sometimes that I accidentally start 63 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:14,320 praying for fictional characters and their circumstances. 64 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:18,560 To put it plainly, I just get carried away. 65 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,440 Perhaps no more than in a romance, though I can tell the 66 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:26,920 difference between the masterful poetic elegance and a tender 67 00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:30,960 romance or a sophisticated and uplifting drama, which I do 68 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:34,480 enjoy. I can also go for the cheese in 69 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:38,520 an OG Hallmark movie. I have a remarkable ability to 70 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:41,840 suspend reality while the president's daughter sneaks away 71 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:45,720 from her staff, only to fall for the undercover secret servant 72 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:49,560 agent who's actually being paid to protect her while she ditches 73 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:52,920 her protection. I have opinions about fictional 74 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:56,040 love triangles, whether we're talking Gilmore Girls, Dean and 75 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:00,080 Jess, Twilight, Edward and Jacob, PETA and GAIL of The 76 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,840 Hunger Games, or this past summer, latest embodiment of the 77 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:07,600 trope, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher of the summer I turned 78 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:11,520 pretty. These observations of my own 79 00:05:11,520 --> 00:05:15,400 preferences are not value statements, like whatever kind 80 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:19,200 of movies you want to like. But there is a way in which the 81 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:23,480 romance stories I'm talking about, deep and serious, 82 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:29,880 realistic and hopeful or dumb and cheesy, touch on and craft 83 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:34,160 our imaginations. They form the vocabulary and 84 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:38,000 expectations we have for romantic experiences, and not 85 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:43,360 all but many of them draw our attention in circling tightly 86 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:46,600 around a couple as if nothing else exists. 87 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:51,400 Desire gets cast as all consuming, even redemptive, but 88 00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:53,760 only for the two people at the center. 89 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:59,080 And even then we usually only glimpse it through one person's 90 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:03,360 eyes, leaving the rest of the perspectives to the shadows. 91 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:06,600 There's something dangerous about that. 92 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:11,240 And the problem isn't desire itself or its intensity. 93 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:16,400 We are in a series on the passions, a term rooted in the 94 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:20,120 ancient church's vocabulary used by people of prayer and 95 00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:24,200 contemplative completion to describe the inner movements 96 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:27,920 that can cloud discernment and pull us from the freedom of life 97 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:33,120 in Christ rather than toward it. The ways, desires, thoughts, and 98 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:37,000 ideas can pull us into the world in a way that's detached. 99 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:40,560 When we speak of understanding the passions, we seek to 100 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:44,800 understand how and why these movements occur, what is at 101 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:48,760 their root. Last week Jared introduced us to 102 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:52,720 the passions, and today we'll take a closer look at one in 103 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:57,040 particular. Not that heavy, a bit abstract 104 00:06:57,040 --> 00:07:01,000 of a concept for US 21st century Western people. 105 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:06,200 Lust. The conventional Bible passages 106 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:09,200 that we might spend our time with today include what is 107 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:12,520 perhaps the most famous power trip and dalliance of the Old 108 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:17,440 Testament, David and Bathsheba. The tale of a lustful king who 109 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:22,040 uses his power and position to impregnate a married woman who, 110 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:24,960 at least to the according to the written story we have in 111 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:29,440 Scripture, had very limited agency within power dynamics 112 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:34,080 entirely tilted in the King's favor, and in an effort to cover 113 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:37,520 up his indiscretions, David had the woman's honorable husband 114 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:41,160 murdered at war. Of course, there's also the 115 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:43,840 Pauline letters in the New Testaments where on more than 116 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:47,840 one occasion Paul critically calls out sexual indiscretion. 117 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:52,240 Sometimes this happens through a kind of general instruction, but 118 00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:54,920 then in places like First Corinthians 5 he gets very 119 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:58,760 explicit and he rebukes the church for tolerating incest. 120 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:03,600 And then there is Jesus himself in the Sermon on the Mount who 121 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:07,480 declares if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out 122 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:10,600 and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one 123 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:14,040 part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into 124 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:16,520 hell. And if your right hand causes 125 00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:19,040 you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. 126 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:23,240 This is a particularly direct moment for Jesus. 127 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:28,040 All great passages, worthy of study and with the help of the 128 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:30,640 Spirit, are due contemplative consideration. 129 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:33,520 And that's not where we're going to go today. 130 00:08:34,799 --> 00:08:38,159 I'd like to call our attention to a passage often given little 131 00:08:38,159 --> 00:08:41,080 consideration in relation to the topic of lust. 132 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:44,360 And if I'm being honest, the little bit of attention that it 133 00:08:44,360 --> 00:08:47,840 sometimes does get is a bit off base. 134 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:53,360 But if we can hold back a little in our initial suppositions, I 135 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:55,160 think it's worth turning to today. 136 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:59,440 I say this because today's primary passage, alongside a few 137 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:03,080 others that we'll look at along the way, challenges us to 138 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:08,240 consider the shape of the passions hold on us and the ways 139 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:13,400 that it is made visible not just in a singular relationship, but 140 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:15,280 in the wider pattern of our lives. 141 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:21,760 It is my hope that with this wider angle view, we may move 142 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:26,720 beyond the two-dimensional image of lust in 50 Shades of Grey, a 143 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:31,480 raunchy teenage comedy in the fear based, behavior focused 144 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:34,840 purity culture of the late 90s and early 2000s. 145 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:39,480 And instead we would come to see the passion of lust for what it 146 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:44,240 is in its fullness and the ways in which it takes hold in our 147 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:49,000 lives. And that in that we would also 148 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:54,160 receive the gentle embracing invitation of the Spirit for 149 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:57,080 true healing. And that we would be met with 150 00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:00,520 the love of God as Jesus met the woman at the well. 151 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:07,120 In John chapter 4, Jesus is leaving Judea and traveling back 152 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:11,320 to Galilee, and to do so he travels through Samaria. 153 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:14,640 The text actually says that he had to go through Samaria, which 154 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:18,280 is something of a statement because the norm would have been 155 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:22,120 for Jewish people to entirely avoid Samaria. 156 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:26,720 The people shared a long history of animosity towards one 157 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:29,240 another. Despite some shared history 158 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:32,600 traveling through the region, Jesus came to a Samaritan city 159 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:36,400 called Sicar near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to 160 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:41,000 his son Joseph, men whom both the Samaritans and Jewish 161 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:45,240 communities called an ancestor. And it is there that he needs 162 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:50,600 the Samaritan woman. Beginning in verse 7A, Samaritan 163 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:53,600 woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, give me a 164 00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:55,760 drink. His disciples had gone to the 165 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:59,880 city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, 166 00:10:59,880 --> 00:11:04,880 How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? 167 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:08,320 Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans. 168 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:13,120 Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is 169 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:16,640 that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, 170 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:18,600 and he would have given you living water. 171 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:22,080 The woodwind said to him, Sir, you have no bucket and the well 172 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:24,560 is deep, where do you get that living water? 173 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:28,040 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the 174 00:11:28,040 --> 00:11:31,160 well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it? 175 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:35,920 Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be 176 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:39,480 thirsty again, but those who drink of the water I will give 177 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:43,200 them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will 178 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:46,800 become to them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. 179 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:51,000 The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I may 180 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:54,760 never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water. 181 00:11:56,480 --> 00:11:58,760 They are gathered at Jacob's Well. 182 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:02,720 For a man and a woman to meet in that place would have carried a 183 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:05,080 certain weight to an ancient reader. 184 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:09,800 Just by setting assumptions would form, much like the ones 185 00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:13,240 my friends used to make spotting first dates at MA Moon's Falafel 186 00:12:13,240 --> 00:12:16,520 in New Haven. Cheap, tasty and crowded with 187 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:18,360 students and young professionals, it was 188 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:21,280 practically shorthand for casual Internet date. 189 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:24,960 Now certainly not every two person meet up there was a first 190 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:28,240 date, but for a people observer to figure that the meetups they 191 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:32,040 observed around them was that was was never a bad 1st guest. 192 00:12:32,840 --> 00:12:36,760 By contrast, when Tom was proposed to me in January 2018, 193 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:40,360 we went to the Restaurant Barcelona, a fancy tapas place 194 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:43,480 in town that seated guests very close together. 195 00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:46,960 We are right next to a couple who were clearly on a first 196 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:50,840 date, and while we celebrated our engagement, they awkwardly 197 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:54,880 Shank fish shrank back into their uncomfortable date. 198 00:12:55,640 --> 00:12:59,440 The difference was obvious. Mamoons equals first date. 199 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:03,920 Barcelona equals engagement celebration, and our close 200 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:07,880 proximity to the other couple somehow somewhat comically, 201 00:13:08,160 --> 00:13:13,000 exacerbated this point. Place carries meaning, and it 202 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,920 shapes the story before a word is ever spoken. 203 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:22,000 And that's why Jesus is meeting with the Samaritan woman at the 204 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:26,000 well is so striking. It's a confounding scene 205 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,640 throughout Scripture. Wells are often places where men 206 00:13:29,640 --> 00:13:33,440 would meet their future wives. Jacob met Rachel at the well. 207 00:13:33,560 --> 00:13:36,800 Moses met Zipporah at the well. Isaac's marriage to Rebecca 208 00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:39,240 begins with a servant finding her at the well. 209 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:46,640 A well was a betrothal sight. Against that backdrop, Jesus 210 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:50,560 meeting a Samaritan woman at the well is evocative. 211 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:54,520 If a waiter at Barcelona had been only half paying attention, 212 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:58,200 he might have already put in the order for the comped celebratory 213 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:00,840 dessert. But here's the thing. 214 00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:05,320 As true as it is that's evoked betrothal imagery, it's also 215 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:07,680 true that that's not what's going on in the story. 216 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:11,480 The whole encounter is full of striking contradictions. 217 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:15,440 Jesus shares in a one-on-one private conversation with a 218 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:19,480 woman whose socio cultural identity is widely perceived as 219 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:23,160 at odds with his own. Apart from any of the baggage 220 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:25,760 that may or may not be associated with this woman and 221 00:14:25,760 --> 00:14:28,600 her five previous husbands, which we'll get to in a minute, 222 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:32,480 it may be helpful to know that the Jews perceived Samaritan 223 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:40,840 women to be perpetually impure and and that and that not just 224 00:14:40,840 --> 00:14:44,120 in the encounter, Jesus would have incurred defilement. 225 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:47,880 The Bible scholar Jonathan Borgel explains that Samaritan 226 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:50,560 women were perceived in a perpetual state of 227 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:54,960 uncleanliness, making them, the men around them and all their 228 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:59,600 possessions impure. And so in this image, there is a 229 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:08,040 disruptive picture which Jesus engages by saying to her, go 230 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:12,320 call your husband and come back. The woman answered him, I have 231 00:15:12,320 --> 00:15:14,800 no husband. Jesus said to her, you're right 232 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,520 in saying, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, 233 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:19,640 and the one you have now is not your husband. 234 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:24,800 What you said is true. The woman said to him, Sir, I 235 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:29,640 see that you are a prophet. Now, a lot of hay has been made 236 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:32,280 out of this portion of the passage, and it's worth 237 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,120 lingering for a moment to consider what's being said, 238 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:41,040 what's being implied, and indeed what may be improperly overlaid 239 00:15:41,040 --> 00:15:44,120 on this text. After speaking with the woman 240 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:47,520 about living water and eternal life, Jesus instructs the woman 241 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:50,560 to fetch her husband's. In some ways, this kind of makes 242 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:52,040 sense because they were at the well. 243 00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:55,080 The woman reveals that she has no husband. 244 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:58,320 Jesus affirms that's true and basically reads the woman's mail 245 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:00,920 back to her. You've had five husbands, and 246 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:02,960 now you're with a man who's not your husband. 247 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:04,880 She's astonished by the knowledge. 248 00:16:06,080 --> 00:16:08,800 It's here in the text that we start to get something of a 249 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:12,120 grounded picture of who this woman might be. 250 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:18,720 Certainly 5 husbands does not suggest an easy life, though. 251 00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:22,960 We don't know the story here. We don't know what loss and 252 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:25,400 grief she may have experienced in death. 253 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:29,520 We don't know the ways in which she may have experienced 254 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:32,880 abandonment. We don't know what role she 255 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:36,160 played in beginning and ending each of her five marriages, 256 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:39,240 though we do know that the Samaritan people embraced 257 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:44,120 embraced the Torah and its laws. And that means that she was not 258 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:47,720 the power broker in any of her marriages that may have ended in 259 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:50,920 divorce, as women would not have had that right. 260 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:56,480 One can't help but wonder about what socio economic factors may 261 00:16:56,480 --> 00:17:00,600 have been at play in this woman's life, how she navigated 262 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:07,160 the instability implied by 5 marriages, what choice she may 263 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:11,319 or may not have had in them if her life was affected by 264 00:17:11,319 --> 00:17:15,240 poverty, something like alcohol abuse, we don't know. 265 00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:20,960 But 5 marriages suggests some kind of instability and 266 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:24,560 vulnerability. And there are a lot of 267 00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:27,359 questions, not too many concrete answers. 268 00:17:28,079 --> 00:17:31,320 In some readings of this text, the woman is quickly and 269 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:35,000 dismissively looked at with disdain, an archetype in 270 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:39,000 contrast to Jesus himself. And there certainly is something 271 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,000 extraordinary in Jesus lingering in conversation with this woman. 272 00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:48,360 There certainly is contrast. But that contrast isn't like 273 00:17:48,360 --> 00:17:52,120 that of the late Maggie Smith as a Dowager Countess in Downton 274 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:56,600 Abbey, responding with pitiful and compassion to Ethel, the 275 00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:59,960 housemaid who conceived a child outside of marriage and took to 276 00:17:59,960 --> 00:18:03,280 sex work on the streets to survive, to secure basic 277 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:05,080 sustenance for her and her child. 278 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:09,440 No, the extraordinary part is that Jesus is in Samaria in the 279 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:14,080 1st place, and that he sits at the well with a Samaritan woman 280 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,120 and not a woman of standing or honor, Not the equivalent of the 281 00:18:18,120 --> 00:18:22,040 mayor's wife, respected by her community through her proximity 282 00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:25,120 to power. She is instead a woman whose 283 00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:31,400 life bears the marks of instability and loss, and who 284 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:36,000 has survived that. Perhaps her own consuming lust 285 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:40,720 shaped parts of her stories, though what seems very likely, 286 00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:45,560 based on the fact that she lived in 1st century Samaria and had 287 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:50,400 been married five times, is that she was not the primary author 288 00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:56,800 of lust, but its object. In lust there is pleasure 289 00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:01,280 detached from compassion and sexual desire directed in 290 00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:03,880 opposition to people and relationships. 291 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,160 These definitions from the Catholic ethicist Jason King 292 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:11,920 create the framework wherein it is possible to conceive of a 293 00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:17,000 particular 3 dimensional forms of lust that animate our psyche 294 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:21,240 and redirect our will, turning us from what we say we love and 295 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:27,880 cherish and toward a consuming, covetous captivity to the self. 296 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,960 A handful of weeks back I preached on Exodus 20 where God 297 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:38,040 gives the Israelites 10 commandments to the Israelites. 298 00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:40,960 God declares you shall not covet your neighbor's house. 299 00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:44,240 You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, male or female, 300 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,840 slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. 301 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,120 And I talked about how coveting isn't simply envy. 302 00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:55,960 It involves an attitude of wanting, but also the action of 303 00:19:55,960 --> 00:20:00,080 taking that it is a propulsive relationship, wanting to 304 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:04,240 seizing, desiring to acquiring. It lets loose with the Bible, 305 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:08,240 Scholar Walter Brueggemann calls the unrestrained, addictive 306 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:13,200 pursuit of commodities which, set in motion, blurs our vision 307 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,720 like a mirror and a funhouse, eventually making our neighbors 308 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:21,040 imperceptible to us in the goods, in our hands, larger than 309 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:25,600 life. Lust is a particular form of 310 00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:28,640 coveting. Augustine, the North African 311 00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:31,520 Bishop, writing in the Forming shadow of the Fall of Rome, 312 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:33,880 described it as a lust to dominate. 313 00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:38,240 Lust shows itself in personal relationships when the focus 314 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:42,560 bends back toward the self, even when both parties consent to 315 00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:46,320 their mutual undoing. And lust shows itself on the 316 00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:50,200 scale of nations and empires, where myths of greatness and 317 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:54,120 destiny become masks for what King calls the raw drive for 318 00:20:54,120 --> 00:20:57,440 control. In both cases, in the bedroom 319 00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:01,160 and in the empire, desire becomes covetous, care and 320 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:05,360 hospitality are cut off, acquisition is set into motion, 321 00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:08,480 and people are diminished, reduced, and coerced. 322 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:13,200 We know this lust to dominate when we see it in relationships. 323 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:17,400 It looks like a partner who treats intimacy as conquest, 324 00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:20,520 where the other becomes a trophy rather than a person. 325 00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:24,320 It looks like situations of manipulation where love is 326 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:27,880 twisted into leverage. Sometimes it even looks like two 327 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:30,920 people caught in what they both call love but is really mutual 328 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:34,480 self destruction. Passion detached for compassion 329 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:39,240 and desire cut off from care. Every fall, R as gather the new 330 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:41,920 students on their floor at college campuses across the 331 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:44,640 country and instill in their freshman the gospel of 332 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:47,360 enthusiastic consent. And that's something. 333 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,440 College campuses are sites of sexual harassment and assault. 334 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:55,840 May every action to stymie and stop that violence prosper. 335 00:21:56,760 --> 00:22:01,080 And hear me when I say that mutual consent can still be 336 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:05,120 destructive, still be covetous, still set us on the cycle of 337 00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:09,840 desiring and acquiring for our own benefit and casual disregard 338 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:13,400 for our neighbors. The affected individuals are not 339 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:16,920 only the participants involved in the hookup in question, their 340 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,160 relationship with friends, family and people around them 341 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:24,400 are affected as self focus. Indulgence shapes and reshapes 342 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,920 their lives. Because how we're formed in one 343 00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:32,560 discreet part of our lives never stays just in that corner. 344 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:36,600 And we know this lust to dominate when we look at 345 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,040 empires. Rome called it peace, but it was 346 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:42,000 really the crushing of nations under military power. 347 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:46,560 Modern societies may call IT security, prosperity, even 348 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:50,600 freedom, but often it is simply domination by another name. 349 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:54,640 Whole peoples treated as expendable land and resources 350 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,320 consumed without limit. Myths of greatness are spun to 351 00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:00,840 disguise the reality of self indulgence. 352 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,600 If you need a way to bring the empire as less metaphor closer 353 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:08,360 to home, consider how it might show up on a Tuesday at work. 354 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:13,000 An office is full of competent, gifted employees whose 355 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:15,320 dedication drives the company's success. 356 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:20,240 But a manager pits them against one another to test loyalty and 357 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:23,280 push productivity, and the response is ruthless. 358 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:28,280 Relationships become tinged with jealousy, alliances form and 359 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:32,480 fracture, and competition is baptized as a healthy American 360 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:35,840 spirit. Yet underneath the surface is 361 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:40,320 the lust to dominate, Co workers reduced to obstacles, clients 362 00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:42,680 and vendors treated as a means to an ends. 363 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:47,040 The mirror torrents inward, and people are formed against 364 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:49,960 relationships rather than for them. 365 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:59,560 Lust is multidimensional, it's reformational, and it leads to 366 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:03,920 cut off. There are two New Testament 367 00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:08,320 couples who illustrate this point brilliantly, and they are 368 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:11,200 in many ways the opposite of one another. 369 00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:16,840 Consider the couple of Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira. 370 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:22,120 But a man named Ananias with the consent of his wife Sapphira 371 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:24,680 sold a piece of property with his wife's knowledge. 372 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:28,200 He kept back some of the proceeds and brought only a part 373 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:29,920 and laid it at the apostles feet. 374 00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:34,960 Ananias, Peter asked, Why has Satan filled your heart to lie 375 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:39,400 to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land 376 00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,240 while it remains unsold? Did it not remain your own after 377 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:47,040 is it was sold? Were the proceeds not at your 378 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:49,600 disposal? How is it that you have 379 00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:51,560 contrived this deed in your heart? 380 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:53,920 You did not lie to us, but to God. 381 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,560 Now when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died, 382 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,160 and great fear seized all who heard it. 383 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,480 The young men came and wrapped up his body and then carried him 384 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:10,000 out and buried him. After an interval of about 3 385 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,640 hours, his wife came in. Not not knowing what had 386 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:16,280 happened, Peter said to her, Tell me whether you and your 387 00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:18,680 husband sold the land for such and such a price. 388 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,920 And she said, yes, that was the price. 389 00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:26,160 Then Peter said to her, How is it that you have agreed together 390 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,200 to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? 391 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,200 Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the 392 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:34,680 door, and they will carry you out. 393 00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,000 Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. 394 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:42,640 When the young men came in, they found her dead, so they carried 395 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,880 her out and buried her beside her husband, and a great fear 396 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,560 seized the whole church and all who heard these things. 397 00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:56,680 This is a devastating story. Amidst the new life and what is 398 00:25:56,680 --> 00:26:00,520 being formed as the Church moving in the power of the Holy 399 00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:05,000 Spirit shortly after Pentecost, we are met with death. 400 00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:09,920 The married couple, Inanias and Sapphira, conspired to withhold 401 00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:14,040 a portion of their wealth and when confronted, they lied about 402 00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:18,000 it publicly. This is the square privileging 403 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,000 of their own lives and livelihoods above that of their 404 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:24,000 community. The theologian Willie Jennings 405 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,120 point out that they have turned inward as though they, the 406 00:26:27,120 --> 00:26:32,000 couple are the hosting side of their own discipleship, claiming 407 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,760 sovereignty over life together with the Church. 408 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,600 And in this we glimpse the hiring picture of what Jason 409 00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:43,600 King calls the dissipating form of lust, here extended from the 410 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,000 realm of private desire into shared life of the community. 411 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:52,320 Desire collapses inwards, Pleasure loses depth as those 412 00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:55,480 whom Ananias and Sapphira are called to commune with as 413 00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:58,480 neighbors and friends become obstacles to their own 414 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:02,600 accumulation of wealth. Instead of deepening in love and 415 00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:06,120 relationship, Inanias and Sapphira experience what King 416 00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:10,200 describes as the thinning out of joy that comes when connection 417 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:13,840 is neglected and the good of another is no longer grasped. 418 00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:18,440 Their story shows us not less thrill but its erosion, how it 419 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:22,200 Withers community, leaving not abundance but absence. 420 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,920 Consider how this story contrasts with what Willie 421 00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:30,040 Jennings calls a new kind of couple, Priscilla and Aquila. 422 00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:34,640 This refugee pair from Rome took up their mallets and owls as 423 00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:38,640 talent makers alongside the Apostle Paul, joining him in 424 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:41,040 what Acts 18 calls the way of God. 425 00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:45,160 When Paul moved on, they became teachers to Apollos, the 426 00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:50,680 Alexandrian eloquent Zelius, but also in need of guidance. 427 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,800 Priscilla and Aquila took him aside and explain the way of God 428 00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:58,120 to him more accurately and later commended him to other 429 00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:01,480 disciples. Where Ananias and Sapphira 430 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:06,360 turned inward, Priscilla and Aquila opened outward. 431 00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:11,960 Their shared discipleship was not a possession to protect, but 432 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,240 a gift to give, multiplying life in the church. 433 00:28:16,120 --> 00:28:19,800 In their story, we see no dominating lust, no dissipating 434 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:22,440 lust. Instead, there is forward moving 435 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:26,800 discipleship rooted in mutual love and care, lived out amid 436 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,720 real vulnerability. These were refugees and by 437 00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:34,840 vocational pastors who had endured persecution and threats 438 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:38,200 of violence. And yet, as Jennings notes, they 439 00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:42,200 are not consumed with self preservation but live a shared 440 00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:47,000 life that yields to the Spirit. Jason King also names a third 441 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:53,320 kind of lust, truncating Lust, which cuts life off from broader 442 00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:56,760 relationship. Think of the couple who dates 443 00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:58,760 and loses touch with all of their friends. 444 00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,000 Now that can play out as a light comedy and a 20 minute sitcom, 445 00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:05,520 but it can also devastate real lives. 446 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:09,440 I once sat with a young person who had just discovered that one 447 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:13,480 of her parents maintained a secret family elsewhere, and 448 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,920 that revelation shattered their sense of trust and belonging. 449 00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:20,560 And this young person was a casualty of truncating lust, 450 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:24,400 where another's desire narrowed the horizon and cut off 451 00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:27,640 obligation and care beyond the relationship that is right in 452 00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:31,400 front of them. Priscilla and Aquila embody the 453 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:35,240 opposite of this too. Their life together was not cut 454 00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:39,600 short but extended outward, not closed in and on itself, but 455 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:42,080 open to Paul Apollo's, to the church. 456 00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:46,560 Where lust narrows, severs, and collapses relationships, their 457 00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:50,080 shared discipleship widened, multiplied, and bore life. 458 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:54,960 And so it is with this picture in mind that I want to take us 459 00:29:54,960 --> 00:30:01,440 back to our primary text for today, the Samaritan woman at 460 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:05,760 the well with Jesus. She's a figure whose story 461 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:10,680 carries many unknowns, but also clear signs of hardship and 462 00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:15,480 loss, and the very strong suggestion that her life was, in 463 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:19,160 the eyes of some, reduced to an object of lust. 464 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:22,600 Now, the kind of lust that touched her life may have been 465 00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:26,440 dominating, dissipating, or truncating some mix of all 466 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:30,080 three. As the wife of five husbands who 467 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:34,280 is currently with a man who is not her husband, she was almost 468 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:38,720 certainly affected by lust in its sexual sense, but also in 469 00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:43,200 its wider disfiguring forms, where someone else's covetous 470 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:46,040 behavior left her isolated and cut off. 471 00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:50,160 She was alone at the well at midday, after all. 472 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:57,600 And she says to Jesus, our ancestors worshiped on this 473 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:01,240 mountain, But you say that the place where people must worship 474 00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:04,360 is in Jerusalem. Jesus said to her, Woman, 475 00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,480 believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the 476 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,600 Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 477 00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:13,040 You worship what you do not know. 478 00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:17,920 We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews, but 479 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,480 the hour is coming and is now here, where the true worshippers 480 00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:25,520 will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father 481 00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:27,560 seeks such as those to worship him. 482 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,880 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in 483 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,960 spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know 484 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:38,560 the Messiah is coming, who is called the Christ. 485 00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:41,760 When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us. 486 00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:47,800 And Jesus said to her, I am he the one who is speaking to you. 487 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:52,560 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was 488 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:54,600 speaking with a woman. But no one said, what do you 489 00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:56,360 want or why are you speaking with her? 490 00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,800 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. 491 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:04,520 She said to the people, Come and see a man who told me everything 492 00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,680 I have ever done. He cannot be the Messiah, can 493 00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,720 he? They left the city and went on 494 00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:15,080 their way to him. The disciples are shocked to 495 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:19,080 find Jesus not only talking with a woman, but to this woman and 496 00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:22,480 in this place, a meeting no one would have imagined. 497 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,880 The disciples return at the conclusion of what would become 498 00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:31,160 the longest recorded dialogue that Jesus shares with anyone in 499 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,360 the Bible. Think about that. 500 00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:38,160 This theologically dense conversation is not with Peter, 501 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,560 James, or John. It's not a conversation that 502 00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:43,760 Jesus shared with all twelve of his disciples. 503 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:46,960 It's not even a public conversation that Jesus has with 504 00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:49,040 someone in a crowd while he's teaching. 505 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:56,080 Jesus tells this woman directly that he is the Messiah, the one 506 00:32:56,080 --> 00:32:59,400 whom they, the Samaritans, have been waiting for. 507 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:04,240 And at this revelation, the woman leaves behind her water 508 00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:08,080 jar and goes back to the city. She seeks out the people in the 509 00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:11,720 city and declares. Come and see the man who has 510 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:15,000 told me everything I have ever done. 511 00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:21,560 That's not what a person crushed by the weight of stigma or shame 512 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:24,960 shouts. And while we don't know how the 513 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,840 woman related to her relational history or circumstances prior 514 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:32,520 to her conversation with Jesus, the one can certainly imagine 515 00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:35,080 some challenging baggage and emotional weight. 516 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:40,160 We do know that she left a one-on-one theological 517 00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:47,440 conversation with a Jewish rabbi at a well without shame, fear or 518 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:52,160 suspicion. His knowledge of her and her 519 00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:57,400 life is comforting to her, and she discloses his knowledge to 520 00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:03,280 her to her Samaritan people in the city who come out to see the 521 00:34:03,280 --> 00:34:06,960 man that they have been led to believe is the Messiah. 522 00:34:10,159 --> 00:34:16,960 Revelation serves as invitation. The woman who had been reduced 523 00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:22,920 to an object of lust is now received, named, and embraced by 524 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:27,719 Jesus. Where lust isolates, cuts off, 525 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:33,400 and collapses relationships inward, Jesus opens outward 526 00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:38,280 toward community. She who once came alone at 527 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:41,960 midday now runs back to the city carrying the good news. 528 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:45,679 This is the opposite of what lust does. 529 00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:49,840 Lust to sorts desire into covetousness. 530 00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:54,400 Jesus restores desire by directing it toward life, with 531 00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:59,040 God, and with others. The very place where she had 532 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,320 been diminished becomes the place where her voice is lifted 533 00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:06,040 up. There's healing in this move, 534 00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:12,840 and there's also an invitation to bring before God the places 535 00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:18,000 where our desires have been twisted, where we recognize in 536 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:23,520 ourselves the ways our own covetous desires have narrowed, 537 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:28,920 distorted, and harmed others, and where we have been cut off 538 00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:33,880 as the object of lust. Wherever shame has marked us, 539 00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:40,560 wherever isolation has closed us off, the Spirit meets us not 540 00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:45,040 with condemnation, but with healing love that restores us to 541 00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:47,520 one another and helps us see rightly. 542 00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:54,200 This morning, Jared concluded our time of silence with a 543 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:57,160 liturgy that we are holding with us for the duration of this 544 00:35:57,160 --> 00:36:00,760 series. As we prepare to move toward 545 00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:04,720 ministry time, I'd like to invite you to return to that 546 00:36:04,720 --> 00:36:07,520 liturgy with me. I'd like to invite you actually 547 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:14,000 to stand and invite you to read with me. 548 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:22,000 I am infinitely loved by God, and God's infinite love is in 549 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:26,000 the process of healing everything in me that clings to 550 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:30,520 false things. The invitation of God to me is 551 00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:33,680 to allow God to be the divine Physician. 552 00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:40,280 The medicine of God is God's own love poured out into my heart 553 00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:43,520 through the Holy Spirit. Amen.