Scripture: John 4:9-10
The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
Thought for the Day: In recent months, there have been some really interesting public acts by women for women. The Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem has always been a place of segregation, in which Jewish women are not allowed to pray or read scripture alongside men. A number of defiant acts have led to the arrest of women who chose to adorn themselves with traditional prayer shawls and pray. Within the Hindu tradition, a group of women activists in India stormed into the sanctum sanctorum at Mahalakshmi temple where only men have traditionally been allowed to enter. Police were brought in and threats of arrest were made. Almost every religion has been torn between the seeking of truth and the upholding of tradition, between a message of liberation and the reinforcement of boundaries. Though our denomination first ordained a woman (Mellissa Garrett) in 1867, we have, and in some places continue to, struggle with the idea of women in ministry. There is no question that the Bible has numerous passages that dismiss women as second-class citizens or worse, yet the questions we must always be asking ourselves: What is the Gospel message and what was the cultural context’s influence on the Gospel message itself? Though we may not see it as all that radical, how Jesus often treated and interacted with women was earth-shattering for his time. He was about liberating people, including women, from old models that kept them from living the fullness of life. As the church came into being, it moved about an inch and declared a new set of boundaries that continued to limit women. In my opinion, God is calling men and women to every ministry and every position of church leadership, and each time someone breaks through a barrier of segregation, the Gospel becomes even more alive. As Jesus reached out to the Samaritan woman at the well, he was breaking through one of those barriers and guiding us to the heart of the Gospel unobstructed by the cultural bias of the day.
Prayer: Open my heart, Amazing God, to those moments when your Gospel message is unimpeded by all the stuff that dilutes its liberating power. Amen.
SUNDAY
Morning Worship
Who Are You Going To Welcome Next?
Acts 16:9-15
Afternoon Worship
Area Assembly in Beaumont
3:30pm
