The Green Tau

4th Sunday of Lent

19th March 2023

Reflection (the readings are below. NB there are alternative readings for Mothering Sunday which I am not using)

It is very easy to label people and the only to see the label. The disabled person. The black man. The pregnant woman. The autistic child. The asylum seeker. The climate refugee. Or in the case of today’s gospel, the blind man. The label is not un-useful. If we know someone is blind we can try to communicate in ways that don’t rely on seeing. If we know the woman is pregnant, we can take into account that she may have particular needs about what she eats or having a space to sit. But the label shouldn’t stop us from talking to the person who is blind about things we can see, about what is happening in the world, about their views on current affairs. Just because you can’t see doesn’t mean you aren’t aware of the world around you. The label shouldn’t stop us from expecting the woman who is pregnant to have views about economics or theology or the best whiskeys.

In the gospel story some people are so used to seeing the label and not the person, they are not sure who the man is once he can see – they thought he looked liked the blind man! In many ways people make the same assumptions about Jesus. Many of them, including some of the Pharisees, labelled him as a sinner, and therefore saw his every action as sinful – and by contrast saw themselves as ‘Godly’.

Who can see the real person? In the passage from 1 Samuel it is God. To his father and his brothers, David was always going to be ‘the youngest son’, the one to run errands, be that herding the sheep or delivering food to his brothers if they were away from home (1 Samuel 17). Even Samuel discounts David – or rather the ‘youngest son’ – and expects to anoint the eldest son, or if not the eldest, then certainly one of the elder sons. It is God who sees the real person, who knows that David is the one who has the characteristics needed to be a king.

In the gospel, the disciples see the blind man as a topic of theological debate – was it his sins or his parents’ sins that caused him to be blind? But Jesus sees him as he truly is, a person through whom God’s glory can be revealed. He perceives in the man an intelligence and an independence of mind that allows him to be receptive to God’s presence.

The words of the 23rd Psalm, reflect the writer’s own receptiveness to the presence of God in his life. God has been his guide and his companion, the one who understands his needs, his hopes and his fears, the one who sticks by him through thick and thin. The psalmist is surely someone who, in the words of the writer to the Ephesians, lives as a child of the light. Someone who does ‘ find out what is pleasing to the Lord.’

How do we find out what is pleasing to the Lord? By being open to God, open to new ways of seeing and hearing and doing. By being aware of what is happening in the world, by being aware of what causes suffering and pain. By finding out how suffering and pain can be alleviated and how they can be prevented – for God desires mercy and goodness for all.

This last week storm Freddy has savaged Malawi and Mozambique causing destruction and suffering on a vast scale. The people of Malawi and Mozambique are not just numbers who either survived or died, but individuals with friends and families, homes and communities, hope and fears, who are in dire need of assistance.

Can we offer assistance? Can we be good neighbours? Donate to charities such as Oxfam which are meeting people’s immediate needs. Press our government to forego outstanding debt repayments to allow money to be spent instead on climate adaptation and new infrastructure. Speak out about the climate crisis and how it is the root cause of the extreme intensity of this storm. Point out how governments and corporations across the world are failing to address the issue of climate and justice. Adjust our own lifestyles so that we too become part of the climate crisis solution.

Let us do what is pleasing to God.

1 Samuel 16:1-13

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.” He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.

Psalm 23

1 The Lord is my shepherd; *
I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures *
and leads me beside still waters.

3 He revives my soul *
and guides me along right pathways for his Name’s sake.

4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil; *
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5 You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *
you have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.

6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Ephesians 5:8-14

Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Sleeper, awake!
Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

John 9:1-41

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

Counting on … day 1.075

18th March 2023

Growing your own food can mean survival for some people. In Africa many people are what one might call indigenous farmers, people who grow traditional crops using traditional methods. The plants they grow are often well suited to the local soils and the local vagaries of the climate. It is a type of farming that has little in the ways of cost inputs – no artificial fertilisers, no highly mechanised equipment, not even expensive seed. Rather seeds are collected from one season to use at the next or to swop with neighbours to improve fertility. In Kenya 80 – 90% of farmers use and share indigenous home grown seeds.

However the Kenyan government wishes to control the quality of seeds by prohibiting the sale of exchanging of any seeds other than those that have been licensed Licensing is expensive – only 20% of the seeds regularly used have been licensed – and this has limited the number of legal seeds sellers to a few large concerns. Often these seeds suppliers are also in the market of selling fertilisers and pesticides, and may opt to sell seeds that need such additional inputs.

It is now illegal to sell or swop unlicensed seeds in Kenya with the potential punishment of 2 years in jail and or a fine.

Greenpeace Africa is challenging this law.

For more information see https://www.greenpeace.org/africa/en/publications/51807/whose-interest-does-the-kenyan-seeds-law-protect/

Counting on …day 1.074

17th March 2023

Drawing on both home grown food and OddBox food, earlier this week we had a ‘foraged soup in that I foraged the garden for green things and the remains of the OddBox, thus-

3 cloves of garlic and 3 shallots all sliced.

1 beetroot, 1 parsnip, 1 apple all diced

All these I softened in some rape seed oil. Then I added,

A jar of cooked split green pea

A handful of red lentils

A teaspoon of miso

A colander of young dandelion and nettle leaves.

I added water and left to simmer. Once cooked I liquidised everything to create a thick nourishing soup.

Counting on …. Day 1.073

16th March 2023

Growing our own food keeps us in touch with the reality of food production and helps reduce its carbon footprint if only minimally. Growing delicate crops such as salad leaves and herbs would be the best win win. Salad crops can include simply growing mustard and cress on a paper towel.

For those without a garden – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/mar/24/how-to-grow-your-own-veg-without-a-garden?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

And for those with – https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own

Counting on … day 1.072

15th March 2023

Food that is wasted – whether that it is on the farm (perhaps being ploughed up because there is no longer a market for it or it has become damaged), between the farm gate and the store (too many or too little of too mis -shapen), or in our kitchens (because we have bought too much or let what we have go ‘off’) – accounts for 8 to 10% of the world’s carbon footprint. Reducing food waste saves resources, limits pollution and ensures more people are better fed.

This week OddBox which diverts food that would go to waste into a weekly veg box delivery issued its annual report – https://www.oddbox.co.uk/blog/our-do-good-report-2022

Counting on …1.071

14th March 2023

“Cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by two-thirds, according to the Oxford study, published in the journal Science.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46459714

Major institutions are helping people make this change in lifestyle by serving less or no meat in their canteens. In 2022 Stirling became the first UK university to ban the sale of meat in its campus food outlets. This year Cambridge University has voted to do likewise. Newcastle Hospitals has meat free Mondays, which is an approach followed by various schools and colleges.

A different world is possible!

Counting on … day 1.070

13th March 2023

“Campaigners warned [2019] that the clear waters of the Wye, one of Britain’s best-loved rivers, were being blighted by thick green algae blooms linked to poultry production. Many of the intensive chicken farms in the catchment area of the Wye supply Avara Foods in Hereford, which is the third largest poultry producer in Britain and is jointly owned by the American food business Cargill. It is claimed that vast amounts of manure from chicken farms supplying Avara and other food businesses are washed into the Wye, contaminating the water with excessive phosphate levels that fuel the growth of algae blooms…

Cargill has operated in the UK since 1955 and purchased a major poultry processing plant in Hereford, more than 40 years ago. In 2013 it announced a £35m investment in the plant to increase production of fresh chicken, and five years later it combined its fresh chicken operation in the UK with poultry business Faccenda Foods to form Avara. New intensive poultry units – each housing at least 40,000 chickens – sprung up to meet the demand, and between 2013 and 2017 the number of birds in Herefordshire increased from 13 million to 18 million.

It is now hoped stricter controls and new practices, supported by Cargill and other operators, will help reduce the Wye pollution. Some farms are installing biomass boilers to generate heat from chicken manure, while other farms are sending the poultry litter to anaerobic digestion plants.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/25/chicken-farm-giant-linked-to-river-wye-decline-was-sued-over-water-blight-in-us?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

How sustainable is our current meat focused diet? Is there scope for change that can create a better world?

Talk for Green Christian

12th March 2023

A talk given to St Michael’s Highgate as they set out to become a green church.

Thank you for inviting me here to speak to you today.

Water is one of those things that you only realise how much you need it, when you haven’t got it. Certainly that was the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness. Being a slave in Egypt hadn’t necessarily been fun, but at least there was always water to hand.

Some years ago we spent a year living in Zimbabwe. When we arrived there had already been several years of drought and water was rationed. We were allowed 50 litres of water a day per household and there were five of us. 10 litres a person – about two buckets. Any water that we didn’t drink was reused. Washing up water flushed the loo. Cooking water was used for the washing up. And how often do you need a shower? One thing you always remembered was to clean your teeth before you washed your pants!

Water is precious. Water is life. And without it, we die.

But do we notice when it is running out? Does the tap flash red like the petrol gauge on a car?

Last year we experienced a drought caused by high temperatures and a lack of rainfall that affected all the countries across Europe. Harvests of olives, wheat, rice, and even potatoes fell by a third. Homes were consumed by forest fires. Here in England our green and pleasant land was reduced to the colour of sand. In the Alps glaciers are receding at an alarming rate. These are Europe’s frozen reservoirs which – in the past – ensured water throughout the summer. As they shrink and disappear, so the rivers they fed disappear. This winter snowfall in the French Alps is down by 63%. In February south east England received a mere 6% of its normal rainfall. We are entering the 2023 growing season with a decided lack of water.

Water – you only realise how much you need it when you haven’t got it.

In Genesis 2, God contemplates the barren earth and notes the absence of water needed to make things grow. So God causes a spring to gush up and water the whole earth. Then God takes some of the earth and moulds into the first being – an earthling named Adam. And God instructs Adam to till and tend, to care and protect the garden of Eden. Thus the first role given to humans is to be God’s gardeners. God took some more of the earth and created all manner of creatures to help with this task of tilling and tending, of caring and protecting, the earth.

From this we should note two things.

First – we humans and all living beings are co related; we are made of the same substance; we are kin, brothers and sisters in God.

Second – all living beings have been created by God to care for the earth, to ensure that its verdant ecosystem flourishes.

This is something perhaps that we have overlooked. Without earthworms, without bees and pollinators, without birds to spread seeds, without badgers and pigs that rootle the earth, without the 101 creatures whose poo manures the soil, would we have life on earth? Would we have plants and flowers, trees and forests, grasslands and meadows?

And don’t forget the whale!

The whale is an amazing creature. In the sea there are tiny beings called phytoplankton. They are the ocean’s equivalent of green leaves converting sunlight into edible energy and releasing oxygen into the water. Phytoplankton are eaten by slightly bigger beings – plankton and plankton form the diet directly or indirectly of all other sea creatures, including whales. Now phytoplankton needs iron, but iron doesn’t appear naturally in the water. Problem? No because of the whale! Or rather because of the whale’s poo which is rich in iron! And as the whale swim up and down in the oceans so it continually redistributes important minerals such as iron. The whale is fulfilling perfectly God’s injunction to till and tend the earth!

As you can see from this tale of the whale, we live in a highly complex, intricate and amazing ecosystem. Yet it is only belatedly that we humans have come to realise that we have not measured up well as promoters and protectors of life on earth – rather we have rather been its destroyers.

Wild animals now account for only 4% of the world’s mammal population. We humans account for 34% of global mammal biomass whilst our livestock accounts for a staggering 62% ! In other words even we humans are outweighed by all the cows, sheep, pigs etc that we keep to feed ourselves. We humans are completely transforming the pattern of life on earth.

Not only have we replaced two thirds of the wild animals with domesticated stock, we are killing off so many different species – birds, insects, trees, plants, fish, and animals – that we are triggering the world’s sixth mass extinction of life on earth.

We are also the cause of climate change on a scale never before seen in human history. Since the days of Moses, 3000 BCE until the 19th century, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere hovered around the 250 parts per million.

In the 19th century as the west industrialised, CO2 concentrations rose towards the 300 mark. There was some warming of the atmosphere but within the bounds that the ecosystem could accommodate.

Come the 20th century with more countries are using fossil fuels, CO2 emissions continue to rise, but now at a faster rate. By1970 CO2 concentrations passed the safe 350 PPM limit. From then on we have been filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide at a faster rate than the earth’s ability to absorb it. Using the analogy of a bath, the CO2 flowing into the bath is doing so at a faster rate that it can escape through the plug hole.

Global temperatures are rising rapidly adding large amounts of energy to weather systems around the world, triggering droughts in one region, floods in another, heat waves and cold snaps, and far more frequent and intense storms. Last year was not an exception but an indicator of the future. It is this change of weather patterns that is the root cause of the droughts we are now experiencing.

Will this lack of water turn us back to God? Will it prompt us to focusing on God’s command that we should tend and care for the earth? Will it focus us on the commandment Jesus gave that we should love our neighbour – both human and creaturely?

I was invited to speak to you today because as a church you have discerned that you have a calling to be a ‘Green Church’. I salute you!

You are beginning a journey just as were the Israelites when Moses led them out of slavery. Like the Israelites, you are beginning a journey of discovery and adventure, of challenge and joy. You will discover new ways of living. You will discover new ways of trusting in God, and new ways of relating to your neighbour. You will learn the joy of being God’s gardeners.

I was asked to suggest some practical actions that you can take as first steps – and I’ll give you three.

First, change the way you eat. Green Christian has produced a very simple nemonic to help us choose a more sustainable diet. LOAF – local organic animal-friendly fairly traded. Use this as you guide when you’re shopping, when you’re planning meals, and when you are serving food at church.

Second, zero waste. The earth’s resources are finite. The ability of the earth to absorb pollution is finite. We can’t afford to waste anything. Before you go shopping, think what it is you need?

Could you reuse or repair what you already have? Could you reuse something someone else no longer needs? Before you buy, consider the packaging? Is it superfluous? Is it going to go straight in the bin? Can it be recycled? And what about the thing you are buying – will happen to it when it comes to the end of its life? Can it be reused, repurposed or recycled? Or will it linger somewhere polluting the earth?

Thirdly, active travel. Active travel is what we do when we walk or cycle. It’s good for us physically and mentally. Active travel is closely aligned with public transport – together they protect the environment, reduce air pollution and carbon emissions, and reduce our consumption of resources. If you can walk or cycle there, do it. If you can get there by bus or tube, then do it. If you can get there by train and sleeper, then do it. If you can avoid flying, then do it – and why not sign the flight free pledge?

I offer you these as first steps. I say first steps as you will find that you hit many obstacles to greening the way you live. You will soon realise that what we also need is system change. For example we need a public transport system that enables and encourages people to use public transport. We need a tax system that doesn’t favour air flights over train journeys. We need an energy system that produces renewable energy, that insulates homes and subsidises the replacement of gas boilers. But you will not be alone. A lot of other Christians are pushing for system change, including those in Green Christian and those supporting Christian Climate Action. And to that end I warmly invite you to come along to The Big One 21st to 24th April in Parliament Square and join the 100,000 others calling on the government to tackle the climate crisis.

Counting on … day 1.069

12th March 2023

Last September “Operation Noah today released a report that makes recommendations on ways to reduce and store carbon emissions to one of the country’s largest landowners, the Church of England, which owns approximately 0.5% of the UK’s land. The report … concludes that land owned by the Church of England is currently contributing to the climate and biodiversity emergencies ‘in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and limiting biodiversity within monoculture tree plantations and non-regenerative agriculture.’ While the Church of England has adopted a 2030 Net Zero target, its landholdings are outside the scope of the target. Yet this report finds that agricultural land owned by the CofE is likely to create more greenhouse gas emissions than all CofE church buildings combined; however, it adds, ‘there is also scope for considerable improvement if rapid and radical action is taken.’

The report specifically recommends a programme of tree growing, peat restoration, and providing better support and strategies to those who farm Church-owned land in order to reduce agricultural emissions and store more carbon.” https://operationnoah.org/featured/press-release-operation-noah-report-finds-church-of-england-land-contributes-to-the-climate-crisis-suggests-ways-to-reduce-and-store-emissions/

There is so much scope for change that will create a better world.

Third Sunday of Lent

12th March 2023

Reflection

Last summer both here in the UK and across Europe, we were sharply reminded how much we need water, not just for our own domestic use, but for growing the food we eat. Harvests of crops such as arborio rice, wheat, potatoes, grapes and olives were all diminished by as much as a third.

In Genesis 2 the earth was also in need of water to become green and verdant, and so God caused springs to well up from the earth watering its surface. In Lent we reflect in the wilderness and imagine a great expanse of dry and barren land – not dissimilar to that through which the Israelites were travelling – and in that see a metaphor for our spiritual lives. Lent is a time when we can admit to a dryness in our spirituality. We feel the need for refreshment, the need for something to reinvigorate our faith.

Perhaps we can put ourselves in the shoes of the woman of Samaria. She needs water, she needs it enough to venture out to the well in the heat of the day. Maybe she also is thirsty for spiritual nourishment. Her experience has been that she – as with all other Samaritans – is a person to be routinely despised by the majority of Israelites, that her belief in the one God is erroneous, and that should she wish to worship God, she must go to the Temple in Jerusalem as being the only authorised place of worship. No wonder that she is initially wary of Jesus’s request for a drink of water.

There is also the suggestion that she is a fallen woman, having had multiple husbands, and is now living with someone who is not technically her husband. She is certainly carrying plenty of guilt and religious baggage.

Yet despite all that is stacked against her establishing a relationship with Jesus, that is exactly what she does. She listens to what Jesus is saying, asking her own question to tease out what he means. She is confident enough to ask for the gift he offers her – the gift of living water – and it becomes a gift that she then is eager to share with her fellow townspeople.

We can see this story echoed in Paul’s letter to the Romans. The Samaritan woman is an example ‘that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.’ The suffering she seems to have gone through, has indeed produced endurance and a strength of character that leads her to be hopeful, and she is rewarded with the gift of God poured into her heart, a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.

This gift will nourish the spiritual life in her just as the water that sprang up from the earth watered the Garden of Eden. Her life will be fruitful.

That spring of living water, that gift of the Spirit, perhaps helps us to understand more of last week’s gospel in which Nicodemus questioned how one could be born again into new life. To be born again is to begin life anew. This gift of new life is still offered to us by Jesus, so that we may each be verdant and fruitful in creating heaven on earth.

Exodus 17:1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarrelled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarrelled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Psalm 95

1 Come, let us sing to the Lord; *
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.

3 For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *
and the heights of the hills are his also.

5 The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands have moulded the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *
Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!

8 Harden not your hearts,
as your forebears did in the wilderness, *
at Meribah, and on that day at Massah,
when they tempted me.

9 They put me to the test, *
though they had seen my works.

10 Forty years long I detested that generation and said, *
“This people are wayward in their hearts;
they do not know my ways.”

11 So I swore in my wrath, *
“They shall not enter into my rest.”

Romans 5:1-11

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person– though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

John 4:5-42

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labor.”

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.”