Thought for the day – Saturday 9 May

Thought for the day - Saturday 9 May
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May 09, 2020
in Minister's Daily Message
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Dear All
In normal circumstances, we might expect to ‘bump’ into to folk we know while out shopping or enjoying a walk. We’d probably enjoy too good blether about nothing in particular and everything in general. We still can and do of course, but it’s not the same just now. The restrictions, a bit like a curfew, have put paid to that. My guess is, though, that we are getting a bit closer to ‘freedom’ and the worst, I think, is behind us hopefully
Meeting people is generally part of our daily routines, people we work with, travel with, family and friends, and of course, the brief encounters. Some of you will be thinking of Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in the film of the same title. Brief encounters can be very interesting, those chance conversations with people we don’t really know and will most likely never meet again. We at times talk about ‘striking up a conversation’ don’t we? We feel we need to do this, as awkward silences can be and often are quite ‘painful’.
For my part, I like to talk. I listen too, I’ll have you know. I’ve been known to talk myself to sleep on occasion, and I’ve even helped others to do the same at times. Interestingly if you talk to yourself occasionally this is quite normal. Talking to yourself is known in psychology as the ‘Socratic Dialogues’. Psychologists are familiar with the term and next time you meet one talk to them about it. They’ll be impressed with your knowledge. Talking to yourself might even help solve some problems.
People say sometimes ‘take a good look at yourself’, so why not talk to yourself while you’re at it?
Jesus was tired and thirsty and struck up a conversation with a Samaritan woman. He asks her for a drink and then things developed from there. She was surprised that Jesus spoke to her at all, as Samaritans and Jews don’t get on very well, to put it mildly. The disciples too were surprised to witness this unusual encounter. You just never know sometimes, who you are speaking with do you?.
As the conversation develops Jesus and the woman share their views on religion, in particular about the correctness and place to worship God. The woman perceives that Jesus might be a prophet as he tells her things no stranger would know. As the conversation continues Jesus reveals who he really is. It would take a bit more time though for her to hear all that Jesus had to say.
Jesus speaks about the life-giving water, eternal water and that he would give it to her to drink. We all need water. We use it every day for just about everything. The saying, ‘You never miss the water till the well runs dry’, is quite apt. The well that Jesus speaks of, however, will never run dry and our spiritual thirst will be forever quenched.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be satisfied.
Today I ask you to think/meditate on these things.
God bless you!

Jim

JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk

JOHN 4: 1-26

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John—although, in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

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