We have been experiencing the season of Lent in terms of the many blessings it offers to our lives of faith. This may be a different way of thinking about Lent, if we think about it much at all. Lent is more traditionally thought of as a time to give up something through fasting or self-deprivation, in order to focus on our sin and our need for the saving love of Christ. But Lent can also be a time for adding something to our spiritual lives-more time for prayer, study, or reflection-in order to deepen our faith and grow closer to God.

To ponder the blessings of this season of self-examination and growth is a way to open ourselves to new riches in the stories and traditions of this season. The gift of a blessing reminds us of the graciousness of God's love for us, even when we sin and fall away. And remembering that we are blessed in so many ways by God opens us to the full realization of just how totally God blesses us in Jesus Christ.

On the first Sunday in Lent, we received the blessing of courage from the story of Jesus' encounter with the devil-his temptation. The blessing of courage is found in grounding our faith in God alone, and loving God with all our heart, soul and strength.

Last week, we received the blessing of new life from the story of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. The blessing of new life is found as we become part of the new Kingdom of God, having been born anew through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And today, the third Sunday in Lent, we receive the blessing of mutual gifts from the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. Rooted and grounded in God, empowered with new life from the Spirit, today we discover the relationship with others that characterizes the new community of mutuality among the people of the Way. Those who enter into the Kingdom of God will experience the blessing of mutual gifts.

Last week, Jesus was in conversation with Nicodemus-a fellow Jew, a rabbi, and a man. Jesus and Nicodemus were peers, equals. And so their encounter, while quite intriguing, was not out of the ordinary. Today, however, things are quite different. This conversation between Jesus and the woman should probably never even have happened. Why? Several reasons, any one of which would have been enough to axe this scene from John's script and leave it on the cutting room floor.

1.The Jews and the Samaritans were enemies. They hated each other, mistrusted each other. Enemies don't chat. They may posture, threaten, or ignore, but they rarely engage one another in conversation.

2. For a Jew, any contact with the Samaritans resulted in ritual impurity.

3.A Jewish man was not supposed to talk with a woman other than a direct relation-wife, mother, daughter, sister.

4. This woman was divorced, making her that much more "unclean."

And so, you see, a conversation such as the one we overhear this morning between a Jewish rabbi and a divorced Samaritan woman broke all the rules. Yet, Jesus seemed to have almost arranged for this encounter to happen. He traveled through Samaria-most Jews went out of their way to go around it. He made himself vulnerable-alone, at the well, in the noonday heat. And then, when a woman showed up to draw water, he took her seriously, just as he had Nicodemus.

No wonder the woman asked him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" No wonder that when the disciples came back they were astonished that he was speaking with a woman.

Oh, yes, I'm talking to her, he seems to say. I needed to talk to her, because I'm thirsty and she has the bucket. Not only that! She needs a new chance in life and I can give that to her. Jesus shows us how he and the woman need each other, he for the literal water she has, and she for the living water that only he can give.

This encounter reveals something very important about the mutuality of relationships in the Kingdom of God. It teaches us that as we are born again, from above, and begin to experience the Kingdom, we will become like Jesus. We will begin to realize that we're all in this life together. As people of the Way, we will begin to see that God's caravan of people has need for each and every one of God's children. And like Jesus, we will have enough courage to seek out and talk even with our enemies. This is the blessing of mutual gifts and it has the potential to change lives.

As we see from the story, it changed the Samaritan woman's life right away. It takes some of us a lot longer to realize what a blessing this is, because we don't want to admit our need of others, especially others we've defined as lesser or lower or expendable. And we really don't want to share, fearing there's too much we might lose. And we'd prefer to think we can get there on our own, and as long as we get our seat in heaven, we'll let everyone else fend for themselves. They're not our problem, after all. Oh, God knows we risk cutting ourselves off from others who are different-group by group, person by person-while our world grows smaller and smaller.

The blessing of mutual gifts has the power to address even the deepest enmities ever ready to tear us apart. The world has witnessed in horror again this week neighborhoods in west India being consumed by hate. Families stood on their rooftops to throw firebombs onto the roofs of their neighbors. Hindu and Muslim. Ancient enemies. Tentative neighbors once again pulled under by the strong pull of hatred and suspicion.

How very much we and this broken and weary world need to remember that, in fact, we all need each other in order to live. How very much we could benefit from the blessing of mutual gifts.

The Samaritan woman saw right away how very much there was to gain in this blessing. Scripture tells us that she left her water jar and went back to the city. It's the female version of the first men disciples leaving their nets to follow Jesus. They left their nets, she left her water jar, and started on a faith journey she could never have foreseen. She told others what had happened, and they were persuaded by her testimony. Many went out to find him and came to believe in him, too. All because of her.

Orthodox Christians have even given her a name. They know her as St. Photini, or Svetlana in Russian. Her name means "Equal to the Apostles," and she is honored as an apostle on the Feast of the Samaritan Woman.

Together, Jesus and the Samaritan woman model the blessing of mutual gifts. They show us that the Kingdom of God is based on the vulnerability of mutually interdependent community, the insistence upon relationship, and the breaking down of all barriers that separate us from one another and from the love of God.

This may be one of the hardest blessings for us to receive, preferring as we do the predictability of our familiar, if murderous, ways. Jesus himself shows us a new way to talk, interact, learn about one another, learn the truth about one another, and learn the truth of our need of one another. Jesus paid for his vision with his life. In our day, the cost may still be very high. The gift is all the more precious.

As we prepare now to receive the sacrament this morning, remembering Christ who gave his life that we might have life in overflowing abundance, let us open our hearts to receive his blessing, and there discover the courage to accept the blessing of mutual gifts.

Amen.

© Patricia E. Farris, 2002. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution. All other rights reserved.