March 8, 2026 "God's Active Word"

Third Sunday in Lent

Exodus 17:1-7

Psalm 95

Romans 5:1-11

John 4:5-42

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

 grace and peace to you

from the Word who offers us living water. Amen

What is baptism? 

Luther poses the question in his Small Catechism

 and responds with:

Baptism is not simply plain water. Instead, it is water used according to God’s command and connected with God’s word.

Water and word,

 the two parts that make up the sacrament of baptism

 (remember from your confirmation days

 a sacrament is a promise from God accompanied by a physical sign

quick pop quiz, what’s the other sacrament?

Communion)

Okay that’s what baptism is,

 but Luther knows the question that will follow is

What gifts or benefits does baptism grant?

In other words, what does it do?

 and the answer:  It brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it, as the words and promise of God declare.  

And after citing his source

Mark 16, Luther then anticipates the next question,

 the how question:

How can water do such great things? Clearly the water does not do it, but the word of God, which is with and alongside the water, and faith, which trusts this word of God in the water. For without the word of God the water is plain water and not a baptism, but with the word of God it is a baptism, that is, a grace-filled water of life and a “bath of the new birth in the Holy Spirit,"...

In other words,

 in baptism God’s word assures us

that the gifts stemming from the works of God

 are ours.

 God has acted,

we have benefitted,

the water adds a tangible reality to the word

 helping to form faith,

helping us trust the promise

and while baptism is something we participate in,

 facilitate, rejoice in,

 God has been at work long before we get to the waters,

 the word comes first.

This is what Paul is emphasizing in our passage from Romans for today (5:1-11)

 not only does the Word come first

 but the Word, Jesus,

does all the work,

that we have nothing to do with salvation  

“while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly”

and yes that is remarkable

 but it’s not just that we were weak,

it was when we were sinners Christ died for us, Paul says

 upping the ante,

 then finally, while we were enemies

 we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.

 There is no wiggle room on how remarkable God’s actions were for us

We were the worst and God acted first and this is amazing,

Of course we still face challenges in this life

but we no longer face them alone

“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 afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame…” (Romans 5:1-5a)

Today in our gospel

 Jesus goes to meet someone

who embodies this hope.

 The woman at the well. 

John tells us that when Jesus leaves Judea

 to go back to Galilee

 he had to go through Samaria.

 Geographically there was another route

that he could have taken,

 many Jews traveled around Samaria

 to get home from Jerusalem.

So Jesus’ need is driven by something else,

 and I think we could argue

 that he needed to meet the woman at the well,

who we find

as Jesus converses with her

 has been waiting for him

embodying the progression to hope that Paul laid out. 

She has certainly endured many afflictions,

as Jesus reveals to her

he knows that she has endured the death or divorce of five husbands,

losing one spouse is hard enough,

especially when as was the case back then,

women depended on their husbands

 for not only status but the basic necessities of life, food and shelter.

Five times she has lost everything

and had to start over,

(no wonder she hasn’t married guy number six)

 now if that’s not endurance

 I don’t know what is,

 and endurance has definitely produced character,

she is strong enough in herself to challenge Jesus

when he initiates the conversation asking for a drink of water.

 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”

 I’ve always been impressed by the depth of knowledge

 the woman displays about her ancestry and faith

 as well as Jesus’ position as a Jew,

 and her confidence in pursuing the conversation with this stranger,

 that’s character,

 character built of encountering and enduring suffering,

she’s had to speak for herself,

she’s had to figure out where she fits in the grand scheme of things

 and advocate for herself.

 So by the time Jesus meets her

 she knows who she is

and she is not afraid to speak to him

to satisfy her curiosity about this strange man

 who crosses the established boundaries

and even after acknowledging Jesus must be a prophet

 after he reveals all that personal information about herself

she is still interested in how Jesus fits in the grand scheme of things

 because she knows the fundamental religious differences

between her people and Jesus’ people

 and Jesus starts talking about worshipping

not on mountains but in spirit and truth

and she says ‘look I don’t know about all that but I do “know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”

 even after all she’s gone through

she is still hoping in the Messiah

and her hope will not be put to shame

 because Jesus responds

“I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

This is the first time in the gospel of John

that Jesus admits to being the messiah,

others have called him the messiah,

he has talked about coming from God,

but it isn’t until the woman at the well’s hope is laid bare

 that he invokes the name of God and says “I am”

 revealing who he is to this woman

 who has endured afflictions

 and yet still thinks deeply about things

 and most of all still hopes in the Messiah.

How many people are out there,

longing, hoping for something,

 for living water that they know they need

but don’t have the words for?

How many people need to hear the word of Jesus

 spoken to them,

 revealed as the source of their hope

which will not be put to shame?

To speak this word becomes part of our calling at our baptisms,

not because we have to

 but because we get to,

and the word of God working through us

brings others to the living water.

This is what happens with the woman

 when the messiah reveals himself to her,

her first instinct is to run and tell the whole city,

 to bring them to Jesus.

 And we hear many come and believe because of her testimony,

in the end they try to dismiss her importance

but her words are the reason they come to Jesus

hear him speak

and believe

and receive the living water.

In the same way God’s word was active

long before we came to the font,

 it was working in and through parents and neighbors,

 even strangers who shared the source of their hope with us,

 who brought us to Jesus

who shared the gift of God

and now having received the gift of God

unequivocally in word and water

it is our turn for the Word to work through us

to proclaim the hope to which we are called

hope that will not put us to shame. Amen