Jesus Returns to Galilee

When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival. (John 4:43-45, NRSV)

The only reason he was welcomed was because they had been in Jerusalem and they had seen what he had done there and so they wanted Him to come to their hometown because maybe He would do something for them.

Why do we want Jesus around?

For what He can do for us?

Or for what He did for us?

The Woman at the Well

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” —although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he 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 labored, 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 Savior of the world.” (John 4:1-42, NRSV)

This is a great story full and rich.

This woman is living with a man who isn’t her husband because she has been divorced 5 times. And she is coming to the well at the hottest part of the day because she doesn’t want to see anyone to have to explain herself. Because we all know that she has done things she shouldn’t have. I mean, after all, that is why she was divorced 5 times right? And she is living with a man whom she is not married to. I mean we know she id a bad woman with a bad reputation.

Well no we don’t.

She could be divorced 5 times because she is a bad cook. Burning toast is grounds for divorce. And the man she is living with she may not be sleeping with and maybe a male relative that is taking care of her.

We assume a lot of things.

Just like Jesus tells her the place to worship God is not a specific place but we will worship in spirit. You see we should not judge or assume things about others.

We need to share God’s love with everyone.

Allow His living water to flow through your life.

The Inescapable God

O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—

those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil!

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.

See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

(Psalm 139:19-24, NRSV)

Lord, you know me inside and out and have formed me to be your child.

Purge all wickedness and evil from my life and lead me in the way you have for me.

Lead me in the way everlasting.

Help me to follow you.

The Inescapable God

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.

(Psalm 139:13-18, NRSV)

I will praise God because God knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Everything about me was formed together by God and I am wonderfully made and perfect in the eyes of my creator!

He is worthy of our praise for the way we are made!

The Inescapable God


Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

(Psalm 139:7-12, NRSV)

There is nowhere you can go that God is not already there!

Everywhere we go God is there. Missionaries go overseas and say they are taking God to the people there and they are not. God is already there.

Even in the darkest part of the depths, God is there.

You can not get away from God.

Paths and Plans

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ~ Jeremiah 29:11

I was reminded of this path today when I received a message from a confirmation student from the congregation I served in Victoria. This is a path at Ebert Ranch. A camp in the Southwestern Texas Synod of the ELCA. It is a beautiful place with horses and long horns, and a great place to get away and connect with God. This path I believe if memory serves me correctly led to a labyrinth. A place where one journeys inward to find the path or the plan that God is calling us to. Have you ever wondered if there was a plan or a path to life?

Like there seems to be a road map that your life is following only you have never seen it…

Jeremiah is an interesting book that starts with a calling to a boy who says he is too young and unable to speak, leading through to many conversations with him and many peoples for God. All of this leads to the verse above in chapter 29…

God knows the plans He has for each and everyone of us, plans for us to prosper and not fall, plans for a future and a hope. That hope is Jesus Christ! He is the future and the hope each of us can base our lives on, He is the map that will lead us to where we need to go.

Just as Jesus brought St. John’s and my family together, He is continuing to work in and through all of us to bring about His plan and mission here in this place.

So remember to notice where Jesus is working, to share that and invite others to come and see and to always keep Jesus in view, and be ready for the ride of your life as we continue to His wonderful mission here in this place!

Grace,

PJ

The Inescapable God

Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

(Psalm 139:1-6, NRSV)

This could be scary to think that God knows everything about you.

He knows all of your thoughts and actions. Everything you do and everything you think.

But I find this very comforting. Because even though God knows all of this He still loves me and watches over me.

He protects me and shelters me.

He has searched me and knows me, and yet He still loves me!

The One Who Comes From Heaven

The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath. (John 3:31-36, NRSV)

This last sentence is a tough one:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.

SO if you believe in the Son you have eternal life. Already. It is yours. It is not something you wait on, something that you will get later. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

If you disobey the Son you will not see life. You do not get life if you do not believe and do not do what Jesus tells you to do. So you do not have life now or ever.

And if you do not do what the Son tells you you will face the wrath of God.

So which do you want?

And how do you know if you believe and have done everything He has told you to do?

This is a matter of faith. I believe in Jesus, the Son of God and know His promises are true.

Step out in faith and share His love with the world!

Jesus and John the Baptist

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized —John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison. Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:22-30, NRSV)

This really sounds like John’s disciples are trying to start something here.

John, that guy that you baptized on the other side of the Jordan, the one you testified about is over here with His disciples and they are baptizing and everyone is going to them! What are we going to do about that?

Like the time when Jesus disciples asked if they should rain fire down from heaven.

We don’t like it when someone else is getting the looks, and getting noticed and people are not coming to us or acknowledging us anymore.

We want the limelight!

But John tells them, that we can get nothing that isn’t given to us and this is what is supposed to happen, and in this, we should find our joy, for He must increase while I decrease.

Jesus needs to be more prevalent in everything and I must fade into the background.

Are you ready for Jesus to increase and for you to decrease?

Nicodemus

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” (John 3:1-21, NRSV)

Every time I read this story I also wish I could have been there. I wonder was it Nicodemus and Jesus alone or were others in the room with them? Were there people who overheard the conversation? Were the overhearers as confused as it seems Nicodemus was/is?

You see, Nicodemus came to Jesus at night so people would not see him a Pharisee going to see Jesus. Also, he came under the cover of darkness at night because that is where he is, in the dark. He doesn’t understand how this man can do what He does. He does not understand what this man says.

But my wonder is, do any of us always understand Jesus? I have been called to many different things in my life and few of them I have understood. I have participated in them becuase I know God has called me to them and I live with God in and through those callings, but to say I understand them might be pushing it. Like when people ask me why I moved from Texas to Wisconsin in January, my reply is, “Because that is what God wanted me to do.” Now don’t get me wrong Wisconsin is a wonderful state to live in, but it is a lot colder than Texas is in January, well maybe not this January! But we follow God not always seeing the full picture. Nicodemus wanted to understand the full picture, so he came to talk to Jesus, to get some answers, and left with more questions than answers this time, but Nicodemus doesn’t give up.

Do you give up when Jesus gives you more quesitons than answers or do you push forward knowing that even in the quesitons God is still with you?