First Reading: Exodus 17:1-7


Sunday’s readings speak about thirst, from the thirsty Israelites in the desert to Jesus stopping for water and rest in a Samaritan town.

Christ and the Woman of Samaria at the Well (c.1640-c.1641), oil painting on canvas by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino (1591-1666). Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. (Click image to enlarge.)

When we face such basic needs as hunger and thirst, it’s all too easy to forget to be thankful for past blessings. In the previous chapter of Exodus, God provided manna for the hungry people. Now they are angry because they have no water. They complain that they were better off in slavery in Egypt than dying in the desert. Moses is just about out of patience with them, but God provides a miracle to quench their thirst.

Psalm: Psalm 95

The 95th Psalm begins with the joyful hymn of praise that we also know as the Venite, a familiar reading in Morning Prayer. But its grateful tone changes key abruptly in Verse 8 when the Psalmist reminds us of the story we heard in the Exodus reading. The thirsty, angry people turned their hearts from God and put God to the test; the Psalmist imagines that these actions drove God to “loathe” these ungrateful people and leave them lost 40 years in the desert.

Second Reading: Romans 5:1-11


Even though we are sinners, we are justified through faith and saved through Jesus’s death on the cross, Paul writes to the church in Rome. This congregation has known suffering. Its Jewish Christian members had been forced into exile and only recently returned; the entire congregation could be at risk for its faith. But Paul reminds them that their suffering gives them the opportunity to learn endurance and build their character through hope in the love that God pours into their hearts through the Spirit.

Gospel: John 4:5-42


We see a very human side of Jesus in this passage from John’s Gospel. When Jesus learned that the Pharisees had discovered that he and his disciples were making and baptizing even more followers than his cousin John had done, he decided to go back to Galilee. He chose a route through the country of the Samaritans, descendants of the ancient Northern Kingdom of Israel who were no longer on good terms with the Jews. Tired and thirsty, he stopped in a Samaritan village, where he broke with custom not only by asking a Samaritan woman for a drink but by striking up a conversation with her. Much to the surprise of his disciples, he stayed in the village for two days and made believers of many of the Samaritans.