The latest Sermon

Dear Friend,

Grace and peace to you.

My name is Karie Charlton, and I have had the privilege of serving as the guest preacher with your congregation recently. I know that some members of the community are not able to be present in worship, but please know that you remain a valued and remembered part of the church’s life and prayers.

You have likely already heard that Pastor Rebecca’s recovery is taking a bit longer than originally planned. While she continues to focus on healing, I will continue to be with the congregation in worship during her absence. Please keep her in your prayers in the days ahead.

If you have cards you would like to send to Pastor Rebecca, I would be happy to help deliver them. You are welcome to bring them to worship on Sunday morning, and I will make sure they get to her later in the week.

This weekend, my sermon will be on the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. It is a story about thirst—about the deeper places in our lives where we long for hope, peace, and reassurance that God is near. Jesus speaks of “living water,” a reminder that God continues to meet us in our thirst and provide what we need for the journey.

Even when we cannot gather in the same place, we remain connected through prayer, faith, and the love of Christ that flows through this community.

Please know that you are remembered, appreciated, and held in prayer.

Peace be with you,

Pastor Karie

 Sunday Sermon (12–15 minutes)

Living Water in the Wilderness

John 4:5–42 | Psalm 95 | Exodus 17

Life has a way of reminding us that we are thirsty.

Not the kind of thirst you fix with a glass of water.

The deeper kind.

The kind that shows up when something in life feels unfinished…

when we are worried…

when we are searching for meaning or direction.

Sometimes we try to ignore that thirst.

Sometimes we try to distract ourselves from it.

But every once in a while, we sit quietly—maybe at the kitchen table, maybe in the car after a long day—and we notice something inside us still searching.

Still longing.

Still thirsty.

Because the truth is,

we are all thirsty.

And the good news of this story is simple:

Where there is thirst, God is already preparing living water.

And that is where today’s Gospel begins.

A Road Through Samaria

Jesus is traveling and chooses a road many people would avoid.

He goes through Samaria.

For generations, Jews and Samaritans had lived with deep religious and cultural hostility. Many travelers would have gone around Samaria entirely.

But Jesus goes straight through it.

He stops beside Jacob’s well.

And if the first readers of John’s Gospel were paying attention, they might notice something familiar about this setting.

Because in scripture, wells are often places where life-changing encounters happen.

Abraham’s servant meets Rebekah at a well.

Jacob meets Rachel at a well.

Moses meets Zipporah at a well.

So, when Jesus meets a woman at a well, readers might begin to wonder what kind of encounter this will be.

Something important is about to happen.

Sitting on the Stone

If we imagine an ancient well in the Middle East, it likely had a large stone slab covering its opening.

Jesus sits on that stone.

It seems like a small detail. But in John’s Gospel, details often carry meaning.

In Jewish tradition, the temple in Jerusalem was imagined as resting on a stone that sealed the deep waters of creation—the waters God hovered over in the beginning.

That stone marked the place where heaven and earth met.

A place where life flowed from God into the world.

Later prophets imagined water flowing from the temple itself—streams bringing life wherever they went.

So when John shows us Jesus sitting on the stone covering Jacob’s well, something symbolic begins to emerge.

Jesus is becoming a new meeting place between God and the world.

And from him will flow living water.

An Awkward Conversation

At first, the conversation between Jesus and the woman is awkward.

She isn’t sure what to make of him.

Jews and Samaritans did not share things easily. History, politics, and religion had built walls between them.

But Jesus shifts the conversation.

He begins talking about living water.

Water that doesn’t just quench thirst for a moment, but becomes a spring of life within a person.

Almost like hearing the sound of water moving somewhere beneath the surface.

The woman wonders what he means.

Can he really provide water that never runs out?

And Jesus says yes.

The water he gives leads to eternal life.

Because whether we realize it or not,

we are all thirsty.

Symbols Beneath the Surface

The conversation between Jesus and the woman moves through symbols—water, thirst, relationships, and worship.

It’s important to say something clearly here.

Jesus is not passing moral judgment on the woman for her relationships. In the culture she lived in, marriage was often the only way for a woman to survive economically and socially.

Her relationships tell us more about the realities of her world than about her character.

Some interpreters understand her six relationships as symbols of incomplete worship. In the Gospel of John, the number six sometimes represents something unfinished—something that has not yet reached fulfillment.

Here, too, something new is happening.

Jesus becomes the one who fulfills what was incomplete.

The one who brings living water.

The one who makes new life possible.

Worship Beyond a Place

So when the woman begins asking about worship—about where true worship should happen—it isn’t really a change of topic.

They have already been speaking the language of worship all along.

She asks whether worship belongs on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem.

Jesus answers in a surprising way.

A time is coming when worship will no longer depend on a particular mountain or temple.

True worship will be in spirit and in truth.

God’s presence will not be confined to one place.

It will be encountered wherever people seek God.

Leaving the Water Jar

Eventually the woman begins to understand who Jesus is.

And when she does, she runs back to her town and tells people,

“Come and see.”

In that moment, the woman who came to the well thirsty becomes the first person in John’s Gospel to carry the good news back to her community.

She doesn’t argue.

She doesn’t try to prove anything.

She simply invites others to encounter Jesus for themselves.

Water in the Wilderness

And that isn’t the first time God’s people have been thirsty.

Long before this conversation at a well in Samaria, another group of people wandered through the wilderness wondering if God had abandoned them.

They were tired.

They were afraid.

They were thirsty.

In Exodus, they complain to Moses.

And yet God brings water from a rock.

Water in a dry wilderness.

The kind of miracle that must have sounded like water moving where no water should be.

Psalm 95 remembers that moment and warns us not to harden our hearts like those who doubted in the wilderness.

But if we’re honest, we understand them.

Life sometimes feels like a wilderness.

And in those moments,

we are still thirsty.

But scripture keeps reminding us of something important:

Where there is thirst, God is already preparing living water.

Faith and Doubt

One of the things I’ve learned about faith is that it often lives right alongside doubt.

Sometimes I imagine faith and doubt sitting at the same table.

Doubt names our fears.

Faith holds onto hope.

And God sits there with us through the whole conversation.

A quiet, loving presence.

And somehow, when the conversation ends, we leave knowing that we are not alone.

Come and See

The woman does not solve every question.

She simply says,

“Come and see.”

Come thirsty.

Come with your questions.

Come with your hopes and doubts.

And if you listen closely, you might hear it—

the quiet sound of living water moving.

[Pause for about 10 seconds]

Even in the wilderness of life, this promise remains:

Where there is thirst, God is already preparing living water.

Amen.

Charge & Blessing

Go into the world remembering this promise: where there is thirst, God is already preparing living water.

Go thirsty for justice, mercy, and love.

And may the living water of Christ refresh your heart and flow through your life, bringing hope to you and to all those you meet along the way. Amen.

Prayer:

Holy God,

We know that where there is thirst, you are already preparing living water. We lift up to you today those who are thirsty for justice, mercy, love, and healing. 

We especially pray for… Pastor Rebecca, Caleb, John, Tom, Sue, Marsha, Nancy, Tracey, Robin, Tamara, Bill, …………………………………and the many others we hold in our hearts. 

As we meditate on scripture and listen for your voice, help us to hear how we might provide comfort and hope to those who need us. May we be like the Samaritan woman, bringing our friends and neighbors living water, the good news of Jesus Christ that the love of God is with us always and everywhere. 

We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the one who taught us to say,

Our Father…. Debts/debtors….