[Jesus] told [the Samaritan woman], “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

—John 4:16-26 (TNIV)

I love this interchange between Jesus and the Samaritan woman because it captures the human condition at its, um, finest. Have you, like the Samaritan woman in today’s passage, ever tried to argue with Jesus or change the subject when he tells you something that makes you uncomfortable or you don’t want to hear? I have. If you have too, I hope it worked for you better than it did for me. 🙂

Hope is necessary for us in these days of exile from heaven. It is our consolation on the journey. When a traveler gets tired of walking along the dusty road, he puts up with fatigue because he hopes to arrive home. Rob him of any hope of arriving and immediately his strength for walking is broken. So too, the hope for heaven which we have now is an important factor easing the pain of our just exile and sometimes harsh journey.

—Augustine, Sermon 158.8

Augustine points us to the need for Christian hope. We live in a broken world and only Christ offers sufficient hope to help us traverse it. If you have not already done so, accept Jesus’ gracious offer and embrace the life and hope that comes with it.

Faith does not waver if it is supported by hope. Take away hope, and faith falters. If you want to go somewhere, will you even begin walking if you have no hope of reaching your destination?

—Augustine, Sermon 359A, 5

He walks as in the presence of God [who has a conversation] with him in frequent prayer and frequent communion; in all his necessities, in all doubtings; that opens all his wants to [God]; that weeps before him for all his sins; that asks remedy and support for his weakness; that fears him as a Judge; reverences him as a Lord; obeys him as a Father; and loves him.

—Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living

Contrast the essential difference of living here with Taylor’s previous observations about Christians who tend to be bean counters. No bean counting here. We see here a holistic pattern of living, of being in the presence of the Living God. Gotta love those Anglican Divines.

It is a very great fault amongst a very great part of Christians, that in their inquiries of religion, even the best of them ordinarily ask but these two questions, “Is it lawful? Is it necessary?” If they find it lawful, they will do it without scruple or restraint; and then they suffer imperfection, or receive the reward of folly: for it may be lawful, and yet not fit to be done.

And as great an error is on the other hand in the other question. He that too strictly inquires of an action whether it be necessary or [not], would do well to ask also whether it be good: whether it be of advantage to the interest of his soul?

If a Christian will do no more than what is necessary, he will quickly be tempted to omit something of that also.

—Jeremy Taylor, Unum Necessarium

I appreciate Taylor’s disdain for bean counting in whatever form it takes when it comes to living a Christian life. If we resort to bean counting, we really have no life at all, let alone abundant life.