Harvester of Love, who redeems each open response,
Gather us this Autumn morning to your gracious Presence. Beyond our restlessness and regret, help us to listen for the word arising within us. Strengthen us to meet our own harsh realities without binding others. Widen our humility to offer care in places of contempt. Use us or set us aside to reveal your abundance. Amen.
The longest recorded theological conversation Jesus had was with the woman at the well. (John 4) She engaged Jesus with questions about how to worship. She wanted to be faithful. Jesus answered her by telling her the truth about how she was living. Worship is more than liturgy, worship is how we live, what we do in community. What I love about the woman at the well is that she accepted the truth that Jesus told her. She acknowledged the truth about the life she was living when Jesus confronted her. And she went back to her village, people who had cast her aside for years. She enthusiastically brought them back to meet Jesus. A Word surfaced in her life, and she encountered Love. She forgot about her thirst, leaving her water pot at the well. She was restored in right relationship with God and with her community. She had all she needed. Jesus told her, “if you drink the water that I shall give, you shall never thirst, it shall become in you a spring welling up to eternal life.”
Have you listened for the Word rising up from your depths? Have you acknowledged the truth about who you are? Are you ready to accept those realities without binding others? Does your relationship with God bring you closer to community?
