Who is your 'Woman at the Well'?

I am encouraged to know that there are so many preachers in a variety of congregations and denominations that rely on the Lectionary as their source for direction on what to preach on any given Sunday.  For those unfamiliar, the Lectionary is a series of readings from the Bible for use in Christian worship, taking into account the liturgical year with its pattern of seasons.  As a commonly used guide, one can expect that on a given Sunday, the same text could likely be the focus of teaching in hundreds of different churches.  Pastor friends of mine tell me that this is one way that they are forced to preach on texts that make them feel uncomfortable and that they are held accountable to preach God's word, not just what they feel like teaching about.

Over the past few weeks, I started to see a buzz on my social media channels focussing on the Samaritan woman at the well and saw that the Lectionary contained, for the third Sunday of Lent, the passage in John 4 with the story where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman.  When we dig down into this story, as many churches did, we are confronted with the fact that Jesus met again, with someone who others regularly overlooked, shunned, and especially expected Him to do the same.  He did not take the opportunity to judge her or 'set her straight' as she may have expected; he does not ignore, critique, or pity her, but became vulnerable.... He 'saw' her.  Jesus saw her value, her potential, and her humanity.... and loved her enough to ask her for water.... something so many others would not, especially from the pious religious figures of the day. 

Jesus' actions of hospitality and relationship demonstrated to that woman and all in her village that he came for them and that the Living Water he had to offer was not restricted to a specific class of people who did things right.

One of our local pastors ended his sermon on this passage charging that congregation to think carefully of who they could begin a relationship with... where they could become vulnerable and take a risk to really 'see' someone outside of their own community.  That challenge struck a chord with me (albeit not a comfortable challenge, as challenges go....) It was his prayer, and it is my prayer as well this week: that your/our friends and community will be surprised when they find out who we having been visiting with, talking to, being vulnerable with, and inviting to know the Savior of the world.  In the course of your/our living, learning, and serving, who are you/we engaging in a real relationship?  Who is your/our 'Woman at the well?'  Do we trust God enough to work through us.. to allow ourselves to be vulnerable on His behalf?

Redefining Fair and the Value of a Mistake

(today's ED-you-cate comes courtesy of my colleague Stephen Janssen, principal at London Christian Elementary School) http://lcesprincipal.blogspot.ca/

As we arrive at the end of second term, here are two thoughts about growth and change in our place of learning:

Fairness rarely means sameness. More often, fair means everyone gets what they need, not everyone gets the same thing.

We find ourselves working with this truth often at school. A real sign of growth in perception of others for our students is realizing that everyone’s life, their ability to learn and contribute in different ways, and each person’s gifts and talents are unique to them. Each student is dearly loved, uniquely made, and specifically equipped by God for his purposes with them. Great things happen in a community of learners when that is understood.

Mistakes are the keys to a student’s learning.

In learning as in life, things don’t always go the way we wish they would. Especially the first time.

This is true for our students as well; the greatest potential for them to learn may well be to re-visit the places where they did not find success the first time. A helpful analogy I’ve heard is an airline pilot who first perfects the art of a good landing in a flight simulator environment hundreds of times, then moves to real-life situations under the watch full eye of an experienced pilot, all the while learning from mistakes made. Only when those processes are practiced to high level of skill does s/he attempt a landing solo.

A huge potential barrier to student learning is the negative stigmatism of a mistake, or methods of evaluation and assessment that frequently lead students to be quick to compare to others and their results. Never arriving at the reflective spot of looking at their own learning with an eye toward growth is a lost opportunity.

We pray that our students’ lives are full of learning about all of God’s world, including themselves as learners. SJ