Women Talking
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.” (John 4:5-42)
Tonight, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences celebrates the art of storytelling through film. The Oscars, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will be handed out live on ABC. Check your local listings.
One of the films nominated is Women Talking. Adapted from the book by Miriam Toews, the film was written and directed by Sarah Polley. Women Talking presents the conversation of eight Mennonite women conducting a secret meeting. Each of them, and more than a hundred other girls in their colony, have been repeatedly violated in the night.
Autje, who is narrating the film, telling the story to her unborn child, shares, “The attacks were originally attributed to ghosts and demons. When the women woke up feeling drowsy and in pain, their bodies bruised and bleeding, many believed they were being made to suffer as punishment for their sins. Many accused the women of lying for attention or of covering up adultery.” But the truth was revealed soon enough.
After several of the men of the colony are arrested for rape, the women discover that they were drugged and attacked by men from their own community. While the men of the colony are off in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists and bring them home, the women have little time to make a choice: Should they stay in the only world they've ever known, or should they dare to escape?
The women have powerful deliberations. Together, they consider many theological realities that we still seek answers to, such as the nature of sin and forgiveness, the position and powerlessness of women, the vulnerability of children, particularly young girls, the use and abuse of men who colluded together to pull off the horrific events in the colony. Ultimately, the women’s biggest concern is what will happen to their souls and to their relationship with God if they leave the colony.
Janz shares, “It is part of our faith to forgive. We have always forgiven those who have wronged us. Why not now?”
Salome responds, “Because now we know better.”
Janz asks Salome, “Better than God? You know better than God?”
Anna, an elder, replies, “Our Lord requires us to forgive, Salome. Or do you believe yourself mightier than he?”
Janz concludes, “We will be excommunicated, forced to leave the colony in disgrace if we don’t forgive the men. And if we are excommunicated, we will forfeit our place in heaven.”
Through the women’s conversations, they pray to discern what they are supposed to do. Should they stay, or should they go? Conversations are important. Conversations change us. Conversations connect us. They help us listen and gather our thoughts and help us focus. Conversations can transform us. Conversations can hurt us. Conversations can heal us. With all conversations, if I am to hear, I must be able to listen.
This morning in our Gospel from John, we eavesdrop on a conversation between Jesus and a woman at a well. It is 12 noon. The hottest part of the day. The sun, directly above. Shadows, short, with rough edges. The dust and humidity of the afternoon, are moving in, bringing with it, fatigue and exhaustion. Many of the day’s conversations are over. Work is wrapping up, and others are already resting, looking ahead toward the work of tomorrow.
Jesus, tired, hungry, and thirsty, finds a well. No one is around. His disciples have gone off into the neighboring town, looking for food. Jesus has this moment in time to regroup, rethink, recharge, to reconnect.
The well has overheard the conversations of many generations. It sits on a piece of land believed to have been given by Jacob to his son Joseph. It could be the very well that Joseph’s brothers tossed him into when they tried to kill him, shutting down his annoying dreams forever.
A woman approaches. She is there to draw water. She is a Samaritan woman. She is that woman everyone talks about. The subject of gossip, rumors, cruel jokes, and judgments. She has overheard many a conversation where people laugh about her life choices.
We all experience the challenge of finding love, happiness, acceptance, peace of mind, and healing of broken hearts. Many of us carry so many burdens, the shame, the hurt, the doubt, caused by living with the truth of everything we have ever done.
When the woman arrives to draw water, Jesus is there. "Give me a drink," Jesus asks of her. The woman looks at him. “How are you going to drink from this well,” she asks. She is laughing to herself. Perhaps Jesus is amused too. The well is deep. Jesus has no cup. He is looking at her, he is looking at us, to help him with his thirst. What do you think Jesus is thirsty for?
Nobody has wanted to drink with her before. Jesus tells the woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Agata, in the film Women Talking, shares, “Our reality is an old one. And we are talking about creating a new reality.” Ona, dreaming of the possibilities, adds, “Men and women will make all decisions for the colony collectively. Women will be allowed to think. Girls will be taught to read and write. The schoolhouse must display a map of the world so that we can begin to understand our place in it. A new religion, taken from the old but focused on love, will be created by the women of the colony. Mariche interrupts Ona, saying, “You are a dreamer.” Ona responds calmly, “We are women without a voice. We have nothing to return to. Even the animals of the colony are safer in their homes than we women are. All we have are our dreams. So of course we are dreamers.”
As the noonday sun, beats down on the well, the disciples return, carrying food to go from the neighboring town. They stand back, shocked, discovering Jesus is speaking with that woman. The village is small, and everybody knows about everybody’s business - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Things known. Things hidden. Who does this woman at the well think she is? She is a Samaritan. She is a woman. Evidently, an outcast. Possessing character of question. Unworthy of attention. Dismissed as a person. But Jesus crosses societal boundaries to speak to her. What societal norms has Jesus crossed to talk to you, to speak to me? What boundaries will you cross to speak to someone alone at the well, lonely in the world, cut off from the conversation? What do they need to hear? What do you need to hear?
The disciples wait. They look. They listen. Jesus listens. The woman talks. Jesus talks. The woman listens. The disciples wait. The disciples listen. They listen to both Jesus and the woman. One has to wonder if the conversation between the woman at the well and Jesus was actually for the benefit of the disciples. To challenge and change them. To challenge and change us.
At the well, Jesus doesn’t see us as people stuck in a sinful state, as broken, as fallen, but as meaning-making seekers. I have a story. And so do you. I want my story to make sense and have meaning. Perhaps you do too. Our stories are holy and sacred. Our lives are something that should not be part of a chuckle or the fodder for the roll an eye but as something lived and claimed and celebrated and proclaimed.
At the well, Jesus says, “The water that I give is a spring of water, gushing up with eternal life. I am the living water.”
Upon hearing this, the woman leaves her water jar and returns to the city. She yells from the village square, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!”
During the course of her conversation with Jesus, the woman at the well moves from the excluded woman down the street to the middle of town square calling the people together.
In spite of everything you and I have ever done, Jesus sees the possibilities of everything we can ever do. In spite of the whispered conversations that shame us into a dark corner, Jesus invites us to talk to him and come into the light. In spite of the chances and changes of this life that make us feel that we are out of sorts with God, Jesus wants to talk to us, right now. What do I want to say? What do I need to hear?
Jesus is at the well waiting. What conversation do I need to have? What story does Jesus want us to tell?