The Woman at the Well
Lent 3; John 4:5-42
She came at noon to skip the village talk.
She’d rather have the heat than veiled disdain.
He stayed at noon and let disciples walk,
and when she came for water sensed her pain.
He broke taboos in asking for a drink.
“How is it, you, a Jew, ask that of me,
Samaritan and woman? Should you shrink
from this uncleanness that you see?”
He said, “I’m thirsty. This is Jacob’s well.
I see in you a heart from custom sore,
a mind with strength to range and power to tell;
so drink of who I am and thirst no more.”
She told them “Come and see,” and many came:
evangelist and woman without name.
Barbara Messner 26/11/2022
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Barb, poet priest 
Beautiful — and how I tell the story, without all the oddness of husbands. Funny John — she the first evangelist, Martha the first to call Jesus Christ. there are things I do not like … but this! Yes.. And so beautifully told.
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Yes, I agree about John. i count it as one of the blessings of my liberal theological education, and paradoxically the ongoing controversy about women in the priesthood in Anglican circles, that the empowering stories about women were brought to my attention, and have sustained me.
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Yes, that is one of the gifts of that time. I was in seminary in the 1970’s with some of the earliest Episcopalian women clergy and a number of Roman Catholic sisters who thought that priesthood was right around the corner. Sad for them. My denomination United Church of Christ (but Congregational in heritage in many places) ordained women a hundred years earlier, though honestly most for the mission field.
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I love the three lines about her broken heart, deep strength, and capacity to be refreshed in Jesus. Thank you.
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That response underlines those lines for me, so that i want to dwell on what they mean to me – to look for the strength that holds the form under the broken bits, and to seek refreshment in Jesus. Thanks.
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