Missionary Renegade: The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States for Saturday, 16 April 2016

Saturday, April 16, 2016

The Daily Guide. grow. pray. study. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States for Saturday, 16 April 2016 - "One second chance became many"

Daily Scripture: John 4:31 Meanwhile, the talmidim were urging Yeshua, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he answered, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” 33 At this, the talmidim asked one another, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 Yeshua said to them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants and to bring his work to completion. 35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘Four more months and then the harvest’? Well, what I say to you is: open your eyes and look at the fields! They’re already ripe for harvest! 36 The one who reaps receives his wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the reaper and the sower may be glad together — 37 for in this matter, the proverb, ‘One sows and another reaps,’ holds true. 38 I sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for. Others have done the hard labor, and you have benefited from their work.”

39 Many people from that town in Shomron put their trust in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all the things I did.” 40 So when these people from Shomron came to him, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed two days, 41 and many more came to trust because of what he said. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer trust because of what you said, because we have heard for ourselves. We know indeed that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Reflection Questions:
Jesus told his disciples that doing God's will, reaping a harvest of willing followers, nourished him more deeply than any physical food could. The Samaritan woman who’d found a second chance in Jesus became the first “preacher” in the Gospel of John. The Samaritans invited Jesus to stay in Sychar. He did, for two days, and many of the Samaritans there became the immediate fulfillment of his words that “the fields are already ripe for the harvest.” They, too, found in Jesus a second chance for a meaningful, grace-filled life.

Scholar N. T. Wright asked, “When were you last so excited about something that you didn’t need to eat?” In an hour or less, the woman went from a social outcast trapped in a messed-up life to being “the first evangelist to the Samaritan people.” And Jesus had seen, firsthand, that “here, outside the boundaries of the chosen people, away from Jerusalem itself, there was a spiritual hunger which…was ready to hear what he had to say.”1 What excites and “feeds” you most about the ways in which you are able to serve God? What would you like to get involved in that would deepen that joy and excitement? How can you begin to plan to make that happen?

Today’s Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you said that people who hunger and thirst for righteousness are the ones to whom your kingdom belongs. Grow that appetite in me—and then feed and sustain me as I join in your mission in this world. Amen.
Family Activity:
Gather some white board or washable markers and invite your family to meet in front of a large mirror. Give everyone a marker and ask them to write or draw a picture on the mirror of something they have done that they are sorry for. Remind them that God gives us second chances. If we say we are sorry, God will wipe away our sins. As you remind them of God’s forgiveness, use a damp paper towel to “wash away” their words or pictures from the mirror. Have them look at themselves as you explain that God sees them just as they are without seeing what they have done wrong. End by praying, “Thank you God for second chances. We love you! Amen.”
1 N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, part 1. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004, p. 50.)Insights from Dan Entwistle

Dan Entwistle serves as Resurrection’s Managing Executive Director.
The Samaritan woman
She came, at noon, on a routine trip to draw water from Jacob’s well. She came thirsty, carrying a jar to fetch enough water for the day–outcast, lonely, shamed, discarded. But in a flash, her life had turned over so completely that she found herself racing back to town. John points out that she left so quickly that she left her jar behind at the well. She was off, with incredible energy, to broadcast the thrill of her discovery to anyone about this giver of living water. She was alive.
Jesus
The disciples went into town to buy food and brought back a portion to share with Jesus who had not yet eaten. “Rabbi, eat something.” But after his conversation with the Samaritan woman, he was no longer hungry. His food was “to do the will of (God) who sent him and to finish his work.” He felt the contentment of sharing life and living his purpose. He was filled.
The Disciples
The woman had left her jar, overflowing with joy and no longer needing physical water. Likewise, Jesus had been filled to satisfaction, though not with food. The disciples? Well…their story stands in sharp contrast. These would-be world changers took a different approach. They settled down by the well to eat their fast food, bought at a pit stop along a road they hoped would soon take them out of Samaria and away from people like that woman. Don’t miss this– the woman they neglected to receive had, in the blink of an eye, surpassed them in vibrancy, mission and ministry. And they were sleepwalking. Though the least likely, she was the one changing lives, spreading hope, and having her life turned from quiet desperation to one overflowing with life. They settled for lunch.
The woman was alive.
Jesus was filled.
The disciples settled for lunch.
“I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!” (John 4:35, The Message)
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you said that people who hunger and thirst for righteousness are the ones to whom your kingdom belongs. Grow that appetite in me—and then feed and sustain me as I join in your mission in this world. Amen.