Thanks for the well wishes. I'm sure it will be a great day.

Yesterday at Brueggers we discussed the story of the woman Jesus met
at the well in Samaria. The Samaritan sect and the "true" Jews did
not take kindly to one another, but that is a whole other discourse.
There were disputes about many things, including the location and
manner in which God was to be worshiped. How familiar this sounds!

One point about the story that I find important is that Jesus asks the
woman to get her husband, and she answers that she has no husband.
Then Jesus tells her she has spoken well, as she has had 5 husbands,
and the man she lives with now is not her husband.

Throughout Jewish scripture Israel is called the "bride of God" and
the relationship is not one of consistent faithfulness.

The woman in this story can be symbolic of either the Samaritan
people, or of all the Semitic people collectively. The "five
husbands" refers to the five covenants that God had made with Israel:

1) The Adamic Covenant - The garden would be theirs so long as they
did not eat from the tree of knowledge.

2) The Noahic Covenant - God will never destroy all life as he had done.

3) The Abramic Covenant - The descendants of Abraham will be as
countless as the stars of the sky.

4) The Mosaic Covenant - So long as Israel keeps God's commandments,
he will bless them.

5) The Davidic Covenant - If Israel remains faithful to God, he will
always keep a descendant of David on the throne.

It has been said that all but the Noahic Covenant was conditional on
man's behavior, but the argument can be made that even the covenant
with Noah was based on Noah's faithfulness in worship through
sacrifice. However, that covenant did have a caveat, that God would
not destroy all life :in the manner in which he had done" by the
flood. Other options of destruction remain open.

As we know from the stories surrounding these covenants and the
accounts of Israel in the Jewish scriptures, none of these covenants
has been kept.

The writer of this story may have been attempting to show that Samaria
was unfaithful, or that all Semitic people were, but the conclusion is
the same - a time will come when it doesn't matter where you are or
who you are, all will be accepted before God. Therefore, our ethnic
prejudices are invalid.

Practically speaking, this message demonstrates that no matter how
righteous we believe we are, and how much we rely on our righteousness
to justify our bigotry, these beliefs are unacceptable. We should see
all people effectively the same. Of course, the behavior of
individuals may cause us to desire not to associate with them, but to
jump to conclusions based on physical attributes is wrong.

This group was created to promote informal, personal fellowship and
the practical application of Christian principles. As such, we hope
to see more of you at our upcoming meetings. if your schedule or
location does not allow this, consider having informal meetings of
your own. They need not be on Sunday morning. You can use the notes
I post here on Monday to start your discussion, or come up with your
own topics. Either way, we would love to hear from you.

Jack