Grimly Optimistic

Samaritan Woman, by Serghei Ghetiu    Lections: The Third Sunday in Lent , AD 2026 A Homily: Lord, we pray for the preacher, for you know his sins are great. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The Samaritan woman at the well is the sort of story one only finds in John’s Gospel. It is upon the one hand clever, flirtatious, straightforward, yet upon the other layered with allusion and weighted with meaning. But in order to get all of that out of the text, we first must speak a bit about Samaria. Once upon a time, there was a family chosen by God in order to bless the world. Abraham was their progenitor. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Israel, and Israel begot 12 sons who in time would grow to Twelve Tribes. But they didn’t get along. Brothers rarely do. And so the Kingdom of Israel, the federation of the Twelve Tribes, split in twain: the Kingdom of Ephraim in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Some...