Origin: Carey Baptist College Opening Devotions. September, 2003
Based on service ‘When Your Past Overtakes You’ (see this section)
Theme:
To use the story of the Woman at the Well and an artists impression of that encounter to reflect on what an encounter with Jesus might mean for us today.
Mood:
Reflective
Setup:
2 screens, OHP and slide. Water bowl, pouring cup, cups/glasses (1 each) on table covered in fabric. (Room to gather around table)
Gear:
slide projector, OHP, Water bowl, pouring cup, cups/glasses (1 each), table, fabric, slide, OHT of lyrics. Handout? -lyrics, image credit, biblical text.
CDs-Everything Is Wrong, Fallen.
Running Order: time 20 minutes maximum.
Prelude: Track: Track #1, 12, Moby, ex Everything Is Wrong. Or similar ambient uptempo.
Handouts: John 4 text, song lyrics, art title.
- Light candle to signify start of worship.
- Read biblical text John4/ (2 readers)
- Image: project Lavinia Fontana image, Christ and the Woman of Samaria, 1607.
Rant: As you look at the image you might like to think about what the artist has chosen to paint…
What is included? Excluded?
What moment in the story has the painting frozen,
why did the artist choose this moment?
What does the artist want the viewer to know about this incident?
(1-2 minutes reflection)
Introduce Image: Figures are in the foreground, almost obscuring the well.
Jesus looks weary, unenthusiastic.
Woman is bursting out of the painting. Concentrating.
Her gaudy coloured clothes and loose hair suggest her scandalous past.
Sensual, almost sexy image.
(Allow 1-2 minutes for reflection)
This is a remarkable story. Who is this woman?
The woman that medieval writers gave the name Photina. I wonder what Photina looked like?
How old she was? What she was wearing this afternoon? How was her hair done?
Was she wearing any makeup? What she had been doing earlier that morning, the night before?
According to the cultural and religious rules of his day Jesus shouldn’t have been talking to this woman.
First of all a good Jew wouldn’t talk in public to a woman he didn’t know, and a woman alone at that…
Then he shouldn’t have been talking to a Samaritan.
They were despised by the Jews as being inferior and not very nice (To put it mildly).
Then he asked her if he could drink from her water container. A real no no. He was asking to use utensils and bowls that weren’t ritually clean. That was against his religion. It showed he either didn’t understand what being Jewish was all about, or he was deliberately flouting the deeply ingrained ways of doing things.
And all this from a supposed religious leader . A teacher. A Rabbi.
This is no ordinary encounter.
No wonder the disciples were surprised when they saw what was going on.
4. Link: Perhaps if the woman had been at the well in our time she would have used these words to describe how she felt…(TRACK…)
5. Track: ‘Bring Me To Life’, by Evanescence ex Fallen, track 2 (CD or laptop)
- Ritual: water drinking.
Link: I wonder how I would feel if I met Jesus in the midst of my day? What would I say…What would he have to say to me…
I invite you to come forward and take a cup of water and drink it as a symbol of the water of life, of your wanting God to wake you up inside, to bring you to life so you can better become what God wants you to be. As you drink, reflect on a part of your life you want Jesus to refresh, to ‘wake up’.
(Track continues quietly behind)
- Blow out candle to signify end of worship.