St. Photini (the woman at the well)
Main lessons: The example and result of Christian ministry.
- We are all called to it
- Not complicated; sacrifice of love and attention
- Leads to repentance and the ability to love
- Not the love of the pre-Christ Photini (worldly love), but the love of Christ
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Reading: towards Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit
The Living Water
- Common theme in Jewish poetry and prophecy (Isaiah)
- Easy to see why (it’s an arid land)!
Three Things the Living Water Does
- Satisfies our thirst (nothing else will)
- But it isn’t like a well (just for us); it must be a fountain – flowing to others so that they can find peace and satisfaction
- Transforms creation.
The Call
Give up the ways of the world; the expensive and time-consuming self-indulgences.
Open your heart and all aspects of your life to Christ so that He can pour His healing water into You. Cannot stop there – the water MUST be shared. You must allow it to flow through you to others.
Let people know what it is that you offer; “you thought you had a friend, but I tell you that it is the love of Christ that flows through me; a love satisfies and guides me to never-ending joy, a love that never stops – and you can have that love to!”
If you do not know the unending joy of that water, or if you have only known it when you were truly thirsty (and then had the joy fade)… I suspect that it is because you have turned off the tap that shares the Living Water with others.
- Photini is called the “First Evangelist”; she received the Living Water and shared it with her town.
- The Disciples became the Apostles; they shared with the world.
- With whom will you share the Living Water? Because we cannot limit it to the satisfaction of our own needs, or even to the needs of the people who already worship here.
- And if we do what the Water demands; then this spiritual desert of the Blackstone will flourish in a way that these walls cannot contain.
