The Well Woman - Rilegato

McKenzie, Vashti

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0670884847 ISBN 13: 9780670884841

Casa editrice: Viking, 2002

Riassunto

A first woman bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church offers advice on self-empowerment to Christian women, sharing the biblical story of the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at the well and presenting twelve lessons through which women can overcome adversity and accomplish great things in life. 50,000 first printing.

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L'autore:

Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie is the first female bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her most recent pulpit was at Payne Memorial AME Church in Baltimore. She is also the national chaplain for the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She is the author of Not Without a Struggle and Strength for the Struggle: Leadership Development for Women. She is married to former NBA forward Stan McKenzie; they have three children.

Estratto. © Riproduzione autorizzata. Diritti riservati.:

1
A Woman with One Hope

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Romans 8:25

Who hopes for what he already has?
Romans 8:24

The gospel writer John tells the story of the woman of Samaria in John 4:4-30, 39:
Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

"I have no husband," she replied.

Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming.

When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking to her?"

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."

The Samaritan woman, on a mission to get water from Jacob's well, is down to her last hope. She walks toward the well at the hottest time of the day, avoiding people, heat penetrating the ordinary weave of her robe, her face covered in adherence to her tradition's codes, and her eyes lowered in accordance with her culture's norms. All alone, she steps through swirls of dust as her hands clutch an empty clay pot carrying one hope: the hope that one day things will change. In spite of having five failed relationships, having no one to count on, having few remaining relationship options, male or female, and having one last hope-that one day things will change-she keeps going. She holds on to her one last hope. She takes the journey and continues with her regular, routine responsibilities. She goes to the well, where she encounters Jesus, and on this most ordinary of errands, something extraordinary happens, and her life is transformed.

The story we find in John 4 is about a woman who took a journey to get a drink of water. She went back home without the water she had come for, but received Living Water that changed her heart, mind, and spirit. She left her water pots at the well, returning to town with an opportunity and purpose to preach one sermon: "Come see a man who told me everything about myself."

Several weeks before my due date, I was a woman with one hope. I went into full labor on the highway 150 miles from the hospital where I had planned to have my baby. In those moments of excruciating labor, my one hope was to get home to the hospital I was familiar with, and the medical professionals I knew and trusted with the delivery of this child. Since the baby from our previous pregnancy had died six weeks before the due date, I was praying this pregnancy through especially hard, while tackling the responsibilities of being a minister leading two churches. As I rushed toward the hospital, I was down to my last hope.

We all have a hope, we all have longed-for dreams, ideas, visions, and beliefs that keep faith alive in our hearts (Hebrews 11:1, KJV). The Samaritan woman's story is our story, and our story is the same as the stories of the rainbow women of many different hues who live all over the world. They speak different languages, adhere to different traditions, and are from many nations, clans, tribes, and environments, but all share the same hope: that one day things will change. We each carry our pots of hope to the well searching for enough water to sustain our hopes, and daily, like the Samaritan woman, we shoulder our water-toting responsibilities, making the necessary trips to the well. We all hope for what we do not have-for who hopes for what they already have (Romans 8:24-25)? We hope for solutions to problems that won't go away; cures for the curses of modern life; resolution for our conflicts and reconciliation in relationships that drive us to the edge of sanity. We begin the journey to our wells in hope, even though we are in danger of being victims of hit-and-run accidents. The ongoing challenges of our lives do not abate, even while we are on the journey to the well. We may be hit hard and run over, pushed to the side like roadkill waiting for the appropriate agency to dispose of our bodies.

Like the Samaritan woman who is down to her last hope and has no one to turn to, we too can be moved by our one hope as we carry on with our responsibilities in the midst of trials; get ourselves to the well; and have transformational experiences with the Creator. In this chapter, as our hearts and minds are drawn into the world of this woman from Samaria, we will explore what it means to be down to our last things, our one last hope-in fact, sometimes holding on to the very idea of hope-then getting to the well, experiencing transformation, and, finally, celebrating the woman each of us is becoming, a woman of hope waiting patiently for what we do not have.

WHAT ARE YOUR LAST THINGS?
Have you ever been down to your last things? Have you ever realized your last something was in sight? You may not have planned it that way, but one day you looked up and discovered you were down to your last paycheck, last friend, last dream, last chance, last anything? Have you ever opened your wallet and discovered your last dollar or awakened one morning to open the dresser drawer and find your last pair of panty hose or clean underwear? And what about seeing that last piece of chicken in the refrigerator, or the last slice of pizza or cake? Have you ever been down to your last anything? Like your last gallon of gas in the car, last drop of coffee, last nerve-the same last nerve you have functioned on for at least the last five or ten years? What about the last time you saw his face, or the last time your family was all together? Most people don't want to think about the last song they'll ever sing or the last benediction they'll ever hear. And no one wants to think about the last minute, hour, or day when they'll pray that last prayer, see a last face before their eyes close to open no more, as they take their last breath.

Sometimes we're down to our last ounce of energy, our last surviving coping skill. We've all had bad days: completing an assignment with the flu, feeling disappointed and still getting up every morning to feed the children and get them to school on time, falling down emotionally and getting up the best you can as soon as you can, moving forward because the show must go on. How many times do we rise above our fears, problems, and circumstances to do the tasks assigned to us as women, and to us as people? We learn to work through colds, fever, depression, gossip, flu, divorce, separation, death of loved ones, and physical and emotional upheavals to complete assignments and responsibilities. Meanwhile, the one hope no one asks us about is being carried close to us, like the pot the Samaritan woman carries to Jacob's well. We carry our hopes around with us day in and day out. No one asks about our empty water pots, no one talks to us about our hopes, and frankly no one really cares. Sometimes we almost feel too tired to keep carrying those empty water pots. Sometimes it seems as though however much we do, the only things the people around us care about are: Did we get enough water for today, or did we cook dinner, clean the house, settle the children, type the report, check the e-mail, pay the bills, stop at the grocery store, the cleaners, or the video rental store? Did we make the beds, walk the dog, write the thank you note, clean up the mess, complete the presentation, and return the telephone calls? Did we do what we were supposed to do? Did we take care of business? Did we take care of their needs? Even if you somehow do all that and feel you can organize your life in such a way as to leave no room for the unexpected, still, you may find one day that you of all people are down to your last something.

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Su questa edizione

• Editore: Viking
• Data di pubblicazione: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0670884847
• ISBN 13: 9780670884841
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 224