{"id":3875,"date":"2020-03-02T13:55:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T18:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/?p=3875"},"modified":"2020-03-02T14:00:34","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T19:00:34","slug":"hip-checking-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/?p=3875","title":{"rendered":"Hip-Checking Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Lindsay Hardin Freeman<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t expect it to happen at \u201cGentle Yoga,\u201d of all places. But the other day, as I was standing in line at the YMCA waiting for another class to end, a stocky white-haired woman in sweatpants walked up to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGet out of the way,\u201d she said. \u201cI always go in first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019d done the same thing before. I\u2019d moved over before. But I was tired of moving over for her and just stood there, looking at her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boom! Using the side of her body, she bulldozed herself against me, throwing me off balance. But thanks to growing up with three older brothers, I instinctively hip-checked her, pushing her back. Her eyes widened. \u201cGet out of the way!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yikes. At that point, the health benefits of Gentle Yoga seemed negligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous class ended, finally. I opened the door and she walked in. Behind me. Next time, I\u2019ll probably use the other door and keep my balance, in more ways than one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, I\u2019m getting tired of cranky old women. I hope I\u2019m not turning into one myself. I obviously am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But just in case, that\u2019s why I particularly like the story that shows up this Lent in our lectionary \u2014 the infamous Samaritan woman by the well. The woman came to the well mid-day to draw water, apparently at a time she wouldn\u2019t have to see perky young women and happily married grandmothers. Jesus is there, alone, while his disciples have gone into town for food. Thirsty and tired, Jesus asks the woman for water, a seemingly simple request. But right from the start, she tosses his words back like fish into water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t go any further before you read the biblical story for yourself. (John 3:1-42)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Samaritan woman \u2014 one of my favorite people in biblical history \u2014 is so irritable that she makes Oscar the Grouch look like Shirley Temple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet she is the one that Jesus chooses to talk to more than anyone else in the Bible. No one is recorded as having talked to him as long as she does. That\u2019s a big deal \u2014 and overlooked for centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus and the woman (wish we knew her name but we don\u2019t) argue, debate, and counter each other, verbally thrusting and parrying along the way. He finally points out that she has been married five times and the man she is currently living with is not her husband. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(What\u2019s with all those marriages? Most likely, she had been handed down from brother to brother, in the ancient Hebrew Levirate system that, in its own idiosyncratic way, protected a woman\u2019s right to bear a child if her husband died. Whether or not there was affection did not count.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No wonder she was irritable. No wonder she went for water in the middle of the day, while other women would be at home in the shade. Through no fault of her own, she would have been a laughing stock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humiliation and fatigue are written all over this poor woman. Yet Jesus seems to enjoy talking with her, probably because she\u2019s not asking him for anything. She doesn\u2019t ask him for healing. She doesn\u2019t want food. She doesn\u2019t pander to him. Like a worthy debate champion, she lofts questions at him, using wry humor and sarcasm as her main tool. And she\u2019s smart. She knows her history, her faith, her own mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots going on here \u2014 and surprisingly, many commonalities between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, including: They shared the same bloodlines. They knew their sacred history. They were both people of story, people of God, people of the world. They were both cast-outs in their own cultures. Jesus had just come from difficult times with the Pharisees, that branch of Judaism that tended to keep track of details. Of late, they had been keeping numbers on who was baptizing more people \u2014 John the Baptist or Jesus. Tiresome for Jesus. Irritating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at that well these two found each other. Somehow Jesus broke through her defenses, fully responding to her cryptic and rather skeptical nature. And it\u2019s pretty clear that Jesus enjoyed her company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 love for her brings her best qualities forward: the woman\u2019s intellect, her debate skills, her humor. Jesus knew she was worthy \u2014 worthy of the abundant life which God had promised. And perhaps because she was valued for who she was \u2014 bright, well spoken, humorous and smart \u2014 she came to life. Racing back from the well, she urged her fellow townspeople to go and see \u201cthat man by the well who told me everything\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Samaritan woman was an evangelist, one of the first. She was bright and outspoken; she was a woman of humor. Most of all, Jesus considered her worthy \u2014 worthy of the abundant life which God had promised. Whether she knew it or not, she had indeed herself been dunked in God\u2019s well of living water and transformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for me, the bottom line is still this: Jesus talked to her \u2014 a skeptical, cynical, and sarcastic woman \u2014 longer than anyone else in the Bible. That gives us all hope for the future. Can\u2019t get much better than that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rev. Lindsay Hardin Freeman is the author of <\/em>Bible Women: All the Words of the Bible and Why They Matter, <\/em>The Scarlet Cord: Conversations with God\u2019s Chosen Women, and several other books for children and adults. She currently serves as adjunct clergy at St. David\u2019s Episcopal Church, Minnetonka, Minnesota.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t expect it to happen at \u201cGentle Yoga,\u201d of all places. But the other day, as I was standing in line at the YMCA waiting for another class to end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1,9],"tags":[133,125,97,61,53],"class_list":["post-3875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ministry","category-uncategorized","category-your-ag","tag-bible","tag-communication","tag-community-2","tag-lent","tag-ministry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3881,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions\/3881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}