Deacon: Wisdom! Arise! Hear the Holy Gospel!

Priest:    Peace to you all. 

People:  And to your spirit.

Deacon:  A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John (4:5-42)

People:  Glory to You Lord. Glory to You.

Priest:   Listen!

Deacon:

At that time Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat down by the well.

It was about the sixth hour.

When a Samaritan woman came to get water, Jesus said to her, 'Give me something to drink'.

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Judaean. How is it you ask me, a Samaritan, for something to drink?'

Judaeans, of course, do not mix with Samaritans.

Jesus replied to her, 'If only you knew what God is offering you, and who it is that is saying to you "Give me something to drink", then you would have been the one to ask, and He would have been giving you living water.'

She answered, 'You have no bucket sir, and the well is deep. How would you get this living water? Are you a greater man than Jacob, our father, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, with his sons and his cattle?'

Jesus replied, 'Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again. But no one who drinks the water I give, will ever thirst again. The water I will give will become an internal spring of water, flowing out for eternal life.

The woman said, 'Sir, give me some of this water, so I may never be thirsty again, or need to come here again to get water.'

Jesus said to her, 'Go and call your husband, and come back here.'

The woman answered, 'I have no husband'.

Jesus said to her 'You are correct to say "I have no husband". You have had five husbands, but the man you are living with now is not your husband. You told the truth there.'

The woman said, 'Sir, I see you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say Jerusalem is where everyone has to worship.'

Jesus said, 'Believe me woman, the time will come when you will worship the Father, not on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Judaeans.'

'But the time is coming, indeed it is already here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. That is the kind of worshipper the Father seeks.'

'God is spirit. And those who worship, must worship in spirit and truth.'

The woman said to him, 'I know the Messiah, the Christ, is coming. And when he comes he will explain everything.'

Jesus said, 'That is who I am, I, who am speaking to you.'

At this stage his disciples returned. They were surprised to find him speaking with a woman. But none of them asked, 'What do you want with her', or 'What are you talking about with her.'

The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people, 'Come and see the man who told me everything about myself. He could be the Christ.' This brought people out of the town, and they made their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, 'Rabbi, do have something to eat.' But he said, 'I have food to eat you do not know about.' So the disciples said to each other, 'Has someone else brought food for him?'

But Jesus said, 'My food is to do the will of the One who sent me, and to complete His work.'

'Don't you have a saying, "just four months and then the harvest"? Well I tell you, look around you and look at the fields. They are already white, ready for the harvest.'

'Already the reaper is being paid his wages, already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life, so the sower and reaper can celebrate together. '

'For here the proverb holds true, "One sows, another reaps". '

'I sent you to reap a harvest, you have not worked for. Others worked for it. And you are being rewarded for their work.'

Many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of what the woman said about him, 'He told me everything about myself'. So when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them.

Jesus stayed for two days and many more came to believe in Him because of what He told them.

And they said to the woman, 'Now we believe, not because of what you told us, but because we have heard Him ourselves. We know He is indeed the Saviour of the world.'

People: Glory to You Lord. Glory to You.