Let’s Meet at the Well

July 3, 2011

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67, Psalm 45:10-17, Song of Solomon 2:8-13,

Romans 7:15-25a, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Introduction

The center of Biblical communities was the well.  This is a place to go to get the life giving water, as well as connect with friends.  It also seems to be a place to go when you are looking for someone, like a bride.  We use the well as a metaphor for wisdom, as well.  Someday, we might just explore the depth of meaning of wells.  Today, we will see that it is the precursor to an important marriage.

Our OT passage speaks of a marriage today for Isaac who is now almost forty.  His mother has died.  His father is failing.  Abraham sends a servant to his former country to find a wife.  When you consider the qualities of a good person to marry, what qualities do you consider to be important?  If you were Eliezer, what would you be looking for?

These are most likely very familiar scriptures this morning, except perhaps for the Song of Solomon.  I’m sure it was picked because of the Old Testament reading being about the marriage between Isaac and Rebekah.  The Song of Solomon is a book of love poems, celebrating the gift of love between a man and a woman.  There are some that we can see as pertaining to our love for God or for God’s son, Jesus, but many seem to be very much about human love.

The Greeks and the Gnostics who embraced Greek philosophy, understood humans to be made of body and soul.  They considered the body base and the soul good.  The Hebrew understanding is that the physical world, created by God, is good. There has been a tendency for us to sometimes talk about body and soul as if they can be separated.  However, the Biblical understanding is that we do not have souls, we are souls, embodied souls, and that is a good thing.  If you have never read the Song of Solomon, you might want to spend a little time this week reading it.

Men and women are given to each other to comfort and support each other.  Rebekah comforted Isaac and he loved her.  Curiously, the Bible never tells us that he loved God.

Message of the OT Passage

I have been looking at these passages lately with a different kind of eye – wondering about Isaac and his reactions to things.  The Biblical writer doesn’t seem to think that was important.  What was important was that he fulfilled his role in history.  He went up the mountain and was almost sacrificed.  He stayed with his family and mourned his mother.  He married the woman who was chosen for him.  He loved her and was comforted by her.  He is necessary to the story – but Isaac is not the center of this tale.

God called Abraham to go to a new land and to live among people who did not know or worship God.  God planned to form a new people from Abraham and his descendants.  We are part of those people.  Abraham is our spiritual ancestor.

When it is time for Isaac to marry, when he is almost forty, the Bible tells us that Abraham did not want Isaac to marry one of the local girls but wanted instead a wife for him who would worship our God.  It was important to God and to Abraham that the family live in this new land.  So, instead of risking that Isaac would find the former country too attractive, Abraham sends a servant back to find a wife for Isaac.

And, what qualities did Eliezer look for in this wife to carry on God’s people?  Kindness, generosity, and hospitality.  Not only did Rebekah respond with kindness to the servant, but she also thought of the animals.  She watered the camels who can drink many gallons of water each.  This is the type of person that Abraham would want in his family, one who cared about other people and would make sure that everyone was cared for, including the animals.

This theme of generosity and hospitality is recurrent throughout the Bible.  It is not only the quality that we should look for in prospective mates for ourselves and our family members, it is also a quality that we need to nurture in ourselves.

Perhaps you are good at hospitality.  Perhaps, like me, you are trying to learn to be welcoming and gracious.  When I went to the Presbytery meeting in Kerrville a few weeks ago, a couple from the First Presbyterian Church of Kerrville opened their house to me and one of the elders from FPC McAllen who drove with me.  These wonderful Presbyterians, like many at their church, opened their homes to travelers, in the Biblical style, saving us the expense of housing and of meals.  They fed us.

In Biblical times, the place to meet people was at the well.  There we find Rebekah, years later, we find her daughter-in-law, Rachael.  Jesus meets the Samaritan woman there and sends her out to evangelize her village.  Our Presbyterian friends met us at a metaphorical well and offered hospitality.

The Gospel

Turning to our Gospel today, Jesus is offering us hospitality.  When we are weary, he says to come to him.  There is work to do, but the yoke he has made for us will fit well and make the work easy.  We will find rest for our souls.

Today, as we come to the table, he is inviting you.  Bring him your doubts and your worries.  As we serve the elements in the pews, we invite you to pray, offering up your life to him.

Conclusion

What we have learned from these scriptures about God is that there was a plan for Abraham and his descendants as a people.  That plan includes us because we have been adopted into this family of faith by Jesus.  And, we see that in this plan, each person has a place.  Some, like Isaac take quiet places, and even with some trauma in their lives, can find comfort in the company of others.  About us as humans, we learn that generosity and kindness are valued in this family in which we live.

How I understand the teaching of Jesus to intersect this OT scripture is that he is telling us that God has seen that there are people who will not be satisfied with anyone God sends.  And those of us who are trying to live out our calls faithfully will get tired.  He invites us, when we are tired of living on our own strength to come to him.  Let him help.  He will give us a yoke that will make our tasks easier.  He will give us rest for our souls.  I also see this as hospitality.

God is calling us to live lives of faith.

What is our response?  I pray that we respond with kindness and generosity, as Rebekah did at the well about four thousand years ago.

Let us Pray

 

First Reading Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

³⁴So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. ³⁵The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become wealthy; he has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys. ³⁶And Sarah my master’s wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and he has given him all that he has. ³⁷My master made me swear, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live; ³⁸but you shall go to my father’s house, to my kindred, and get a wife for my son.’

⁴²“I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O LORD, the God of my master Abraham, if now you will only make successful the way I am going! ⁴³I am standing here by the spring of water; let the young woman who comes out to draw, to whom I shall say, “Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,” ⁴⁴and who will say to me, “Drink, and I will draw for your camels also” — let her be the woman whom the LORD has appointed for my master’s son.’

⁴⁵“Before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her water jar on her shoulder; and she went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ ⁴⁶She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels. ⁴⁷Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her arms. ⁴⁸Then I bowed my head and worshiped the LORD, and blessed the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to obtain the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. ⁴⁹Now then, if you will deal loyally and truly with my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn either to the right hand or to the left.”

⁵⁸And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.” ⁵⁹So they sent away their sister Rebekah and her nurse along with Abraham’s servant and his men. ⁶⁰And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

“May you, our sister, become

thousands of myriads;

may your offspring gain possession

of the gates of their foes.”

⁶¹Then Rebekah and her maids rose up, mounted the camels, and followed the man; thus the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.

⁶²Now Isaac had come from Beer-lahai-roi, and was settled in the Negeb. ⁶³Isaac went out in the evening to walk in the field; and looking up, he saw camels coming. ⁶⁴And Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she slipped quickly from the camel, ⁶⁵and said to the servant, “Who is the man over there, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. ⁶⁶And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. ⁶⁷Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

 

Psalm Psalm 45:10-17

¹⁰ Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear;

forget your people and your father’s house,

¹¹ and the king will desire your beauty.

Since he is your lord, bow to him;

¹² the people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts,

the richest of the people ¹³with all kinds of wealth.

The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes;

¹⁴ in many-colored robes she is led to the king;

behind her the virgins, her companions, follow.

¹⁵ With joy and gladness they are led along

as they enter the palace of the king.

¹⁶ In the place of ancestors you, O king, shall have sons;

you will make them princes in all the earth.

¹⁷ I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations;

therefore the peoples will praise you forever and ever.

 

Alternate Song of Solomon 2:8-13

⁸ The voice of my beloved!

Look, he comes,

leaping upon the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

⁹ My beloved is like a gazelle

or a young stag.

Look, there he stands

behind our wall,

gazing in at the windows,

looking through the lattice.

¹⁰ My beloved speaks and says to me:

“Arise, my love, my fair one,

and come away;

¹¹ for now the winter is past,

the rain is over and gone.

¹² The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of singing has come,

and the voice of the turtledove

is heard in our land.

¹³ The fig tree puts forth its figs,

and the vines are in blossom;

they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my fair one,

and come away.”

Second Reading Romans 7:15-25a

¹⁵I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. ²²For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, ²³but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

 

Gospel Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

¹⁶“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

¹⁷ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

we wailed, and you did not mourn.’

¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; ¹⁹the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

²⁵At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”