Samaritan Woman, a skit

Samaritan Woman!

(SAMARITAN WOMAN, holding a jar is seated ENTER JESUS who sits next to SAMARITAN WOMAN)

NARRATOR:

          So Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 

          Jesus was resting on the wrong side of the tracks, the bad part of town, a gay couple accidently attending a service at Westboro Baptist, a Jew in Samaria... have you ever felt out of place—that’s this moment!

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

          A small detail, but not that small. For John the Gospel writer, night indicates unbelief, day belief.

          A small detail, but not that small. Women go to the well when it is cool out, not at noon—unless you are an ostracized, unwelcome, out of place, woman.

          A small detail, but not that small. We’re going to see a story of belief! We’re going to see a story about an outsider.

JESUS:
          Give me a drink.

SAMARITAN WOMAN:

(To Congregation)

          What’s he on about?

          I’m a Samaritan, he’s a Jew.

          I’m a woman, he’s a man.

          The wrong gender.

          The wrong religion.

          For this…

          How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?

JESUS:

          If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

(To Congregation)

          Have you heard of living water?

          The Rabbis recommend it for ritual baths.

          The Early Church will recommend it for baptism.

          Fresh and clean.

          Bubbling, clear, living!

          From God’s good earth—a sign of God’s goodness.

SAMARITAN WOMAN:

          Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?"

JESUS:

          Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.

(To Congregation)

          Think of it!

          To be filled with a life flowing!

          Flowing from God’s good earth

          You, a sign of God’s goodness!

          A living, clear, bubbling life

          Fresh and clean.

          

SAMARITAN WOMAN:

(To Congregation)

          What’s he offering me?

          You know…

          I’d take one less backbreaking job

          Out here in the heat

          Fetching water at noon

          Is not a sign of God’s goodness,

          But society’s stubbornness.

          I’d settle for slaked thirst and less monotony

          But, I think he’s offering me more.

          Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.

JESUS:

          Go, call your husband, and come back.

SAMARITAN WOMAN:

(To Congregation)

          He didn’t just go there!

(To Jesus)

          I have no husband.

JESUS:

          You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!

SAMARITAN WOMAN:

(To Congregation)

          Five husbands.

          Everyone jumps to adultery

          I guess that’s what people do when there is a woman involved…

          But that’s not it

          It’s abandonment

          Barrenness

          Left

          Again

          And again

          And again

          And again

          Left to fend for myself

          To carry my own water

          Left in the noon sun

          Left to grow hard

          Abandoned.

          But he knows, and… wants to know… what kind of man is this?

(To Jesus)

          Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.

JESUS:
(To Congregation)

          Peter won’t even top this!

          Nicodemus was blind,

          But this woman, she sees.

          Sees me in the harsh noon light

          We’re both exposed here

          Exposed for who we are

          I named her and she named me.

          We see each other here at Jacob’s well.

(To The Woman)

          Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

SAMARITAN WOMAN:

You’re a prophet, but not of my religion… so… brass tacks.

The place between you and me.

The space between Mount Gerezim where I worship and Jerusalem—Mount Zion, where you worship…

What of it?

It’s nice to say it isn’t about place, but by what authority do you say it?

          I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.

JESUS:

          I am he, the one who is speaking to you.

NARRATOR:

(To Congregation)

He doesn’t say I am he…

English communicates this poorly

He says “I am”

I AM

When Moses spake with the burning bush

The bush said “I AM”

I am. With a period after it.

No genealogy, but Genesis instead

The origin

The formation of it all

It all flows out from this

He says I AM…

          Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?"

(Exit JESUS and SAMARITAN WOMAN—leaving her jar behind)

(Re-enter SAMARITAN WOMAN)

SAMARITAN WOMAN (to congregation):

          Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?
My question mark is a shepherds’ crook

One leading us

Like Moses with a staff

Miriam’s song at the river

I’ve found the One Who Fills the Water Jar

Fills is forever!

I’ve seen one who sees me

He knew me and saw me!

In the noon sun

I saw him!

Come and see!

NARRATOR:

          They left the city and were on their way to him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something."

JESUS:

          I have food to eat that you do not know about.

NARRATOR:

          So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?"

JESUS:

          My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.

(To Congregation)

          Sometimes my disciples don’t see…

          Even in the noon sun

          They don’t see!

 Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.

(To Congregation)

          She sowed

          She sowed with her words

          Sowed in the noon sun

          Sowed because she saw me

          My disciples did not labor

          But they will reap

          Because SHE sowed

          Here in the noon sun.

NARRATOR:

          Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, for she said:

SAMARITAN WOMAN:

          He told me everything I have ever done.

NARRATOR:

          So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

          They came to see

          In the noon sun

          Bright with belief

          These Samaritans

          Stayed with the Savior

          Seeing him

          Because she sowed

          And said

          And suggested

          And saw her Savior!

Amen.