"I took a course with professor Harvey Cox while I was studying at Harvard for a master's degree in theology. Cox lectured one day about Jesus, nonviolence, and Martin Luther King. While he played a tape of King's speaking, Cox sat down behind the lectern. With his elbow on the desk and his hand on his forehead, he quietly wept, remembering King. The rest of us born after King's death, listened as his disembodied voice echoed through our classroom. When the tape ended, Cox stood up with some effort and leaned on the lectern. "That's all," he said as he stared at the floor. The class was spellbound. In that moment, I realized that my generation would never weep in public for the memory of a great leader or movement." (pg 10)

Just a few chapters beyond this point in the book Beaudoin, speaking of his generation - one which has been titled "Generation -X," says this:

"That is why I boil down the religious quest of Generation X to one question that begins the most intimate level possible and in the midst of profound ambiquity. Our most fundamental question is: 'Will you be there for me?' We ask our selves, bodies, parents, friends, partners, society, religions, leaders, nation, and even God - 'Will you be there for me?" (pg 140).

The question persists throughout our world. Trust has been violated and broken among mankind. We promise things we either aren't capable of delivering or things which we never intended to do in the beginning.

Many years ago I was a student intern at the First Baptist Church of Drexel, North Carolina. I was young and enjoyed life greatly. To serve as Associate Minister there, even in an intern basis presented great responsibilities. After a long hard day I went outside, jumped on my "bike," (A Georgeous Harley!) strapped on my helmet and headed for home. Just about halfway home I remembered that I forgot to lock the door of the church behind me.

As I pulled in the parking lot there was a light blue Ford sitting in the parking lot that was not there when I left. As I got closer to the car I could see that there were no passengers.

Hut oh! Here I am a lowly intern and I left the door unlocked and somebody is in there and they are stealing something or they are gonna kill me! All kinds of irrational thoughts were running through my head and my heart was flying!

As I opened the side door that I had left unlocked I saw a pink kleenex lying on the floor. "Whew" I thought "It's just some little old lady."

I walked on down the hallway when I thought I heard something coming from the sanctuary. Slowly I opened the huge white swinging door and as I made my way around the grand piano I saw a young woman kneeling at the alter with her face in her hands weeping bitterly. I didn't know what to do. Should I go call the Pastor? Should I kneel beside of her? What do I do?

I chose to simply sit quietly on the pew behind her until she either noticed my presence or until she had finished "doing business" with God.

When she finished and turned around I recognized her instantly. I asked her if there was any way I could be of help. "Help?" "Why would YOU want to help ME?"

"Because I Care."

"Why do YOU care about ME? No one else does! No one is ever around to help me!" I was in no way prepared for what was to follow.

"I've had about all of this rotten miserable life I can stand Ray. I had my mind set on ending it all today but something told me I needed to come here and pray. And someone's gonna get in BIG trouble cause the door was unlocked!"

It was only after I spent some time with her that I learned the root of her frustration. To put it plainly she felt like nobody cared about her any more. Her Grandparents who lived with her and her family were getting older which required a lot of her Father. Her youngest sister was just starting into the 1st grade and it seemed that her Mother's time was consumed there. Her friends were moving off to new ventures in college and she just simply felt like she no one left and no where to turn.

The story of the "Woman at the Well" causes you and I to encounter the compassion of Christ given to one who felt like no one cared. A compassion extended to one who had been abandoned by everyone from family to spouse. A gentle nudge from a Man who is ALWAYS there and here - then and now. It is a gentle yet bold proclamation of the Love of God.

In the sanctuary that day I heard: "Help?" "Why would YOU want to help ME?"

"Why do YOU care about ME? No one else does! No body is ever around to help me!"

"I've had about all of this rotten miserable life I can stand Ray. I had my mind set on ending it all today but something told me I needed to come here and pray.

At the well that day Jesus heard: "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?"

Jesus heard the same words that I heard that day only in a different vernacular. "Why are you even bothering to care about me?" "I am a Samaritan woman and you are a JEW! You are just like all the rest. Your compassion is superficial. You just say you care but you really don't. If even if you do now you won't later - especially once you know all there is to know about me. You shouldn't even be talking to me! You could be punished for this!"

Why did Jesus bother? Why would He bother to pay attention to any of us? Because He is like no other. Because He is God incarnate. Because He is the Son of Almighty God.

In John 4:10 through 15 we read:

"Jesus answered her, "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."

The woman said to him, "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 said to her, "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."

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." (NRSV)

Can you hear Jesus that day? Do you really think he was pointing a self-righteous finger of condemning judgment in her face as he said those words? With everything I read and know about Jesus I doubt it. What probably occurred was that Jesus looked deeply into this woman's eyes as if to penetrate the soul and then in a soft spoken quiet voice filled with compassion said: "The water I will give you will become a spring of water leading to eternal life."

This wasn't something reserved for the popular. This wasn't something reserved for the elite. This wasn't something reserved for even the Jew or the nation of Israel. This was and is about a loving God and His salvific purpose which comes to us through His Son Jesus Christ. This is about a loving God who says "I love you! I accept you! I will always be here for you!"

We know from reading the rest of this story that this woman had been forced - probably socially or economically forced into many marriages and the man she was living with was not her husband. We know that because Jesus knew that. Jesus knew that people had failed this woman time and time again. He knew that she had lost all trust in others as well as herself. When he said to her: "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." He was saying some of the sweetest words she had ever heard. "I - CARE - ABOUT - YOU!" She came to Jacob's well feeling no self worth. Feeling like nothing more than a slave - a piece of property. She left that well thinking to herself: "Finally there is someone here for me!"

I have heard our choir sing these words:

Jesus looked beyond this woman's faults that day and saw her needs. Someone once said: "People really don't care how much you know until they know how much you REALLY CARE." What happened that day was a miraculous transformation of human life.

As I sat on the pew and listened to the young lady's story I simply reminded her of the promise of God. That he will NEVER leave us nor FORSAKE us. That it matters not wither man fails us and abandons us - God will NEVER fail us nor abandon us.

At the end of that exchange with Jesus at Jacob's Well, we see a different woman. A woman who wanted to tell the world about a man who knew all there was to know about her. About a man who would never fail them. About a man who would ALWAYS be there for them. But most of all about a Man who CARED - REALLY cared about HER.

Almost three years to the day that I prayed with that young lady in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church Drexel, she became commissioned as a Foreign Missionary to Brazil. A changed woman who had a gentle nudge to remind her that in the midst of her lonliness and in a time when she felt abandoned - He had never for one second left her side.

There is a little book in written by Joni Erickson Tada. I confess to you that I have never read the book. I bought it simply because of it's title. It's called "When God Weeps." Whenever one of my children cry because they have been hurt it is often everything I can do to prevent the tears the well up in my eyes from falling. Whenever they hurt - I hurt. Why? Because I love them so very much - that's why. Because I CARE.

Just as Jesus was there for the Woman at the Well that day - He is here for you and I. Just as He was there for this young lady in Drexel North Carolina He's right here with us to love us. To accept us. To help us through whatever life brings. And He wants us to understand that He loves us. That He CARES about each and everyone of us. To let us know that He looks far beyond our faults and that He sees our needs. That whenever we feel alone or abandoned - He is ALWAYS right beside us never leaving us nor forsaking us.

He is present with us this morning and he is gently nudging each one of us saying: "Come drink of the water that I will give you and you shall have eternal life. . .I will never leave you nor forsake you but I will be here for you even until the end of the World . .Amen.

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