The Third Sunday in Lent - March 8, 2026
Chosen
In yesterday’s sermon I began with a very personal story that retold how I had been cancelled in high school. I reminded everyone that I was a good high school football player, playing varsity as a sophomore. I played on the kickoff team, which means running down the field at full speed and hitting people at full speed. Usually, players on the kickoff team do not play on offense and defense, because the likelihood of getting hurt is higher. I was excited to play on the kickoff team. Yet, others on the varsity team were not as excited as I that I was on the team. In fact, I soon became the target of significant verbal bullying, usually in the locker room after practice when the coaches were no longer around.
At this time the Lord was working hard on me and causing my faith to grow. I was beginning to take my faith very seriously. One way I practiced this was not to participate in “parties” or other after school activities that would supposedly involve drinking and potential sexual encounters. I don’t really know how much of what I heard in the locker room actually happened, but I was not interested in any of it. Because I showed no interest, I began to be targeted with comments that I was gay or being called a “faggot.” Of course, this behavior spread beyond the locker room. Rather quickly, I was being socially “cancelled” in the whole school, even though I was doing well in class and on the field. It was a very painful time. At times I wanted to go be with Jesus!
Eventually, I left my high school and enrolled in Denver Lutheran High School, where new friends and special teachers “saved me”—Jesus savig me through them. I’m so grateful for Mrs. Jahnke, Mr. Brandhorst, and Mr. Von Rentzel. Mrs. Janhke included me in the choir, even though singing on pitch is challenging for me. Mr. Brandhorst helped me enjoy the wonder of physics and the thrill of reading important pieces of English literature. Mr. Von Rentzel gave me the lead roll in the spring play A Man Called Peter, a play about the United States Chaplain to the Senate during World War II Peter Marshall. I was no longer cancelled but chosen!
In every way that I was cancelled, the Samaritan woman in the gospel’s reading from John is cancelled and likely even more so. She comes at the heat of day to draw water by herself—when no one else is there. In Jesus’ conversation with her we learn that she has had five husbands and is currently living with a man. She could not have been more of a perfect target for bullying. She was cancelled in every way possible. As a Samaritan she was considered a “half-blood,” her Jewish ancestry mixed with the pagan nations.
Yet, Jesus talks to her. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Capturing the moment of being hot and thirsty, he asks her for a drink. She marvels that he is talking to her because he is a Jew and she a Samaritan. Jesus tells her that if she knew who he is, she would ask for living water from him. She proudly tells Jesus that this is Jacob’s well, the well from which she and her people have drank for centuries. Jesus tells her that whoever drinks of the water he gives will never be thirsty again! She wants this living water!
This whole encounter Jesus deliberately executes, building on the meeting with the powerful Jewish man Nicodemus in John 3. In 3:5, Jesus says, “…unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Thus, the water that Jesus gives, is the Holy Spirit. More precisely, the Holy Spirit comes through the gift of baptism to you and me! Like the woman at the well, you encounter Jesus in his baptizing you, where water and Spirit meet and claim you through Jesus words. Like the woman, Jesus speaks to you, begetting you as his beloved child! In this way, he chooses you. You are not canceled but chosen.