{"id":2560,"date":"2023-03-12T06:49:49","date_gmt":"2023-03-12T06:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2560"},"modified":"2026-03-07T11:53:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T11:53:21","slug":"third-sunday-of-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2560","title":{"rendered":"Third Sunday in Lent (A)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Sir-said-the-woman.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Sir-said-the-woman-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2561\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Exodus 17:3-7<br>John 4:5-42<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the next three weeks as we journey towards Easter, our biblical imaginations are invited to explore three major baptismal themes: water, light and life. We have made the journey from desert to the mountain top. This week we find ourselves by a well. We enter a different world when we listen to John&#8217;s Gospel. There&#8217;s a play on the themes of light and dark, night and day.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Ch 3 of John&#8217;s Gospel, Nicodemus, the Pharisee, comes to Jesus by night. Literally and figuratively, Nicodemus is afraid of being seen, so he seeks out Jesus under the protection of darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By contrast the Samaritan woman comes to the well at midday. This is the hour of enlightenment and theological insight. It&#8217;s Jesus who takes the initiative here by venturing into Samaritan territory. We are accustomed to hearing that the Samaritan was ostracised and sinful. This isn&#8217;t borne out in the text at all.  The woman&#8217;s robust dialogue with Jesus leads her to enlightenment. By the end of the conversation she recognises in Jesus someone who knows her intimately: &#8216;He told me all I have ever done.&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such is the power of her testimony that &#8216;many of the Samaritans of that town had believed in him on the strength of that woman&#8217;s testimony.&#8217; Through her courage and willingness to engage with Jesus, her life has been changed forever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How is Christ calling you to engage with him this Lent?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exodus 17:3-7John 4:5-42 In the next three weeks as we journey towards Easter, our biblical imaginations are invited to explore three major baptismal themes: water, light and life. We have made the journey from desert to the mountain top. This week we find ourselves by a well. We enter a different world when we listen &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2560\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Third Sunday in Lent (A)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monastic","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2560"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5364,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions\/5364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/turveyabbey.org.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}