Here is a link to this week’s focal passage and some of the preceding text to give us some more background –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4%3A3-42&version=NRSV

V.
The other day I asked us to think about what these folk bring to this incident and what might have hindered what could unfold here.

Did you notice –
“The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9)

… and …
“Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” (John 4:20)

What does that suggest could hinder this conversation?

Ethnicity? Nationality? Religion? Worship styles? And even how men and women relate to one another.

VI.
And what of the woman who goes to get water for her household not in the cool of the early morning but at the heat of noonday? What of her past choices dictated how she conducted her life at this time and what of that past might hinder her conversations with Jesus or the townspeople?

VII.
Are there other cultural, ethnic, sexual or religious patterns you see at play here?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}