December 11, 2025

SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT: PEACE

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4.7)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

John remembers Jesus teaching, “I AM the way, the truth and the life; there is no other way to gain the Father except by Me.” This is a truth that is very hard for the world to understand. The world does not want to listen to. When we declare in faith, the world cannot help but hear it. Hearing, however, is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fully understanding and engaging what makes for peace. Regardless of how many times we may read the Word of God, listen to podcasts, attend worship, take notes during sermons and seminars and talk to our friends about the latest theological trends, hearing is not listening. Listening is focused and intentional hearing. It is putting all our observation resources into one channel so that we get the greatest possible amount of information to make the best possible decision. Honestly, we can put a cup outside in the front yard near an oscillating sprinkler and it will get enough water in it over time to fill it to fullness. Only when we put that same cup under the faucet can we guarantee to get it full. The other way, of course, is to immerse the cup into a container of water like a bucket pulled up from a well. This happened to the woman at the well in Samaria. Jesus knew she desperately needed to hear the word of peace that surpassed all understanding. She was familiar with the theologues of her time and the pundits of faith for Jew, Samaritan and Gentile. It had become her custom to listen when she came to draw water from the well. It was part of her exile as a woman who had five husbands and now was living with a man in order to have shelter and simple provisions. It was unfulfilling to her. She was looking for the something more that would make sense of her life. She desired the right relationship that would allow her to blossom even in the desert of life. She was restless. She was in chaos. Even in the oasis of multi-culturalism, she was “hungering and thirsting.” She preferred to see herself not as a servant but a business woman. Those who paid her for water were her clients. She convinced herself that she was in control when being in control was the furthest thing from the truth. How many people in the world, mighty ones of God, are living in the same manner with the same hope and the same desire for peace.

How did she come up with this “peace that surpasses all understanding“? She met Jesus in what seemed to her to be an accidental crossroads. She did not know she was looking for Jesus. She obviously, by their conversation, did not even know who Jesus was. She came, as was her practice to avoid the scourge of gossips, in the noonday heat to draw water. It would have been rare for anyone to be there except for a passing stranger. The well was public property. It was free water to anyone who would spend the time and energy to draw it up. In certain seasons of the year, the well would be deep and in others it would be dangerously low requiring more time and more energy. It was necessary regardless because people have to have water to live. What this woman wanted more than anything was to live. She wanted to be alive from the inside out. For whatever reason, her story was littered with attempts for live from the outside in. It was Jesus’ intention to meet her. He had heard her prayers from a great distance as she conducted the literal and figurative affairs of her life. Jesus had that knack of hearing everyone but listening to just one at a time. It was the result of Jesus being at peace with God and being the peace of God. He was the calm in the midst of all the storms of life. Her reticence of drawing near to the well allowed Jesus to invite her to do so. He asked her for a cup of water to drink. She would not have offered a cup of water to a stranger, especially one who was obviously Jewish. Being a woman in that situation was one thing but Jesus being Jewish was another. Yet, in that very moment, Jesus had put aside being a man and being Jewish. In that moment, Jesus revealed Himself to be the Son of God. Jesus knew that the only way for the woman to be at peace was for her to ask Him to serve her. He said, if you will remember the story from the Gospel of John, chapter 4, “If you knew who it was who asked you for water, you would be asking Him instead.” Jesus invited her in to the well of everlasting life. He invited her to be immersed in faith, hope and love. He invited her to allow the peace of God which surpassed everything she had ever known to lead, guide and direct her paths in the ways of righteousness. In that moment, she found what she had been looking for the whole time of her life. She found recognition, acceptance and empowerment from the inside out. It is, isn’t it, how one fills a cup of water? You pour water into the cup. You don’t sprinkle it from the outside and think it will be full by the process of osmosis. Only by pouring liquid into the cup can it be filled and filled to overflowing. Even by immersing the cup into the liquid, it is not full until the emptiness is overwhelmed by the fullness which surrounds it. The question is “what really fills the cup of our lives”? We know, mighty ones of God, that it can only be Immanuel, God with us. Only by connecting to the true source of life out of which all life was made can we truly have the peace of heart, mind, body and soul which fills us up and makes us whole. Who else but Jesus? Where else but Jesus? How else but Jesus? From the babe of Bethlehem to the Christ of the cross, the mission, purpose and blessing of life is clear for each of us if we but ask Him for a drink of everlasting peace.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.