Date: 10-11-24
Preacher: Ps Lam Yuen Foong
Title: God’s love sets a pitiful woman free
God’s love sets a pitiful woman free
Pastor Lam featured the Samaritan Woman (SW) in this morning’s message and the biblical reference was from John 4:1-45. It is another testimony that God’s way is always through a man or a woman
Ps Lam presented the complicated background of the woman with some humour but due respect too. I think it was necessary to highlight the woman’s marital status as it was probably uncommon in those days and maybe even today; the fact that she had 5 husbands! It did not matter how that number came about but suffice to say that God knew. She was aware of her own background and against the backdrop of her own inferior Samarian community then, the inferiority complex she must have felt would have made her feel resigned to her ‘fate’. In other words she would have felt like a low-life scum in an already scummy society.
Ps Lam then went into much detail the circumstances and interactions between the SW and Jesus at the well. It was a one-to-one meeting that was to change the course of the woman’s life but 2 things stood out in this interaction. One, she was aware of her own belief in God and what that meant. Two, she felt the love of the living God through Jesus, as even one as almighty as Him, was willing to come down to her level and commune with her. She realised what that meant and truly as she ‘drank’ the living water from Jesus and felt so transformed, she forgot about the physical water she was to collect, for the jug was left at the well. The transformation took her from one withdrawn from society to one that was no longer ashamed of her past and not only that, to proclaim her meeting with Jesus to her community. And the people came despite it being the hottest period of the day.
Ps Lam, through his interpretation of this biblical episode, made this morning’s message a worship of truth and spirit. It is taking the action of God, through one woman, to impact humankind so that as we identify with the SW, regardless of our gender and race, we know God is willing to meet us, even on our own turf, to save us. Where got this kind of God! And when that is done, might we not forget our responsibility of setting others free the way Jesus has set us free.
