Changing Subjects (February 28, 2015)

Changing Subjects

John 4:1-26

February 28, 2015

Has it happened to you?  Someone confronts you with some the truth about yourself, and you get uncomfortable.  You want to duck into the nearest corner, but there is no place to hide.  You try a different tactic--you try to change the subject.

That took place during Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well.  Jesus made the unnamed woman face up to her complicated past.  She knew that everything Jesus said to her was true.  She couldn't deny it.  But she didn't really want to discuss it, either.  So she changed the subject.  "I see that you are a prophet" (verse 19) and she proceeds to ask a question about one of the issues that divided Jews and Samaritans.  A classic diversionary tactic!

Lent is a season for confronting some of the uncomfortable truths about ourselves.  We don't do this to wallow in guilt about our past.  Our time of confession is more about acknowledging who we are in the present so that God can transform our present and guide our future.  

So often, we speed through our Prayer of Confession so we can get away from the truth about ourselves.  We are invited, however, to use this time to allow the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.  Instead of changing subjects, we allow the Spirit to change our hearts.

A Prayer:  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Amen.  (Psalm 51:10)