Christ the King Epiphany- Wilbraham

John 4: 5-42

Dcn. Michael Hamilton

March 8, 2026

Please pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts are pleasing and acceptable to God. Amen. (pbs)

Today is the celebration of International Women’s Day which for over a century has been advocating for gender equality, celebrating the achievements of women, and raising awareness of discrimination. Many people will celebrate this day of recognition, and others will think that it is unnecessary, because the past 115 years is such a long time and women are currently recognized for their achievements and are independent and free to be whatever they decide to be, even a presidential candidate, or a bishop in the church. Some would say it is time to move on.

I agree that 115 years is a very long time, but that span of time is nothing compared to the history of the church’s ability to overlook a woman’s contribution to the Plan of God for the People of God.

Let’s go back to Mary Magdalene. In the year 591, Pope Gregory the Great merged the biblical identities of Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, and the unnamed ‘sinful woman’ that anointed Jesus’ feet as being the same person. The overarching effect was to decrease the importance or influence of MM so as to not identify her as a leader in the church. This blended identity stuck and in Medieval paintings, MM was often painted naked, modestly covering her body with long red hair, or posed provocatively and thus encouraging the image of her being a reformed prostitute, the image that she was branded with. It took until 1969 (a mere 1400 years) for the Roman Catholic Church to remove the identity of the sinful woman from her resume and another 50 years that in 2016, Pope Francis elevated MM memorial to a Feast Day which occurs on July 22nd as he proclaimed MM to be “the Apostle to the Apostles.” 1450 years to be misidentified and gaslit to not be recognized for your contribution because of your gender- it seems incredible.

Our Samaritan woman at the well faced similar backstories and misidentification to downplay that she is first quasi-Gentile convert and the doorway that all non-Jews came to be welcomed into being the followers of Christ today. I say ‘quasi’ because technically, the Samaritans were not gentiles but rather, were considered half-breed and religious heretics of the Northern-Israelites. After a time of captivity, the Samaritans remained in the North and overtime intermarried with foreigners and thus they became unclean, outcasts, and despised by the Jewish community.

Every time that I have heard this Gospel it has been ‘assumed’ that this woman who has had 5 husbands and is living with a man that she is not married to is presumably a prostitute or some other hedonistic sinner. Because of her infamy, she must draw water at noon, the hottest part of the day, because she is a social outcast that has been shunned by the righteous community who naturally draw water in the cooler temperatures of the early morning or early evening. But the Gospel does not say any of this, it has only been surmised and preached for possibly 2026 years. As with anything that is repeated often enough, conjecture becomes truth, truth becomes unchangeable and lies or distortions are swept away as not being important.

· Five husbands- does it say she was divorced 5 times? No.

· Could she have been widowed 5 times? Yes, that is possible.

· Were women able to divorce a husband? No.

· Could non-married women live independently? No.

· Could unmarried women have rights to own property or be self-supportive without the protection of a man? No.

· If this woman was a social outcast, would people listen to her or believe her? Probably not.

What do we actually read in today’s Gospel?

The woman said, “I know that the Messiah is coming”. “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

This is the first time the Gospel writer John records Jesus identifies Himself as the Messiah. Then we read that the woman returns to her community and we hear, ‘Many Samaritans from that city believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony. In her testimony she states;

“He told me everything I have ever done.” Notice this does not say, “he told me all my sins.” The interjection of the word ‘sins’ in some translations was later imposed onto this reading to support the identity of her wantonness. The corrective of this woman not being an ostracized harlot of the village comes from the response of the community validating her testimony when we read,

They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

Jesus being identified by a group of people as “the Savior of the world” or publicly acknowledged as The Messiah for the first time is delivered through the witness of this woman that was more gentile than Jew.

Consider the fact that last week we heard of the opportunity for Jesus to plainly state that He is the Messiah and yet He didn’t. Notice the differences- Nicodemus, a man, of high Jewish leadership with social standing comes to Jesus at night and eventually leaves with questions and confusion. By contrast with the woman at the well, Jesus plainly states that He is the “I am” that she, the unnamed, untouchable, and unclean Samaritan woman has been praying for. It is also worthy to note that “I am” arrived in broad daylight in a very unexpected place. Another difference is that she leaves this encounter with Jesus and immediately shared the Good News with her community. Between these two encounters, Jesus has crossed religious, social, and gender barriers and we are probably safe to say that this conversation at Jacob’s well was the very start of International Women’s Day and is much older than 115 years with gender equality, celebration of women’s faith and achievements, and the raising of awareness of silencing women’s voices.

Has much changed since the encounter of the well? Maybe yes, there have been some social corrections but the lack of general respect for the contributions of marginalized communities, people of color, and women in particular, is still a glaring social sin and one that I ask us to consider and include in our prayers during this part of Lent. Let us ask ourselves, how do I contribute to the ongoing squelching of voices that society chooses to ignore? Do I listen for the oppressed? Do I support those that society has ostracized such as the poor, the homeless, gay people, trans persons, political rivals, women, people that are victimized, abused, or denied human rights, health care, or food?

There are currently two hot tabloid topics that challenge us into action, or at least, consideration. How do we respond to the disparity between winning the Gold Medal for the USA Men’s Hockey team vs. the often named, “Women’s hockey team” without the moniker of participating on the country’s behalf as in the USA Women’s Hockey team? Which one has been valued differently in society as high up as the Oval Office, and why?

Even more poignantly how do I express my concern and action of the contested, challenged, and ignored witness statements of women and girls in their experiences with Jeffrey Epstein? Does personal trauma, experience, and confession depend upon who is making the complaint? Is there a select group of Christians, socialites, or people with wealth that get a ‘pass’ for their actions?

These two examples might seem inappropriate topics for a sermon, but my concern is how easily we can value the same Gold Medal, won on behalf of our country, differently by which gender won the victory. It is also necessary to

consider how a story can be told, and retold, in order to discredit a person such as blending three identities into one in Mary Magdalene’s case, or the telling and the retelling of unsubstantiated ‘facts’ that would have us believe that a woman is an ostracized prostitute without proof other than someone’s interpretation of what “might be the facts”. Are we willing to wait another 2026 years, or 1450 years for future people to point out how we allowed a multi-track reality to exist, not only in society but even in the interpretation of Scripture? Can we return to better bible interpretation in which the poor, the disenfranchised, the hungry, the powerless, women, foreigners, and sick are given the dignity and respect that Jesus has actually called us to?

As we commemorate the 115th anniversary of International Women’s Day, let us pay homage to the woman that first reveled the identity of I AM to her community which invited us, the gentiles, to live as Christians today.

To all of the unnamed, unrecognized, and unsung heroes that have brought us this far into our relationship with Christ, we say, Thank You. 

Amen.