John 11: 1-45   What did the people of Jesus day think of Him, this itinerant Rabi who wandered from town to town and city to city accompanied by His followers, performing miracles, and signs, and preaching His message of love and forgiveness. Over and over He affirms that He and the Father are one, and encourages His fellow Jews, and later on even those not of the Jewish faith, to repent, to forgive others, to fully and completely love each other and God.   We know that the

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.   Today’s Gospel story begins with a situation to which we can in some way relate. The scene we are presented with features a man who is hot, and tired, and thirsty. We’ve all been there, for one reason or another.   While that is familiar, the geography mentioned,

O Lord, in thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded.     Little used vocabulary words – we sometimes hear them, but often assume their meaning and give them no further thought.  When I was young, and visiting with some Episcopal nuns, I heard the quote “Let me never be cofounded.”  What on earth did it mean?  Confounded wasn’t a word with which I was acquainted.  Turns out, it means confused – but confused in a very special way.  “Confusion,” so the saying goes, “is th