The Stranger

The Stranger
The week of January 18-25 was the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity sponsored by the World Council of Churches. There was a focus that week from the Gospel of John of the Samaritan woman at the well. We’ll include that story in our topic tonight as we consider “the stranger.”

Bible readings are from the New Revised Standard Version

KJV Hebrews 13:1, 2
1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
KJV Matt 25:35
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
KJV John 4:1-42
1 When therefore the LORD knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, 2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. 4 And he must needs go through Samaria. 5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? 28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. 31 In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. 32 But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. 33 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? 34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. 35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. 36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. 39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his own word; 42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
KJV Matt 10:40-42
40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
KJV Rom 15:7
7 Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

S&H 570:14-18
Millions of unprejudiced minds – simple seekers for
Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert – are wait-
ing and watching for rest and drink. Give
them a cup of cold water in Christ’s name,
and never fear the consequences.
S&H 234:4-24
Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love – be
it song, sermon, or Science – blesses the human family
with crumbs of comfort from Christ’s table
feeding the hungry and giving living waters to
the thirsty.
We should become more familiar with good than with
evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we
bar our doors against the approach of thieves
and murderers. We should love our enemies
and help them on the basis of the Golden
Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample
them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and
others.
If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind,
the brood of evils which infest it would be cleared out.
We must begin with this so-called mind and
empty it of sin and sickness, or sin and sick-
ness will never cease. The present codes of human
systems disappoint the weary searcher after a divine
theology, adequate to the right education of human
thought.
S&H 79:29-32
Mind-science teaches that mortals need “not be weary
in well doing.” It dissipates fatigue in doing
good. Giving does not impoverish us in the
service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us.
S&H 518:15-19
The rich in spirit help the poor in
one grand brotherhood, all having the same
Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth
his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in
another’s good.
S&H 57:15
Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the
demands of the affections, and should never weigh
against the better claims of intellect, good-
ness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual,
born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore
it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to
share it.
S&H 208:27-7
man possesses this body, and he makes it
harmonious or discordant according to the
images of thought impressed upon it. You embrace
your body in your thought, and you should delineate
upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You should
banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs
included in matter. Man, being immortal, has a perfect
indestructible life. It is the mortal belief which makes
the body discordant and diseased in proportion as igno-
rance, fear, or human will governs mortals.
Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing
them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas,
the life and light of all its own vast creation;
S&H 338:1-8
Christian Science, rightly under-
stood, leads to eternal harmony. It brings to light the
only living and true God and man as made in His like-
ness; whereas the opposite belief – that man originates
in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both
soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and
material – terminates in discord and mortality, in the
error which must be destroyed by Truth.
S&H 410:4
“This is life eternal,” says Jesus, – is, not shall be;
and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge
of his Father and of himself, – the knowledge
of Love, Truth, and Life. “This is life eter-
nal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” The Scriptures
say, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” show-
ing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind
objects to making this teaching practical.
S&H 496:9
We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself:
Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good?
Am I demonstrating the healing power of
Truth and Love? If so then the way will
grow brighter “unto the perfect day.” Your fruits
will prove what the understanding of God brings to man.
Hold perpetually this thought, – that it is the spiritual
idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to
demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing,
based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, over-
lying, and encompassing all true being.
S&H 174:9
The footsteps of thought, rising above material stand-
points, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller;
but the angels of His presence – the spiritual
intuitions that tell us when “the night is far
spent, the day is at hand” – are our guardians in the
gloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is
a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for gen-
erations yet unborn.
S&H 254:31
Pilgrim on earth, thy home
is heaven;


Hebrews 13:1,2
Matt 25:35
John 4:1-42
Matt 10:40-42
Rom 15:7

570:14-18
234:4-24
79:29-32
518:15-19
57:15
208:27-7
338:1-8
410:4
496:9
174:9
254:31
Hymns…333, 415, 224

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