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Thank you for engaging with
the homily by Pastor Chill Will from

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Chapel Hill. I hope this
message encourages you, challenges

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you and moves you to go deeper
in your faith and enrich how you

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love God and love your
neighbor in your day to day life.

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Just a reminder. Like the
scriptures and gospels themselves,

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this homily was written for a
particular community in a particular,

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particular context, time in
history. And yet, like our sacred

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texts, I hope that these words
hold timeless truths about God's

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unconditional love and grace.
We hope these words speak to you

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in a meaningful way.

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Hey friends. Welcome to
another episode of the homily and

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today we have a special
special guest on the homily. My co

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worker, my co pastor, my
partner in ministry here at Holy

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Trinity Lutheran Church in
Lutheran Campus ministry. Pastor

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Katie Elkin Zier, who is the
campus pastor who does takes the

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lead with our students in our
campus ministry here on the campus

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of UNC and in Chapel Hill. And
she preached a phenomenal sermon

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this past Sunday on March 8th
on International Women's Day on the

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third Sunday in Lent, John,
chapter four, the unnamed Samaritan

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woman at the well. And I
thought she tied in a lot of great

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things when it comes to Lent,
when it comes to how we identify

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ourselves as Lutheran
Christians, and then also lifting

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up what this text had to say.
So I'm bringing her on board to take

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the lead on this. You'll hear
in the Gospel reading some of our

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friends and members here and
staff members at Holy Trinity reading

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the Gospel lesson. It's a
really long one. And then she dives

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into the homily. So enjoy. And
again, as always, always, if you

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have any questions, thoughts,
ideas, if it sparked any awe, wonder,

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curiosity in you, reach out
and let us know peace.

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This is the Holy Gospel
according to John.

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Glory to you, oh Lord.

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So Jesus came to a Samaritan
city called Sychar, near the plot

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of ground that Jacob had given
to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was

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there and Jesus, tired out by
his journey, was sitting by the well.

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It was about noon. A Samaritan
woman came to draw water. And Jesus

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said to her, give me a drink.
His disciples had gone to the city

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to buy food. Then the
Samaritan woman said to him,

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how is it that you, a Jew, ask
a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?

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Jews do not share things in
common with Samaritans. Jesus answered

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her, if you knew the

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gift of God and who it is that
is saying to you, give me a drink,

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you would have asked him and
he would have given you living water.

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The woman said to Jesus, sir, you

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have no bucket and the well is
deep. Where do you get that living

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water? Are you greater than
our ancestor Jacob who gave us the

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well. And with his sons and
his flocks drank from it?

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Jesus said to her, everyone
who drinks of this water will be

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thirsty again. But those who
drink of the water that I will give

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them will never be thirsty.
The water that I will give will become

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in them a spring of water
gushing up to eternal life.

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So the woman said to Jesus, sir,

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give me this water so that I
may never be thirsty or have to keep

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coming here to draw water.

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And Jesus said to her, go call

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your husband and come back.

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The woman answered him, I have
no husband.

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And Jesus said to her, you are

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right in saying I have no
husband. For you have had five husbands

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and the one you have now is
not your husband. What you have said

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is true.

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The woman said to Jesus, sir, I

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see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain.

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But you say that the place
where people must worship is in Jerusalem.

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And Jesus said to the woman, woman,

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believe me, the hour is coming
when you will worship the father.

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Neither on this mountain nor
in Jerusalem. You worship what you

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do not know. We worship what
we know. For salvation is from the

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Jews. The hour is coming and
is now here when the true worshipers

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will worship the Father and
spirit and truth. For the Father

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seeks such as these to worship
him. God is spirit, and those who

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worship him must worship in
spirit and truth.

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The woman said to Jesus, I
know that Messiah is coming, who

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is called Christ.

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When he comes, he will
proclaim all things to us.

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Jesus said to her, I am he,

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the one who is speaking to you.

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Just then his disciples came.
They were astonished that he was

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speaking with a woman. But no
one said, what do you want? Or why

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are you speaking with her?
Then the woman left her water jar

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and went back to the city. She
said to the people, come and

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see a man who told me
everything I have ever done. He cannot

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be the Messiah, can he?

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They left the city and they
were on their way to Jesus. Meanwhile,

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the disciples were urging
Jesus, rabbi, eat something. But

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he said to them, I have

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food to eat that you do not
know about. Surely no one has brought

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him something to eat.

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And Jesus said to them, my food

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is to do the will of him who
sent me and to complete his work.

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Do you not say four months
more? Then comes the harvest. But

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I tell you, look around you
and see how the fields are ripe for

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the harvesting. The Reaper is
already receiving wages and is gathering

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fruit for eternal life so that
sower and reaper may rejoice together.

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For here the saying holds
true. One sows, another wheat reaps.

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I sent you to reap for what
you do not labor. Others have labored,

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and you have entered into
their labor.

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Many Samaritans from that city
believed in Jesus because of the

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woman's testimony.

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He told me everything I have
ever done.

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So when the Samaritans came to
him, they asked Jesus to stay with

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them. And he stayed there two
days. And many more believed because

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of his word. Then they said to
the woman, it is no longer because

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of what you said that we
believe, for we have heard for ourselves.

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And we know that this is truly
the Savior of the world, the Gospel

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of the Lord. Praise you. You,
O Bryce, you may be seated. In the

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name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
and Lutheran Campus Ministry is a

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congregation of the elca. Many
of y' all know that already. And

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I bet some of y' all even
remember when this congregation was

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a part of the lca, before the
ELCA even existed. But that was also

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before I existed. So as long
as I have been Lutheran, I have only

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known the elca. Anyone know
what that acronym stands for? Yes,

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some of y'. All. Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America. Right.

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But most of those words we can
get behind. We are Lutheran. We believe

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that all people are imperfect
and are saved by God's grace alone

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through Christ. We are a
church. Yep. And we're in America.

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The United States, to be
specific. So we got the L and the

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C and the A. But we can't
forget about the E. The E that stands

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for evangelical. Now, that
word might make some of us itchy.

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Over the last several decades
in the United States, specifically

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evangelical Christians, have
come to be seen as loud, even aggressive.

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We might say Bible thumping
Christians focused on winning souls

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for Jesus while making life
harder on this earth for people who

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don't agree with them. In
2005, Christian author Philip Yancey

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found that for most people,
evangelicals were a force to fear.

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A gang of moralists attempting
to impose their will on a pluralistic

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society. That's a quote. So
for some people, the word evangelical

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brings up way too many
negative associations. So there's

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even been a movement to try
and take the E out of elca. But the

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root of the word evangelical
is a Greek word, euangelion. And

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euangelion simply means good
news. Maybe we could change our church

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to the good News Lutheran
Church in America? I don't know.

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That's an idea. Evangelism
just means sharing good news. But

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in our desire to distance
ourselves from one specific type

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of Christianity,

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we

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elca Lutherans sometimes
shrink at the idea of evangelizing.

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We don't want to come across
as pushy or heavy handed, so we pull

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back instead of being bold
about who we are and what we have

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to offer the world, or rather,
what God can offer the world through

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us. And that's one of the
reasons I love our Gospel story for

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today. It's the longest
interaction anyone has with Jesus

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in the whole Bible, and maybe
y' all felt that while we were reading

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it earlier, but it also gives
us a beautiful, healthy model of

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evangelism embodied in the
form of a Samaritan woman. It is

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noon outside the walls of
Sychar when Jesus sits down by Jacob's

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well for a little rest. A
Samaritan woman comes to draw water,

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and Jesus demands of her, give
me a drink. Now much ink has been

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spilled about who this
Samaritan woman was and why she's

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drawing water in the middle of
the day. But for now, it's enough

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to say that she is an
unexpected conversation partner for

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Jesus, and she's rightly
confused by his request for a drink.

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She is a Samaritan, Jesus is a
Jew, and Jews do not share things

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in common with Samaritans. But
throughout the course of their interaction,

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we find that the Samaritan
woman and Jesus are evenly matched

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conversation partners. They
talk about everything from their

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forefathers in faith to their
differing worship practices, to what

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the arrival of the Messiah is
going to look like, and even their

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own personal identities. And
when this discussion comes to an

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end, this unnamed, unashamed,
unexpected woman becomes the first

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to share the good news, to
evangelize to the people in Samaria.

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Come and see the man who has
proclaimed to me everything about

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myself, she says. Can this be
the Messiah? Come and see, she says.

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Come and see. The Samaritan
woman's example of evangelism is

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so powerful because it's an
invitation. She has encountered the

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Savior of the world, and she
tells everyone about it. But then

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instead of telling everyone
that, well, they should just believe

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her or that they should
believe just like her, she invites

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her neighbors along to come
experience Christ for themselves.

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Come and see, she says. Do you
think this could be the Messiah?

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Come on, form your own
opinions. Come and see. Now I have

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to brag a little bit and say
that our LCM students are really

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good at this type of
Invitational Evangelism. They all

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have a story about how they
got to campus ministry. And for a

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majority of them, it's because
a friend asked them to come along

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for an event or a meal or a
Wednesday night worship. And I know

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at least a handful of y' all
are here this morning because a friend

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invited you, too. The good
news compels us, like the Samaritan

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woman, to run into the world
shouting and inviting, come and see.

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See what Christ is doing in
and through this community of faith.

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Come and experience it for
yourself. Now, maybe some of y' all

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are still itchy about the idea
of evangelizing, or maybe you're

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all in on inviting folks to
come and see, but thinking Lent is

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kind of a weird time to invite
my friends to church. I mean, we're

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not exactly shouting
hallelujahs this time of year. Maybe

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I'll wait until Easter. But
y', all, I actually think that Lent

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is a great time to invite new
people into a community of faith.

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Each Ash Wednesday, myself and
the other Protestant campus ministers

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at UNC take ships standing
outside the undergraduate library,

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imposing ashes for anyone who
asks. This year, when I got there,

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I started out by giving my
pretty generic spiel about how the

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ashes remind us that our time
on earth is finite and the cross

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reminds us that God's love is
infinite. But towards the end of

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my hour outside the ul, I
started getting more specific. This

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ashy cross reminds us that our
lives won't last forever, so neither

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will our grades or our papers
or our projects or our stress. And

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as I said those words to one
of the students standing in front

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of me that day, she literally
closed her eyes and said, oh, thank

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God. It was kind of funny. And
it was also a tender moment, because

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in a culture that teaches us
that we are only worth what we produce

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in a world that wants us to
believe that we can buy a fuller

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life in eight easy
installments. In an individualized

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society that claims that we
can be the source of our own living

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water, a reminder of our
finitude can actually be good news.

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Our suffering, our pain, our
human limitations are real. There's

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no use pretending like there's
nothing. And Lent is a season where

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we can be honest about our own
limitations. It is true that we humans

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settle for shallow waters that
will not quench our true thirst.

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It is true that we are not
always comfortable inviting or evangelizing

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or talking about our faith. It
is true that we are humans and we

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have limits. So the good news
that we can share today and every

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day is that even with our
human limitations. God delights in

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us. Christ is still at work
through us and the Holy Spirit still

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empowers us to evangelize, to
share the good news and to join in

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on God's mission of loving the
whole world. Because God's love has

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no limits and God's limitless
love has been poured into our hearts

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through the Holy Spirit. So
whether or not we evangelize like

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the Samaritan woman, whether
or not our human limitations actually

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feel like good news, whether
or not we want to keep the E in Elca,

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Christ's living water is a
spring within us gushing up to eternal

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life for the whole world. So
come and see. This is truly the Savior

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of the world. Amen.

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Foreign. Thank you for listening.

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If there is anything that
stood out

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for you or if you have a

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question or you just want to
have a conversation, you are always

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free to reach out and contact us.

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And remember you are not alone and

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that you are loved with a love
stronger than death.