Somewhere in my life I heard someone say something like, “The challenge with John (the gospel writer) is he is better at theatre than at writing.” The implications of this comment were about passages such as this one about Jesus and the woman of Samaria.

Today’s reading is long enough that when read you begin to lose your place. But as drama (theatre) you can remember it well. You remember a woman coming to a well and an encounter with a strange man at a historic landmark of faith. You recognize that this man is not of the woman’s tribe but of a rival tribe and not always to be trusted due to the “bad blood” between the two tribes. You remember the man’s impertinence in asking her to give him water (rival tribes don’t usually mingle like that) and her evident wariness. You recall his ques…