Jesus as an Emergent Talker

Exhausted from global warming in oppressed Palestine, Jesus chilled at Jacob’s Well in the realm of “the other” called Samaria.

Jesus’ cohort left him to buy organic at the nearest kiosk.

A Samaritan woman-”the other to the second power”-approached the community’s gathering space, carrying the symbol of her status in a harsh patriarchal culture.

Jesus said, “Water is good. Water is to be shared. Water is life. May we share in a drink of water together?” He lit two candles, too, symbolizing the two flames of life at the well.

The woman replied, “I am in the oppressed class (Samartian) and you are in the religiously oppressive class (Jew). I am victim. You are power. How is it that you encounter me in an egalitarian way in a world of power-assigned values?”

Jesus pushed back, “Woman, I am post-Jewish. I am post-Second Temple Judaism. I am assigning new symbolic value to people, places and religion itself. I am on a journey through liminal space into the emerging reality.”

“Friend,” the woman asked, “what will this new reality be?” …