By Dr. Lani Wilson

Good Day, prayer and fasting servants. Celebration of the birth of Hope is over and we await a new year. Thank you for your steadfast focus and work on and for our Deep East Oasis dedicated to The Christ. On the last day of 2015 we can marvel at God’s faithfulness as we still have hope. Even in the midst of all the unthinkable here and around the world, we still have hope.

The word given is “linger.” Interesting for the last word of the year, isn’t it? We sit on the cliff of a new, unpromised year approximately 2020 years after the birth of The Nazarene. That is 200 and 1/5 centuries ago and God is still as mysterious as that Virgin Birth, that Resurrection, that moment of Revelation. Just saying the word makes one slow down. Linger. It conjures up a sense of halting, not abruptly, but sort of hanging around, lounging, waiting, almost in anticipation of something. On lumina.bible.org there are only six citations of the use of the word or its approximation in the New Testament: Mathew 25:5, John 5:5, Luke 1:21, Luke 2:43, Acts 16:12, and Romans 13:14. Only in The Message Bible translation is the word “linger” actually used in Acts and Romans; in the other four verses it is inferred. Etymonline.com says that the word dates from around 1300 CE and is akin to the northern England lengen that means “to tarry” and from the Old English and Proto-Germanic langjan or “to make long.” The sense of “delay going, depart slowly and unwilling” dates from the 1520s. It is a word not used everyday by everyday-people. It has a poetic flavor; it is a lovely word that languishes and pauses time.

There are several inferences in the six New Testaments passages where it is inferred or used. In Mathew it hints at delay; in John it refers to a lengthy period of time; in Luke 1 it’s a restless waiting; in Luke 2 it could almost be seen as an act of rebellion or disobedience; in Acts it’s a respite of sorts; and in Romans it’s procrastination. So much of what the verse actually meant is subject to the intricacy of multiple translations and the will of those ancient translators. But Luke 2:43 (TMB) is curious.

When it was over and they left for home, the child Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents didn’t know it

It seems that this is the only anecdote or story we have of Jesus as a child. Because of this much could be made of the significance of this story. What seems to jump out is the fact that Jesus remained in Jerusalem, knowing His parents didn’t know He was not with them on their way home to Nazareth. And his purposeful disobedience in staying behind without permission is interpreted as lingering. So Jesus the twelve year old lingered in the temple? Luke 2:40 (NRSV) says, “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him,” i.e., Jesus was a good boy. However, it seems to me that He just up and decided not to go home. Period. Why should this verse hint at Jesus lingering in Jerusalem as opposed to the purposeful and defiant decision to not remain with His natal family?

The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were all quite taken with him, impressed with the sharpness of his answers. But his parents were not impressed; they were upset and hurt. His mother said, "Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you." He said, "Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?" But they had no idea what he was talking about. So he went back to Nazareth with them, and lived obediently with them. His mother held these things dearly, deep within herself.
Luke 2:46-51 (TMB)

In spite of Mary’s and Joseph’s panic and hurt at their son’s seeming indifference to their feelings or authority, Mary knew. It is interesting that the gospel writer didn’t mention that Joseph must have treasured this behavior as well. Joseph, too, was confronted by an angel and told Who Jesus was before His birth (Mathew 1:20-25): Another testament to Joseph as “the most neglected person of the Christmas Story” (Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., 8 am service sermon, 12/27/15, Allen Temple Baptist Church).

There are other instances in the New Testament where we could make a strong case for Jesus to be purposefully lingering.

But he had to go through Samaria. So he 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
John 4:4-6 (NRSV)

To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.
John 4:4-6 (TMB)

In this oft cited passage with the Samaritan woman Jesus is “tired” or “worn out” by His purposeful* travel through Samaria. So He comes to Sychar and just sits down, lingers at Jacob’s well at noon, the hottest time of day. He is apparently exhausted from walking in the heat.

Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. When they persisted in asking him, he stood straight and replied, “Whoever among you is guiltless may be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he bent over again and wrote on the ground. Now when they heard this, they began to drift away one at a time, starting with the older ones, until Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
John 8:6b-9 (NET)

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
John 8:6b-9 (ESV)

[*purposeful, as explained by SS Class #9 teacher, Deacon Reggie Lyles: Why else would Jesus choose to go through forbidden land (to the Jews) except to encounter this woman (an “untouchable” by Jewish standards) who had to get water at the hottest time of day because she was an outcast for having so many lovers and living in an unmarried relationship?]

In this other infamous passage a Jewish woman caught in adultery is about to be stoned. As her accusers try to entangle Jesus in a moral dilemma, He bends down and (we could say) lingers, writing on the ground. He does it twice, bends down and The Message Bible/Remix says that “he wrote with his finger in the dirt” and “he wrote some more in the dirt.” At this tense moment of certain bloody death, Jesus defiantly halts the execution and the intended moral quagmire by bending down and seemingly scribbling in the dirt. It must have gotten very quiet as he bent down and then began writing something.

Jesus’s legal eisegesis is bracketed by the two times that he bends down to write upon the ground. In the context of these considerations, these two acts of writing become especially interesting. Jesus does not write in any other gospel text (but see also John 7:15, which suggests that he “knows his letters”), and the mention of the repeated action draws our attention. There is no irony in this passage, either “stable” or “unstable”11—that is, no complicity between implied author and implied reader. The reader wants to know what Jesus has written. However, the Gospel of John, which often presents Jesus’s spoken words at great length in its own writing, here becomes curiously uncommunicative. John tells the reader, twice, that Jesus wrote upon the ground, but it does not say what he wrote—at least, not here in ch. 8. Are these writings of Jesus then among those “other signs [that he did] in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book” (20:30)? Although we are told that scribes were present on this occasion, it appears that no one bothered to copy the words down and pass them on. Furthermore, because the actual reader was not present at the event, she or he is excluded from reading that writing. Not unlike the written words of the Gospel itself, which fail to completely denote their object, Jesus’s words in the dirt are unable to signify.
Reading Jesus Writing, George Aichele 2004.
Biblical Interpretation, 12(4), 353-368. doi:10.1163/1568515052418569

https://www.123rf.com/stock-photo/jesus_hands.html

How potent those moments must have been!? Lingering in the dirt, Jesus saves this woman from her own self-condemnation, probable execution, and simultaneously turns the mirror back on her misogynistic judges. The previous passage with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well states that He was tired and hot. We can see Jesus sitting on the edge of the well.

¹²tn Grk “on (ἐπί, epi) the well.” There may have been a low stone rim encircling the well, or the reading of Ì (“on the ground”) may be correct.
John 4:6a (NET) Note #12

Here he is resting, lingering, and given that it is noon and she is alone, Jesus knew she would be coming to fill her water jug…alone.

^₁₀sn Sychar was somewhere in the vicinity of Shechem, possibly the village of Askar, 1.5 km northeast of Jacob’s well.
John 4:5 (NET) Note #10

Mouth of Jacob’s Well
seetheholyland.net
Jacob’s Well, where Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink and offered her “living water”, lies in the crypt of a modern Greek Orthodox church at Nablus in the West Bank. It is often considered the most authentic site in the Holy Land — since no one can move a well that was originally more than 40 metres deep.
http://www.seetheholyland.net/jacobs-well/

The lengthy dialogue He has with this socially isolated woman about who He is and Living Water (verses 13-14) is revelatory and liberating, not just for her but also for us…because Jesus lingered even longer than just at that well.

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman,“It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
John 4:39-42 (NRSV)

We have Jesus confronted with an angry, murderous mob trying to use a bedraggled outcast woman as bait while He is teaching in the temple. And then we have Jesus lazing around, lingering around an ancient Jewish well, resting in the heat as he waits for another stigmatized woman. We can infer that whenever Jesus lingered, it was intentional and it was for love.

It was in love that Jesus affirmed His position as the Son of God in the temple that day with His mother and earthly father. Lumina.bible.org cites this as an instance of “lingering,” and we can say that it was a declarative lingering.

He said, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?”
Luke 2:49 (TMB Remix)

It was in love that Jesus devotedly awaited the Samaritan woman in the simmering heat at Jacob’s well. It is our speculation that Jesus lingered at the well, just for her…in love. We could say that it was a devoted lingering.

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself ---- Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”
John 4:23-24 (TMB/Remix)

And it was in love that Jesus quietly, before saying anything to anyone, bent down and tarried, lingered…“writing in the dirt” before making the demand that rings down through the millennia. We could say that it was a lingering demand.

He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.”
John 8:6b-7 (TMB/Remix)

It is not surprising that we don’t use the word “linger” very much in the 21st century. Who has time to linger anymore? At times it even seems to be dysfunctional to linger anywhere. Our rest times, break times, even vacation times are scheduled and our clocks run on military time.

Military Time – The 24 Hour Clock

And why not? It is the nature of global living now. People are living longer and yet it seems life has a driven quality, at least for those of us who live near a coast

In the United States, counties directly on the shoreline constitute less than 10 percent of the total land area (not including Alaska), but account for 39 percent of the total population. From 1970 to 2010, the population of these counties increased by almost 40% and are projected to increase by an additional 10 million people or 8% by 2020. Coastal areas are substantially more crowded than the U.S. as a whole, and population density in coastal areas will continue to increase in the future. In fact, the population density of coastal shoreline counties is over six times greater than the corresponding inland counties.
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html

In just four years almost half of the population of the United States will live directly on a coastline. Obviously, that is because people move where jobs are and just as in the ancient past, commerce flows with trade. Even in a digitized global community, goods leave from ports - on coasts. And yet we know that creativity doesn’t punch a time clock*.

[*Personal Communication: Dr. J. Alfred Cannon, 1972, MLK, Jr. Hospital, Los Angeles, CA]

To summarize, Americans and their brains are preoccupied with work much of the time. Throughout history people have intuited that such puritanical devotion to perpetual busyness does not in fact translate to greater productivity and is not particularly healthy. What if the brain requires substantial downtime to remain industrious and generate its most innovative ideas? "Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets," essayist Tim Kreider wrote in The New York Times.
Ferris Jabr, “Why Your Brain Needs More Downtime,” Scientific American October 15, 2013

• Jesus’ declarative lingering in Jerusalem for three days established His relationship toward His earthly parents and His heavenly Parent: “Didn’t you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?” (John 2:49b TMB/Remix).
• In order to stop an unruly mob, He slowed everything down by just bending down to scribble in the dirt and extended a lingering demand of us about judgment in saving the woman condemned to stoning: “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” (John 8: 7 TMB/Remix).
• Jesus languished, lingered around a centuries old well and then asked for a cup of water, astonishing the Samaritan woman with His request because Jewish men did not talk to women in public freely, especially women like her: “Jesus said, ‘Would you give me a drink of water?’” (John 4:7b TMB/Remix).

He did it all in love for love but first He lingered. To linger is to wait in expectation, to patiently let time drip by as the moment blooms before us: It is God intent on touching us, revitalizing what we didn’t know had withered, and infusing us with pure Spirit. We can’t touch anyone else’s life unless we are able to savor those moments when they will be welcome. And we won’t recognize those moments unless we slow down to sense them, to feel them, as the Christ does for us when we trip and fall over all over ourselves trying to do His work. So often He has to take us down in order to get our attention to look up. Linger awhile. Linger. Linger with the Master so that you can touch someone else.

Jesus, You are the Penultimate Preparer. We don’t have to overdo, overwork, overthink, overindulge, overcome because You have already done that. We just need to linger with You. From there we can feel the moments that bring us soul-to-soul with others looking for that respite, that peace, that place where You are. And there is where we blossom as Your persons, as a family, as a community, as Your church, as Your Beloved. Teach us to tarry. Help us to linger, calmly, expectantly, lovingly so that we can move in Your direction. Teach us to tarry.

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.

Refrain:
And He walks with me and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever know.
C. Austin Miles (1913)

Teach us to tarry.
Teach us to linger.

Amen.