March 3, 2002
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As We Are: The Eyes of Christ Prayer: We come to you, O God, because we are thirsty and our spirits need the refreshing water of your word, just as our bodies need the refreshment of a cool drink. We worship you with joy, for we can already feel the gift of your presence all around us. Now open our ears that we may hear all that you expect of us. Open our lives to your truth and prepare us to follow Jesus in accepting the unacceptable, challenging the conventional, and joining together in a harvest for your realm. In Christ’s name, amen. The story of Jesus and the woman at the well is a long story that often in its telling over focuses too much on the unnamed woman’s living situation. That is all very interesting, and I suspect she was the subject of much gossip and speculation. But that is not the main point of the story. The main point is that this woman not only found her way to redemption, but she was able to lead many in the town to their redemption as well. After all this is not really a story about a well, or a woman’s suspect reputation, nor her five husbands and her current companion. It is about her questions about water, the disciples confusion about food, and the townspeople curiosity about Jesus. Surely we can find ourselves somewhere in these verses. This is a story of inclusion and reconciliation because it is a story about cultural adversaries. We might be tempted to think that clashes between cultures is an occurrence of our lifetime, but that is not so. As Jesus and the woman talk at the well, they both know that relations between Jews and Samaritans had been hostile for as long as people could remember. What was the problem? The Samaritans had not been carried off into exile. They had intermarried with foreigners, they allowed Alexander the Great to build a temple for them at Mount Gerizim. When the exiles returned and discovered that the Samaritans were worshiping at a place other than the holy city of Jerusalem they were incensed and came to consider Samaritans unclean and impure. There was such hostility between them that Jews and Samaritans would not even use the same utensils; not the same knife, fork, spoon, plate, or water jar. They may as well have had signs over separate water fountains that said “Jews” and “Samaritans”. They simply had few civil dealings with each other. Think Israel and Palestine, the Huts and Tootsies of Africa, or Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. But Jesus sees them as they were intended to be, and calls them and us to where they and we need to be. So we are reminded that the “new age fulfilled in the presence breaks down barriers. No longer are Jews and Samaritans, males and females, to be thought of in isolated, segregated categories. Salvation comes “from the Jews”, but something new has occurred in Jesus. Samaritans confess him as “the Savior of the world”. Worship is centered no longer in places like the Jerusalem Temple or Mount Gerizim. The sweeping, inclusive character of Jesus’ mission is a note that needs sounding again and again today” (Texts for Preaching, John Knox Press. Louisville, 1995, p.208). We sound that note when we are seen by Christ as we are and led to our moments of transformation. The Roman Catholic deacon in my lectionary group told us the other day that Lent is a time when adults are prepared for baptism. Formally called the Rite of Christian Adult Initiation. He reminded us that educators say that when the readiness to learn connects with an opportunity to be taught, learning and transformation happen. It is as the adult candidates for baptism are being taught what it means to be part of the church that they are asked to examine their lives closely and look for two things. What would you think about if you were asked to audit your life and look for what is good, right, and holy, and then to pray for continued strength in those things. What would come to your mind if you examined all that is sinful in your life - what separates you from God, what behavior of yours has resulted in broken relationships, what is out of balance in your relationship with God and seek forgiveness and repentance? The point of the exercise is not to cause anyone to feel guilty or ashamed. It is to help us to see how gracious God is. Paul declares in his letter to the church at Rome that the grace of God through Jesus Christ is so incredible that it helps us to hold up and hang on. It is grace born of hope that we will know and see the glory of God. If grace is there, then we can boast, not about how good we are but about how blessed we are. We can sat that our suffering and the hope, through the heartache and the joy, when things are well and when things go terrible wrong, God’s love is with us. In other words, because of God’s grace, given to us in Jesus Christ, we can live as if the hope within us is real. We can endure suffering, never an easy or pleasant task, and emerge on the other side with some wisdom and experience. It is grace and love that led Jesus to suffer on a cross. We can come to boast in God because it is God’s love and grace for us that leads us to restoration and reconciliation. In a few minutes we will sing John Newton’s hymn “Amazing Grace”. It is hymn of one who saw that his life as a slave trader was contrary to the will of God for him. His theme of redemption and reconciliation with God was picked up by Dottie Rambo in 1968 when she wrote: “Amazing grace shall
always be my song of praise Being seen as we really are means that Jesus meets us where we are - even when it looks like a coincidence. It just happens that Jesus had to go to Samaria which sits between Galilee and Judea. It just happens that as he made his way, Jesus stopped in Sychar to rest. It just happens that while he rests by Jacob’s well, a woman comes there to get water. Jacob’s well is the place that presents an occasion for the woman’s transformation as Jesus asks her for a drink of water. It would not seem to be a strange request. It is the middle of the day, he is tired and she has a water jar. Have you ever made a simple request, please pass the salt and pepper, may I have this seat, are you finished with the newspaper, may I have a drink of water and been met with hostility? “Give you a drink”, “who are you?” “Well, if you knew who I was you wouldn’t ask me who I was. You would share your well water with me and I would share my living water for you.” “Where would you get such water? You do not even have a bucket.” The woman is thinking of living water as water from a stream, and Jesus is talking about another kind of water altogether. Jesus looks at her and has sees that the water she needs is not an element of the earth. He sees in her a woman whose spirit is weary and thirsty. The woman now knows her need and asks for the water that will relieve her thirst forever. She does not realize that she already has it. The living water Jesus talks about is a relationship with him, the source of eternal life. She discovers that Jesus not only knows what she needs, he knows about her life. Yet he does not judge her. Instead he not only talks with her about water, but about worship. He tells her the day is coming soon when where we worship will not be as important as whom we worship. “You love God, I love God, you love God. What really matters is that God is a spirit, not limited by time or space or place. “You really want to worship God? Worship in spirit and in truth. Let the breath of God move in your life, let the truth of God, God’s love, hospitality, hope, joy, compassion set the standard for your own behavior.” Jesus knows all about her and wants her to know all about him. She says, “All that you say will be true when the Messiah comes”, Jesus says, the day you are waiting for is here. Here I am.” It is a remarkable act of inclusion as Jesus sees this woman and brings her into the circle of people who have been transformed by Jesus. For the disciples, being seen as they are means Jesus shows them a lot of love and patience, just as he shows us. At last the disciples return. They are stunned but what they see. They know men and women are not related to one another did not speak in public. They know the relationships between Jews and Samaritans. Yet here is Jesus talking with a woman. They offer Jesus the food they had gone to purchase. Jesus says, “Thanks, but I’ve got food like no other.” This information confuses the literal minded disciples. “What happened, did somebody else bring you food?” “No. It’s not food for the body, but food for the spirit. The food that sustains me is doing this ministry God has sent me to do. It is to be the embodiment of God in this world. It is to teach and preach, heal and forgive. It’s to be the hope bearer, for everyone, including the Samaritans. No one is condemned, no one is excluded unless they want to be. Jesus provided a safe place for the woman to see herself. When she did, she got a glimpse of herself as one with good news to share. She told her story to her neighbors who came on the strength of her story. The woman who came for water, has left her water jar and runs into town with good news. “Come to well! There is a man there who just may be the promised and longed for Messiah. How do I know? I know because I just had an incredible conversation with him. What kind of encounter? It was a spiritual, gracious encounter. He looked at me, he saw me, he knew all about me and greeted me with love and respect instead of the disdain and disrespect I usually receive. Her testimony was powerful enough that the townsfolk went to see Jesus for themselves. They listened with Jesus long enough that their own
lives were changed so much so that they could say to the woman, “we too have
been seen and known as we are. We now see that those barriers between Samaritans
and Jews are a sign of human sinfulness. We put the walls up and we can tear
them down. We can do it because we know for ourselves that this man is truly,
really, the Savior of the world. We have been seen and embraced into the inclusive love God has for the whole world given through Jesus Christ. The testimony of so many people is true, Christ loves us enough to receive us as we are, and loves us too much to leave us that way. There is a best, most faithful self to be called out of us. There is, no matter who we are, a portion of grace to be poured into us that leads us to find reconciliation with God and the world. When we let that grace pour out of us and become the good news for others, God will be pleased, and we can celebrate God’s grace in our lives as we say, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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