Eternal God, throughout these forty days of Lent, enable us to prepare
ourselves, our hearts, and our minds to receive the new life that you have
for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Perhaps you heard about the little girl who went to her mother and asked
where human beings came from. Her mother answered, “God made Adam and Eve, and
they had children, and those children had children, and so all humankind was
made.” A couple days later the little girl asked her dad the same question. He
answered, “Well, many years ago there were monkeys, and we developed from them.”
Now, thoroughly confused the girl goes back to her mother, “How is this
possible? You said we were created by God, but dad says we came from monkeys.”
Her mother answered, “It’s really very simple dear. I told you about the origin
of my side of the family. Your father told about his side.”
In our passage from the gospel of John today, Jesus tells a Samaritan woman
about her family life. In essence he is saying she is a loser because of the
choices she has made and the failures she has known in the way she has lived her
life, but that is a subplot of the story. We will learn from her, especially in
her relationship with Jesus. As we read anything in John’s gospel we remember
that for John, Jesus is always God in human flesh, God’s self-revelation. What
Jesus does here is what God wants and wills. The gospel of John is known for
containing signs as to whom Jesus truly is, God in human flesh, the savior of
all. The sign in this story is what Jesus does, he breaks down barriers.
The setting of the story is very simple. Jesus and his disciples are heading
north, from Judea to Galilee. Samaria lies between the two regions. Jews and
Samaritans hated each other to the extent that Jews would not allow Samaritans
to convert to Judaism, nor would Jews travel through Samaria, but went out of
their way to go around this region of hated half-breeds and full pagans. All of
this is but an early chapter to the deep animosity we still see today between
Israelis and Palestinians. However, Jesus ignores the border and these cultural
barriers and leads his disciples right into Samaria.
The disciples go into a village to buy food. Jesus remains alone by a well.
About noon a woman comes to draw water. Jesus breaks more barriers. He a Jew,
speaks to her a Samaritan. He a man speaks to her a woman, in public, and
without a chaperone. He, a man, does the unthinkable and speaks about God, to a
woman. He, a man, speaks to a woman ostracized by her community because of her
life-style. Jesus breaks all kinds of barriers. Is he a first century women’s
liberationist, a social radical? No, he is so much more. He is God in human
flesh and God is the God of all peoples.
In the dialogue between Jesus and the woman, we learn that what God offers all
humanity is life-giving water, inexhaustible possibilities for new life. This is
a pretty amazing offer that stretches the woman’s imagination since Jacob’s well
had been there some 1700 years. It is a wonderful image of the power of God to
give life. Back in Exodus 17 Moses had stood at a rock in the wilderness
striking it impatiently trying to force the flow of life-giving water. Here
living water is freely offered to the woman. She does nothing to earn it.
Jesus talks longer to the woman than he does to anyone else in all the Gospels,
longer than to any of his disciples, longer than to any of his accusers, longer
than to any of his own family. When the woman hears Jesus tell her life story of
having more husbands than Elizabeth Taylor and now living with a sixth man, she
realizes she is hearing the voice of God. By telling the woman who she is, Jesus
shows her who he is. By confirming her true identity, he reveals his. And, that
is how it still happens. The Messiah is the one in whose presence we know who we
really are, the good in us, the bad in us, the sorrow, and the hope.
The woman’s response is most interesting and very human. My guess is we would
pursue a similar tact. She tries to divert his attention away from her and her
past, to a theological discussion based on the rivalry between Jews and
Samaritans. Jews claimed God ought to be worshiped on the temple mount in
Jerusalem. Samaritans claimed that Mount Gerizim in Samaria was the proper place
to worship. As we well know from history and personal experience, these kinds of
arguments can go on endlessly. We hear these kinds of arguments between
different groups right here in our community, and of course, between different
religions around the world. The woman was pointing to ideas people had about
God, including where and how to worship God. Among other things, the people of
Judea and Samaria in Jesus’ day used their conflicting ideas as weapons with
which to hold each other at bay. This same process is still going on in the
Middle East, and among many others peoples of the world today. However, Jesus,
or God in human flesh, is less interested in ideas about God that a relationship
with God. Jesus says true worship is to worship in spirit and truth. This is our
true calling, to know God directly, to experience who God truly is. Jesus says
to the woman, “I am he.” This is Jesus’ first self-revelation in this gospel,
and it is to a Samaritan and a woman
Jesus has harvested her, gathered her into God’s love and care. Jesus is an
international harvester. The woman runs to her village and tells the people what
she has experienced. They come to see Jesus. Perhaps the field ripe for
harvesting was the crowd of Samaritan townspeople clad in white robes coming to
the well to see Jesus. He is encouraging his disciples to break down barriers,
to share God’s love with the Samaritans. He is encouraging them to become
international harvesters.
John reports that many believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony. Thus,
she becomes an international harvester as well. She is the first outsider to
guess who he is and tell others. At the beginning of this story this Samaritan
woman is a loser. This past week, someone in the office saw today’s sermon title
in print. This person said, “International Harvester? The truck? If you invested
in that, you surely were a loser.” However, our female Samaritan international
harvester, by the end of the story is no loser. She has been transformed into a
most effective witness for Jesus. Her return on Jesus’ investment in her is
phenomenal.
John closes the story by saying many believed because of the woman’s testimony,
and many more believed because of Jesus’ word. The townspeople stated, “We have
heard for ourselves and we know this is truly the Savior of the world.” This
last statement is not a put-down of the woman. Rather, she humbly stands aside
so her fellow villagers can have their own direct experience of God. She is a
wonderful model for all of us in religious leadership, as she fully points to
Jesus and takes no glory for herself.
God in Jesus seeks us all. None of us are losers. God wants a direct
relationship with each of us. Our soul-quest is to experience God. In that
strength, we can invite others to experience God as well.
The day we moved into our home in Tucson, the next door neighbors, Hank and
Maureen, came over, introduced themselves, gave us their phone numbers, and
handed us a still warm pineapple upside-down cake. Now, I will confess that
pineapple upside-down cake was not my favorite cake, at least until that moment,
but it tasted unbelievably good. I believe it tasted so good because it was made
with authentic Christian love for strangers, us. We quickly became very good
friends. He lost his job in a downsizing process. About that time I happened to
mention to him that the United Methodist church where my office was located was
looking for a youth minister. It never dawned on me that he might apply for the
job since they were both Roman Catholic. Unbeknownst to me, he did apply for and
was hired for the job. The church had a large parking lot and a lot of the
neighborhood kids would skateboard and just hang-out there in the late evening
hours. One of Hank’s first moves was to go to the church trustees and convince
them to install basketball standards and lighting in the parking lot. His
argument was that the kids were already on the church property, why not make it
positive for them to be there. Such interest in them would show a sincere desire
to help them. Hank and a corps of volunteers spent their evenings in the parking
lot reaching out across ethnic and economic barriers to a whole group of youth.
Slowly, one by one, a number of the youth became a part of the church community.
In welcoming strangers, in baking cakes, in welcoming excluded youth, Hank and
Maureen gave many people a direct experience of the love of God.
We all witness to God’s love when we reach across barriers to bless another
human being. You too can become an international harvester.*
- - - - -
[*]
Notes: Ideas for this sermon came from John N. Blackwell, A Whole New
World: The Gospel of John, and Barbara Brown Taylor, “Face to Face With
God,” Christian Century, February 28, 1996.
Audio