Sermon for John 4:5-42
Third Sunday in Lent
February 24th 2008
Wow! What a text uh? I could probably put together 6-8 sermons each lasting about 45 minutes. What do you think of that? Well seeing that I only have about 20 minutes, I want us to look at a couple aspects of today’s gospel that hopefully help us to become more like the one who came to save us.
Seeing that Lent is a time of struggle, a time of growth we are given texts that seem to challenge more than normal. Therefore, it is difficult to share some of things that need to be said, yet must be said.
First things first! Not much has changed in the course of human history. The Samaritans were hated by the Jews. You see, some 600 years before Christ the nation of Israel was taken into captivity by Babylon. Yet not all were taken. Mostly the Jews on the high end of the economic ladder were made slaves. Makes sense to leave the weak and the unimportant behind.
What happened was that during the 70 years of captivity the Israelites left behind began to intermarry and combine culture others in the area. The result was a mixed race, part Jew and part Gentile. What we might now call the Palestinians.
These new “half breeds” practiced a blended form of the Jewish religion, and so when the educated religious Jews returned from exile they drove these unclean people out of Jerusalem and Judea. They moved north into Samaria and there you have the Samaritans. The Jews had such animosity for the Samaritans they refused to even walk through their country.
This posed a problem cause if you wished to travel from Judea to Galilee, Samaria was in the middle and so the devout Jews would go out of their way, cross the Jordan River, travel north and then cross back over the Jordan.
Like I said, not much has changed in the course of human history.
Midway through Christianity’s history, 1000 after the death of Christ, the educated and religious leaders wanting to promote their beliefs, set out to conquer the world with the message of Love from Jesus the Christ. They attempted to spread this Love through the Crusades and the Inquisition. They did this by the sword, making those different from them confess their faith or die. They did however baptize those who would not accept the Love of God before they killed them. This was to enable them not to die in their sins.
Like I said, not much has changed in the course of human history.
I can remember not too long ago in Hickory NC, there were technically two parts of the city, rich and poor, white and black. White schools, black school, white restrooms, black restrooms, and on and on. The main streets were even rerouted so one did not have to go through the black section of town.
My father, a Lutheran pastor, doing the work of Christ, began assisting with the civil rights movement. He had a large church in the white neighborhood, some 2000 members, and one Sunday the dean of English at Duke University attended our all white congregation. The following Sunday there stood a sign that read, “No Niggers Allowed.”
Like I said, not much has changed in the course of human history.
I can remember not too long ago in Louisville KY, there were technically two parts of the church, male and female. The women could do all the grunt work, while the men were the only ones who could make the decisions and proclaim the good news. One particular Sunday a female pastor stood up in the pulpit and began to share with us one of the most powerful sermons I’ve ever heard. Close to half of the congregation walked out.
Like I said, not much has changed in the course of human history.
I can remember like it was yesterday in Southern Indiana, there were technically two parts of the church, now they weren’t equally divided in number, but equally divided in attitude over heterosexual and homosexual. Sure the gays and lesbians were told they are welcome to do the grunt work, but just don’t proclaim the message of Christ’s love. Cause if you do, then we’ll go find another church that doesn’t have homosexuals, women pastors, or people who are different than us.
Like I said, not much has changed in the course of human history.
It’s little wonder the Church is falling flat on its face and fighting what seems to be a losing battle—even though the war has been won. We proclaim the Words of Jesus as the Christ, but live our lives in total opposition to the message. Think of it this way.
Would you go to a doctor whose reputation was that of killing his/her patients? Of course not! What a stupid question. Would you take swimming lessons from one who could not swim, or financial advice from one who was broke? Would you buy a product that promised to make you look Greek god or goddess from a person who weighed 450 pounds and smelled like a dead fish? Of course not! What a stupid question.
Then can we expect the youth of our society, the broken and down trodden, the highly intelligent and searching, anybody different than us to buy into the message of the life changing gospel from people whose lives aren’t being changed a bit? Of course not! What a stupid question.
But hopefully, hopefully much can change in our personal lives and in the course of human history if only, if only we would learn from Jesus in today’s lesson?
Jesus the Christ, God incarnate shattered any idea of stereotypes and prejudices. He shatters any idea that who we are, male, female, Jew, Greek, black, white, straight, gay, saint, sinner makes any difference to a God of Love—We are all offered “Living Water.”
That simple fact is the heart of the Christian faith and had better start making an enormous difference how we live out the Gospel.
You know Jesus could have easily done what any good Jew would have done and gone around Samaria, but no! In the verse right before today’s reading it says, “He had to go.” He had to go, because that is what Jesus came for.
He came to a Samaritan. Not only a Samaritan, but a woman Samaritan. Not only a woman Samaritan, but a woman Samaritan scarred by life, a sinner who could not even gather water around her own kind. She had to wait until the heat of day so she would not be seen.
And here my friends is the beauty of God’s Love and Forgiveness, Jesus knows every single thing about this woman and still he offers to her living water, the truth of the gospel, and the knowledge of God Almighty, with open arms, not with words of condemnation.
Now I want you all to do me a favor! No, do yourself a favor. I know you hate when I say that, and this one may be a little unpleasant. Look to your left. Look to your right. Look at the person in front of you. Look at the person behind you.
Now what if any of those people surrounding you knew every single thing about you? I mean everything you’ve ever thought, said, or done? What if they knew your deepest darkest secrets? What if they knew every one of your transgressions? Ouch! Would even those closest to you, still accept you with open arms if they truly knew what you are like?
Yet can we learn from Jesus in today’s lesson? I sure hope so, because Jesus the Christ, God incarnate shatters any idea of exclusion and any notice of prejudice. He offers the Living Waters of Love and Forgiveness to everyone.
Next time you find yourself being tempted to judge by skin color, gender, life style remember the heart of Christ, and simply turn around and look at yourself in the mirror.
Because in that mirror you will see the Samaritan women, a person who is an outcast Gentile, a person who is hated by many throughout the world, a sinner who has a past just like that poor woman ashamed to be seen. And yet Jesus knows every single thing about you and still he offers to you the living water of Forgiveness and Love—the truth of the gospel. He offers you the knowledge of God Almighty, with open arms. Struggle with that fact.
There’s one last thing I would like to point out about this text. While Jesus shatters the boundaries of prejudice and comes to all sinners alike. Notice what the poor Samaritan woman does next. She becomes the first Gentile evangelist of the gospels.
Get that folks! Tell me the Bible isn’t full of unexpected twist and turns—like life.
Your very first non-Jew disciple/pastor was a shady, sinful woman despised by the religious leader of the day. Sort of funny!
She leaves her jar. She goes back to her city and says, “Come and see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done and still he offers me life.” She wasn’t now perfect, her past still lingered in her memories, but first the first time this woman was accepted for who she was.
It says, many other Samaritans from the city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony and Jesus stayed amongst the outcast for two days, for two days.
They didn’t believe because now she was better than them, she was still a sinner, but they believed because they saw a change. They saw that whoever this person Jesus was he had caused something different and exciting in this woman—and they were curious.
That’s what we need to do in our homes, in our work places, in our schools, in our communities, in our churches. We need to begin to make people curious as to what has happened in our lives.
Can we look in the mirror and realize that we are no better, no worse than any sinner in God’s good creation? And then, then can we go out as something different and exciting telling others—using words if necessary—about a certain man named Jesus who knows all about my faults and yet is willing to offer living water with open arms?
I sure hope so, because not only does my life need a little changing, the course of history needs some changing, and it will only change through the Love of Christ Jesus shown to the world by you with open arms. Amen
