February 24, 2008 – Third Sunday in Lent
John 4:5-42
Grace and peace to you from God the Creator, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
One day a lady criticized Pastor D. L. Moody for his methods of evangelism in attempting to win people to the Lord. Moody's reply was, "I agree with you. I don't like the way I do it either. Tell me, how do you do it?" The lady replied, "I don't do it." Moody retorted, "Then I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it."
Evangelism, second only to “stewardship,” the most feared words in the church’s vocabulary. In fact, we’ve abused it so badly in the last few generations that we aren’t even sure what it means anymore. Why, just the other day I had someone ask me, “Just what does ‘evangelical’ mean?” Well, according to Wikipedia’s Wiktionary, is an adjective which describes “of, or relating to, Christian churches which believe in the sole authority of the gospel,” and (second definition) “of, or relating to, Protestant (especially Lutheran) churches in Germany.” Since neither of those definitions really get to the heart of the word, it’s time for our “Greek for the week.” The word evangel literally means “good news,” “gospel” such that an “evangelist” is someone who preaches good news, and evangelical would be someone who believes in that good news as the primary. Unfortunately, in connection with the American political scene, conservative Christians have taken up the title “evangelical” to mean only those who have a fundamentalist theology, which includes a literal translation of scripture. Therefore it is difficult for those of us who have historically considered ourselves “evangelical” to say we are, these days – and we make a vain attempt to distinguish the different by pronouncing the word “EV an gelical” instead of “EE van gel ical.” Sometimes words take unexpected shifts which color their meanings. But then, sometimes, there are unexpected evangelists, especially in the Biblical stories: shepherds, Greeks, women…
Today’s story from the Gospel of John, is preceded by Jesus learning that the religious leaders are concerned that he and his disciples have now surpassed the numbers baptized by John, and they are not sure they like the competition! So Jesus is “escaping” the religious establishment of Jerusalem and plans to return up north to the Galilee. To do that in the most direct way, means that Jesus will have to travel through Samaria – an area of Israel not favored by Jews because the Samaritans were no longer following the laws of Moses in the same way as the Jews in Judea. They had intermarried, they had chosen to worship on Mount Gerazim rather than Mount Zion (at the Temple) and in all things religious they had been at odds with the traditions. And one might wonder if that isn’t exactly why Jesus chose to travel this particular route. For Jesus is an evangelist, and he is flinging the good news of God out in waves from his starting point. First it was just himself and God in the wilderness, then he began to speak to the “insiders” through Nicodemus, and today he reaches further all the way to the “outsiders” of Samaria through this woman at a well. What is unclear to us from the Bible is whether Jesus intended to go outside the circle of the chosen people of Israel. But in today’s encounter from John, we get the same sort of consideration by Jesus that he began in Mark’s gospel with the Syro-Phoenician woman who brought him up short with the remark, “Even the dogs get the scraps from the rich man’s table.” So even Jesus can be reminded that evangelism is intended to go out from the heart of God to the whole, wide world. And just as Jesus came to us, shouldn’t we be going out to them as well? Going out as Jesus did, “to seek and to save the lost?”
Now, if you are an average American Christian, you probably are not comfortable with the idea of evangelism. It might be because you don’t feel equipped, after all the Bible isn’t as easy to understand as most of the “how to” books available at Border’s. And if the conversation that Jesus and this woman at the well have today is any indication of how well we understand the Bible, we are in big trouble! For this conversation is on waaay too many levels, and we do not have the keys to unlock the deeper meaning. Or so we may think. But the heart of the matter is always the simplest…and one thing is abundantly clear – there are as there have always been, insiders & outsiders. Now, of course, we Christians are on the “inside” (be careful!) for it seems that all throughout the gospel stories, “insiders” come to Jesus to “understand him” on their own terms, while Jesus goes to the outsiders, seeks them out and engages them before they have a chance to come to him. It was not different in Jesus’ time: insiders & outsiders – and many ways to keep things exactly as they were.
The Jews – kept themselves holy, by separating from all other nations - Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans the text reminds us. Men – kept the Law for the purpose of holiness; and retained their ritual purity by staying apart from women. Men did not speak to women in public, not even their wives. And Women – kept separate from men most of their lives - existed only to serve and to provide for the family lineage through the male children. These expectations were clear. And they were rigidly observed by those who sought to be seen as righteous by each other, and to find favor with the God of Israel. Problem is that sometimes these expectations got in the way of who people were, especially Jesus.
It reminds me of a woman who just a week ago was asking me what she should do in the case of a friend of hers. Seems that there had been some bad blood between them during a recent situation, but then the friend had had some serious misfortune. The woman wanted very much to go over to her house and offer her sympathy and a caring ear. But she was afraid that the woman would not receive her, and she “Didn’t want to just stand there and take more verbal abuse.” “How would you handle the same situation if this were someone else in your community?” I asked. “Well, I’d be right there with some tea and sympathy!” “Well then,” said I, “Don’t let what you expect her to do keep you from being who you are.”
And who was this woman who Jesus met that noon at a well in Samaria? “When she woke up it was hot, dry; not even close to noon and she was thirsty – deeply parched – dried up, shriveled, spent. The man was gone, the children scattered, and she lay there wondering if she would ever feel alive. She had tried so hard to find a way to be loved. Five times she had taken husbands, and none of them had been able to give her life. They had tried, and she had tried, but in the end, she felt all used up.
So she dragged herself from sleep and shouldered the water pot and trudged through the sunlight one more day to that well, that (blasted) well that was central to her people’s history, (the patriarch of her people, Jacob had been given the land and the well, and it was here he had encountered his wife - it was a favorite love story that her people told over and over.) And it was here, in the center of town, where everyone gathered to gossip and share. It was here that she felt the sting of her situation’s hurt the most. For somehow God had willed it that she must come here daily to draw water for her family – and be reminded that she did not belong, that she was wrong, and dry, and stuck in a life she despised. Every day. Every day at noon, when she could not stand the heat and the dust one more minute, but it was the only time she knew she’d be alone. But not today.
“Give me a drink; and if you would have asked, I would have given you Living Water.” What? Living water meant the gift of the Holy Spirit all thought the Hebrew scriptures. Another man…speaking riddles. You know, sometimes our needs deceive us, and we are the last person to know what will really bring us back to life. On this day, she was about to be found by the treasure she didn’t even know she was looking for – the home she never knew – she had to say something. “I know that Messiah is coming, and when he comes he will proclaim all things to us.” Then Jesus said to her, “I AM he, the one who is speaking to you.” Clear, concise, the answer to our modern question, “Why didn’t Jesus just tell people who he was?” Well in this story he does. And for that clarity, you gotta love John’s gospel – Jesus is GOD – and there is never any doubt of that. But this poor woman, even with that assurance, has to find other validation for her hope, “He couldn’t be the Messiah, could he?”
The insiders remain in, the outsiders remain out. But there is one thing that reaches across the gap created by our expectations and that is the good news of God’s love for all. We see it all the time, as people are touched when love wells up through joy as well as pain and sorrow. Perhaps you have seen the Kleenex “Let it Out” campaign. These commercials are just like a project of Mike Johnson (our friend Pastor Tim from Minnetonka’s brother…) Mike and his wife Cheryl started The Purple Couch.com - Stories from America’s living room. They put out a purple couch, invite people to sit down and tell their stories…Stories that touch your heart – like the God who comes to you…with no expectations; no requirements; no insiders no outsiders. Only a desire to connect to your story, and to give you Living Water; New Life.
Finally, I’d like to share with you a wonderful story about expectations from Christian author Brennan Manning: A few years ago, rumors spread that a certain Catholic woman was having visions of Jesus. The archbishop decided to check her out.
“Is it true, ma'am, that you have visions of Jesus?” asked the cleric. “Yes,” the woman replied.
“Well, the next time you have a vision, I want you to ask Jesus to tell you the sins that I confessed in my last confession. Please call me if anything happens.”
Ten days later the woman notified her spiritual leader of a recent apparition. Within the hour the archbishop arrived. “What did Jesus say?” he asked.
She took his hand and gazed deep into his eyes. “Bishop,” she said, “these are his exact words:
‘I CAN'T REMEMBER.’”
Ours is a God who will not remember all those expectations you had of yourself which got in the way of you being who you were made to be. May you be filled today by the new life Jesus brings to you. And may you leave the water jar of your daily life at the rail. Now listen again to a love story our people tell:
John 4:5-42 The Story of the Woman at the Well
So Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
27Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30They left the city and were on their way to him…
3139Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord! Thanks be to God.
