"Welcomed In" - Sermon for Lent 3 2017

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gives us living water and everlasting life.

            First things first, she is not a woman of ill-repute, she is not an immoral woman, or sexually impure, or any of the many other things that have been leveled against her over the millennia. In her conversation with Jesus nowhere does Jesus do anything other than state a simple fact, she had 5 husbands and is not married to the one she is currently with. Nowhere in what he says, or his tone is there any mention of her therefore being a sinner or in need of repentance because of this. If anything it shows that she is the victim here. Having 5 husbands is in no way her fault, only the man could initiate divorce at that time, for pretty much anything, some scholars have said even for just burning dinner. The other very real possibility is that she has had 5 husbands die, has had to go through that grief 5 different times, and finally decided, I can’t go through with that possibility again, and so is not married. Many have made the point that since she comes at noon, she must be cut-off from the community, and by herself means that she’s an outsider. Now that could be, maybe that’s what’s going on, but, it also doesn’t say anything like that in our text, there’s no reference to that. What it being noon means more is about Jesus being tired and wanting a drink.

            The problem is that we forget that this story is not about this woman, but it’s about Jesus. I’ve said this many times before, but what the bible tells us, is more and more about who Jesus is, and thereby who God is. We have a tendency to look at texts like this and think that it’s instead about this woman, and then we try to figure out who she is, to create a back-story for her, and often what emerges is a rather sexist narrative.

            But, this text is not about her, it’s about Jesus interacting with her. All that matters about who she is is that she’s coming to this well when Jesus wants a drink, she’s had 5 husbands which Jesus somehow knows, and that she’s educated and smart enough to hold the longest conversation with Jesus in the whole bible. In the entire rest of the 4 gospels, this is the longest interaction and conversation recorded.

            We shouldn’t be making up ill-reputes about her, but should be amazed that she knows so much and that she’s brave enough to not just run away when a stranger starts talking to her.

            Since it’s noon, it’s in the heat of the day, and Jesus, travelling back to Galilee from Jerusalem, stops to get a drink. This woman has come to get water, again there is nothing to say that it’s because she’s been cut off from the community since she comes in the middle of the day, it could simply be, she needs water, so she goes to get water. I love the interchange between them, Jesus uses a simple question to initiate a larger conversation. Jesus asks her for a drink, “Why are you asking me for a drink? You’re a Jew, I’m a Samaritan, we don’t associate with each other, we don’t talk to each other.” “If you knew who I am, you’d ask me for a drink, and I’d give you living water.” “Sir, you have no bucket. How on earth are you going to get any water?” “My water comes from no well, the water I give will well up in them as everlasting life.” “Sir, Give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

            In three exchanges, Jesus has gone from a stranger she distrusts, an outsider she things she shouldn’t even talk to, to someone who will give her what she wants most in life.

            But, then Jesus goes more than that, he asks another question to which he already knows that answer. I’ve got no husband. “No, you’ve had 5, and the one you have now is not your husband.” Up to now, it’s been Jesus steering the conversation, he brought up living water, he turned his need for a drink, and her obvious need to get water in the middle of the noon heat into a conversation around conversion, what can Jesus do for you. Give you living water which leads to eternal life.

            But, now she leads the conversation. You seem to know all about me, you know the deepest parts of my life. You must be a prophet, so then I have a question for you. I’m a Samaritan, my people worship on this Mountain, mount Gerizim, and you a Jew say that we are in the wrong and we must worship in Jerusalem. What is it?

            There is a lot of wonderful stuff in this chapter so far. I could continue to talk about that Jesus offers us living water as well. I could talk about the fact that Jesus knows who she is, and thereby, Jesus knows who we are.

            Both of those things are important to this woman. She wants that living water, she is amazed that he knows these deep things about her. But what causes her to run back to the village is Jesus response to her question, where should we worship, our spot or your spot. Jesus responds, “The hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. The time is coming when worshipers will worship in spirit and truth.” In other words, soon through what I will accomplish you will see that God is not constrained to a temple in Jerusalem, nor a mountain in Samaria. There will be no division, nor hatred, nor separation based on this. All will worship God together. What matters is not where you worship now, but that all will be welcomed to worship everywhere.

            This text is not about this woman, it’s about the radical way that Jesus invites her into the faith. The first non-Jewish convert. He welcomes someone who even to this day people talk down to, who may be pushed aside, who to the disciples is not even worthy of conversation. He welcomes her not only to have a drink of living water, but to be returned to a faith greater than any. He offers to her, that she is the first to know that he is the messiah, the Christ, the savior of the world, the one to proclaim all things.

            And she responds by running to tell everyone a very Jesus thing. Come and See. It’s the same phrase that Jesus used to call the first disciples in John. Jesus has not just made a convert here, he has made a disciple. Someone who will go and share his message of radical inclusion, of those who were outside, not worthy to be addressed, are now joined to the faith, given living water.

            As we continue through Lent, it’s a season of preparation, a season where we witness what Jesus has done and will do for us through the cross, but it is also a season where we are to work more and more about what that all means to us. To work more and more on the fact that we too are disciples, we too are people who should run from here to tell all that we see about the one who knows everything about us, tell everyone we see about the messiah who saves us, and dies for us, and gives us living water and everlasting life.

            Let us pray,

God of mercy, thank you for being our messiah, our Christ, our savior. Help us to be your disciples, telling the world about you and inviting them to worship so they too may come and see. Amen.