Samaritan Woman Sermon

SAMARITAN WOMAN SERMON

High Noon

TEXT: JOHN 4:3-42

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE

The scripture wasn't always written down. It was often conveyed to readers through oral storytelling. We're going to experience the old way of "hearing" scripture during Lent this year. Instead of reading it from a book, it will be presented in dramatic form by a team of talented Pilgrim actors. Today, it is the story of an encounter Jesus had with a woman at a well.

I love mysteries, puzzles, and word games. Nancy Drew was my hero but I also imagined myself as a clever code-breaker who could decipher spy messages and save my people from evil-doers. Yes, I really did have a Tom Mix secret decoder ring. Who knew that being in the ministry would be a good outlet for these childhood fantasies? Reading the Gospel of John is an exercise in code-breaking. It is filled with symbols. Everything is more than it appears to be; we are expected to look for hidden meanings. In this story, an outcast woman is the first evangelist. She is a disciple who outperforms the men who have been following Jesus as his closest companions. In this story, enemies become friends, opening their homes in hospitable welcome. Water is sustenance for the body and also a mysterious "living water" that nurtures a deep spiritual thirst.

BREAKING MORAL AND SOCIAL CODES ~ CONVERSATION AND COMPASSION

There is another kind of code-breaking going on in the story as well, and that is Jesus' defiance of moral and social codes as he meets this woman at the well in Samaria and engages her in a long conversation. He starts it all with his request, "I'm thirsty. Can you give me a drink?"

Often when this story is told, the number of the women's marriages is used against her. She's considered a first century Paris Hilton; flitting from man to man. Or she's dismissed as a prostitute. I don't think so. No woman had that kind of autonomy in that Middle Eastern culture. They were property; passed down from man to man. If your husband died, it was his brother's responsibility to take you into his household as one of his wives. So her position is probably just the opposite of the mythology that surrounds her.

Instead of a self-indulgent, promiscuous woman, she is more likely suffering from her many losses, passed around like an object, looked on with pity and maybe isolated by the bad luck that seems to follow her.

The fact that she comes to the well at noon when nobody else is about gives a hint at her alienation. The rest of the village women would travel to the well together early in the day.

When she tells the villagers, "He told me everything I ever did," it's just possible that what Jesus knows about her is not just the facts of her life, but the sorrow she has endured and the loneliness, despair, and anxiety of her situation. Maybe he told her that he knew about the tears she shed when her husband died; the humiliation of being a second or maybe even third wife in how many families, no more than a servant. Maybe he knew about her pacing night after night as she worried about what would happen to her. Maybe he told her how brave she was to keep on visiting that well every day in spite of wanting to give up.

THE PERSONAL ENCOUNTER

This deeply personal interaction is the first meaning I want to draw from this story. Jesus meets this woman as a person worthy of respect. He does not dismiss her questions but engages them. This is way outside the realm of proper social behavior of that time. Jews did not talk to Samaritans. She's acting outside of the norms too. Samaritans didn't talk to Jews either. She should have turned around and gone back to the village.

And men didn't talk to women in public. Another taboo shattered. When his disciples discover Jesus leaning toward her in animated conversation, they are shocked.

That interpersonal meeting of the minds and spirits between Jesus and this un-named woman, this is the microcosm from which we draw analogies to our own lives. How Jesus meets us where we are most needy, respects our questions, and offers living water-grace and mercy-for the healing of our broken hearts and broken dreams. How Jesus offers living water to make something green come alive in us.

The macrocosm, is found in this passage. It has enormous relevance to our national and global situation right now.

JOHN 4: 21 and 23-24 GOD'S LOVE IS UNIVERSAL

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you (plural-all of us) will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ... But 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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

Jews and Samaritans were once one people. They were divided when the Babylonians conquered their land. After this period of captivity, part of them returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple there. Others, the Samaritans, adapted to their exile, assimilated into the culture, and created a center of worship on Mt. Gerazim. They chose not to return to Jerusalem. From that time, 500 years before this meeting at the well, the Samaritans and Jews were bitter enemies. Jews traveling north would take a big circular route to avoid Samaritan territory. No Jew would cross over into its borders. So even the very first line in this reading, "He came to a Samaritan city called Sychar," would have been shocking to the people who were hearing it.

TRANSGRESSING NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES

Just as social boundaries are transgressed as Jesus talks to this woman, national and religious differences are confronted as Jesus defies the geographical boundaries. Oh, here is a lesson yet to be learned. These tribal enmities are alive and well. Still we continue to perpetrate violence against one another-Muslims and Christians against each other in Bosnia, Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq. It is certainly not over. Just this week I read a disturbing article in the Atlantic Monthly about the Anglican Church of Nigeria (host to many of the dissident American Anglican churches). Its Archbishop, Peter Akinola, is fueling Muslim/Christian conflict in that country saying things like "Let no Muslim think they have the monopoly on violence."

Both factions cite their scriptures to legitimate rape and violence. Women and children are targeted-yes, by so-called Christians-hacked with machetes, their bodies burned. Mosques and churches are set ablaze. (The Atlantic Monthly. March 2008. Eliza Griswold. "The Contest for Africa." pp. 41-55.)

CONFRONTING RELIGIOUS HATRED HERE AND NOW

Here in the United States, there are deep religious fissures; conservatives demonizing progressives and progressives returning the favor. Does anybody read the Gospels? How is it possible that a church can stray so far from the one who said "love your enemies?" How do we miss stories like this one today where Jesus specifically criticizes religious doctrines and practices that divide people from one another. Jesus speaks of worshiping God in spirit and in truth apart from particular locations and religious formulas. He must be weeping.

Today our Confirmation is going to visit the Islamic Center of Boston. We'll talk with their leaders, ask questions, and try to gain understanding. We will go with an attitude of respect and they will meet us with the same attitude. On Friday, we're worshiping with our Jewish friends at Temple Isaiah.

The kids have been to a mass at St. Brigids and a service at the African American Episcopal Church in Cambridge.

I have a feeling that they'll be learning a lot. But I also think they'll come to the conclusion that their way is best-not because it is morally, spiritually, or theologically superior, but because it is familiar. It is our way. I think that is just fine. As long as we understand that it is best for us. That our forms of worship are only one pathway to the divine encounter. One of many.

Another thing that I love about the story for today is the way in contrasts with the Nicodemus story of last week. It underscores the different ways we can come to an understanding of God. Everything is different in these two stories.

Nicodemus the powerful, privileged male comes by night and goes away unconvinced. He needs to ponder some more.

The Samaritan, a despised, outcast woman who doesn't even have a name meets Jesus in brightest daylight. Unlike Nicodemus, she is convinced and goes on to tell the good news to others.

We learn of thousands of characters throughout scripture and history, each of them looking for God in his or her own way. Each one seeking "living water" to animate their lives. One pastor wrote: Water will find a way through. May we let that living water wear down and break through every barrier we have built between ourselves and others. (Rev. Roger Nichols, Joplin, MO.)

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