50 Day Spiritual Adventure, July 16, 2000
Sermon by Rev. Laurel Bobb
It was a hot May afternoon when
I went to draw water--something I did every day about this time.
I didn’t think much about it when I saw a stranger standing
nearby, although I did notice that he was a Jew, and that was
something I didn’t see every day. You see Jews don’t
usually come through these parts. They consider us Samaritans
half-breeds, and we don’t like them any better.
You can imagine my surprise when the man asked me for a drink. Then he really confused me by talking about living water; I was game. Why should I have to come here to draw water from this deep well when he was offering it free and easy? But I knew there had to be a catch and there was.
He told me to call my husband and come back. I don’t know how he got onto that topic, but he must have sensed he struck a nerve. My partner and I weren’t married, although I had been married many more than the acceptable number of times. I was outcast because of it. I somehow felt I had to tell this man the truth because I knew there was something different about him.
I told him of my situation and that I believed he must be a prophet. Then I turned the conversation to religion. Isn’t that all religious people want to talk about? I figured I could at least divert attention from myself. I always wanted to know why the Jews didn’t worship like we did anyhow, and here was my chance.
He told me that it didn’t matter where we worshiped so much as how--not in what manner or style, but in spirit and truth he said. Next I told him I believed that Messiah was coming and that he would show us everything. I wasn’t ready for what he said next. He told me that he was that Messiah. I just knew he was telling the truth.
It was then his disciples came. You should have seen the look on their faces when they saw him talking to me, a Samaritan woman--something no good Jewish rabbi would think of doing. He didn’t make any excuses or try to cover it up and they didn’t dare question him, but I could tell they were amazed. I never felt so loved and accepted as I did at that moment. I threw propriety to the wind. It didn’t matter if I was an outcast; my people needed to hear this. I ran and told everyone I knew, "Come, meet a man who told me everything I ever did! This couldn’t be the Messiah could it?" Many people from my town came to listen to him because of me.
That was the way this encounter between Jesus and the woman from Samaria could have been told. As I see it the Samaritan had three strikes against her. First she was a woman. That in and of itself would be enough to keep her from having any serious religious education at that time, and certainly would have precluded an encounter with any normal rabbi. Second, she was a Samaritan--a foreigner, a half-breed. Third, she was a person of disreputable moral standing.
Of all people on earth she seemed to be one of the most unlikely to have an encounter with the Son of God, and yet he sought her out. One of the reasons they had to go through Samaria might have been just so this encounter could occur. Jesus chose to reveal himself to unlikely people such as she. He cared for the improbable and unlovable, and urges his followers to do the same because we, too, have been improbable, unlovable candidates for membership in the family of God, yet God adopted us for the sake of his Son.
Now think about how would you feel if Jesus were here today and you came in to find him talking to. . . .--you put in the despised kind of person. Is this a person of a different race, or gender, or class, or moral standing? Or is the kind of person you look down on not as intelligent, or nerdy, or freaky, or scrawny or heavy? Do they go to a different school or live in the wrong part of town? Are they of a different denomination whose beliefs are very different from ours, or worse yet, do they want to worship in a style that you can’t get into?
There are many criteria by which we judge people. Even if we say we have no prejudices, I’ll bet there is something that would really bother you if you had to be in close proximity to "a person like that"--or if they would marry into the family! Then what would you do? How would you treat that person?
That is the focus of our 50-Day adventure for today. Jesus shattered the stereotypes of "us and "them." Jesus went out of his way to draw in those people others considered outsiders. How well do we step out of our comfort zones to include those people who seem to be outcasts? When you leave this worship space do you make it a point to talk to someone who is alone or do you rush right for your friends? Do you talk to that eccentric neighbor and consider doing something nice for him, or do you engage in the local gossip about how odd he is? Do you try to make friends with the kid at school that really looks different, or are you afraid you won’t seem cool to the rest of the crowd if you strike up a conversation with her? What about that irritating supervisor at work, or the guy who’s always trying to gain brownie points? Do you help him to get ahead in the company?
We often keep our distance from those who seem very unlike us. We don’t even try to get to know them. We fail to remember that they need to know the love of God every bit as much as we do, and if they did, their whole lives might be changed. At least if we try to get to know them our attitudes may change.
Let’s look at how Jesus interacted with the woman at the well to get some ideas on how we might approach others that we consider different from us. First off, Jesus spoke to her need. She was coming out to the well in the hottest portion of the day. The cream of society didn’t do that; besides this well was deep and there were other springs and wells in the town that would be more convenient. So Jesus engages her in conversation about water--something she’d be interested in having.
What might we talk about to people of our day? Perhaps we would talk technology. MTV, computers, and videos are hot topics today. That might be a way we could attract people from other generations and/or socio-economic groups.
What else did Jesus do? He recognized that there was some feeling of failure in the woman’s life and helped her confront it. When she could see herself as she was and then discover that she was loved and accepted by the Messiah anyhow, she took on a whole new personality. The woman who snuck out of town to get water in the middle of the day when all the respectable people were resting in the shade, had the boldness to go to the heart of the city and proclaim Jesus.
That is why it is so exciting for me to be around new believers. They challenge me to take God at his Word and tell others of his mighty acts. They have faith to believe God’s going to do what he said he’d do. That’s also why I’m looking forward to our Alpha class and in the future to beginning a new kind of service, perhaps a multi-media service to attract those people who aren’t a part of our worshiping congregation now. In order to do these things, however it’s going to take some investment and risk on our part. It’s going to take our funding of the equipment and it’s going to take us stepping out of our comfort zones to invite people to come and see, just as the woman of Samaria went to other people and asked them to check out Jesus for themselves.
It’s scary to step out in faith in this way. It’s an anxious time for me trusting in God to provide both the best equipment and the personnel to run these programs. It’s even more of a subject of prayer for me to ask that God will use you to invite those who need to be here, and when it comes right down to it, whom do we know who doesn’t need to learn about Jesus and decide whether or not they will serve him as Lord of their lives?
We are beginning to take seriously this call of Christ to go out to those who are rejected by society in the Bridge ministry, and just look how God is blessing that program! It has gone from nothing to once a month and now once a week--all in a few short months. Now God is challenging us to reach out closer to home--to the people we see every day--people with whom we work or go to school or see in the neighborhood or at the mall or ballfield. Jesus is asking us to look at others not as different so we can’t justify ignoring them or turning up our noses at them, but as people, like us, for whom Christ has died. When we begin to look at people in this way we will begin to care about how and when we can reach out to them to establish a relationship with them. Once this relationship is established we will discover their needs and how best to minister to them. We will also care about what would be the most effective way of reaching them with the Gospel instead of assuming that everyone should want to get it the way we do.
Then, brothers and sisters, we will be doing what Christ has
called us to do. We will be his instruments for adopting other
people into his family so that many more will come to be known
as God’s own people to the praise of his glory.
Copyright 2000 by Rev. Laurel Bobb