Lent 3A
March 15, 2020
John 4:[3-4] 5-41
Note: COVID-19, first week of online services
INTRODUCTION
A few things you need to know about this Gospel reading before you hear it. First of all, I’ve added a couple verses, to include the line, “Jesus had to go through Samaria.” You may recall, Jews and Samaritans, although they shared the same roots, did not get along. They had centuries worth of bad feelings toward each other, and one of the primary reasons for this was on the question of worship. You see several centuries before Christ, when the southern and northern kingdoms split, the southern kingdom’s territory included Jerusalem and with it, the Jerusalem Temple – which Jews believed was the only proper place to worship God. Without access to the Temple, where were Jews of the northern kingdom to worship? The Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gerizim, which Jews of the southern kingdom found appalling. This question of where to worship was among the hottest of the day – and so that is why the woman will ask Jesus about it.
Speaking of the woman… the Evangelist paints her as exactly the opposite of Nicodemus, whom we met last week. He is a man, named, a Pharisee, respected, and comes to Jesus by night. She is a woman, unnamed, a Samaritan, likely unpopular in her society, and Jesus comes to her in the middle of the day. Nicodemus is an insider, and she is a decided outsider. She points out herself that it is entirely inappropriate that Jesus is even talking to her, a woman of Samaria. All this makes it all the more remarkable that, as John tells us, Jesus “had to go” to her. But when Jesus said last week that “God so loved the world,” he meant it! This is what it looks like to love the world – even the Samaritans!
Ok, so as you listen… Jesus and the woman meet at a well, where people come when they are thirsty. So think as you listen – what thirsts do you perceive in this story? Who is thirsty for what? And of course, what are YOU thirsty for – in general, and especially in this time of higher anxiety? Here’s the story.
[READ]
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| Our online worship rendition of the woman at the well. |
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
No matter how much lotion I lather on my hands, these days, they are dry. I can see all the cracking along my knuckles. It’s all this handwashing! 20, 30 times a day, every time I touch anything, it’s 20 seconds more with soup and warm water. Dry, cracked, thirsty hands.
When I look at them, I think of the Samaritan woman at the well. Maybe that seems like a strange connection to make, but I do – I wonder if my hands resemble the dry, cracked, thirsty heart of the woman whom Jesus met at the well.
Let me back up a bit. We need to learn a little more about this woman. To our modern ears, she may sound like she is a bit… shall we say, loose? Five husbands – must be some sort of man-eater! Living with someone who is not her husband? Ah! Living in sin! She must be some sort of harlot. But really, this is unlikely. More likely is this scenario: She has had five husbands, and lost each one either by death, or by divorce. Divorce, remember, was totally in the power of the man, not the woman. Women did not make this decision. But a man could divorce a woman for any reason at all, just toss her to the curb for anything from burning his morning toast, to not bearing him a child (the latter being a common reason). As for the man she lives with now who is not her husband, this is likely an example of levirate law, where, if a man dies, his wife is passed on to his brother, so perhaps she can bear the family an heir. So she has been passed around like some sort of object, is quite possibly barren, and now she comes to this well in the hottest part of the day, when she knows she will not see anyone else. She is shamed and ashamed. She is an outcast. And so she practices what you might call, “social distancing” – but instead of avoiding a disease, she sees herself as the disease. She doesn’t want to face her shame, her dry, cracked, thirsty heart.
And this, my friends, is where Jesus meets her. Jesus “had to go to Samaria,” John tells us. He had to go to the place that Jews had shunned, from which they distanced themselves in every way possible. It was certainly possible for Jesus to avoid Samaria – most Jews did when traveling that way. Jesus’ need to go there was not geographical – it was theological. You see, he had just told Nicodemus his mission: “God so loved the world,” he said, “that he sent his only son, so that all who believed in him would not perish, but have eternal life.” Now, in this dramatic move to go into Samaria, and meet a socially outcast woman with a painful past, he shows us just what that love looks like:
· It looks like going to those whose hearts are dry and cracked, and giving them the living water that is the abiding love of God.
· It looks like being in relationship with people who would otherwise be socially distanced from their community.
· It looks like listening to each other’s pain, giving our time and attention. How remarkable that this woman, to whom her community probably didn’t give the time of day, has the ear of Jesus for what ends up being the longest dialogue in the New Testament! He gives her space to ask her pressing questions, he takes her seriously without dismissing her thoughts or fears, he genuinely connects with her, this woman who has been disconnected from her community for who knows how long.
And that, I think, is perhaps the most important word for us today: the word about connection. I asked you to think before this reading about what it is you thirst for. I thirst for a lot of things – peace, balance, order – but what I crave each and every day is meaningful connection with others. That connection, whether it is with my immediate family, my congregation, or even a stranger at Wegmans, keeps me from feeling alone, and gives me a sense of purpose. Without connection, we would flounder as individuals and as a society.
Losing that connection is one of the scares things about this COVID-19 scare. Well, there are many things to fear during this scare. The obvious anxiety about health of course, but even beyond that, the tanking economy, and the impact of social isolation especially on those who live alone, and kids who won’t get their much-needed free school lunches, and people for whom all these cancelations means they won’t be able to work, and so won’t get a much-needed paycheck. Yes, there is much to fear. I’m with you there!
But you came here today for hope, not fear, and that is what I intend to provide. And so to that end, there are two important points that Christians must remember. First, that with many points of fear also mean there are many opportunities for us to be the Body of Christ in the midst of this crisis. Already I have seen social media being used for so much good – people making extra effort to reach out to one another by offering babysitting, food, or just a friendly voice. Facebook groups popping up with the purpose of making sure people are getting fed, local “buy nothing” groups focusing their mission all the more ardently on sharing resources to make sure we have what we need as we hunker down, companies waiving their normal licensing and purchasing fees through April so that people can use their products in this time of need. This is the way of the Body of Christ! Whom do you know who lives alone, and needs a phone call? Who will need a little extra help with childcare, or with food? Our staff and council are trying to think creatively about how we can continue to be Christ’s Body and a ministry force in our community in the midst of this disruption, even as we take seriously the need for physical distancing. If you know of ways, please let us know!
The second important point for Christians to remember, especially in this season of Lent, is that God always brings life out of death. Isn’t that the promise toward which we march these six weeks of Lent? I admit when this all started to escalate, I was so distraught that this was happening during Lent – “Why, during this sacred time of year?? This better not interfere with our Easter service!” And now I see that this timing is, in fact, perfectly Lenten – just look at the traditional Lenten disciplines: it is in this season that we fast (from touching, from social gatherings we love, from activities we looked forward to) – so that as we fast our attention would be drawn more toward God and God’s will. This is not a time to fast from God – it’s a time to move toward God! It is in this season of Lent that we pray – for those who are sick and those who heal, for those who run toward the crisis instead of away, for those who are most vulnerable and most impacted by things like closures and missed paychecks. It is in this season that we give alms and help the poor – keeping an eye out for ways we can serve those in most need in different ways from before, but ways that are suited to this crisis, this need, today, right now. God is, after all, always calling us into new ways of being the Church – always has, always will.
And, of course, it is in this season that we look forward toward celebrating once again God’s promise that from death and destruction will always come life and salvation. When the Samaritan woman comes to the well, she broken, thirsty and in pain, but after she connects with Jesus, she is changed: and she leaves behind her water jug and runs to tell everyone about it. She leaves behind her past pain, her struggles and burdens – she leaves them behind and goes out to tell her community the good news that here, in Jesus, is someone who knows her, who sees her, who cares for her and her pain, who is, indeed, the Messiah. That is God’s promise to the Samaritan woman at the well. That is God’s promise to those who witnessed that day of resurrection. And that is God’s promise to us, as we weather this particular, unprecedented storm of life: God sees us. God loves us. God goes out of his way to come to us. And into this current fear, anxiety, and thirst, God brings the living water, and the promise of new life.
Let us pray… God of living water, we are thirsty – for connection, for certainty, for knowledge, for you, and your promise. Give us the water that is you, so that we would not have to keep seeking. And, help us to provide that living water to all who thirst. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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