Lent 3
John 4:5-42


Dear friends in Christ,

Last week my message was on what some have called the “Hope Diamond” of Bible verses, John 3:16. If you weren’t with us last Sunday, I’d encourage you to go to our website, www.sharingchristslove.org, and read it as a devotion sometime this week. One of the things I mentioned was that the verse says, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only son.” Other translations say, “One and only son,” or “only begotten son.” Jesus has the genes or genetic make-up of God the Father. Jesus is the only one with such a make-up. All of the traits or qualities of God are found in Jesus the son. In today’s gospel we clearly see this. I want us to focus this morning on three qualities of God we see through Jesus as he encounters this Samaritan woman at the well.

We’ve all seen them. Maybe they’re at an intersection in downtown Minneapolis holding up a sign, “Homeless, Need Help.” Or maybe they’re walking along Highway 22, dressed in black, chains hanging from their pockets, body piercings in various places. Maybe they’re a special needs child in a classroom, or perhaps special needs adults on a group home outing. Maybe they are of a different race than our own and seem out of place in our community. They are the people that don’t fit in, at least in our way of thinking. They are the ones that draw glances, if not outright stares, from people passing by.

Although most of us have difficulty fully accepting others, God does not. Acceptance of others, even those on the outer fringe, is a quality of God we see through Jesus.

There are two clear examples of this in the lesson. Jesus first shows acceptance of racial or ethnic divisions. Jesus met this woman at a well in Samaria. For Jews, Samaria was considered an unclean land. Even though it was longer to travel around Samaria, when Jews would go from north to south, from Judea to Galilee, most would go the long way to avoid entering Samaria. Some, out of necessity would travel through Samaria, but they would not linger there. Jews and Samaritans were ethnically divided and there was much hatred for each other.

When Jesus asks the Samaritan woman to give him a drink, he is violating and challenging social customs. Jews would not drink out of a Samaritan cup because they considered all Samaritans and all they touched unclean. Yet Jesus reaches across this huge ethnic division and asks the woman for a drink.

Jesus also shows acceptance of gender differences. Not only was this person a Samaritan, she was a woman. Now for us, who have largely, though not entirely, accepted the equality of men and women, this conversation seems like a fairly natural thing. But it would not have been so in Jesus’ day. It was considered improper for a man to talk with a woman in public. When the disciples returned, the lesson tells us, they were astonished, indeed shocked, that Jesus had been talking to her. Here’s how Leonard Griffith, in his book, Encounters with Christ, talks about Jesus’ deep respect for and acceptance of women.

“Jesus encountered a number of women during his earthly ministry, and his conduct towards them appears all the more remarkable when you remember the inferior status of women in the first century world. The hard Roman treated her as a slave or a plaything. The cultured Greek did not regard her as the intellectual equal of any man. Even the devout Jew listed her as an item of property along with the fields and cattle and would never break the law by talking to her about religion. The coming of Jesus invested womanhood with a new honor and motherhood with infinite sacredness.”

We see through Jesus in this encounter God’s acceptance of all people. His example makes us think about ourselves, and our example to our children and community.

Many of you have met Dee Wilkenson in our church. Over the years, Dee, without any fanfare, has made and donated 130 quilts to the Southeast Asian Ministry in St. Paul. That’s fantastic and I’m sure many people have been blessed by those warm quilts. But I wonder, what if a family of eight Hmong people who spoke little or no English were to come to our church next week. Would we welcome them in Christ’s name, shake their hands, offer a cup of coffee, show them the Sunday school, give them a brochure; or would we stare, keep our distance, and wonder what these kind of people were doing in our community?

Rick Warren, author of the book The Purpose Driven Church says this about church growth. “The problem with many churches is that they begin with the wrong question. They ask, “What will make our church grow” This is a misunderstanding of the issue… The question we need to ask instead is, “What is keeping our church from growing?” What barriers are blocking the waves God wants to send our way? What obstacles and hindrances are preventing growth from happening?”

That’s a challenging question. It’s not only about people we may consciously or unconsciously be turning away, but it even gets to such basic things as the Sunday morning schedule we offer. Are we willing to meet people where they’re at, or do we ask them to be where we’re at? As a church council and staff we’ve recently been discussing the Sunday school and second service schedule. Is it reaching people where they’re at, or do we need to do that differently to increase participation? We’ll let you know as things unfold. I’ve long thought about the Sunday conflicts that modern day families experience. I wish everyone would bend to my will, and be here on Sunday mornings. But that’s unrealistic. So, I’m strongly considering that this summer, beginning the Thursday before Memorial Day, we offer a Thursday evening “Weekenders” worship service. In my vision it would include an optional BBQ meal before the service, followed by an informal 45 minutes of worship. It would be especially for the “Weekenders,” all those people that will be gone the upcoming weekend. Is this a perfect solution? No. There’s plenty of Thursday evening conflicts for families like t-ball practice, soccer, and so on. But, hopefully it will work for some. Rather than fight the reality of weekend conflicts, this will be an attempt to reach people where they’re at. Who knows, it may be so successful that the “Weekenders” summer service becomes a year round option for people who have to be gone on weekends. The first quality of God we see in Jesus today is acceptance. God accepts all of us unconditionally. Are we doing the same for others?

Now not only is this person Jesus meets a Samaritan and a woman, she is also imperfect. She is broken. For whatever reasons, in her relationships with men and her attempts to create a family, she has failed. Now this cannot be only her fault. The men in her life bear some of that responsibility. But the lesson does reveal that she’s had five husbands, and the man she is now presumably living with is not her husband. The impression this gives is that she is a kind of moral mess, which has further made her an outcast from the community.

What happens? Jesus accepts her where she’s at and begins a conversation over a cup of water from Jacob’s well. Over the course of this conversation, she is confronted with her true self and experiences the grace and forgiveness of God through Jesus. Forgiveness is the second quality of God we see today.

Why don't more people go to church? Last week I was at a gathering of Lutheran pastors that serve churches up here in what we call the North Conference. Pastors from Almelund, Lindstrom, Chisago City, Rush City are some who were present. I asked them, “Are any of your churches growing?” In an honest conversation the best most could say is “We’re holding our own.” The reality is that many of our churches have declined. Adjusting schedules to meet people where they’re at might be a partial solution. But it’s more than that. I like what Pastor Mike Foss, formerly senior pastor at Prince of Peace in Burnsville writes. He says, “Being a Christian isn’t easy. You can't come to church and meet God without meeting yourself. And that isn't always an easy thing to do." I suspect there are many who do not come, because they fear what they have to face within themselves. It’s easier just to put the blinders on and hope it goes away.

Forgiveness and reconciliation often begins within our own souls. This woman is invited to meet the Savior by first seeing herself. Listen to her witness when she returned to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done. He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" (John 4:29) She saw her life as it really was. It was like a confession for her. She then experienced forgiveness from our Lord. She let others know this was possible for them as well. We all need to look at ourselves. We all need forgiveness and a fresh start. Forgiveness is a quality of God we see through Jesus.

And then finally, we see through Jesus, that God is sustaining. God is right there with us and for us, every day. Jesus uses the physical thirst for water, to cause this woman to think about her spiritual thirst for God. Jesus was leading her to seek something much deeper than the physical water of the well. “Drink of this water,” he says, “And you will never again be thirsty.” There’s the spiritual promise that God is the living water, always with us, always sustaining us, finally gushing up to eternal life.

How can we drink of this living water? We receive it by faith as we turn to God in prayer. We imagine the cooling, refreshing water of the Spirit filling us and taking away our thirst. Like a cool drink on a summer day, the spirit renews our weary souls. And then we drink of the Spirit over and over again in our worship, in our prayers, and as we eat and drink together around the table of the Lord.

Do you need the living water Jesus offers today? I know I sure do. I need it every day, to fill me, sustain me, and keep me in a right relationship with God.

When we see Jesus, we see God. He alone has God’s DNA. When Jesus meets the woman at the well, what do we see? We see a God who is accepting. We see a God who is forgiving. And we see a God who is sustaining. May these qualities of God, found in Jesus, also be found in us. Amen