Sermon 23rd March 2014

Today, the third Sunday in Lent, Honorary Assistant Minister, Ben Hughes, preaches. The reading is from John 4 verses 5-15. 

There is water in this passage so I thought I would start with a quiz!

1) How many times is water analogies mentioned in the Bible?

Greater than 250?

Between 250 and 550 times?

More than 550 times?

Answer: 719 Times (more than faith, hope, prayer or worship are mentioned)

2)    What did God say on day six of his creation?

       Answer: let the waters bring forth streams of living creatures

3)  What does the name Moses mean?

Answer: drawn from water

4)     Where did Moses strike the rock in which water poured forth?

Answer: Horab

5)     In the book of Isaiah, what does the prophet say ‘will spring up by streams of living waters’?

Answer: The Holy spirit which will be like green tamarisk, like willows drinking deep from the stream of living water’

6)     When Jeremiah the prophet referred to Israel as cracked cisterns that would not hold water, what who was he referring?

Answer: The priests and people of Israel who had turned their backs on God

7)     In the book of Amos…what two things roll down like water and pour out like streams?

Answer: Justice and righteousness

8)     Which Gospel mentions water the most?

Answer: John’s Gospel

9)     Why do some churches add water to communion wine?

Answer: It is the sign of eternal life pouring forth from Jesus’ death

10)  How many biblical water metaphors are contained a Christian baptism

Is it 3, 5 0r 7?

Can you name each one?

Answer: creation, blessing, rescue, cleansing, birth, initiation, salvation

So there - Water water everywhere and more than we thought in the Bible!

I will come back to the theme of water and salvation later in the sermon but let us bow our head in prayer:

O Lord who sent your son to save all sinners by taking the path of suffering and rejection…teach us today to be able to bear our own cross and to know that in you we can drink from the deep waters of salvation. Amen

So our third sermon in Lent and we are still travelling with Jesus in the early stages of his public ministry

In the first week we heard from Cameron about Jesus in the wilderness famished and starving but by using the word of God so able to resist the temptations of the devil. Instead of mission over its ‘mission on’!

Last week we heard about Jesus’ late night talk with the Pharisee Nicodemus and leant that Jesus was making it very clear in his up and coming ministry that God’s love was not only for Israel but for the whole world…’God so loved the world that he gave us His only son’..

Today we here with Jesus again and learn from another story early in Jesus public ministry – Jesus meeting the Samaritan Woman by the well.

In that Story and on this morning we learn how Jesus is turning the established view of the Jews on its head and in doing so begins his own journey to the cross.

We also learn that Jesus message of God’s love that Adrian introduced last week that this new message of hope is not just for the men and priests of Israel but for woman as well, and in fact- for all people including marginalized groups and even for those in ambiguous moral situations.

So in our story, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well and ask for a drink of water and nothing more …but in true Jesus fashion as he tends to do on many occasions…

Turns the world completely and utterly up-side down, inside out and on its head!

How does he do that and why?

Bit of history to set the context:

Jacob’s well is an ancient deep well cut through rock and is apparently 41 metres deep. It is still used today and has been dated as over seven millennia in age! It is called Jacob’s well because it is supposedly the well that was in the land given to Jacob when he returned from Mesopotamia (Padam Aram).

Although it at the time of Jesus Jacob’s well did not have the religious and scared significance like other wells in and around Jerusalem. However, it was a place familiar and important for the people of the region who relied on the well to meet their practical and agricultural needs.

It was a well that could be used by anyone and Jesus probably would have known that when he chose to go there. Perhaps the equivalent today would be to go to KFC in Brixton for Sunday Lunch or a pub in Eltham on a Friday night. Or your local garage or even chip shop to see who you might meet! Jesus deciding to go to Jacob’s well was a kind of statement in itself. At the time most Jews would avoid any place where they might meet and have to cross people that they believed God despised.  And despised they did….the Samaritans were really disliked and hated by the Jerusalem Jews of the time. Jesus understood well this unhealthy hatred of one group of people towards another and used the sad fact  to illustrate the coming of God’s new covenant of acceptance for all  in this story the Samaritan woman  and of course another parable which we all know as the parable of the good Samaritan. And the Samaritan name lives on in the expression and charity called ‘the Samaritans’ that help people when they are down and depressed!

So why did the Jerusalem’s Jews and the Samaritans hate one another?

In the book of Kings in the Old Testament approximately 900-1000BC you can read of Israel becoming divided into two Kingdoms. Ten tribes in the North called Israel and two in the south called Judah.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel’s capital city was Samaria with its King Jeroboam.

The southern Kingdom capital city was Jerusalem and its king confusingly was called Rehoboam.

They declared war on each other to unite the two Kingdoms but as in any war it escalated until both were exhausted. (All in the book of Kings). In the end Jeroboam banned Israelites from going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice and worship. And instead he set up idols in his own city of Samaria. This Northern Kingdom called Israel was then overrun by the Assyrians. . Over time the Jews of this Northern Kingdom of Israel intermarried with the Assyrians contrary to the Jewish laws in Deuteronomy and so the Samaritans became a race perceived by the Jerusalem Jews as faithless disobedient half breeds unworthy of even being spoken to.

But does that bother Jesus and stop him a Jew from talking with a Samaritan!  no of course not!

Jesus shows us how to accept people for who they are and he tells us to do the same. In fact he positively discriminates towards all those that suffer because they are different. Jesus is clear, make every effort at all time to include everyone. Nobody is excluded from God’s grace

And that includes women to. It might seem obvious today but at the time of this story woman were considered to be second class citizens and Jesus was talking with a woman. A Samaritan woman as well!

Woman’s status and freedom at the time of Jesus were severely limited by the male interpretation of Jewish Law. Most women had no authority; they were confined to their father’s or husband’s home. They were considered to be under the authority of men either their Father’s before marriage and then by their husband after marriage. And as a result were often bartered and traded in marriage arrangements and deals.

Woman at the time were not allowed to testify in court, they could not travel in public and talk to strangers. They were veiled and could not read the scriptures or be taught in the temple or synagogue.

On the other hand:

Jesus treatment towards women was so revolutionary and further contributed to the establishment’s determination to get rid of him.

Jesus persisted throughout his ministry challenging this embedded  prejudice towards woman , he healed women taught women, he included women in his inner circle and it was woman who he appeared to after he resurrected. Jesus gives woman equality to men. Jesus called woman ‘daughters of Abraham’ Dynamite at the time, and there is no other parallel in the Old Testament to that statement either.  Jesus invented the expression ‘daughters of Abraham’ and shows to us that men and woman are loved equally by God as his sons and daughters - That is what Jesus says!  

Finally Jesus showed concern for widows and divorcees. In Mark 10:11-12, Jesus overthrows this tradition of male divorce and states that neither spouse can divorce the other; he treats the wife and husband equally. Again, explosive stuff at the time when woman were in some ways commodities to be bought and sold in marriage

And that point regarding divorce is the one that this passage pivots on.

Jesus says to the woman in verse 17 “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Five husbands and a boyfriend that is some going! The story sadly does not share details but the point is that this Samaritan woman would have been considered little’s better than dirt by many. Being married five times and co-habituating would have made her an outcast outside her own home.

She is in a morally ambiguous situation and people would ignore her as a bad luck omen and probably gossiped and slandered her as a prostitute. That is speculation

But the point here is that Jesus never excludes anyone. He can share a cup of water and conversation with this Samaritan woman and use it to make a point about acceptance and love for all regardless.

And what about us?

In Jeremiah the prophet refers to the people of Israel being like cracked and broken cisterns unable to hold water. Good for nothing in other words!

We are all sinners and using this  analogy, if sin is like a cracks and flaws in a characters and lives so we to are like these cracked jars, broken cisterns unable to hold anything!

But as we speak, Jesus is putting things right. When we ask for forgiveness he constantly refills us with his grace, forgiveness and love and will do so again and again as its pours out of a damaged lives. and I also believe in time He repairs the cracks and replace the broken part so that we become mended and whole.

And when we become these are repaired vessels of Grace and able we scan hare the Gog’s inpouring and outpouring with the world!

So to conclude

Jesus enraged prejudices and the comfortable power of the male establishment as our story illustrates- it is as simple and innocent as a man asking a women to help him to a glass of water -  and in doing so turns the world on its head and shows to us the truth of God’s love for everyone

Jesus really sowed a seed for change in thus story which has spread through history and has genuinely changed the world. And Yes Woman still suffers prejudice, one group or race of people will despise and hate another, we know that and sadly see and read about it in the news!!  But what Jesus teaches and demonstrated is his acceptance of all people and ultimately demonstrated such by dying for anyone regardless of race gender background on the cross!  Anyone who chooses to accept him as Lord and call on his name takes on the acceptance of others without prejudice, gossip or judgment! That is the deal!

And the battle for equality is still relevant today. And we as Christians we have to show the world through our live s that Christians live differently by the example set by Christ. 

There should be no place for hatred or Racism in the Church and our communities and we need to battle our fears of change through acceptance of love for as children of God.

And there should be no justification for sexism in the Church and our homes because Jesus showed that woman and men are equal.

And we do not judge people and understand that despite our own moral ambiguities and sins - God accepts us and has absolutely no problem in coming alongside, accepting and  sharing as we are where we are! And we mast do the same

So I started with water and will end with water!

Jesus say to the woman that “everyone who drinks this water will be thirty again but the water that I give will never thirst again”

Jesus also says that the worshippers that God seeks are those that “worship in spirit and truth” verse 24

These two promises are here for us to claim today…we can ask God to refresh us and fill us to the brim…by worshiping him in spirit and truth we enact the inpouring and outpouring of God’s spirit into our lives and into the world.

And although at times we might very well be like Jeremiah’s cracked and broken cisterns unable to hold very much… however in Christ he can repair fix and heal our lives so that we can be brimful of love!

That is the promise and so lest ask to drink deep from the endless wells of his love

Amen