She Left Her Jug Behind


Gate Pa – Year A  3rd  Sunday in Lent - 2020
Readings:
Readings:
Psalm                          Psalm: 95                                                       
First Reading:               Exodus 17:1-7             
Second Reading:        Romans 5:1-11           
Gospel:                          John 4:5-42                 

What I want to say:
How does this story add to the story we explored last week, a story that begins with greed, violence, and division; finds Abram and Sarai being invited into the impossible dream of being the first ancestor of a new people – unlike any other – through whom God will renew creation and restore humanity; an impossible dream tenuously held in the Israelite people; and fulfilled in Jesus. How does this story shape his interaction with Nicodemus and with the Samaritan woman.
What I want to happen:

The Sermon

     1.     Introduction:

Last week we heard
In Genesis 11
That before the story begins
Humanity is divided
Tribes have emerged
Each speaking their own language
Each defending what they see as their own
Each wanting more!
There is greed and violence
war and destruction
And this is not what God intended for this world
creation is suffering
Paying the price for this rupture
It is still paying the price.

     2.     The Story Began

In Genesis 12 we heard
That the story begins with God
The story always begins with God
It begins with God
Inviting Abram and Sarai
to leave Haran
the land where their fathers had ceased their journeying
Where their cooking fires burned
And the bones of the dead were buried
They were invited to leave his people
his hapu and whanau
To leave his marae
All that defined their position in the world
What their life was about
How they lived their life
They were invited into an impossibility
With his barren wife, Sarai,
Abram was invited into the unknown
To give birth to a great nation
To be the primary ancestors of numberless descendants
When they could not give birth to one.
They were invited to trust this God
And to sacrifice all for this promise.
If they trust
this new people will be unlike any other.
They would be the means by which God
healed the rupture
Restoring this world to all that God intended
Greed and violence would be replaced with compassion and generosity
The tribes working together to build peace
So that creation is healed
Renewed
And all would live in harmony
As God always intended.

And Abram and Sarai trust.
They leave behind all they were
And become the mother and father of this hope.

     3.     The Descendants

But too soon their descendants forget
Trust withers
Even in the wilderness
After being freed from slavery
This people forget who they are
forget that the story begins with God
They curse Moses
Despite all that has been done
They long to return to slavery
To the old ways of the tribe
They live in fear
Even when water gushes from the rock
Living water in every sense
Running gurgling water
Giving life in the harsh wilderness
It is hard to trust
It is hard to be this people

But that is not the end of the story.

3.     Jesus is the beginning and the end
The promise remains
In John’s words
 “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him,
and without him not one thing came into being.
What has come into being in him was life,
and the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1, NRSV)

This light is born in a baby
Born in Bethlehem
To peasants who live
in a cave
in Galilee
The son of a carpenter and a young peasant girl
Now a travelling rabbi
Living the promise
Of human community healed
creation restored
the reign of God
eternal life now
Jesus the Nazarene.

     4.     Nicodemus

And crowds come
Amazed at his acts
Troubled by his words
One comes
A man of note
An elder and Pharisee
A Judean kaumatua
He comes at night
In the dark
To test this peasant rabbi of no standing
He begins courteously
To get this conversation underway
But he becomes stuck
When Jesus replies
"Take it from me:
Unless a person is born again / from above,
it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to
-         to God's kingdom."
He can’t get past the words
He can’t hear the invitation
The invitation to Abram and Sarai
to trust God alone
How can one climb again into your mother’s womb?
The words make no sense
Especially to one
Who trusts in his ancestors Abraham and Sarah
He is a man of status and mana
An insider
a leader of the people of God
who has spent a life getting to this place
this place of authority
representing his communities best judgement
he can't hear the invitation
he can’t enter the conversation
he is stuck
This learned man of debate
It will be a long journey.
So Jesus speaks to all present
"This is how much God loved the world:
He gave his Son, his one and only Son.
And this is why:
so that no one need be destroyed;
by trusting in him
As Abram and Sarai trusted
anyone can have a whole and lasting life now
anyone can be part of God’s healing work.

     5.     The World

The world
That word has so many meanings
it is easy to limit who that might include
We do it all the time
The world begins with people like us

With fame comes attention
From some who do not like his words
So Jesus decides to return home
To Galilee
But not the normal route
He chooses a way
That will invite and teach
His route will show exactly who is included
All that Jesus means by
The world
They turn up through Samaria
Full of those
That no faithful Jew could ever imagine
Might be included in
The world
That are beyond any people
That God could ever love
They are defiled and cursed
Their whakapapa is scattered across so many peoples
Too many peoples
They are no people


     6.     Samaritan Woman

But there is Jesus
At his ancestors well
In the light of the midday sun
Speaking to a Samaritan
A woman
He is defiled by speaking to her
He is defiled by asking help from her
He is defiled by asking to touch her Samaritan drinking vessel
Under the midday sun
She is alone
Surprised at this outrage
she should walk away
but she stands her ground
draws breath
And responds to this strange rabbi
She too gets stuck on the words
And the offer of living water
Hearing the literal meaning
The words make no sense
But unlike Nicodemus
Stuck in the dark
She stands in the midday sun
And responds
engages in conversation
taking Jesus on in theological debate
And in doing so
Jesus reveals who he is.
As he reveals her shame and
5 husbands
Who have died or divorced her
Left her shunned
And living with another
-         Either the brother of a previous husband
-         Or one who offers safety for sex
And in that moment of being known
She experiences living water
Life giving water
Unlike anything she has experienced before
Grace upon grace
Being known
and immersed
In divine love.
In the midday sun
He utters the words only Moses had heard
“I Am”
She is the first
She is blinded by light
Could he be our long-awaited Samaritan messiah?
She joins the notable nameless
Of John’s gospel
-         The mother of Jesus
-         The beloved disciple
And becomes the first missionary.
leaving her jug behind
-         This means by which she drew water to live
-         That represents all the pain of her life
-         Perhaps unneeded now she has living water
She leaves her jug with a man
o   A Jewish man
-         SHE now sees as family
As she walks back to share the life
The light she found in her darkness
Past the bewildered and slightly outraged
Devout and yet so blind disciples
she becomes the means by which Jesus teaches his Jewish followers
Lost in their darkens of religious pride
And cultural prejudice
What it means to be a disciple
He reminds them of the promise to Sarah and Abraham
They would be the means by which God
Will heal the rupture
Restore this world
And all who live in it
to all that God intended
replacing greed and violence
with compassion and generosity
inviting the tribes to work together to build peace
So that creation is healed
Renewed
And ALL
Even Samaritans
would live in harmony
As God always intended.

Through this one nameless woman
We too hear “I Am”
We too are offered living water
And light shines for us


     7.     What do you hear?

What do we hear in this story?
What stood out?
What are you invited to this lent?

This sermon can be listened to here

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Simply Sent

They Were Not There at the Beginning

Youth Camp