Visible and Persistent

You can listen to this sermon here

Gate Pa – Year A  3^rd  Sunday in Lent - 2023 

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:

Continuing our theme of looking at people who lived the Beatitudes with persistence – using the story of this woman who is made visible though her persistence with Jesus to then look at Georgina Beyer – a woman of great persistence

What I want to happen:

·       Who in this parish would you hold us as someone who lives their faith persistently or helps you live with persistence.

·       How has this parish helped you live with persistence over the last 3 years

The Sermon

     1.    Introduction:

Well, well, well, what a great story that gospel reading is
Courage
Persistence
Able to have her mind blown
Unlike Nicodemus
Last week we heard about Jesus in Jerusalem
Puzzled
Interested
Confused
scurrying about in the dark to visit Jesus
- Man
- Jew
- Pharisee
Visible
And yet blind to what Jesus is on about
Now Jesus has decided he must go back to Galilee
- Not the normal safe way
- But the direct way through Samaria
In the pod cast I listen to one of the people is African American
She talked about growing up in Chicago in the 1960’s
When her family went home to Mississippi
There were ways they could not safely take not matter the urgency
It was too dangerous
There is no need for Jesus to be taking this road
It is not safe
But we are told he must!
Why must her?
Maybe to show and teach what he meant by “God so loved the world”
Here he is out in the world

        2.    The Well

And so here is Jesus

-        At noon

-        sitting at a well while his disciples go looking for food

The well is such an evocative image

This is Jacob’s well

Jacob who met Rachel at the well

Whose grandfather, Abraham’s servant was sent to find a wife for Abraham’s second son Isaac.

And meets Rebekah at the well

And she becomes Isaac’s wife

And Moses too meets his wife, Zipporah at the well.

Jesus is by a well

A woman of Samaria comes out for water in the noon sun

No name

At the wrong time

Invisible

And Jesus breaks so many rules

-        And speaks to her

And she

-        Breaks so many rules

-        takes him on.

She should have ignored him

Or she might have silently given him water

But no

she takes him on.

And in the robust conversation

He sees her

And names her pain

5 husbands

-        Dead?

-        Divorcing her?

And now with a man who keeps her alive

Maybe for sex

Her place is precarious and hard

She is invisible

And Jesus sees her

in doing so she glimpses who Jesus is

And in that moment of being seen

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?

And she becomes the first missionary.

And what I notice is that

how quickly we seek to make her invisible again

describing her as

-        Loose woman

-        Moving from man to man

-        Needing Jesus forgiveness

-        A forgiveness never offered.

Unlike Jesus who simply sees her for who she is.

     3.    Georgina Beyer

As I read that story

And read around the story of an invisible woman who was seen

And the important place she holds in John’s gospel

I thought of other people who have played similar roles in our society today.

Georgina Beyer was one of those people

-        Transgender woman

-        Drag queen

-        Prostitute

-        Māori

Born in Wellington

Named George

moved to Australia as a young adult.

in 1979 experienced a traumatic sexual assault in Sydney;

-        she felt unable to seek help from the police,

Returned to NZ

Worked as actor

In 1984, Beyer underwent gender-affirming surgery.[13][14]

became a part of the Wellington gay nightclub scene,

-        initially as a singer and drag queen performer,

-        and later as a sex worker

moving to Carterton, in the Wairarapa, she worked as a radio host.

In 1995 she was elected mayor of Carterton, making her the world's first openly transgender mayor.

In 1999 she became the world's first openly transgender member of parliament.

As a member of the Labour Party Beyer supported progressive policies including

-        prostitution law reform,

-        civil unions,

-        anti-discrimination laws

-        the promotion of Māori rights.

She resigned in 2007, in part because of the Seabed and Foreshore Act

She was courageous

She was persistent

Her courage and persistence helped change this country to be

I would humbly suggest

A better place

Where people do not have to be invisible

 

     4.    AGM

With her example

And example of woman from Samaria

I wonder

•          Who in this parish would you hold as someone who lives their faith persistently or helps you live with persistence.

•          How has this parish helped you live with persistence over the last 3 years