3rd Sunday in Lent
John 4:5-30, 39-42
When I was a young child, about 8 or 9 years old, my family moved to a new city. I remember my first day at school, enjoying meeting my teacher and classmates. At recess, I ran out to play on the playground. It had the usual climbing equipment and swings, but there were so many children lined up for them that I turned to look for some other form of play. A group of children were holding hands in a circle. I went over to ask if I could join their game. They said something curious, a word I’d never encountered at my previous school…they said the game was locked. So, they wouldn’t let me in.
In today’s Gospel reading, the Samaritan woman is accustomed to being “locked” out by the Jews, with a clear dividing line drawn between the Samaritans and Jews, even though they shared an ancestor, Jacob. Indeed, the well where this conversation takes place between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is Jacob’s well, in the town in Samaria called Sychar. Verse 6, just prior to our selected reading for today, shares that Jesus sits by the well at about noon, for he is tired from his journey.
I would invite us to think about the word “tired,” which is written in the perfect tense. This tiredness is going to have some lasting consequences. Jesus is, perhaps, not just tired from his physical journey. Could he, perhaps, be tired of the dividing lines he encounters everywhere he travels? And, for that matter, are we tired of the dividing lines we encounter in this 21st century? Jesus clearly is ready, at Jacob’s well, to tear down the dividing line. Jesus, as tired as his physical body may be from the journey, draws upon the living waters of God to refresh him as he offers the same to the Samaritan woman, calling this living water “a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.” (John 4:14)
Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman, inviting her to leave behind the dividing lines of where it is appropriate to worship, and where it is not. We see in verse 23, “but the time is coming-and is here!-when true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth.” How freeing is that, to know that God wants us to worship in spirit and in truth! How freeing, for this woman, to realize that she is in the presence of the Messiah, the One who knows her and everything she has ever done, and to her amazement, loves her and wants to give her this living water, this eternal life!
Jesus tears down the hostility between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman, in a quiet conversation beside an ancient well. And he will go on to tear down, disrupt, and do away with divisions wherever he encounters them in his short three years of ministry on this earth. Ending in his death on the cross, which tears down all dividing lines/walls, to bring all peoples into the presence of God, to invite all to worship God in spirit and in truth.
We can take a page from scripture. We can show up at the local well…the local coffee shop, the local gym, the senior center, …wherever people gather. And start conversations that help to erase dividing lines, that help to remove the word “locked” from a child’s game, that help to draw the circle wide, so that those people on the margins, those people waiting and hoping to be a part of the whole community are lovingly invited in. Invited into the warmth of God’s community, where there is always room for more.
My friends in Christ, are you tired enough to do something about drawing the circle wide? The Samaritan woman was so excited to be in the presence of the Messiah that she left her water jar at the well and hurried home to share with her neighbors about this man, this Christ, she met at the well.
Jesus knows us inside and out. Just as he knew the Samaritan woman. And he knows we are tired, too. When we are tired enough of the way things are, and when the Messiah is there to cheer us on, what else can we do, but to take up the challenge, and spread the news that we don’t need to be divided! In fact, God has been telling us right along, that we have the power within us, that divine spark, that holy spirit love, that is ready to erase dividing lines, stretch out a welcoming hand across scary chasms, shout for joy into frigid silences to warm up bitterly cold conversations! The Lake Sunapee UMC Open Table Project, brings community together over free food. But we need helpers to make it happen. You are invited to volunteer to be those helpers.
Whether we encounter differences over race or ethnicity, gender, social class, financial status, political leanings, religious beliefs (and the list goes on) God offers us unity through community, as we draw the circle wide, beginning with a simple conversation. Conversation about what? About thirst. I mean, really? Could Jesus make it any easier for us? We all know what it is to thirst. Physically. We can come together at a table to quench physical thirst, with friends, with family, even with strangers. Emotionally, we can come together and share what is on our hearts and what our deep hopes are that we yearn for. Spiritually, we can come together and recognize that if we just name our thirst for a God who loves us deeply, that thirst will be quenched with living water and God’s abundant love. Spiritually, we can come together and find ways, together, to care for our neighbors, and love one another.
So, what do you say? I had a colleague, years ago, Rev. Martin McLee. He was pastor of the Union church in Boston, Massachusetts, and my husband and I drove to Boston for a weekend honeymoon, just to hear him preach that Sunday. He had an exuberance for the Lord that was beyond measure! And the way that he expressed that love for his Lord was this: if you asked him to join you in anything, be it a prayer or a hymn sing or a mission, he’d say, loudly and joyfully, “I’m ALL IN!” My friends, if you have ever experienced being that little girl who is locked out of a game on the playground. If you have ever experienced being shunned by an entire defined religious group of people, like the Samaritan woman. If you have ever experienced your voice being ignored because your life experience did not match that of the majority of those around you. Then maybe it’s time, here and now, like my friend, Martin McLee, to shout, “I’M ALL IN!” Martin had a beautiful baritone voice, and he was a big man, and boy, could he make his voice heard, joyfully! I encourage you to make your voice heard too, in the ways that you commit to our worship life together, and the missions of our church, serving all God’s people.
Let’s find ways, together, to be ALL IN for Christ, for the Holy Spirit, for God, and for one another. Our church joyfully proclaims that we will draw the circle wide, and wider still, to invite all who thirst, to drink from the living waters. Repeat after me: I’M ALL IN!!(I’M ALL IN!) Amen.
Homework assignment:
Rev Martin McLee helped the Holy Spirit to work a healing in me, for which I’ll always be grateful. Think about who, in your life, has been that Holy Spirit conduit for healing for you, and give thanks to God for that person.
