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Summer Series Week Four
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
The truth is out there and the truth will set you free, but the truth is looking for you. Welcome to the Commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 1:Hey, so welcome to church. If you and I haven't met, my name is Jeremy, and thanks for taking some time to join us on the livestream this summer. We've been taking words that we use a lot in Christianity this series and working to expand our imaginations of them. So we're trying some new angles, some new vocabulary to see if we can breathe some new life into some of these old and really important ideas. This week, I get to talk about worship.
Speaker 1:Worship is this really interesting word because it's the word that we use to talk about the music in church. We often describe the portion of the service immediately preceding this as worship. But then, of course, we all know that worship is so much more than all of that. It can be an emotion. It can be an act.
Speaker 1:It can be any expression of truth or grace or justice or beauty. As one of my favorite writers, David Dirk, likes to say, There are so many ways to love God. And so part of what we want to do today, as every week in the series, is to push back the boundaries of our imagination just a bit to invite more breadth into our imaginations. We're going to do that with a pretty familiar story today. It's one that we actually found our way through back in January in our Swipe Bright series.
Speaker 1:You can find Bobby's take on it there. Today, though, we're going to come at it from a slightly different angle, and we're going to look at Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well to see what it might say to us about worship. So let's pray, and then we'll jump in together. The God of all grace, who comes to us, who reaches down to us, who invites our worship back to you. May we recognize the breadth and the depth, the expanse of everything that speaks about your worth.
Speaker 1:Every time we recognize beauty around us. Every time we work for justice in the world. Every time we encounter truth and see that it speaks of your love for us, all of this is part of our worship. In all of these ways, as we sing, as we study, as we think, as we encounter, may your Spirit draw near to us, helping us see all the ways that you have always been all around us. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen. Okay. Today's story comes to us from the Gospel of John. It's in chapter four there. And it's a longer story, so I'm going to read my way through it today and we'll talk about it as we go, because there's just a lot of great stuff in here.
Speaker 1:But at the start of chapter four, we read, disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now, we haven't even really gotten to our story yet, but I want to talk about this just for a moment here because I think it might be helpful later. The John here is not the John that this gospel is attributed to, but instead John the Baptist. Hence, the friendly competition for who has baptized more followers.
Speaker 1:I'm sort of joking here, but this is an interesting contrast that the writer drops for us. We know that Jesus himself was baptized by John, but we don't actually have a story of Jesus baptizing anyone himself. Now, we could speculate about why. Perhaps Jesus always wanted the practice to be handed over to the church. Perhaps he didn't want it to become too tightly tied with his own ministry and presence.
Speaker 1:Perhaps he just didn't have time to get to everyone, and so he left it to his friends to look after. But there seems to be some indication here, at least from the writer of John, that Jesus didn't seem to be particularly invested in arguing about one of the debates of his day that was surrounding him, Namely, who should be baptizing and where should it be happening? Now, later, at Jesus' command, baptism does become an important symbol of Christianity and a beautiful expression of worship. And I really can't wait for the day when we are able to regularly participate in baptisms together as a community again. But Jesus seems to have this uncanny knack for sidestepping some of the extraneous debates that often seem to consume far too much of our energy.
Speaker 1:And some hills are worth dying on, but if you choose every hill to do it, you may miss some of the most important ones. So hold on to that, because I don't think it's an accident it's mentioned here at the beginning of this story. Jesus heads back to Galilee, and so we read that in order to do that, he had to go through Samaria. So, he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well.
Speaker 1:It was about noon. A couple of things to pay attention to here. One, he had to go through Samaria. Two, he went through Samaria. Three, he came to Sychar, which was in Samaria near the plot given to Joseph, the place of Jacob's well.
Speaker 1:The writer here really does not want you to miss the geography of the story because it's a big part of the story. We've talked about this many times before, but Samaritans and Jews, these were related ethnic groups that had a long and antagonistic history. Jesus could have walked around Samaria to get back to Galilee. There's some evidence that many Jewish people did that during his time. But that would have made his three day journey something more like a five day journey.
Speaker 1:And so he cuts through. Now, I don't know why, but this brings back very vivid memories for me of sneaking through the neighbor's yard behind our house when I was in elementary school. See, their property backed onto ours with a big fence, but to walk home from school every day along the sidewalk added a few blocks to my journey. So nine times out of 10, if I was sure I could make it past the door unseen, I would sneak beside their house and scramble over the fence directly dropping into our backyard. I think I just liked the sneaking more than anything else.
Speaker 1:But Jesus doesn't seem to sneak through Samaria at all. In fact, he seems to make the most of this excursion. This is something I just really like about Jesus. And he rarely lets an opportunity slip by. I mean, to be fair, why would the Gospel writers bother with the stories where Jesus was tired and just went to bed early?
Speaker 1:Those are probably not the most compelling tales to tell, although I would love to read that story. But I do appreciate the ways that Jesus consistently notices strange opportunities for connection. Maybe it's just the COVID that's made me more aware of that gift right now, but it is something that I want to pay more attention to in my own life. Regardless, it's Samaria. He's cutting through.
Speaker 1:It's noon. Jesus has been walking all day. And when a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into town to buy food. Now, I was in my undergrad studies.
Speaker 1:I was taught all kinds of weird things about this story. I was told that a woman would never come to a well at noon to draw water. And so this meant that she must have been ostracized by the community. Possibly, she was a sex worker looking for a customer. I was told that a teacher like Jesus would never speak to a woman out in the open like this.
Speaker 1:So this meant Jesus had a surprising compassion for her in her state. Neither of those seem to have much basis in anything other than some unfortunate assumptions some people have made about this woman. For one, Jesus speaks with women all the time in the Gospels. Some of his closest students and followers were women. It's one of the distinctive elements of Jesus' ministry.
Speaker 1:And two, Lynn Cohick writes about living in Kenya and how that changed some of her assumptions about this story. She says that she had always assumed that you might go to the well in the cool of the morning to work and do the laundry and leave the clothes to dry in the hot sun, but that the women who lived in the villages near her home, well, they would always draw water and do their chores in the afternoon, leaving their clothes to dry overnight so that the more comfortable times of the day, the morning, the evening, well, those could be focused on food and community exclusively. And why waste the most comfortable moments of your day to do your work? And that's a moment right there to think about. Of course, the problem here is not just the assumptions about ancient life.
Speaker 1:The problem here is really about our assumptions with this woman. So, the Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan. How can you ask me for a drink? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans, the writer adds. But Jesus answered, If you knew the gift of God and who it was that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
Speaker 1:Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock? By the way, notice here the woman refers to our father Jacob. The Jewish people knew their God as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.
Speaker 1:Yet still, all of us, we often struggle to see the divine in the lives of even our siblings. But Jesus answered. Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Speaker 1:The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty again and have to come here to draw water. And this is where some commentators have assumed that perhaps she misunderstood Jesus offer here, that she is perhaps too tall to understand the nuance of Jesus' spiritual teaching. I don't think that's what's going on at all. I think she's just calling his bluff. I mean, you say you've got some magical water.
Speaker 1:Let's let's see some magical water. Remember, this point in the story, this is just some guy standing at a well talking in riddles. Why would she take him any more seriously than she does? Here's where the story gets interesting. He told her, Go, call your husband and come back.
Speaker 1:I have no husband, she replied. And Jesus said to her, 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 said is quite true. This is where the woman starts to realize that perhaps Jesus is more than just a riddle wielding well dweller.
Speaker 1:But we need to pause here because the assumptions about this woman, this is where they really come into play. And she is perhaps a sex worker, that she is out at noon because she has been socially ostracized, that Jesus takes a risk even speaking with her. And all of that stems from reading far too much into this simple exchange. First of all, Jesus makes absolutely no reference to any moral failing on the part of this woman. He doesn't say that she has been divorced five times.
Speaker 1:He certainly doesn't editorialize to suggest that any possible divorce was her fault. He simply states the fact that she has been married five times. Now, it's probably unlikely that one poor woman would have had five husbands die on her. I mean, that would be tragic and, let's be honest, a little suspicious. But given the short life expectancy of the time, multiple marriages over time, that was certainly not surprising.
Speaker 1:And it could be that the story has been embellished to emphasize the poor luck of this woman. It could be that maybe she had been divorced two or three or maybe even five of those times. Divorces were fairly common and not particularly scandalous in the ancient world. And given that a man could divorce his wife for, quote, burning his supper, that's a real religious ruling, by the way. But here's the kicker.
Speaker 1:Women could not initiate a divorce at all. So even if she had been married and divorced five times, none of them could have come at her request. So Jesus is not indicting her here. He is rehearsing her story back to her. But you might ask, what about the man that she has now?
Speaker 1:Does that not imply that she is morally culpable? She's with a man but not married. And that one's actually complicated, too. Because in the ancient world of Jesus, the only legal document of a marriage was the dowry, a document that listed all of the property that the woman brought with her from her family into the marriage, and that this property would become the new families under the control of the husband to do whatever he wanted to do with it. Problem is, if you don't have a dowry, you're not technically married.
Speaker 1:And if this woman had been married five times and if some of those marriage has not ended well, it's possible she didn't simply have the financial resources to constitute a legal marriage. In fact, it's possible that the man she had now simply loved her and didn't care about all of that. But all of this is speculation because we just don't know. The Gospel writer doesn't seem to think it's actually all that relevant to the story. All of this is just as plausible, considering that Jesus never mentions her sin or her divorce.
Speaker 1:I might even suggest this is more plausible than the idea that she has come kind of man eater. The point being, we make all kinds of assumptions about all kinds of people, and all of those assumptions cause us to miss out on all kinds of grace all around us. But Jesus stays laser focused on what's in front of him here. Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place we must worship is in Jerusalem.
Speaker 1:Woman, Jesus replied, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do. For salvation is from the Jews. And yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
Speaker 1:For they are the kind of worshipers the Father is seeking. God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth. And finally, now we arrive at our destination. I mean, we are talking about worship after all today. But this is an intriguing moment that I think often gets lost in all of our wondering about this woman.
Speaker 1:After all, Jesus seems far less interested in speculating about our history than he does in using her past to launch into her present. But again, look at the interaction that forms the climax of this encounter. Sir, the woman said, we worship on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is Jerusalem. And Jesus said to her, believe me, the time is coming when what separates us won't matter anymore. The time is coming when this we and you language will fall away, because a time is coming when together we will worship in spirit and in truth.
Speaker 1:And given what Jesus has just communicated, but what he knows about this woman, that probably carries a lot of weight with her right now. After all, Jesus knows her truth. He doesn't make assumptions about her. He welcomes all of her into this conversation. But you see, this is a really neat moment because it's both an invitation to continue and a challenge to our assumptions all at the same time.
Speaker 1:Jesus says to this woman, Your theology is incomplete. You worship what you don't know, we worship what we do, but that's okay. Because worshipping is about searching, and searching is about finding, and God is absolutely interested in being found by you. See, Jesus' point seems to be the truth is the end, the telos, the point of all of our worship. I mean, without that as the goal, then what does any of this matter?
Speaker 1:But that also means that correctness can never be the prerequisite to our worship. It can never be the litmus test or the barrier we use to keep anyone on the outside at a distance from ourselves and our communities. Because you see, Jesus, even a Samaritan woman, even someone who would have been considered a pagan by many religious teachers, this was a child of God. Searching for truth, stumbling forward, endlessly navigating her way toward the divine, and that would always be enough. Remember, this is the Jesus who sidestepped many of the debates his followers thought were incredibly important.
Speaker 1:And here, this woman says to him, we worship on this mountain, you worship in Jerusalem, and Jesus responds, sure, but that's not really the issue at the core, is it? Because traditions will shift. And habits will change and patterns will continue to evolve, but will will always remain. Is our pursuit of the truth and the truth's willingness to be found by us. Leslie Newbiggen writes of this passage, A new reality is impending, a new hour approaches.
Speaker 1:Both Jews and Samaritans indeed all of the world summoned to worship, and this will be an action of the Father, for he himself will seek such worshipers and he himself will draw them to the Son in whom all truth is present. For God is spirit and spirit is action. God's being is action. That very action of seeking out worshippers from every nation toward the Spirit who is the one who brings truth to us. Perhaps you made assumptions about the validity of someone's worship because of how it looked different from yours.
Speaker 1:Perhaps someone has made assumptions about the value of your worship, your story, because of where you differed from them. Perhaps you have imagined that your pursuit of God would only be welcomed after you were able to figure it all out. But the beauty and the challenge of what Jesus offers us here is this reminder that worship, whatever it is, is the ongoing pursuit of whatever is true. Worship is your desire to know what is at the center of all things. Worship is your willingness to journey toward the love that upholds all things.
Speaker 1:And so whether you sing your heart out with us today, you study with passion tomorrow, whether you throw your energy into serving the world around you this week to make it just a little more bright than you found it. In whatever way you seek out the truth that sits at the center of the universe, this is the worship wherein you encounter the God who has been working just as hard, even harder searching for you. The truth is out there and the truth will set you free, but the truth is looking for you. Jesus tells us that a day is coming when geography and assumptions and prejudice will be swallowed up and made meaningless in the truth of God. And on that day, we will truly say that we worship together in spirit.
Speaker 1:But until then, you and I, we worship every time we learn something new. Every time we make room for someone else. Every time we discover the grace of God in unexpected places and unexpected people through all of the faces and places that God's unchanging truth comes looking for us. May you open your spirit to worship in new ways this week. May the truth that surrounds you always find you this day.
Speaker 1:Let's pray. God, thank you for all the ways that you come to us. You surround us with your love and grace and truth. The ways that you are continually searching us out, even when we stumble to find you. May we recognize every new bit of truth we uncover, every bit of peace we encounter, every grace that we extend to someone near us.
Speaker 1:All of this is our worship of you because it assigns you the climax, the pinnacle, the everything of our worth that we can. God, in all of these ways, may we expand our imagination of worship. And may we offer everything that we All of our curiosity, all of our intellect, all of our desire to know, may we give it to you. And may you return to us an encounter that invites us to know you. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen.