Eastern North Dakota Synod Assembly
Opening Worship on
August 14, 2020
John 4:5-42
In the name of
Jesus. Amen
“Before”
and “After” pictures are standard tools employed by advertisers—especially
those who peddle weight-loss remedies, wrinkle-removers, and exercise equipment. Google the phrase “before-and-after
pictures” and about 4 billion “hits” will pop up—that’s 4 billion with a “B!”
I
share this because, as I’ve been pondering this story from John 4, I’ve been wondering:
“What might this Samaritan woman’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures have looked
like?”
I
imagine a “before” picture that depicts a woman with a downcast expression, eyes
averted, trying to make herself as small and easy-to-ignore as possible.
And
the “after” picture? I see this same
woman, but now with bright shining eyes, gazing outward, her arms opened wide
as if to embrace the whole world!
What
a transformation—between these “before” and “after” pictures of this unnamed
Samaritan woman…not because she had a facelift or lost 50 pounds…
…but
because of a chance encounter she had with a total stranger beside Jacob’s
Well, her village’s ancient water-source.
Here
she was, going about her daily routine, lugging her water-bucket to the well at
high noon—the best time of the day to avoid all the other
townswomen with their buckets…
So
imagine her dismay when, approaching the well, she sees that an unexpected
Stranger was already there!
Tempted
to turn on her heels and return home, the woman--for some mysterious reason--still
felt drawn to her destination and that Stranger whom she noticed was both a man
and a Jew.
Hopefully
he’d pretend she wasn’t there…but then it happened. The man spoke to her: “Give me a drink…”
The
Stranger at the well thus, in effect, said to her:“I see you!”
“How
is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” the woman responds, saying in effect
to the Stranger: “I see you!”
This
brief opening exchange is the last bit of chit-chat we hear in this narrative…
…because,
starting with the Stranger’s simple request, a whole wide-ranging conversation
began...
…a
conversation that quickly delved deeper and deeper into vital business—deep
realities--that would soon mark this day as a decisive turning point for this
woman, for all her neighbors and eventually for millions more, including now you
and me.
First
the woman learns that, though lacking his own bucket, this Stranger has water,
Living Water, water that quenches all thirst forever, water that “gushes up to
eternal life”…
Second,
the woman discovers that even though they’ve never met before, thse Stranger
knows her—reads her like a book—and is aware of everything about her—including
all the stuff she tried to keep in the shadows—all the complicated, awkward,
gossip-engendering parts of her story that she normally kept to herself!
But
there’s more! This Stranger who already
knows her through and through, doesn’t use his knowledge of her to belittle
her….but instead, he responds to her searching faith questions…thus refreshing
her parched thirsty soul.
Which
brings us to the woman’s third discovery.
She realizes that this Stranger wants, not simply to satisfy her
curiosity about holy things, but to expand her entire imagination about God…to
point her to this God who isn’t tied down to any geographic location….but is wild
and free and utterly present wherever seekers like her worship God, in spirit
and in truth.
Throughout
this narrative, the New Testament’s longest recorded conversation between Jesus
and another human being--through it all they keep delving deeper and deeper until
it dawns on the woman that this Stranger is a prophet, a messenger who speaks
the truth not just about herself but about God…and doesn’t merely speak
this truth but embodies it in his very being.
Connecting
all the dots, the woman suddenly realizes that this Stranger is the One she and
everyone else have been waiting for—God’s anointed One, the Messiah…
….and
when that dawns on her, she grasps—in a second!—that such longed-for,
liberating truth simply has to be shared with others.
So
leaving her empty bucket at the well--she runs full-tilt back to her village, breathlessly
stammering the Best Good News she had ever heard: “Come and see a man who told me everything
I have ever done! He cannot be the
Messiah, can he?”
And
then—miracle of miracles--this wall-flower woman boldly, jubilantly,
arrestingly evangelized her whole town.
This
poor, misunderstood, ostracized woman—she, of all people!--opened the
door for her neighbors themselves to meet the Stranger, to hear his Good News,
and to become sharers of this Good News:
“It is no longer because of what [this woman] said that we
believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly
the Savior of the world!”
My beloved friends in Christ, this amazing story is not simply a
“once upon a time” tale.
It
is, rather, the Story of our lives, a Story meant to be heard and told and
shared with others for as long as this old world keeps turning.
Even
now,
during this fearful pandemic--that seems to make a mockery of our assembly
theme: Living Well…
Even
now as
we recognize and strive to address other threats in our world: threats like economic depression, racial
strife, and global climate change….
Even
now, when the possibility of “Living Well” seems so remote…we gather to reclaim the greatest truth of
all: that there is One who knows us
better than we know ourselves….and despite our sin, does not hesitate to
declare to each of us and to all our neighbors across the world:
· “I
see you”
· And
“I love you with an everlasting, undefeatable love that has gone to the Cross
and the Grave for you,”
· And
I choose to have my Living Water--My Holy Spirit—flow TO you and flow THROUGH
you, all of you, now and forever!
Here’s
how a great American Lutheran church leader once put it:
"All
that we Christians are called upon to do, all we can do, is to be an open
watercourse for…divine love. We do
not create [such love]…and we must not blockade it…[but] we are simply to
reflect it, back to [God] and out to [God’s] world. Our calling is to give it free flow…[and
our prayer must always be:] Lord, keep the conduit that leads through me
from being clogged!"[1]
That—all
of that—is what’s happening here in John chapter 4. If Luke’s gospel shows us Jesus telling
the parable of a Good Samaritan man, John’s gospel shows us Jesus creating
the miracle of this Good Samaritan woman!
As
we begin this historic, all-digital synod assembly, we do so, trusting that our
Lord’s Living Water is still flowing, to us and through us here in our Eastern
ND Synod: freeing us to declare that God
intends for us and all people to live well, as we gather around Christ
the Living Well who is the Savior of the world!
In
the name of Jesus. Amen.
[1]
Franklin Clark Fry, “The Source and the Flow,” a 1967 stewardship article. Quoted in For All the Saints: A Prayer
Book For and By the Church, Volume II, p. 354f (American Lutheran
Publicity Bureau 1996)
No comments:
Post a Comment