Our Gospel reading starts simply enough. Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the well, and ask her for water, then she engages him in an extended conversation about the well, water, herself, and the history not only of the well itself, but of the relationship between her people – the Samaritans, and his – the Jews.
On the surface it all seems kind of pedestrian and mundane, but this exchange is anything but mundane. This is one of those defining moments in Jesus ministry, where he not only lays bare the heart and soul of his teachings, he also extends the Gospel invitation to others.
We’ve lost the dramatic effect that engaging in conversation with a Samaritan represented in Jesus’ world. For him, as a good Jew to speak to a Samaritan at all, much less a woman who had had five husbands, was a major social, religious and political faux pas.
The Samaritans were the outcasts within the spectrum of the Jewish world. They were kind of like Jews, but not really. While the Jews of Jesus day worshipped in the Temple in Jerusalem, the Samaritans practiced the same rites and liturgies, but they used them as they worshipped at Mt. Gerizim, up in the high country to the north east of Jerusalem.
While to us, it may not seem like a big deal that they worshipped at their own temple in Mt Gerizim – a temple that was one of the sanctuary sites built centuries ago, and used by the great prophet Samuel, But to an observant Jew in Jesus’ day, there could be only one temple – and that temple was in Jerusalem.
To the Samaritans, there was only one temple – and that temple happened to be on Mt. Gerizim … and so, like many other good religious conflict throughout human history – the battle lines were drawn, and sides formed and they were off …
So, as Jesus moved through Samaritan territory, he should have, as an observant Jew avoided any contact with Samaritans, but clearly in this reading, he didn’t. Not only did he have contact with a Samaritan, he managed to break rule after rule after rule … he talked with her, he asked her for water, she was a woman, she was a Samaritan, she was a multiple married Samaritan woman … if this was filmed for a tv show like Canada’s Worst Driver, we could have a little in the corner of the screen tallying up his breaking of the rules, and it would be spinning as this story unfolds … Even his disciples asked “what the heck are you doing?” when they saw what he was up to …
So, all controversy aside for a moment … the heart of this exchange is the invitation to partake in the living water that pours forth in abundance from God. Everything Jesus says to this woman, leads to the invitation to drink from the well of living water … water that is abundant, endless and free to all for the taking …
It’s a radical concept that hearkens the listener back to the moment in the Sinai when the people were hot and tired from being out in the wilderness, and like good children everywhere started the whine … “are we there yet?” … “I’m hot …” … “I’m tired …” … “I have to go to the bathroom …” “I’m thirsty …” and so on.
So to not only address their whining complaints, but to show them the very power of God, Moses takes his staff and slams it down on the hard baked ground and suddenly water begins to pour out of the broken rock.
Now, on one level it’s impressive – striking a rock and causing water to flow in the middle of the desert. But on another level, it is proof that Moses was an observant and intelligent leader. It is said that even today in the wilderness deserts Moses and the Israelites wandered, that the herdsman can read the landscape and find water where others see only dry sand and rock.
In the intense heat, water bubbling out of springs tends to evaporate, and as it evaporates, it leaves behind a layer of minerals that slowly forms a crust that in time covers the spring itself. Herdman have passed down the knowledge over millennia, of how to read the rocks and find those places where springs have been sealed up by their own water. Then taking a wooden staff in hand, and delivering a mighty ‘whack’, they can set the water free by breaking through the hard crust … it’s a good trick, and when Moses used it, he wanted to remind the people to trust in God (and him), and stop their whining ,..
There’s enough water for all, was Moses’ message, and it was Jesus’ message too. Stop worrying and fretting and trying to protect it – the water is a gift from God to be shared and celebrated, so open wide the circle and invite in ALL of God’s children!!
Over and over in our scriptures, we encounter this radical welcome that reaches out beyond the status quo and seeks to draw in ALL people, not just a chosen few.
Over and over we find ourselves in an unlikely place where suddenly, we are challenged to something more … Walter Brueggemann offers a glimpse into what that something more is when he writes:
I propose that the church is now God's agent for gathering exiles of which I can think immediately of two groups. First there are those exiles who have been made exiles by the force of our society, those who are rejected, ostracized, and labeled as outsiders. This, of course, includes the poor, and inevitably we would also think in one way or another of gays and lesbians. We have an exile producing culture that displaces some folks who are variously visible and coval among us. But second, after the obviously excluded, I suggest that the category of 'exile' also includes those whom the world may judge normal, conventional, establishment types. For the truth is that the large failure of old values and old institutions causes many people to experience themselves as displaced people ... anxious, under threat, vigilant, ill at ease, and so in pursuit of safety and stability and well-being that is not on the horizons of contemporary society. It is not obvious among us how the dream of well-being can come to fruition among us. ... In context, then, ministry cannot be about maintenance; it is about gathering, about embracing, about welcoming home "all sorts of and conditions" of people. Home is a place of mother tongue, of basic soul food, of old stories told and treasured, of being at ease, known by name, belonging without qualifying for membership. The ministry of gathering is one to which this God has been committed forever. (Mandate to Difference, Walter Brueggemann. pg 51)
The springs of Living Water are for the sharing – and not just with the chosen few, but with ALL.
The waters of our baptism are a celebration of that invitation and the abundance of God’s love and grace for all. Baptism/Marshall is a reminder not only of our baptism and the affirmation of our circle of community, but his baptism is also a vivid reminder that everyone is welcome to come and share in the abundance of the living waters that are poured out from the very hand of God.
In Baptism, we are called BY NAME – the liturgical action begins by repeating before the community and before God, the name of the child, and then affirming the place the child has in the family of God through the waters of baptism … in Baptism we are affirming that we – all of us – belong to God, and are loved, and cherished and known to God BY NAME.
The challenge we are then called to live and share is to go forth from the Font and return to the world and invite others to come and find a place of belonging alongside the living waters that we call home.
The words of invitation and welcome are ours to share … we are called by name to go into the world and share that invitation with all.
May it be so … thanks be to God … let us pray …
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