John 4: 1-30
Smiley strikes again! I shared last year some sage wisdom from Smiley Anders, columnist for the Baton Rouge Advocate. He has provided fodder for the mill once again. In the April 29, 2011 edition of The Advocate he related the essence of this story that I had actually received earlier from a friend in New Mexico.
“The year is 2016 and the United States has just elected the first woman, a Louisiana State University graduate, as President of the United States, Susan Boudreaux. A few days after the election the president-elect calls her father and says, ‘So, Dad, I assume you will be coming to my inauguration?’
‘I don’t think so. It’s a 30 hour drive, your mother isn’t as young as she used to be, and my arthritis is acting up again.’ ‘Don’t worry about it Dad. I’ll send Air Force One to pick you up and take you home. And a limousine will pick you up at your door.’
‘I don’t know. Everybody will be so fancy. What would your mother wear?’ ‘Oh Dad,’ replies Susan, ‘I’ll make sure she has a wonderful gown custom made by the best designer in New York.’ ‘Honey,’ Dad complains, ‘you know I can’t eat those rich foods you and your friends like to eat.’
The President to be responds, ‘Don’t worry Dad. The entire affair is going to be handled by the best caterer in New York. I’ll insure your meals are salt free. Dad, I really want you to come.’
So Dad reluctantly agrees and on January 20, 2017, Susan Boudreaux is being sworn in as President of the United States. In the front row sits the new president’s Dad and Mom. Dad, noticing the senator sitting next to him leans over and whispers, ‘You see that woman over there with her hand on the Bible, becoming president of the United States?’
The senator whispers back, ‘Yes, I do.’
The Dad says, ‘Her brother played football at LSU!’”
Let me share a story that puts LSU and football in proper perspective. It too is about a very important woman who had been similarly overlooked.
Jesus and his disciples were headed from Judea back to Galilee and he decided it was much shorter to go through Samaria than to go around this distasteful area populated by Jews who had stayed behind in the Exile period and who had married the foreign invaders, making them very impure in the eyes of the orthodox. They came to a small Samaritan village where they stopped to rest. Jesus, worn out from the trip sat down at the town well while the disciples went on into town to get a few things for lunch.
While Jesus was sitting there, a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well and the conversation ensued that was read for us by Anice earlier. Jesus asks for a drink. She is taken aback and asks, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
They get into a conversation about the difference between the water she is drawing and the water Jesus can offer, “Living water”, water that satisfies thirst forever, “an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.” The woman asks for the water Jesus can give so she will never thirst again, or ever have to come back to the well.
Then Jesus throws her a curve ball. “Go call your husband and then come back.” “I have no husband.” “I know”, says Jesus. “You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband.”
“Oh, so you’re a prophet!” she says. And then the conversation is totally diverted from the water issue and onto the religious histories of the Jews and Samaritans, the proper place for worship, the proper way to worship, and similar questions of the established religious traditions of the day. Jesus cautions her that her background and his background are not that important. But the important thing is to present our very being, our spirits and our true selves, in adoration of God and that is what constitutes true worship.
“Well,” she says, “I don’t know about that but I do know that one called the Messiah is coming and when he comes he can straighten out our concerns.” “I am he,” said Jesus. “You don’t have to wait any longer.”
About then his disciples returned with the lunch groceries and they were shocked to find him talking with this woman. “No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it!” What a great way to say they disapproved!
The woman took this opportunity to run back to town – not to hide or get away from these crazy Jewish men, but to tell everyone there, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to see for themselves.
“Come see a man ….” she says. “Come see a man…”
In a recent meeting in Indianapolis hosted by the Lilly Foundation for Conferences and organizations who have had Lilly grants for “Sustaining Pastoral Excellence”, Krista Tippett, the public broadcast host of the program “Krista Tippett on Being,” asked this question of the audience of those who are attempting to raise the levels of pastoral excellence across the Church. “Are we going to be a movement of the people of God or an institution?” (Repeat)
Sound familiar? You’ve heard that a lot in the last year. I’ve put it this way, “We are an institution that would be a Movement.” Even public radio hosts as asking the question! That tells me it is important and relevant.
And then Krista Tippett made a very profound statement, “Seminary gave us vocabulary, but it didn’t give us voice.” (Repeat)
So true! If there’s been any one thing I’ve learned since becoming a bishop it is that there is a big difference between vocabulary and voice! So, in an attempt to use my voice, with the vocabulary of faith, and in an attempt to give you encouragement to use your own voice in your own places of service, let me make a couple of observations about this well-known, often ignored, but begging for the attention of our voice, story.
Jesus, as true to course, was the initiator of this encounter. If he had not spoken to the woman, she would never have spoken to him. It would have been one of those “elevator encounters”. You know the kind where you step on the elevator and everyone looks up at the numbers for fear someone might speak to them or that would call for them to speak to another. It would have been quite easy for Jesus just to ignore her. But she had something he needed: Water. And he had something she needed: Living Water.
They weren’t far into this theological and spiritual conversation when she slammed him with this conversation stopper. “Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this…” And she immediately leads him into a rabbit-chasing conversation about history and preservation of that history. “What about our well? What about our ancestry? What about you snarky Jews? “
Oh, how we can get sidetracked from the relevant into the irrelevant! How we can be derailed from spiritual content to societal content! How we can jump the track when someone is trying to get our attention with life-changing discussion!
And the Church can be the worst place to be caught up in the irrelevant of any place I know! Here’s an example: When I was a boy, my mother, daddy and I went one night to a revival meeting held in one of the two churches in our little community. Let me quickly say it was not a Methodist Church! We had gone because friends had continued to invite us to come. They were practicing evangelism! After the opening songs, prayers, and purported welcome, the evangelist stood to preach. But before he preached he asked for all who belonged to that church to raise their hands. Then he asked for all who belonged to that denomination to raise their hands. Then he said, “Will all the rest of you who are not yet saved move over to this side of the aisle.”
In the ensuing “saved vs. unsaved shuffle” my Dad ushered us out of the church. I don’t think he ever went back to that particular church except to attend my piano recitals that were held there.
Jesus says to the woman of Samaria, “the time is coming – it has, in fact, come – when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter. It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself – Spirit. Those who worship him just do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”
That visiting evangelist must have never heard this story! He was all about protection and preservation of a certain way of looking at the life of following Jesus.
Do you hear the point? Christianity is not about preservation but about introduction! “Come see a man!” It is not about preserving our way of life and our understandings. But the faith of the followers of Jesus is about seeing life in a new way because we met a man who showed us something different!! It’s our role and responsibility simply to introduce people to him!
The Samaritan woman left her water jug at the well, and while Jesus had a “come to Jesus meeting” with his disciples, she was on her way to town to say to the townspeople, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out.” And they went out to see for themselves.
John, the gospel writer, goes on to say that many from the village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness. They asked him to stay on so they could learn more and he stayed an extra two days. Many more entrusted their lives to him and their last recorded statements are, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!”
All the woman did was to introduce people to his presence. “Come see a man . . . Let me put you in touch with him and he can and will do the rest!”
We don’t have to guard Jesus’ church for him! He’s big enough to take care of that himself. In fact, when we try and guard the church we are not worried about protecting Jesus, we’re really worried about protecting ourselves. Jesus can take care of himself! We’re the ones who are afraid because we don’t trust him enough to care for us while he also cares for them!
It is unfortunate, un-Methodist, un-Wesleyan, and unnecessary to guard the flock. It isn’t necessary for us to conserve or protect the Means of Grace! Our place is to roll those out frequently and prolifically so others can experience him through whatever Means possible! Jesus himself is the good shepherd and he has placed himself across the entrance to the sheepfold and he can admit whoever he wants!
“Come see a man!” That’s our role. Pastor’s, you do not need to be given the judicial authority to guard the church. Jesus will guard the church! Your role is to introduce and welcome people in that he might do his work! I’ve been shut out! I’ve been deemed unworthy and unsaved! God forbid I should convey that to someone else!
Ray Bowman, his real name and one of the true poor, came with his mother every Sunday to First Methodist Church (not “United” at that point) in Hobbs, New Mexico. He and she were truly the poor – - poor economically, poor mentally, poor physically, poor hygienically, and desperate for acceptance. They weren’t like most of us there, but they were part of the church family. I grew up with Ray Bowman.
When I was in college I worked one summer as a volunteer with the youth and Ray was part of the group. He was so disruptive that the regular sponsors wanted him banned from coming because he was unruly, bold, smelly and difficult. But he was no more difficult than were those sponsors! He was no more difficult than some of the most controlled and controlling, most intimidating and sinfully manipulative, well perfumed and well-heeled and impossible-to-deal-with people in the church today. And we break our necks to recruit and appease them that they might give their stamps of approval from the secure confines of their Sunday school classes and might drop a little of their amassed wealth (and don’t even question how that came about!) into our thirsting coffers! When I and another college student went to the senior pastor to tell him what was happening, he asked the sponsors to step aside and let us handle the youth group for the summer. Ray continued to come and, I believe in his own limited way, he knew this Jesus who accepted him for who he was! He met the man! All we had to do was introduce him!
Jesus said to his disciples, “Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time! . . . I sent you to a harvest field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.” (John 4: 34-38)
The Samaritans committed themselves to Jesus because of the woman’s witness: “he knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!” And so they asked him to stay on, which he did for two more days. Many more gave their lives to him once they heard him and met him. And in the end they said to the woman, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!”
“Come see a man!”
Do you see who this Samaritan woman has become? From an outcast gender, an outcast race, an outcast theology, and an outcast class and caste, this woman, this un-savable person has become the very symbol of liberation and change, acceptance and desirability. The outcast who lives a disreputable life is being offered “living water” by “the Way, the Truth and the Life” himself!
This woman at the well opened the door to all kinds of change, although it was a door that has taken us hundreds of years to pry open in our societies, and in many that door is not open yet! How long did it take for us to have women clergy? Far too long! How long did it take for us to elect a female Bishop? Far too long! How long did it take for us to rid ourselves of the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction? Far too long! And then how long did it take for us to have a cross–racial appointment, with a black pastor serving an all-white congregation, and a white pastor serving an all-black congregation? Far too long! And now combine all of these changes and you get the ultimate combination – a black woman Bishop! Get ready Louisiana!! Times they are a changing! And the same Savior who had a noon-time visit with a Samaritan woman and shocked his disciples by having done so is having similar conversations today with the outcasts and undesirables of our world and our shocked churches don’t respond much better than did these first disciples!
And would you believe that 2000 years later we’re still trying to get this one right? We’re so very good at exclusion. We need to begin to practice inclusion! We are so very good at discrimination! We need help with color-blindness! We’re so very good at “our fathers and mothers did it this way and our uncle Jacob gave us this land, and this church building, and even the well that goes with it!” We need help with “maybe our way has run its course and now your way, Lord, a calling to ‘engage our spirits in the pursuit of truth’ is what matters!”
There’s a whole lot of “mantle passing” we need to do and a lot of “freeing up” we must allow. The banquet table has been set before us and ALL have been invited! But the ones who are most interested in preservation have married a wife and bought a cow and they can’t come!! So open the doors! Let those on the highways and byways come in to sit with the master! Don’t preserve – - – - – Introduce!!! And once they have been introduced, let them and “the man” take it from there! Get out of the way! Jesus is a big boy and he will handle these new relationships quite well.
He even had to fight his way out of his own home town to keep them from killing him because he told them he had come to preach good news to the poor, and to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord! And then he said Elijah could have gone to many widows in Israel in the midst of the great drought that resulted in famine over all the land, but Elijah wasn’t sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath, or “Sarepta” (sound familiar?), in the land of Sidon; and there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Na’aman the Syrian. (Luke 4: 18-30) God wasn’t about preserving! God was about introducing! And they were filled with anger and tried to throw him headfirst off a cliff! But he passed through them and went away. Whenever we try to introduce the most challenging of Jesus’ teachings we still get push-back and condemnation!
Is all of this dangerous teaching? Is it unsavory? Yes it is! It got the one who taught it killed eventually. And it may get some of us, including me, in trouble today! But fear not, we are in good company! And our role today still is to introduce everyone we can to this very teacher!!
“Come see a man!!!”
On May 21, 2011 the latest predicted eschaton, or end of the world, was to have happened. A great earthquake was to begin the horrible destruction that would lead to the final end of the world as we know it. The day came and went with no appreciable natural disasters. So, we ho-hummed the next morning and said, “Wasn’t that interesting?” But we didn’t get out quite that easily. We’re still here! And that means one main thing to the faithful —we still have to deal with “him!” And he is challenging us to the core of our very way of being and begging us to move beyond preservation of the past to introduction to the future.
“A Louisiana senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership. Taking off down the road, he floored it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left.
‘Amazing,’ he thought as he flew down I-20, pushing the pedal to the metal even more.
Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw the highway patrol behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring. He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120. Suddenly he thought, ‘What am I doing? I’m too old for this,’ and pulled over to await the Trooper’s arrival.
Pulling in behind him, the Trooper walked up to the Corvette, looked at his watch and said, ‘Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a reason for speeding that I’ve never heard before, I’ll let you go.’
The old gentleman paused, then said, ‘Years ago, my wife ran off with a Louisiana State Trooper. I thought you were bringing her back!”
‘Have a good day, Sir,’ replied the Trooper.”
Well, people, I’m bringing Him back! “Come see a man!!” And I’m saying to everyone here, we, clergy and laity alike, ought to be about bringing Him back! “Come see a man!!” He will change our very beings and our lives. He will change our church! He will change our relationships! He will change everything about us.
It’s not about whether I know how to balance my checkbook or not, but it’s about whether I know how to love my neighbor who has no bank account to balance. It’s not about whether my children get to go on a ski trip, or a summer mission trip. It’s about whether they know Jesus the man. It’s not about whether I have a latte or a Frappuccino at the church café! It’s about whether I can drink the cup he drank which can contain some pretty bitter and disappointing ingredients.
“Come see a man!!”
It’s not about technology – It’s about theology. It’s not about whether I have a legitimate birth certificate – it’s about whether I have been born again! It’s not about whether I agree with you or whether you agree with me – it’s about whether we submit to Him and whether we both agree with Him!
“Come see a man!!”
It’s not about tweets – it’s about “twust” (thank you Tweety!). Are our hearts “twitter pated” with his joy and his mystery, or are we just “twitter pated” in the head?!
It’s not about football – it’s about foot washing! It’s not about the death penalty – it’s about giving life and giving it abundantly! It’s not about capitalism – it’s about becoming a captive.
In the words of Tom Brokaw, “It will do us little good to wire the world if we short circuit our souls.” (From a commencement address, “Celebrate the Common Cause of Restoring Economic Justice and True Value”)
“Come see a man!!” I’m bringing him back!! But he never really left! We left him! And when we return to him he will fling open his arms, draw the water from his own deep well and will quench our raging thirsts with the sweetness of his unfathomable grace!
Oh! Come see a man!
Oh! Go show a man!
Oh! Go serve a man!
Oh! Bring him back! Bring him back! Bring him back!
