GRACE AND MERCY

FATHER JIM FOSDICK

ST. MARY OF THE SNOWS

FEBRUARY 24, 2008

Lord of light - shine upon us. God of love fill our hearts with your wisdom. Holy Spirit, bring yourself closer to us in my words and how we hear them, in our thoughts and how we think them. Use this time - and use us to accomplish your good will. Amen.

Last Wednesday a man came to the church while we were doing the men’s bible study. His name is Mike and Rod Umlauf had encouraged him to come. After talking with him I invited Mike to stay for the rest of the Bible study and then share his testimony during our Healing service. Mike had had tests done and been diagnosed with leukemia. The leukemia was already in a lymph node so it was advanced and his prognosis was bad. He began praying and his prayer led to his going to a particular church that he had never been to. At the end of the service the pastor invited anyone needing prayer to come forward. In another leap of faith the man went forward and was prayed for and anointed with healing oil. When he was next tested the leukemia was gone. Two things were facts. He had leukemia and now he didn’t. He and his doctor both acknowledged it was a miracle. This was three years ago and ever since he has felt compelled to share the good news of how Jesus had healed him.

Now you might think this is an introduction to a sermon on healing but it’s not. Turn in your Bibles to our gospel for today, John 4:5-42. In the pew Bibles it’s page 888. It’s the familiar account of Jesus and the woman at the well. Here’s the connection with Mike. When Jesus came into Mike’s life and healed him he had to tell people. Similarly with the woman at the well after her encounter with Jesus she had to tell people. All of us hopefully have our own stories about what Jesus has done in our lives and I want to use our gospel for today to try to teach some lessons about God’s grace and how we are called to react to it. When God makes a difference in our lives, when we personally experience the good news, we’re called to share it with others. The word most people use for this is evangelism. Evangelism comes from the Greek word euangelion which literally means good news.

Every one of us receives the commission from Christ to be part of spreading the good news.  Last week I spent the entire sermon on Jesus’ declaration that you must be born again. This week I want to talk about how we can make sharing our faith part of our lifestyle. I want it to be part of the DNA of St. Mary’s that we are a community of disciples who make disciples.

At one of my first meetings with the vestry we were talking about the vision each vestry member has of what they would like this church to be like in the future. Over and over again our vestry said they would like us to be better at sharing our faith. Evangelism or witnessing is not second nature to many of us. Some of us avoid it -- resist it -- even run from it. I’ve tried to help anyone I’ve talked to by pointing out that you don’t have to be a priest or a Bible scholar to do this, you just have to be able to make friends and then talk naturally about what Jesus has done in your life. Our gospel today has some valuable lessons from our boss on how to go about it.

The Samaritan woman in John 4 has deep needs. By every human standard, she’s didn’t matter to anyone. If she had dropped dead carrying water back from the well, people would barely have noticed.

For one thing, she’s a woman in a culture that viewed women as less than fully human. They had few rights and were considered practically property. She’s a Samaritan. Samaritans were pretty much despised by surrounding peoples, especially the Jews. But, in His amazing way, Jesus transforms this woman‘s life; and simultaneously He models the sort of personal witnessing to which He calls us. So what does he show us? I’m going to cover three things that I see in Jesus approach to spreading the good news.

The first is that Christ’s witnesses connect with thirsty people. Our gospel exemplifies how Jesus met people on their own turf. Jesus knew what we need to learn. Harvesters must get in the field where the harvest is. Fishermen go where the fish are. Any deer hunter knows if you want deer you have to go where the deer are.

That’s the difference between us expecting people to come to us, and going to them. Someone has counted it up and Jesus had 132 contacts with people in the gospels. Six were in the Temple, four in the synagogues. All the others were out in life situations. One of the accusing comments the religious leaders threw at Jesus, was He connected with people they considered down-and-outers -- outcasts -- little people, rejects in their religious culture. You’ve heard me say Jesus is always concerned about the L’s—the littlest, the least, the last, and the lost. The woman at the well qualifies.

How does Jesus connect here? He begins by crossing barriers to demonstrate her value. First, Jesus crossed cultural barriers. Verse 4 says Jesus had to go through Samaria. That statement is true geographically, but it wasn’t true culturally. Samaria was straight north if a traveler was headed to Galilee. But no self-respecting Jew would travel through Samaria. The proper Jew would cross over the Jordan, then go north, then back west to get to his destination. The Samaritans were a mixed race and they mixed worship of God with pagan rituals. After Jews were deported to Assyria, the Assyrians repopulated areas with captives from other countries to settle the territory and keep the peace. Those new peoples intermarried with the few Jews left and formed the mixed race. So the Jews hated the Samaritans because they weren’t pure and felt they’d betrayed their religious heritage. Jesus had to go through Samaria, because God told Him to, to keep a divine appointment.

Jesus crossed social barriers. There are two things to notice in the woman’s behavior: First, there was a closer well to which she could have gone. Secondly, women would come to get water early or late when it was cooler. This woman was probably forced to go further and to go at mid-day to avoid contact with the “proper” women. Think about her situation. Women had no power. She hadn’t divorced one husband after another and moved from one to the next and the next and the next. She didn’t move from man to man. She was discarded by one after another. Now, she’s living with someone. He’s not her husband. And that’s not necessarily because she had no standards, but because no one cared about her. With her reputation, no respectable Jewish man would talk to her. No rabbi would ever engage a woman in spiritual conversation publicly.

Jesus ignored social and gender barriers because all that was meaningless compared to God’s value of this woman. In the face of her sinful behavior Jesus was showing mercy. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. Jesus saw her as a hurting woman he could heal by showing mercy then grace. Her spiritual needs mattered far more than her status. How often do we quickly pre-judge people and peg their value before we will consider interacting with them, especially about our message of Christ and eternal life?

Jesus also crossed religious barriers. The disciples were raised in a culture greatly different from the Samaritan culture. They will be shocked out of their minds to return from their shopping trip and find Jesus conversing with a woman of the Samaritans. Everything He’s about conflicts with learned, practiced religious, cultural behavior. If you follow Jesus into personal evangelism, He will likely bring you into conflict with today’s culture.

But Jesus isn’t concerned about the disciples’ opinions of His actions. He’s consumed and compassionate about self-destructive people. He forces His followers – then and now -- to take a hard look at our cultural attitudes, especially self-righteous ones. He connected by crossing barriers to put Himself in contact with the woman.

He also connects by using human need to teach spiritual truth. Verse 7 -- she comes to draw water; Jesus says, “Will you give me a drink?” She can’t believe it. Verse 9 wait just a minute-- You’re a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? Then He stirs her interest with an incredible offer -- verse 10: If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. As He so often does Jesus uses what’s at hand to present Truth. Here’s a thirsty woman coming for water, and He says those amazing words, If you only knew God’s gift and Who’s talking to you, you’d be asking to have your deepest thirst quenched permanently.

He describes living water and she misses His meaning. He’s turned to the spiritual -- she’s still fixated on the physical. Kind of reminds you of Nicodemus doesn’t it? Even by verse 15 she’s still thinking it would be nice not to have to come out to draw water all the time. But what she really needs is the Source of living water to satisfy the deeper ache in her soul. She’s been trying to get it satisfied in all the wrong places. She’s been looking for a relationship with a man that will fulfill her life. Jesus knows that, and he also knows it isn’t working. What’s living water? In John 7 Jesus says, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."’ ...Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive...." Jesus is offering her spiritual life. She needs to experience the Holy Spirit Who will come into her life and make her a new creation. He wants her to be born again. But, like Nicodemus in John 3, she misunderstands. He speaks spiritual Truth in word pictures and she stumbles over them.

“You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.” The well was at least 60 feet down to the water. Without rope and bucket you can’t get water out. When He says living water, she hears running water. That’s what the term meant -- a fountain or a spring, compared with a well or a cistern. How will you get this running water? She’s knows she’s talking to someone unique: it’s in her question, Are you greater than our father Jacob? Jesus moves on: everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst; the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

She knew Jesus spoke truth with “drink this well water and you’ll get thirsty again“. She’d come to that well for years. But there’s a water that’s different: I’m offering you living water -- the one who drinks it will never again thirst.  Jesus Christ provides a resource to believers that’s constantly available -- so when we experience emptiness and thirst in life, it’s always there. Maybe we don’t realize there’s always a place where our deepest inner thirst can be satisfied. We don’t have to try to get it met the same ways unbelievers try. God’s Holy Spirit is a life-giving Spirit; as we know Christ more and more, we learn deep satisfaction with the life He provides. Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw. Something inhibits her understanding. Jesus knows what it is, and so He moves to deal with it.

The second thing Jesus teaches about sharing the good news is  that Christ’s witnesses show people their need. (16-24)

Notice how Jesus shows the woman the incredible needs in her heart. He does it by raising the sin issue. He cracks opens the door by saying: Go call your husband. He’s baiting her; He hasn’t yet demonstrated that He read her life like an open book. He puts His finger on the symptom which demonstrates the real sin issue in her life. I -- I don’t have a husband. With that, she stakes out a position. Maybe it’s a cover up. Her whole life revolved around filling the hole in her heart with relationships. Every one failed miserably. But still she tries. Her words are the opening for which Jesus waited. He moves on with the reality of sin. You’re right -- you’ve had five – and the one you have now is not your husband.

All the pain and guilt of her existence, her past life littered with sin, failure, rejection, guilt and unfulfilled desire is exposed. Jesus knew she’d had five husbands. He knew she was the immoral tramp of the village. He knew she’s now living with a man unmarried. But He doesn’t speak truth to condemn her, he does it to bring her face to face with her sin problem.  She needs to understand she isn’t hopelessly bound up in her past and present choices and circumstances. That earlier offer of living water, in reality, life, forgiveness, freedom was made by this man who knew the awful truth. It’s His offer that can heal her.

Jesus raises the issue of her sin and the conversation suddenly moves from water to a question: Where is the best place to worship God? The twisted nature of our hearts is we try to hide our deepest spiritual issues -- like sin -- with denial. Denial is the smoke screen to keep our darkest secrets hidden. Sometimes hiding is expressed in what we could call generic spirituality. Religious people especially assume, all they need is to try harder, to fix what’s inside all of us. The religious response: if I can turn my life around, …. try harder, …. Fix what’s wrong with me…I’ll be fine. Only after self-help methods prove deficient, does Jesus’ offer of living water become relevant. He didn’t hold back on addressing the sin problem. The bad news of the gospel we share is as Paul says in Romans that all have sinned. That’s a singularly unpopular message, but it’s crucial to Christ’s message. That we are all sinners in need of a savior has to be part of our message.
Once the sin issue is out in the open, Jesus presents His incredible answer, the good news.

The third key to spreading the good news is that Christ’s witnesses present the solution for sin.

The woman’s response to Jesus exposing her sin is revealing: Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Maybe she’s being evasive; changing the subject to escape unpleasant probing by Jesus. But maybe it’s an admission that Jesus is dead right: I perceive that you are a prophet. You’ve looked at my heart; you’re right on. You know everything about me. She’ll return to the village later and tell people, Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.

She’s admits He’s right; this is who and what she is and has done. But then she links it not with evasion, but an honest plea for help. "Where do I go to get my life straightened out?" is what she is saying. You Jews say that the only place to offer the sacrifice that can cleanse my sin is in the temple in Jerusalem. We say it is here on this mountain. Where do I go? How can I find God? Will God even accept a woman like me?

Jesus’ words in response are perfect. His answers to our problems are always perfect. Jesus says to the woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

In other words: Your question about where to worship will soon be irrelevant. By his death and resurrection, Jesus would completely change our understanding of worship. He says, “your knowledge is incomplete, it’s confused. You’ve got some truth but there’s also error mixed with it; you’re misled."

True worship is done not just going through the motions but with our spirits. It’s worshipping from the heart in truth --honestly and openly before God; it’s not a “put-on“. She can’t believe it’s that easy: Verse 25--I know that Messiah is coming; when he comes, he will show us all things. In essence, “Yes, I know you are right, but we must wait until the Messiah comes. We cannot expect these kinds of things in our time." She’s not ignorant of God‘s Truth. She connects worship in spirit and truth with the promised Messiah. When He comes, He’ll clear this up and tell us how men must worship God. I’d just love to have heard this conversation, especially the words spoken then. She tells Jesus she’s waiting for Messiah. And Jesus declares Himself. I who speak to you am He. When people tell you, like the Jesus Seminar and the DaVinci Code, that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah, show them this verse: I who speak to you am He. The New Living Translation reads, “Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah.” Now she knows. Unmistakably, Jesus identifies Himself -- Who He is and therefore what He has the power to do. Now she must respond. Her response now is to go tell the people of her village. She gets it. She has encountered the Messiah and she has to tell people. That’s what I want all of us to do.

Jesus taught us three important lessons in this encounter with the woman at the well. First, as his followers we have to go out where the people are; we can’t wait for them to come to us. No group is ruled out as outcast. In fact the outcasts are the very people Jesus wants us to reach out to. Second, Jesus taught us that no sin is too great for god’s mercy and grace. Jesus told Paul, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. The greater the persons weakness, the more grace Jesus will pour out on them. Third, Jesus taught that when he forgives and gives new life or when he shows mercy and heals, the appropriate response is to go tell others about Him. That’s what Mike who was healed of leukemia and the woman at the well did.