As was said in the introduction, after Jesus encounters Nicodemus, a named man, a prominent official, and a Jew, and that will become important in a moment, we are told that Jesus is then going back to Galilee, which is in the north, but to get there, John says, he “had to go through Samaria.” Now it could be that he had to do this because that was the easiest way to get back to Galilee. But, in John, when something has to be done, it normally implies that it is task that God is requiring. So, it’s possible that Jesus has to go through Samaria in order for this encounter to take place. Now when we hear the word Samaritan today, most of us probably think about the parable of the Good Samaritan. In that story the Samaritan comes off as the moral hero, as Jesus says he is the neighbor to the man who was beaten and left on the side of the road. And so we have then this association with Samaritans as being a good thing. They are positioned high in the moral order. They have virtue. But that was certainly not how they were seen by Jews of the time, and to understand that story, and this story, we have to understand how despised the Samaritans were. To be a Samaritan was to be impure otherness.
Amy Jill-Levine, a Jewish New Testament scholar says, that
in order to understand how Samaritans were viewed by Jews, “we should think of
ourselves as the person in the ditch and then ask ‘is there anyone about whom we’d
rather die than acknowledge, ‘she offered help’ or ‘he showed
compassion’?’ More, is there any group whose members might rather die than
help us? If so, then we know how to find the modern equivalent for the
Samaritan. But, the Jews and the Samaritans didn’t hate each other because they
were different, but because they were so similar, with some small differences.
Samaria was an area of land between Judea, which is the
southern part of Israel, which includes Jerusalem, and Galilee, which is in the
north, and where Jesus spent much of his ministry. So the first issue of
conflict was over land. The land the Samaritans occupied was land formerly
held by the northern tribes of Israel. The Jews said that the Samaritans
were a group who were brought in by the Assyrians after they had destroyed the
tribes of the northern kingdom and the Jews there were taken into
exile. They were foreigners who usurped the land and didn’t
belong. Samaritans, however, claim that they were the remnant of those
tribes and thus the land rightfully belonged to them. More than likely
it’s a little of both of them, that they were forcibly moved there, and then
intermarried with remnants of the 10 northern tribes and adopted parts of
Judaism, and rejected other parts. Because their real differences and
animosities came over religion.
The Samaritans, who still exist today, are also
monotheists. They have their own version of the Bible but it only contains
the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, leaving out the prophets and the
wisdom literature. They had their own temple on Mt. Gerizim
where they worshipped, which was destroyed by the Jewish army around
128 BCE following the Maccabean revolt. The Jews
claimed they destroyed the temple because it was idolatrous worship, but it
probably also had to do with the fact that the Samaritans had supported the
Greek’s invasion and occupation of Israel. Both groups said that they were
the true keepers of the law. The Samaritans claimed that the religion
practiced by the Jews had been corrupted during the Jewish exile in the
Babylon, and that the Samaritans were the ones following the laws as handed
down by Moses. As you might imagine, the Jews disagreed with this
assessment and said that the Samaritans were the ones who were wrong. Jews
and the Samaritans simply did not like each other, and this was not limited to
just a small group, this was felt across the board. And so, as the text says,
Jews and Samaritans do not share things in common.
So that’s part of the set-up. But the other part is how
Jesus and the Samaritan woman meet, and that is at a well. If you remember in
our series in Genesis this past summer, wells play a significant role in match
making. Several stories are told in which a man encounters a woman at a well,
someone draws water for the other, the woman then goes back to the city to her
family tells them what has happened, they come back and a marriage is arranged.
And so this story is set up exactly the same way, and even has ultimately the
same parts, except that Jesus is not there to arrange for a marriage.
Additionally, as I said, Jesus has just had an interchange with Nicodemus, a
named Jewish leader, who is also a man, that happens at nighttime. When people
come at night, it does not imply good things about them, or about the
situation. In fact it implies evil intention; think about the crowd arriving on
Jesus’ last night. But here, Jesus has an interchange with a woman, a
foreigner, who is not named, but it happens during the day, in the light, and
so there are very positive connotations here.
Now we also have to know that men and women who were not
related didn’t spend time mingling together in the ancient world. And men would
talk to women in public only if there was a man or others with the woman,
unless the man was propositioning her. And, on top of that, Jews and Samaritans
just didn’t have anything to do with each other, and so Jesus is crossing all
sorts of boundaries when he asks the woman to get him a drink of water. This is
a pretty bold move, and the woman probably has to be wondering what’s going on
and why Jesus would do such a thing. They then have an interchange where they
are sort of talking past each other, because the woman doesn’t understand the
multiple meanings of living water. She is talking about wells and jars, and
Jesus is talking about that quenches eternally. We, of course, understand that
Jesus is the living water, that the source is not something in nature, but in
Jesus himself. And just a few chapters
later, Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who
believes in me drink.”
Then Jesus tells the woman to go call her husband and bring
him back, perhaps so she knows that this isn’t a marriage set-up, the normal
thing that happens at a well. Now the normal interpretation about this
interchange has more to say about us, or more likely about the men who have
commented on it, than it actually does about the woman. Because the typical
interpretation is that the woman must be morally questionable, since she has
had five husbands and the man she is now living with is not her husband. But,
notice that Jesus makes no judgment about her, and he seems to know what’s
going on, what the background is, and there are lots of things that could
explain this. An easy explanation is that she has been involved in Levirate
marriage, that is brothers have to marry her after the older brothers have died
without giving a son, and the last brother has refused to marry her. And that’s
just one explanation. But, while we could explore those relationships as well
as the conversation about living water in a lot more detail, I, instead, want
to focus on their next exchange.
Because immediately after showing that Jesus knows the
woman’s background, she says that she sees that Jesus is a prophet, and so she
asks about worship, and where it should be done. Now some say that she is just
trying to quickly change the subject to get away from the conversation, but
again I think that idea says more about us than her, because once she begins to
understand something about who Jesus is, she decides to ask the deep questions
of the faith that are bothering her. Seems pretty wise to me, and so she says “Our
ancestors worshipped on this mountain,” remembering that the Samaritan temple
on Mount Gerizim had been destroyed by the Jewish army, “but you say that
the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” And Jesus responds,
“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither
on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we
worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is
coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is
spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” This seems
to be a prediction about the coming destructions of the Temple, but of course
it’s much more than that as well.
And so we should notice that she doesn’t ask about the parts of worship, or even about the object of worship, God, but instead the place of worship. And so we can see that there is a shallowness to the question, which I think is a part of Jesus response. Her question also exposes us to the worship wars of the day. Instead of asking this mountain or that mountain, she might just as easily be asking “is it organs or guitars, praise bands or choirs, NIV or NRSV, 8:30 or 11, suits or jeans?” or any of the other things that we argue about, that actually have little to do with worshipping in Spirit and in truth. As I said when we talked about the heart of worship, most of the things that people complain to me about worship, or even the things they like, are about personal preferences, and not actually about worship. And let me say I have my own personal preferences as well, which sometimes are fulfilled and sometimes not.
But, what we have to know is that there is nothing in the New Testament that
outlines the order of worship, as it were, except that we know there was
scripture and teaching and praying and singing as well as communion and a meal,
but what that actually looked like or felt like we really have no idea. But
what was at the heart of their worship, and what we are called to be at the
heart of our worship, is the worship of Jesus Christ. That is what it means to
worship in Spirit and truth. Does worship pour forth the living water that is
Jesus Christ? Does it help us to know and to see and to feel God’s forgiveness
and love and truth? Does it show the
nature of God’s grace? Does it tell of God’s healing mercy that can restore divides?
Does it reveal to us the nature of who we are and whose we are? Does it bring
us to admit the truths not just of God, but of ourselves?
Someone once said that when we talk of our Sunday best, it’s
not just about our clothes, but we also seek to only show the best of our own
lives. We are not, and sometimes cannot be truly honest, about what is going on
in our lives, to be honest and open with each other. I know that’s not true for
everyone, that there are friendships that cross that barrier, but as a general
rule it’s true. I heard from several people who are not members of the
congregation who attended our Blue Christmas service, and one them of thanked
me for giving voice to what they were feeling, and expressed surprise that a
church would do that. But, we should be able to take to God what we are feeling
and needing, not just the good stories, but especially the bad stories, and, as
Paul says; we are to help one another in carrying those burdens. Some come to
worship in the highest of highs and some in the lowest of lows, and we need
space to witness to all of those feelings. That too is what it means to worship
on Spirit in truth.
Last Sunday when we talked about love, I said that love
never asks “what’s in it for me?” and part of worshipping in Spirit and truth
is to worship in love. And let me say that worship overall needs to work for
you, there has to be something in it for you. Although if it’s not working,
it’s not necessarily the fault of worship, because we have to be involved and
engaged in worship. That’s why we say at the beginning that we hope you have
come with the expectation that you will encounter Christ. I can’t make you
worship, or have a worshipful experience, it involves your participation. But
what you also have to know is that sometimes what we do in worship is not going
to work for you, and sometimes what works for you is not going to work for another.
The analogy I like to use is a dinner party.
Now I can’t stand Brussel sprouts, but I know there are
people who do, I don’t understand it, but they do. If I went to a dinner party
and someone served Brussel sprouts, I wouldn’t throw a fit and say “how dare
you serve me Brussel sprouts” say I’m never coming here again and storm out.
I’d simply pass the plate, not taking any, knowing that while I didn’t like
them, someone else would, and to be glad for that. So when there is some song
you don’t like, or something new is in worship, or even, heaven forbid, you
don’t like the message I, or someone else delivers, you need to remember that
will it might not work for you, it is doing something for someone else in the
service, and to be okay with that and indeed to be happy about it. That too is
part of worshipping in Spirit and in truth, and being open to new experiences
and new ways of coming to see and understand God. And sometimes that will work,
and sometimes it won’t, and sometimes it never will, but when we are a part of
a community, of which worship is an essential part, that we have to open to a
community understanding of worship, being part of the Spirit and truth.
Worship is the space that we not only tell the truth about the experiences of God, but also about the truth and experiences of our lives. Just as God carries us through our journeys, so too do we carry each other. Jesus knows the truth of the woman and calls her to name those truths, openly and honestly as well, and he calls the same for us, to be a part of our Spirit and truth, because God cannot encounter us where we want to be, but only where we are. And so, to worship in Spirit and truth we must be honest with God because God overcomes the boundaries that keep us separated from each other, and the boundaries that keep us separated from God. Our worship is about knowing that God and being changed and transformed by that God, so that when we worship in Spirit and truth it is not something that we do for one hour or so each week, but something that we do every moment of every day. Because worship is not limited to a specific place or a specific time, but something that resonates through every moment of our lives. That everything we do becomes part of our worship, so that all that we do gives praise and glory to God. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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