I had a professor in college who used to start the first
class after an exam with “Well, well, well, it’s time to pretend that you are
all students and that you can learn something that matters.” Then he would
start passing out the tests. To some he would say, “You really gave me a bucket
full.” To others he would say, “You didn’t strain yourself on the crank.” And
to a very few he would say, “Your well was dry.”
Today I stand before you, and I want to say, “Well, well,
well.” It’s time to deal with the issues at hand. It’s time to pretend that we
really understand this story and talk about the things that matter. It is time
to stop being so darned clever about what we think is happening in this story
and deal with the story itself.
You see, when I was in seminary and for much of the time I
have been in the public ministry of the church, scholars and commentaries on
this text begin with the back story of the characters in this text. It seems
like people have this uncontrollable urge to fill in the gaps.
The commentaries begin with why Jesus happened to be walking
through Samaria. Why would he have been tired, needing a rest by the well? The
scholars want to tell you what kind of a woman would be coming to the well at
noon with her pitcher. These same people want to tell you that the impact of
this story is concerned with Jesus’ need to forgive those who do not believe as
they should. They want this text to be about baptism and dying to the old ways
and living into the new ways.
I know, because I have been one of those who have chased
that rabbit all the way down the hole only to find more and more puzzles to be
solved. I tell you today, that although it is an entertaining road, there is
nothing there. It is like pealing an onion. When each layer of the onion is peeled
away, what do you have?
Well, let’s take a look at the onion. I think that there is
more than enough for us to deal with there. At the time of this story, the
Samaritans and the Judeans have been distancing themselves from one another. It
is not really a feud, but it is more than an argument. There are all kinds of
political and sociological issues at hand, but these are just another rabbit
hole.
What matters is that Jewish men are not supposed to talk
with Samaritan women. BUT, Jesus does. We do not know why Jesus has so much
less energy than his disciples, why it is that he alone needs to rest by the
well while his disciples go into town to get food. What we know is, Jesus rests
there and the disciples go to get food.
What we know is that life requires water and this well has
water. People are drawn to the well and people draw from the well. It is a
gathering place. Wells in Jesus’ time gathered people like gas stations gather
people today. You may not like everybody that pulls into the gas station, but
you recognize that people need gas. Even if we are not driving, there are items
of convenience that we find at the local gas station. We might want a doughnut,
a bottle of pop, a gallon of milk, the daily newspaper, a cup of coffee,
directions, a bathroom, local gossip. All of these are available at the local
gas station, quick mart, or convenience store. Well, that is what the well was
in Jesus’ time.
Well, Jesus is resting by the well when a woman comes to
draw water from the well. Jesus breaks social conduct rules by speaking to this
woman, and, in the course of their conversation, Jesus tells her what she needs
to know in order to claim him as the messiah.
This woman returns to the town to share the knowledge of the
newfound relationship she has with Jesus, and the town comes out to the local
gathering place to meet him. They too enter into a relationship with Jesus, and
because of this new relationship, they invite Jesus to stay with them. Because
of his staying, they live different lives.
In the midst of this new relationship that is begun, the
disciples return with food and are confused. They like the old borders. They
like the security of believing that Jewish people are in a right relationship
with God and the Samaritans are not part of that relationship. Well, they have
to learn new ways too.
What we learn from this story is that Jesus is not only able
to build relationships that break through our self-protective boundaries, he is
willing to break through to the other side in ways that claim people as being
sacred—more sacred than places. The day is coming and is now here when we will
not worry about having a place to worship, but that the relationships we have
with people will be the center of how we worship. Worship will not be a where, but a who.
In the 7th and 8th articles of the
Augsburg Confession, Lutherans proclaim that the church is nothing less than
the people who are gathered, where the Word and the sacraments are rightly
proclaimed and administered. Martin Luther and his learned associate Phillip
Melanchthon understood, 500 years ago, that the church, in spite of what we
think about our buildings, is God’s people gathered together for prayer,
praise, and thanksgiving throughout the world.
Somewhere deep inside us, we too know that the church is not
a building, that the church is all about people. For we have heard this story,
and we are witnesses to the turf wars that can arise when we say that God can
only be worshipped here; that God is here but not there. Well, Jesus lays the
groundwork for our Lutheran understanding of the church to come.
Well, when we strip
away all of the “maybe this” and “maybe thats”, we are left with Jesus
revealing himself as the Messiah for the first time in the Gospel of John. A
woman, and this is important, is the first person to bear witness to Jesus’
messiahship, and because of her testimony, others come to be in relationship
with Jesus.
This is not the only time in the book of John that women
will be the proclaimers of Jesus as the messiah. We will hear these words again
from Mary and Martha in a couple of weeks and we will hear the proclamation of
the resurrection from Mary Magdalene a couple weeks after that.
What we are left with is the importance of women’s voices in
the proclamation of the Gospel; of women’s voices identifying who Jesus is; of
women’s voices calling us to the centers of social exchange as places where
Christ’s presence can be found with new relationships of welcome and
acceptance.
Another thing. It confuses the disciples and challenges them
to think of the world in new and different ways; to embrace a world where the
outsiders are welcomed into relationship with God’s covenant people.
Jacob’s well has not failed yet, and the life-giving living
water of God’s word revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ has not failed
either. Give testimony to that relationship that gives you life, for indeed, we
know that Jesus Christ is the salvation of the world.
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