John 4:1-15
August 16, 2020
Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood
First Congregational UCC of Manhattan, KS
I have an important question for you.
Are you tired of cooking yet?
Even those of us who cook pretty regularly have been cooking more than usual these past five months. If you’re still spending most of your time at home, you may be on day 5,358 of preparing three square meals a day. You’ve been through all your favorite recipes more than once and you can hardly believe it’s time to think about what’s for dinner….again.
Or maybe it’s not cooking that’s wearing you down. Maybe it’s the laundry. Or the dishes. Or walking the dog. Or putting the baby down for a nap. Or mowing. Or weeding.
There are just so many daily tasks that wear on us, aren’t there? It’s a lot of work being a human.
And that’s before you add in the pandemic, the injustices, the worries, the election year, the economy, the going-back-to-school and everything else.
August in a college town always has the air of change. A charge of excitement as we welcome students back and look forward to the energy they bring. This year, the change feels more significant...it feels like we’re all journeying into the unknown together. And so even as we continue these little routines each day - the cooking, the laundry, the dishes, the weeding - we also sense that we’re not sure what’s coming next.
One thing feels pretty certain, though: no matter what changes this fall, things are not likely to get easier for anyone anytime soon. We will have to continue to dig deep and find strength and stamina for the foreseeable future.
And THAT, my friends, is why I was so glad to see this week’s story from John’s gospel pop up this week. Because the nameless woman at the well was tired of fetching water. And yet she had to find some way to keep doing it each and every day. And in her weariness, she met Jesus, and he gave her a different kind of water. Living water.
But I don’t want to get ahead of myself too much. First, this is one of those stories where we have to do some unpacking and maybe even some unlearning. Because many of us have heard this story interpreted as a story about a woman who is ashamed and sinful and is forgiven by Jesus. Maybe you learned that this woman was promiscuous and Jesus loved her anyway. Or that she repented of her ways and was loved by Jesus anyway.
Jesus loves her, that’s true. But I don’t actually think it’s clear-cut at all that this nameless woman has anything to be ashamed about. She has had five husbands, true. But in a society where people often died young and men sometimes skipped out on their wives, this isn’t unheard of. Women in the time of Jesus were mostly at the mercy of the men in their lives….and sometimes they were lucky and had fathers, brothers, husbands who treated them well...and other times they did not. We simply don’t know much about this woman’s circumstances….and Jesus doesn’t seem to have a need to probe for more information.
Instead, he wants to talk to her about weightier theological issues. He wants to talk to her about living water and where to find it. And she wants to know about where the proper place is to worship and how to get closer to God.
They meet at the well in the noonday sun and there is an instant connection. This is a story about faith, intimacy, weariness, companionship, and community. Which surely makes it a story we need to hear in 2020.
What we know about Jesus in this story is that he is thirsty. And he sees no problem with seeking the help of a person from an “outsider group” to meet that need. The woman is surprised he would ask her - a Samaritan woman - for help, but anyone following Jesus’s ministry wouldn’t be shocked. Jesus is a connector….he meets people, loves people, engages with people everywhere he goes….all KINDS of people. He loves them. Whoever they are, wherever he meets them. They are seen and loved. What a gift to everyone he encounters.
What we know about the woman is that she is weary. And who wouldn’t be if you had to walk to a well every single day to draw water and carry it home? Talk about a daily task that would get old.
She’s intrigued by the idea of this “living water” that Jesus offers. Is there some way she could get out of this hard labor and never have to come back to the well again? Is there some way this stranger can help lighten her daily burdens a bit? Make the monotony of the day-to-day a bit more bearable?
We don’t see Jesus handing her an actual glass of water in this passage. In fact, I don’t think it’s even clear if anyone draws water from the well at all. At the very end of the story she even leaves her jug behind as she runs back to town to excitedly tell others about Jesus.
What Jesus does offer the woman is his presence, his open heart, his listening ears, his loving eyes, his time...the fullness of himself. Can you think of a time in your own life when someone has offered you those gifts?
When I ponder that question, I keep coming back to a nameless woman I met on a plane a few years ago. Like this story, the details are a bit disjointed in my mind now. I don’t remember where I was going, but I must have been traveling for work because I was alone. I know I was heading home, which means I was probably weary from being away and excited to be returning to my family.
Now, I am NOT usually a person to chat it up with the person sitting next to me on the plane. In fact, I’m the type of person who takes a book with me to the salon so I won’t have to make small talk while getting my hair cut. I love people….but I have a lot of people I love who are already in my life. I don’t usually invest my energy talking with strangers I know I’ll never see again.
But for some reason, this woman and I talked. And talked. And talked. I think we talked for the entire 2 or 3 hour flight. And we talked about things that mattered, not just small talk. It was an intimate conversation between strangers. And when I left, I felt better. I felt like some of my burdens had been shared. I felt like I was less alone in the world. I felt a deeper connection to every random person who stood next to me at the baggage carousel. And I felt grateful.
Grateful for the gift of another human's time. Grateful for her presence, her open heart, her listening ears, her loving eyes, her time...the fullness of herself. That time spent with a stranger on the plane did not change my daily tasks that needed to be completed. And it did not make the work in front of me easier. But it changed me because our connection was a cool drink of living water. A refreshment that gave me strength to keep going and meet the challenges of each day.
Friends, this is a season when things are hard. And they are not likely to get easier soon, I’m sorry to say.
The good news that comes to us from theses ancient words today is a tall glass of cool, refreshing, living water...and it is this: Jesus meets us in the midst of our mundane, monotonous, everyday tasks. Jesus meets us in our panic attacks and our boredom. Jesus meets us in moments of quiet contemplation and in places we’d never expect him - like a crowded airplane. Jesus sits with us and offers us the gift of his presence.
He sees us. He knows us. He weeps with us. He laughs with us (and maybe even sometimes at us...in a goodnatured way). He delights to spend time with us. He loves us.
He loves us. Through all the beauty and terror of being human. Even now. Even us. Even in this hard season we are all in together.
May that love be a balm to our weary souls...a refreshing spring of living water that sustains us every day of our lives. Amen.
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