Sermon for Lent 3 A March 15, 2020 House of Prayer Lutheran Church

John 4:5-42

When I lived in central Pennsylvania, one thing I loved to do was take my dog and head into the mountains; explore the ridges and valleys, all covered in forests. The landscape is kind of like the driftless area of southwestern Wisconsin. One feature you’ll find is an abundance of natural springs. One of the springs I found was tucked away near the top of a ridge, deep in the forest on a gravel road. Someone had affixed a small section of pipe into the rock where the water gushed out, and they had hung a little mug from the pipe so it would be easy to take a drink. When I saw that, I couldn’t help but take a drink from the “living water” that flowed into that little mug. Of course, we didn’t have coronavirus then, and I guess being in such an idyllic setting, it didn’t occur to me that sharing this mug with who knows who else might spread germs and sickness.

Well, I wouldn’t do that today. And luckily I emerged unscathed. But of course, there really was no guarantee. Sometimes it’s a good idea not to share things in common with others, or to undertake “social distancing” as we need to during this pandemic, to slow the spread of COVID-19, reduce the number of infections, and save lives.

Other times, the reasons we don’t share things with others need to be examined a bit. And that’s what we find in today’s gospel story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well. Jesus meets her at spring-fed well after a long walk on a hot day. She is there to fill a bucket to bring water back to her home. Jesus asks her for a drink, and she is surprised, because (St. John tells us) “Jews and Samaritans do not share things in common.” Well...why not?

For starters, back in the 1st century AD, both Jewish and Samaritan leaders taught that it was wrong for their people to have anything to do with the other group. They were not supposed to go into each other’s land, or to speak with one another--even though both groups were descended from the original 12 tribes of Israel, who had wandered with Moses in the wilderness for 40 years. So why the animosity?

It has to do with things that happened later in religion and politics. If you look back on the history in the Old Testament, Solomon was the wisest king but after him, the leadership was inconsistent. There were good kings and bad kings, honest kings and corrupt kings. But none like Solomon. Eventually the land split into two rival kingdoms--the northern kingdom was called Israel, and the southern kingdom (which contained Jerusalem) was called Judah.

Hundreds of years later, the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom and sent many Israelites into exile. Many Assyrian people then settled in the northern kingdom--and these folks intermarried with the Israelites who remained. Later, the Babylonians conquered the southern kingdom, destroyed the Jerusalem Temple, and sent many of them into exile.

When those southern kingdom exiles returned from Babylon around 537 BC, they started rebuilding the Temple on Mount Moriah. Meanwhile, about 100 years later, the Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim. They believed Mount Gerizim was the true mountain where God had chosen to be worshiped--not Mount Moriah.

The Samaritans believed their ways were the true religion of ancient Israel. Of course, the Jews believed their ways were the true religion of ancient Israel. Fast-forward another 500 years, to when Jesus and the Samaritan woman meet at the well--well, you can just imagine how entrenched their divisions had become. All the while, if outside observers where to visit the area for the first time, knowing nothing about either group, what they probably would have noticed was the similarities. Both groups worshiped God in a Temple on a mountain. Both groups followed the 5 Books of Moses. Both observed ritual circumcision as a sign of God’s covenant. Both celebrated Passover. But after 500 years of animosity, it wasn’t the similarities they defined themselves by--it was the differences.

And now Jesus (who was Jewish), and the woman at the well (from Samaria), have taken it upon themselves to reveal a different way of being. Jesus had intentionally traveled into Samaritan territory, where he wasn’t ‘supposed’ to go. He was in the wrong neighborhood. He speaks with a Samaritan, whom he wasn’t ‘supposed’ to speak with. He respects her opinions as a woman in this back and forth conversation, which neither of them was ‘supposed’ to be doing. In their conversation, we see that being “right” about which mountain had the proper temple for worship was not as important as being in a “right relationship”.

Now, being right is good--even important--just ask the doctors and scientists and government leaders who are trying to educate us about Corona virus! But what is most important for us is being in a right relationship--because this moves to love our neighbors; to seek what is good and right together; to help each other make it through hard times; to protect each other from harm, improving each others’ lives, share the love and forgiveness of God.

This is what God is most concerned about: how we treat each other, especially those we “do not share things in common” with in some way. Ya know, most of us love to be “right”. It feels good to be right. And each one of us thinks we are right most of the time, otherwise we wouldn’t hold the opinions we do! But we also know that each one of us is a sinner; therefore--none of us can be right about everything!

And we can always find something to divide ourselves from others (if we want to). But like the Jews and Samaritans in the centuries before Jesus appeared on earth, the longer you keep another group at arms length as strangers, the easier it becomes to ignore their full God-given humanity. And then the easier it becomes to miss out on what God has to reveal to you through them--and on what God has to reveal to them through you.

It’s not that the differences don’t matter. They do matter. But what we learn from Jesus and the Samaritan woman is that none of the differences are what matter most. What matters most is that each person is created by God, known by God, and loved by God. Jesus doesn’t tell her it’s bad to be Samaritan. She doesn’t tell Jesus it’s bad to be Jewish. They honor their differences yet still find common ground by allowing each other to tell the story of who they are. And they both listen to each other. In this way, you can remain authentically who you are, and all others to remain authentically who they are, while learning to love and respect each other.

That’s why Jesus can say, “The time is coming when you will worship God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem...you will worship God in spirit and in truth.” It’s not about being in the “right” physical location. It is about being in the right location of heart and mind to see God’s presence is all around us, and in other people.

That’s what Jesus and the Samaritan woman were able to do through their faith. She gave the thirsty Jesus a drink from the well. Jesus gave her the spring of living water gushing up to eternal life. And things didn’t stop there. She went back to her city and told everyone about Jesus--she became one of the first Apostles. The people in the city invited Jesus to stay, and he did for two days. Jesus had a chance to hear their stories, and they had a chance to hear Jesus’ story. When he left, this is what they realized all on their own: “we know that this is truly the Savior--not only of the Samaritans, not only of the Jews--but Savior of the world.”

No matter where we go, who we meet, or the circumstances we face, the presence of our Savior Jesus goes ahead to meet us there. Where will you meet him this week? Amen.