Sermon for 15th March 2020 - The Woman at the Well, from Isolation to Evangelist

Sermon for Sunday 15^th March 2020

The Gospel according to John Ch. 4: 5-42

⁵So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. ⁸(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ ¹¹The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ ¹³Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ ¹⁵The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ ¹⁷The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ ¹⁹The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ ²¹Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But 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. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ ²⁵The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ ²⁶Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

²⁷ Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ ²⁸Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ ³²But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ ³³So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ ³⁴Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’

³⁹ Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I suppose most of us have experienced being an outsider at one time or another and I have to admit to being one of those children who was always picked last for rounders, cricket, rugby, hockey, and, well, all the sports really.

Becoming set apart, by default, was something I got used to. Being judged, especially when it feels unjust, even as an adult, can be very demoralising, especially when it forces us to be outsiders.

And it still happens all the time, we judge on appearance, race, colour, gender and sexual orientation without realising

Fear can be a big motivator, judgements are made from prejudice or false information, or illnesses we don’t understand. For example, with the Coronavirus, avoiding Corona beer or Chinese Takeaways are irrational judgements, but fear can inspire odd choices.

So, it is a universal truth that things are rarely as they seem or even if they are, we often leap to a conclusion which fits our own view of the world or make assumptions to fill the gaps.

It’s interesting to note that in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well today, the message I seem to recall, when I was younger, was that because the woman had had so many husbands, she was immoral, a fallen woman,

and that God in his infinite mercy would forgive even someone who is as awful as her, daring to be a woman, talking to a man, like Jesus, and judged by some commentators as being promiscuous, or worse, like Mary Magdalene, and in both cases, there is no evidence that either woman was a greater sinner than anyone else.

Perhaps it was their audacity in speaking to men, with ideas of their own, which condemned them in the eyes of the early Western church.

So, what else is going on here?

Well, they meet at Jacob’s well, the original meeting place for the twelve tribes of Israel, named after Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel, the father of the Israelites. Jesus would have known this and meeting someone not of the twelve tribes here was significant, his message was for everyone, and not just the Jews.

Then, Jesus chooses this conversation, with an outcast woman, to be the longest he has with anyone in the New Testament. Some parables are longer, but this isn’t a parable.

The woman and Jesus are alone, a Samaritan woman and a Jewish man and in their culture, this is inappropriate, scandalous even, yet Jesus doesn’t judge and just asks for a drink of water.

The woman has been married many times, which Jesus already knows, but he doesn’t judge.

They don’t talk about what marriage should be, Jesus doesn’t judge.

The woman is a Samaritan, an outsider, an alien in the land, and there is ancient animosity between them and mainstream Judaism, but Jesus doesn’t judge.

Jesus has made himself vulnerable, sitting by a well, in the heat of the day and anyone who comes to the well is also likely to be vulnerable, unpopular or an outcast, avoiding the crowds. So, when the woman comes to the well, avoiding others who have shunned her, Jesus doesn’t judge.

The woman recognises Jesus as a prophet straight away then, when he talks about living water and he sees that she is spiritually desperate to understand who he is, and when she truthfully admits to having no husband, Jesus doesn’t judge.

Jesus rarely talks about marriage. His first miracle was at the marriage at Cana but that was about wine and abundant transformation.

Jesus also talked about marriage and divorce in Matthews Gospel, but in the first century, women had absolutely no legal power to divorce a husband, hence Jesus’ forbidding it, to protect women from poverty and destitution. He doesn’t judge.

This puts the woman at the well’s situation in a different light, for her to have had five husbands means they would have died or divorced her and each marriage was quite likely to have been arranged, perhaps to the previous husbands brother, so she was also likely to have been a victim and certainly not a fallen woman out of choice, one could say she’d been pushed and not jumped when she fell.

The woman declares, “I know the Messiah is coming,” and Jesus admits who he is to her, “I am he, the one,” so that she is the first person to know who he really is in John’s Gospel and there is a symmetry here in that the first person to meet the resurrected Jesus, was another woman, Mary Magdalene.

Possibly for the first time in a long time, someone listens to her. Jesus sees her pain and troubled life but casts no blame, shame or condemnation. In a simple conversation, he shows love and compassion, affirming her vision of him. He doesn’t judge.

There is no posturing from either side, I see you for who you are, and I love you.  Now see who I am.  The Messiah.  The one in whom you can find freedom, love, healing, and transformation.   Spirit and Truth.  Eternal life.  Living Water.  Drink of me, and live.

And then, see who she becomes, no longer someone who is isolated, but instead, she runs into the nearest town telling everyone to come and see, it’s the messiah, he told me everything I had done.

So, this unnamed woman, is one of the first ever evangelists, she told her testimony with such power that people left the city to come and hear Jesus, who stayed in the village for two more days as a result.

The patriarchal, western church really didn’t like the idea of women being so close to Jesus, instead, vilifying and belittling them.

13th Century icon

Interestingly, the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, venerates the woman at the well with the name Saint Photini, a word from the ancient Greek, meaning brilliant light, or enlightened one. In their tradition, she is recognised for bringing as many people to the way of Christ, as the Apostles.

There is a final knock back by the patriarchy at the end of the passage, when the locals say to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said, that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves,” well okay then, we’ve finished with you now. Misogyny, even among Gospel writers is perhaps nothing new…

In all of this, Jesus doesn’t judge, in fact, the only people he judges are people who lie, who deceive and the hypocrites.

Even unrepentant sinners are simply called on to the mend their ways and turn to him.

By being vulnerable, two people have made a connection.

Jesus changed his plans, proclaiming the Gospel for two days outside Judea to none other than Samaritans, the other changed her life, escaping shame and self-isolation to proclaim the Gospel.

So, where are we in this story?

Well, perhaps, when we meet someone, and the old question, what would Jesus do, comes to mind, this passage has the answer.

We listen, affirm, encourage and love them (not romantically – I hasten to add) this is Agape Love, it’s an unconditional, spiritual and universal love which transcends all others, this is the love we share in loving our neighbours.

Are there any exceptions to this?

Well I don’t think so.

If Jesus can show love to an outcast woman, then this is a love we can share with all of humanity, for every outcast, every man, woman, child, lesbian, gay, transgender, married, unmarried, baptised, atheists, agnostics, Catholics, Pentecostals, the Jewish, Muslims, sinners, conservatives, labour, the Polish, the French, even Americans.

We can still disagree, but this higher form of love, which Jesus embodied, must surely be our goal.

In practical terms, a universal love, means looking out for family, friends and church but also the vulnerable, the outcast, the isolated, the immigrant, the homeless, the abused, the lonely, the dying, the orphan and everyone else in between.

In these uncertain times, caring for each other will look different, but it can still happen. Many people are being affected (and some infected) by the coronavirus virus and there are two movements in the spiritual life, which come from St Ignatius of Loyola, of the Jesuits in the 15^th Century, which can help us today.

The first movement doesn’t come from God, the second does.

The movement which leads us away from God, is the evil one or the broken side of creation, as St. Ignatius says, it “causes gnawing anxiety, it saddens and sets up obstacles. People become unsettled by false reasons aimed at preventing their progress." Sound familiar?

Let’s not be drawn to believe the lies, rumours and panic about the Coronavirus. Because that will just draw us away from the grace, hope and living water which God wants to give us.  

The second movement comes from God, where the Holy Spirit, “stirs up courage and strength, with consolations, inspirations and tranquillity.” 

It strikes me that in this image we have, of a woman, isolated and looking for hope, there is a symbol of God’s grace, because she wasn’t alone, not really. Jesus met her and even before this, God had been with her, as God is with us now.

God is with us now and he is with everyone who is becoming isolated because of this virus, and just because we, or those we love, may be isolated, it doesn’t mean we can’t meet Jesus, and being vulnerable, doesn’t mean faith is lost and that we can’t help.

So, please don’t watch the news or social media too much, let’s not judge, let’s look out for each other and make phone calls or skype. If you need something, but need to isolate yourself, please ask for help, that’s what a community, a church, is for, to bring hope, and light in the darkness.

We can also pray and as it says in Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

Amen