Readings
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
Over the last 9 months I have been challenged around questions of gender and race. About nine months ago I took up a class sponsored by the diocese called “Feminism for Men: How We Dismantle Patriarchy Together” and starting this past Fall I participated in our own class on race and racism sponsored by the Episcopal Church called “Sacred Ground.” Both classes were enlightening and challenging, each in their own way. In the end I had to come to grips with the truth that I, as a straight white male, continue to benefit from patterns in our society that have been with us for centuries. Yes, some aspects of those patterns have improved in the modern age. But if I am to be honest with myself, I must admit that, while I am neither a chauvinist nor a bigot, I am, as a white male, complicit with the dominating practices of patriarchy and racism that continue to exist even today.
Today’s Gospel passage calls us into similar dynamics and shows us a Jesus who is not afraid to cross destructive or demeaning social boundaries. In today’s story Jesus is traveling through Samaria on his way to Jerusalem. Samaritans (the people of Samaria) were persons who Jews of Jesus’ time saw as alien, outside, beneath, and worthy of derision. To pass through Samaria may have been the most expeditious way to get to Jerusalem, but perhaps not the most desirable.
Even so, we’re told that Jesus stops at Jacob’s well to rest and sends his disciples off to find something to eat. While there he encounters a Samaritan woman from whom he asks a drink of water. This alone would have been a scandal to those who first heard this story. Not only because she was a Samaritan, but also because she was a woman. At the time of Jesus, the norm regarding women was that men, especially religious teachers, did not even speak to women other than their own spouse. Women in general were seen, at best, as a distraction and, at worst, as a path to damnation. And while within both Samaritan and Jewish tradition there were some protections for women, they were often treated as a necessary evil and a piece of property to be controlled.
It is in this cultural context Jesus engages this woman. Even she is shocked by the encounter and initially questions his boldness. Jesus engages her about the living water he will give and they begin a debate/discussion about that water. You see, while we tend to hear Jesus’ words about living water to be a reference to spiritual matters, the term itself in the ancient world could simply mean fresh or running water. Understandably, the woman takes Jesus literally and asks him for this miraculous flow that he promises.
Having compassion on her he continues to offer himself to her and asks her to go and bring out her husband. Now the exchange that follows about her marital status should not be taken as an indictment of her morality. It is possible that she is a widow and has been handed from brother to brother in her husband’s family with no one ultimately willing to take her permanently. No, what we are to take from this conversation is that Jesus sees her for who she is. Because of that, the woman begins to see that Jesus is more than simply some stranger she has encountered but perhaps a miracle worker or a prophet. The discussion which follows about where to worship God is his attempt to get her to understand the radical presence of God and that where one worships is not the point of religion. He wants her to see that worship is about God, not geography.
Now she is beginning to get it and speaks of the coming of the messiah, but still does not recognize him. It is again out of love that he finally cuts to the chase and tells her that the one she is waiting for is speaking to her.
In the midst of this his disciples, shaped by the culture and norms of the time, are shocked by Jesus talking to this woman. But Jesus, using metaphors of sowing and reaping, invites them to imagine that the work of God is bigger than they imagine. That in God’s kingdom the mission is to those beyond and outside. That, in the end, it doesn’t matter who invites or who comes, but whether or not they, the disciples, are prepared to receive and welcome.
Moved and transformed by her encounter with Jesus, the woman goes and shares the news of her experience with the people of the village and invites them to come and see. And we’re told that many came to him and, after being invited to do so, he stayed with them for two days. The result of which was that many in the village came to believe in Jesus.
Is this simply a story about Jesus miraculous ability to know about this woman and her history? Is this simply about Jesus’ ability to rise above and beyond the cultural norms and expectations of his day? Is this simply a story about evangelism?
No, this is a story about the human condition both then and now and how the kingdom of God calls us to a different way of living. This is a story that challenges our preoccupation with protecting boundaries between chosen and despised peoples. Throughout human history, people and nations have defined themselves over against other groups. The history of race relations in this country, the notion of racial purity that was at the ideological heart of Hitler’s Germany, the ethnic wars that wax and wane across Africa, Asia and the Middle East all have their roots in the same fears that divided Jews from Samaritans – namely the fear of contamination and the fear of sharing one’s gift and privileged status with others.
And before we move on, let’s be clear that the boundaries constructed on the basis of gender are no different. The disciples’ astonishment at Jesus talking to the Samaritan comes not simply from ethnic considerations, but because Jesus speaks with a woman. And like with race, history is replete, within our own culture as well as many others, with examples of how women have been denied many of the basic rights and respect that men accept without thought or consideration. Speaking from the view of the kingdom of God, Jesus will not be governed by those fears and prejudices, and thus he treats the woman as fully human.
Jesus, in today’s Gospel passage, speaks a prophetic word to the Church, and by extension us, this morning. We, like the disciples, are being called to recognize that the harvest is plentiful and that we are to reap that harvest; to do nothing less than usher in the kingdom of God.
But to do so is not simply about sharing the story of Jesus. Rather it is the task of creating space for the transformative presence of Christ to affect the lives of others. We are being called to make Jesus real in the world today by making the kingdom of God and its values real among us.
How might we be agents of justice, peace, restoration, and reconciliation? What might we do to ensure that women and minorities do not continue to be the Samaritan woman of our day? Yes, things are, in many ways, different from back then, but that does not mean that there aren’t divides that separate us and issues of justice that demand our attention. Income inequality, gender and racial profiling, immigrant stereotyping, and the ongoing level of violence faced by women in comparison to men are but a few examples of how we still have much to do in order for the kingdom to be fully manifest in our day.
And to be clear, this is not a liberal or conservative issue. This is not a political issue for us as Christians. This is a kingdom issue if we’re going to be faithful to Jesus and the Gospel he proclaims.
So let us be bold, as Jesus was bold, and cross the divides that separate us one from another. Let us be brave, as the Samaritan woman was brave in her proclamation to the people of her town, and confront the brokenness in our society even when met with hate, anger, or violence. And in it all let us be compassionate, as Jesus was compassionate with those who did not understand him, loving all those we encounter, that the love of God through Christ might transform the world.
May we, with the disciples reap the harvest that God has prepared for us. May we give thanks for those who have sowed the seed. And may we know the peace, the love, and the joy of being known by Christ and in experiencing his kingdom.