Sermon February 24, 2008

Lent III, Year A

Lent III, Year A, 2008.

The story of the meeting at the well is one of the most remarkable of any of the four canonical gospels, not the least because it is Jesus' longest conversation recorded in any of them. It must be very important, therefore. Well, it is very important. So let's look at it.

And when I say "look at it" there are two different sorts of glasses we can wear - one pair will show us the biblical-critical view of what's going on here, the other will try and get to the reality of the encounter over which the Community of John have laid their theological perspective.

Let's start with that theological overlay, and then try and peel it back and see the actual encounter.

And remember - the Samaritans were Jews too! After the return from Exile in Babylon Judaism split, with two temples - one in Jerusalem and one on Mt. Gerizim, which overlooks the village Jesus enters in today's gospel.

One of the major themes in John's gospel is the replacement of filtered access to God through the institutional structures of the Temple with direct, unfettered, free access to God.

In Jesus, this gospel says, we meet God.

That's why, in John's gospel, we continually are presented with a Jesus who's supernatural powers allow him to be totally in control - "you couldn't crucify me" he later says, "unless I allow it".

In this story the woman at the well ends up proclaiming that free access in her view of Jesus - and he later confirms that truth - it is he who will provide heavenly food that will sustain his followers into the reign of God.

There are other theological motifs added here. The phrase "living water"in Hebrew is "mayim Chayim": fresh, running water that hasn't been left standing in dirty jars, isn't stale or brackish - the Johannine authors want us to think "metaphor", and later on they tell that when Jesus offers living water, he is promising the gift of his Holy Spirit (John 7.37).

The woman herself has had another theological motif overlaid on her true identity. The Jewish prophets - prophets of the Judean Jewish stream - had spoken of the idolatries of Samaria like a wife who has forgotten her first husband, YHWH and goes in pursuit of other lovers(idols) - sound familiar?!. The many husbands?

So for John's gospel the Woman at the well stands as a metaphor not only for Samaria but also for all those whom Judaism considered outside the reign of God.

There's other evidence for her questionable identity in the story - in particular that she comes to the well at noon, rather than when all the other women would have come, in the early morning or evening.

And how does Jesus respond?

• He speaks to her. That was strictly forbidden by the Torah - both Judean and Samaritan - there should have been a chaperone.
• He treated her like an equal, when she was really - according to the Torah - property, no better than a slave.
• And he discussed religion with her.

The message couldn't be clearer: Jesus is including - embracing - those whom organized religion and national culture rejected as equals or excluded as sinners. There are no outsiders for Jesus, and - say the authors of John's gospel - there shouldn't be for us, either.

This story thus becomes a profound statement of inclusion.

So much for the theological overlay! What about the story behind it? We can get to that, too, but so that you understand what's going on I'd like to play a little game with you!. I'm going to give you a famous quote, and you tell me who said it.

"Yesterday - December 7, 1941 - a date that will live in infamy" Franklin D. Roosevelt

"I am not a crook" (expletive, deleted) Richard M. Nixon.

And, lastly,

"Give us water to drink!" The Israelites to Moses, in the desert.

I want you to think of that quote from Exodus - of the Israelites to Moses begging for water - in the same way that you think of the other quotes. All the other quotes immediately created a historical context for most of us - Pearl Harbor, and the Watergate Scandal.

They created that historical context because they're a part of our history as a nation. Any time anyone else uses them - and others do - we immediately remember where the quotes came from.

So what do you think a Jew - any Jew, Samaritan or Judean - might think upon hearing the famous quote from his or her ancestors spoken originally at Jacob's Well: "Give us water to drink" ( paraphrased to "Give me a drink") coming out of the mouth of an upstart itinerant preacher at the same well?! Clearly not a coincidence!

One response might be: "Who the heck does this guy think he is?!" But based the circumstances of the request, and on the way the conversation develops, I'd say the woman at the well took it as a "smart-alec" quip, and decided to "one-up" the preacher with some quick-witted responses.

In other words, Jesus' remark instantly created an environment where a relationship was possible. Remember that bit about men and women even talking...! And he was Judean and she Samaritan - oil and water!

If you follow the rest of the story you can seem her deliberately misunderstanding him, and he enjoying the encounter, charmed, I think, by this quick-witted and engaging woman.

I have often wondered if Jesus didn't already know the woman at the well. Setting aside the Gospel authors' desire to show Jesus' divine prescience this prior knowledge would really be the only way he could have known about her checkered past.

And it would change the encounter and make it more real. Telling her "everything [she] had ever done" would mean helping her to come to a more profound understanding of who she was as a human being - that she was, in fact, fully and completely a human being, and not property.

Jesus gave her back her life. Or, more accurately, gave it to her for perhaps the first time.

And that, for me, is when I find myself at Jacob's well. Being given back my life.

That's the promise of the well for all of us: being given back our lives - having our living redeemed, inviting us into the fullness of living, into what St. Paul calls mature personhood, into the full knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

I invite you to visit that well this Lent, to celebrate the gift of God that gives you back - no, that gives you for the first time - the fullness of joy, and exuberance of celebration, and embrace of family, and the love of all that was promised to you - and me, and all of us - since the dawn of time.        Amen.