As we did last Lent, the preaching series this year will focus on a single story. Reading a single story five weeks in a row gave us a common vocabulary, allowed us to share what turned out to be common experiences, gave a depth to our understanding of it. The story for this Lent is about boundary-crossing. Whenever Jesus crossed the boundaries of the ordinary and acceptable, something very potent resulted. As Springwater embarks on a mission study, we might find ourselves crossing boundaries, and I thought it might help us to see how Jesus responded to that sort of thing, with its implications for growth and outreach. In this story, Jesus leaves the center of his religion-Israel-and travels to Samaria. He violates social convention by asking a foreign woman for a favor, and he admits that the thing most important to him is "worship in spirit and truth."

Five weeks on the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, but in conversation with the lectionary Old Testament lessons. I hope we'll see familiar stories in a new way. For instance, what does the unnamed woman at the well tell us about the woman in the Garden, whose name we think was "Eve"? Between the two of them, we might learn how, when God "holds back" on the consequences, we call it "salvation."

In going to the Garden, I'm going to ask you to let go of how you usually think of the story. For one thing, the Bible does not portray this as "The Fall." That's an idea we got from medieval and Renaissance literature. Jewish theology understands this story as "the loss of innocence," rather than "the Fall." According to rabbinical commentary, this is a story about what happens when we let creation (and not God) have dominance over us. According to the Bible, the serpent is part of creation, not "the devil," and he offers the woman a shortcut. He's not tempting her at a weak point. We usually think our temptations are a sign of weakness. But if we look closely, we'll see that temptation comes where we're strong-star athletes to enhance their performance however they can, leaders to take more control, attractive people to consider lovers. Go home and read Jesus' temptation in Matthew 4. Jesus is tempted to take shortcuts to do the very things he does in his ministry-make bread (for 5,000 people!), bend the rules about gravity (and walk on water), become our king (hosanna! crucify him!). The snake offers Eve a shortcut to the very thing she and the man were created to be-the image of God.

Have you ever wondered why, in the center of the Garden, God put something tempting but forbidden? Some scholars suggest that the woman perceived a difference between God's commands and God's will. What they say is that the woman, longing to be in deeper relationship with God, differentiates between God's command (don't eat!) and God's will (choose me). God created us to do just that-to choose God. Christians call it "free will." Which might explain why God "holds back." When God tells the man not to eat from the tree, God says, "in the day that you eat of it you shall die." Well, they don't. With the loss of innocence and the exercise of "free will," perhaps a deeper relationship is enabled with God. Christians believe God intended Jesus Christ from the beginning, not as an afterthought, not as "oh nuts, humans messed things up, I've gotta fix it." God intended Jesus as the example of complete human-ness, a model of perfect communion with God.

I love four-year-olds. They have begun to figure out that rules make the world run. This is a challenge as well as a joy, because 4 year olds see these as irrefutable rules. Bedtime rules might run along the lines of clean teeth and then a story. If the parent tries to do the story before the teeth, the child will object. That's not the way we do it. An older child can understand that sometimes rules can be broken for a good reason. If the story-telling parent will be gone at bedtime, the story can come before tooth brushing, since the babysitter can do that, but not the story. A still older child won't object if the babysitter reads the story, whereas a younger one might find it suspicious that the real story teller (Mom or Dad) isn't living up to their end of the rules.

What happens to the Samaritan woman at the well like this gradual maturing. As her understanding unfolds as to who her conversation partner is, her faith also develops. God must understand that there is only so much truth we can stand at any given time. When Jesus asks this Samaritan for a favor (as opposed to making it a commercial transaction), he crosses every social boundary in the book: race, gender, religion, class. In asking a favor, he treats her as if she's a human being. And she accepts his outrageous behavior! Perhaps as a marginalized woman anyhow, she has nothing to lose. Perhaps she hears courtship language-the servant courting Rebekkah on behalf of Isaac, Jacob courting Rachel-perhaps at this very well. So when she compares Jesus to Jacob, her response is on a personal level. If he isn't a customer or potential husband, who else but a prophet would be so unafraid of social consequences? Prophets have been known to fearlessly ask single women for drinks.

Did you notice that this takes place at noon, the hottest part of the day? Here she is, trudging in the hot sun to haul up and cart home some water. Why doesn't she wait for dusk, when things are cooler? Why didn't she go in the morning before it got hot? Because that's when all the other women go to the well. If her reputation is as bad as Jesus surmises, she's not going to subject herself to biting sarcasm and cattiness.

So it's good news that this man speaks to her, treats her as someone worthy of giving a favor. But the "good news" isn't gospel yet. Jesus needs to talk about living water. As we eavesdrop on this conversation about living water for the next 5 weeks, this fountain will accompany us. I hope it will be a reminder of a snow-melt mountain stream or a refreshing lake plunge on a hot day or just a long, cool drink. Ancients called what comes bubbling up out of the ground "living water"-what we call a "spring." Folks who live and worship in a place called "Springwater" might appreciate this. As Christians, we think of "living water" as something spiritual, but as the resident of an arid country, this woman might have heard rumors of the Roman aqueducts, but indoor plumbing would have been beyond her reach. Wow! Water that comes into the house on its own! I don't have to come to the well-cool of the day or heat. Give me some of that water!

This is where Jesus tries to loosen her grasp on concrete realities. And she begins to see that he doesn't mean in-house flowing water when he begins speaking the truth about her serial monogamy. Prophet, all right. Someone who can see into her past and her present. Getting uncomfortable, sensing the need for evasion, she brings up Jewish/ Samaritan tensions. When things get too tight, start an argument. The argument fails, so she hopes for a Messiah. That's when Jesus commits blasphemy. "I am," he says. He's that and more. When Jesus says, "I am," he is uttering the sacred name of God. Jesus says that's who he is. He is God's presence among people looking for the Messiah. That's when the nameless woman drops her bucket and rushes into town to bring everyone out to hear this amazing thing. She's not positive. Her witness is in the form of a question-"He can't be the Messiah, can he?" Who knows whether she had all her theology ducks lined up, but she witnessed to Jesus as the Messiah to her fullest extent. She invited others to join her in knowing this One. Do we dare that?

I said earlier that God holds back. Jesus is proof positive that God holds back. We call in "salvation." There continue to be consequences for what we do. We know that. You don't do your homework you get a bad grade. You drive the car into a tree you crumple the fender. You wash wool in hot water it's gonna shrink.You don't want God in your life, God is going to take you at your word and leave you alone. But Jesus is proof that God doesn't give up, that God holds back on the promised consequences. We don't "die in that day" as the original command to the man said. Neither do we become like God, as the serpent suggests. But outrageous as all this sounds, that is God's will. Christians use a fancy word to say "become like God." We call it "sanctification." Hoping for sanctification is what we promise at our baptism. When we promise to try to be like Jesus, our goal is to become like God. The serpent wasn't all wrong. He distorted the truth, but we are in the image of God. God invites us to more. That Jesus could sit and talk with an unknown woman not of his religion, that he could offer her living water, means there's even hope for us. Even for us. There are no short cuts. The radically outrageous thing is that God holds back on the consequences. And invites us to drink the living water. To come to a deeper relationship with God. To know God's will more fully than the command.

Return to Sermons page

Return to home page