It's all theory until you stand at death's door.............

How many times have you heard that faith is a journey?  Well, we've journeyed through the gospel of John this Lent and watched as faith morphs from early possibilities to astonishing miracles.  

                Nicodemus came in the middle of the night because he had some questions.  

                Jesus travels into enemy territory to invite a Samaritan woman to taste living water and

                                    she starts proclaiming the good news.

                A man blind from birth has the most incredible gift imaginable dropped into his lap and

                                    knows he has encountered God.

We too have journeyed in our faith life from times of questioning, to taking a risk speaking with a stranger about Christ, to recognizing the astounding gifts that God has given to us in this life.  Thought of this way, we can see faith unfold and this faith will take you quite a distance.  Right up to the door of the tomb as a matter of fact.  Because it all changes at the threshold of death.  

Once you cross the threshold of death everything changes.  The one who has died moves into a world we do not understand.  We don't know what it looks like nor what it feels like and that frightens us in many ways.  Those who are left behind come to experience the extreme alone - ness of death; now they truly understand that we come into this world alone, and alone we will leave it.  

Martha and Mary struggle, they question, they grieve.  Their neighbors grieve with them.  Even Jesus weeps before the starkness of death.  So we learn that even when we walk with Jesus we cannot leap over death, we cannot ignore the reality of it all. We all stand before the door of death.

For years we have been able to share the good news of God's love for everyone and all of creation.  For years it has been so easy to talk about God's great invitation to all to have a seat at the table, to become one of the insiders.  For years we have depended on the gift of forgiveness, that mending of the broken places and healing of the wounded soul. 

Right up to that stone door, we have reflected the compassion of God in our lives by feeding the poor and clothing the naked.  We have shared our abundance with others and told anyone who would listen that God has changed our life and filled it with Spirit.  Right up to that stone door.

Where theory is no longer enough, and the question becomes DO YOU BELIEVE?

We watch as Lazarus exits his own tomb.  Why?  Why when Lazarus was going to die again?  Why when he was already in the hands of a merciful God?  Was it to give comfort and assurance to those left behind?

No, Lazarus was not raised so we could be assured that heaven was real

Lazarus was raised so we would know that Jesus is real.   

That's the faith that sustains us until the resurrection.  Amen.

When were you last the Samaritan woman?

When were you last the Samaritan woman?

When was the last time the truth about your brokenness, sinfulness or just plain bad behavior didn't stop you from proclaiming God's goodness and mercy?

You and I are much like the Samaritan woman at the well.  Here is a quote from Jeff Christian, preacher at Bering Drive Church of Christ

             "We are members of the tradition of unlikely preachers who could do little better than to
              stand before God with open hearts.  A few of us even try to resist God at times.  We are
              God's little misfit children that keep coming back with stubborn gratitude.  But because of
               an undeniable salvation that God keeps offering to cracked pots like me and Nadia and
               probably you, we say, even with a little trepidation, 'Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.'"

Rev. Christian wrote this in an open apology to Nadia Bolz-Weber for the hurt that the Church of Christ and inflicted on her when she was a member.  Bolz-Weber is now a Lutheran pastor. When Rev. Christian heard her speak, he knew it was time to speak the truth about her experience.

He heard Nadia speak; he heard the gospel proclaimed.  He was touched both by God's message brought by Nadia and by the sin that had been committed against her.  So he spoke the truth and wrote an apology.  The truth, however inconvenient, was not to stand in the way of the proclamation of the good news.

Sort of like the Samaritan woman.  Sort of like you and me.

Keep telling God's story and your story and listen closely for the thirst in the other.  When you are focused on that, all the other stuff just fades away.

Some thoughts on the Samaritan woman......Sunday, March 23, 2014

People will do extraordinary things in the name of religion.  Sometimes this will lead to unexpected peace and unity.  Other times it will be destructive and squeeze the life out of God.  Once someone begins to limit where and how God can be found and who it is God loves, you have entered dangerous territory.

Fred Phelps, who headed the Westboro Baptist Church, took his rejection of homosexuals in the name of religion to such an end that he, and his followers, with hateful, angry posters would picket the funerals of American soldiers.  Phelps insisted that the soldiers' deaths were God's just punishment on the US for its acceptance of homosexuals among us.

So it wasn't just long ago and far away that people drew lines over who was acceptable to God and who not.  In 1st century Palestine, Jews were acceptable and Samaritans (even though they shared heritage) were not; just 30 years ago in the ELCA men were acceptable proclaimers of the gospel and women not.  There continue to be folks who consider only heterosexual/straight individuals acceptable and those who don't conform sexually for whatever reason beyond the pale.

The Samaritan woman at Jacob's well falls into several categories of unacceptable.  Her life is a bad dream, a wasteland of widowhood, divorce, rejection and abandonment.  Perhaps it was all the heat she took from others that brought her out to get water in the heat of the day. We can talk another time about why commentators have historically implied this woman was of ill repute leading too many to look at her and only see a tramp.

What they fail to see is a woman without fear.  A woman who approaches a stranger, a Jewish man who would logically assume he was superior to her in all important things.  She challenges Jesus' ridiculous claims about providing water without a bucket and living water at that.  She held her ground, remembering her catechism, and the values she was taught.  She had the courage to listen closely to Jesus' answers, knowing full well she just might be proved wrong.  And here is the astonishing thing....she shakes off her pride, announcing to the entire village He. Told. Me. Everything. I. Ever. Did. in order to invite them to 'Come and See.  This one just might be the Messiah.'

Jesus stands in a place where he shouldn't have gone, talked to a woman he shouldn't have talked to and announces that God's hour is upon them.  God = Jesus.

If he did it before, he will do it again.  Jesus will cut across any barriers we erect: ethnicity, gender, income, tattoos, piercings, who we love and who loves us.  Just where you are sure you won't find Jesus, he will be standing, drinking some water, talking to the unacceptable.

If you want to know God, look for Jesus.  He'll be down at the local watering hole, having a drink with a woman only known by reputation.  He'll be at the bus station buying a Coke for a scruffy teen with a huge backpack who has been thrown out or run away from a home that is no longer safe.  He'll be on the street corner in the early morning hours, talking with the sex workers just coming off a night's work and the undocumented workers looking for a day's wage.  There is where Jesus is, talking with everyone he meets.

This Lent we are reminded of this Samaritan woman who carried the Good News to the very people who made her life a desert, because By George! Come and See! This guy knows me through and through and I think he is the real thing.  You really don't want to miss this.

Isn't that the Good News we carry?  Jesus offered me - ME!- true living water.  It is almost too good to be true.

Let's talk about sin........

First it was Nicodemus.  We watch as he slips through the night to ask Jesus a few questions.  He walks away not at all sure what the answers were. Born again?

Then we met the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well at high noon.  She needs water, Jesus starts making outrageous claims about the quality of his water and in the end she leaves with Good News for the entire community. Living water?

This week we meet the man born blind.  That's the only name we have for him: the man who was blind from birth.  He is simply sitting around, begging (that was his full time job) when Jesus approaches him.  It's hard to tell if the disciples see this man as a 'learning opportunity' or if they are trying to show off their smarts by asking Jesus who sinned, the man or his parents. Because you see, someone had to have sinned.  Otherwise, the man wouldn't have been born blind.

We don't get three steps into this encounter between Jesus and the blind man before everyone wants to talk about sin.  Ever notice how much fun it is to talk about sin?  Especially when we are talking about the sin of someone else?  I have often thought that we so urgently want to point the finger at the other - the sinner - so no one will look our direction and shine too bright a light on our failures and hurtfulness.

Many commentaries on the Bible will tell you that it was a common understanding that misfortune including disease and disability were a sign that God was not happy with you.  Your sin caused your illness or handicap.  They are right, it was common.  It is still common today.

A baby is born with physical challenges and we default to 'what did the mother do?'  (or 'not do' which is an equal possibility).  A friend is diagnosed with lung cancer and everyone feels obligated to point out that he was a smoker.  A neighbor joins the ranks of the long term unemployed and we are prone to comment that she should have been out there upgrading her skills if she wanted another job.

We have a tendency to blame the patient for the illness......and I believe that this is not mean spirited at its core but rather a sort of 'knocking on wood' for us.  If we can figure out what they did wrong, we will do it right and be spared!  At the same time, if we are leading fairly pulled together lives at the moment, we can give ourselves a ribbon for doing it right.

And we all know that is a bunch of hooey!  Matthew reports Jesus teaching "...for God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous."  5.45

So while the disciples are trying to figure out who sinned, and the Pharisees are trying to figure out exactly what law Jesus broke, and the man born blind tells his story again and again......Jesus is only interested in sight and belief.  Do you see?  Do you believe?  Everything else in the story is just commentary.

Parched lives in a dry land...........

The first thing exercise gurus will tell you is to drink plenty of water.  You need it more than you think.  As you move and sweat and work you will need more.  Your body needs it even if your brain hasn't registered that fact yet.

Water.  A colleague tells of his foray into regular exercise as a Lenten discipline 10 years ago.....and he begins his story with water.  You need water, he was told; "rivers of it, here, drink deeply."


Then he asks the question,  "How often have we acknowledged how parched our lives are? How we thirst for God?  I had a sense that something was lacking in me, and I could tell you what it wasn't, but I needed a guide, a coach, a person of grace to tell me what it was."  Water?  God?  Both?

The psalmist writes, "O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water."  Ps 63

Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but 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." John 4

When he has gathered his disciples, including Judas who would betray him and Peter who would deny him, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet ...." John 13

Then from the cross he says, "I am thirsty." John 19

The water that is essential to life is but an earthly reminder of the God who is essential to true life. Jesus taught us what we already know; then he lived and died in that essential relationship with his Father God.

Drink deeply.  Rivers of living water.

                                                                                                                      Many thanks to Pr. Craig Herrick for these images.