Musical Prelude and Service.

John 4:5-42
With PIE Day approaching, I want to discuss the issue of its importance just a little bit more. I’m using this event and the issues attached to it as an example for what I hear in today’s scripture.
In 2017 – almost five years ago now, I was asked to speak in the second Pride Day gathering. That event, held in Central Park was, for lack of a better word, invaded by a large group of demonstrators who verbally assaulted those in attendance. They came armed with bull horns, banners expressing hateful ideas, and passages of scripture they insisted proved that their hatred of LGBTQ+ attitudes is justified and warranted.
At one point I found myself a few feet away from one of the leaders, perhaps the most vocal of these demonstrators. He still insisted on speaking to me by bellowing through his powerful bullhorn. When I noted that his reading about the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was incorrect, according to other scripture he responded by noting some from the epistle of Jude.
Well, that answer puzzled me. I couldn’t recall what Jude had to say off the top pf my head. I did look it up later, and frankly I found his interpretation weak, to say the least.
I don’t want to get into the specifics, but where I want to go here is the realization that in all of this, there is always a counterargument. Those who agitate for exclusion and hatred. Those who demand that we must conform to a uniform image of who God is and what God demands of us, will always find a way to justify their attitude. If you desire a world of us and them. If you want a world ruled by fear and mistrust and a world where you can identify an enemy and a cause of all your troubles, you will read the bible in such a way that you find what you are looking for.
Today we hear the story of Jesus approaching a Samaritan town. He encounters a woman visiting the well just outside of town in the middle of the day.
These two features are important. The Jews and the Samaritans do not care for one another. They have similar religious roots but have parted company along the way. They look to different mountains as being religiously significant and there are other parts of the scripture and practises that have changed. There are other details of this dynamic, but I won’t go into detail. Typically, Jewish men will go out of their way to avoid Samaritan communities.
The woman coming out to the well at midday, the hottest time of the day is all alone. She is, due to her circumstances, shunned by her community. She is a Samaritan woman, looked down on by others in her community.
And this is who Jesus chooses to speak with; to listen to and receive water from. This is the woman Jesus chooses to share his message with and who is chosen to take his message back to her community. Jesus chooses a Samaritan woman marginalized by her community to preach the Good News he offers.
Jesus is the living water we all need in order to truly live out the life God desires for us. Jesus comes to save the world; to save all of creation and he brings that message to everyone. He desires that we all drink deeply of his word.
And when invited to stop, stay and to eat and rest with this community; reviled by his own people, Jesus says yes. He enters this community; he stays with them, listens to them, speaks with them, and eats with them.
I cannot help but read this story and see it as illustrating what Jesus said in last week’s scripture. He comes to save the whole world. Jesus didn’t come just for one particular community, but for everyone. He looks at everyone and sees beloved children of God. In the eyes of Jesus, a Samaritan woman who is ignored by her own community is still worthy of carrying his message of hope and healing.
For me this is a real contrast with the message so often shouted by religious leaders: that we must conform to a narrow set of criteria in order to earn God’s favour. That vision of God is one of conditional love and acceptance. And when we see God in that light, we tend to quickly follow suit. If we view God’s grace as coming with strings attached, we are inclined to attach conditions to whom we welcome and invite to be a part of our community of faith.
On the other hand, if we proclaim a God who loves all of creation fully and without condition; who yearns to be in relationship with all the world; we should be ready to fling open our doors, open our arms and expand our tables to make room for all who wish to enter.
That of course does not mean we create a community without values; without expectations, but for me, those values are around love. To love kindness, to seek justice, to walk humbly with God. To love God and love one another.
I appreciate that some people may wonder why we keep making a big deal about this. Surely everyone must know by now that we are loving and inviting. We don’t need to keep harping on this. All I will say is that my experience, as illustrated five years ago and by repeated stories in the media indicates, we must continue to make our views public. We need to be intentional and be very clear; or explicit in who it is we are inviting. Otherwise, those who are on the outside simply see a church with closed doors and have no idea what we are saying on the other side of those doors.
When I read scripture, I keep coming across a God who continues to give humanity chance after chance to be loving and just. A God who desires peace and compassion for all of creation and invites us to be partners in creating that world. And over and over we get distracted by our insecurities, our fears and our greed. We succumb to hatred and pettiness and create scapegoats to explain our failures.
And yet God keeps returning – offering us once again a new covenant and a new chance to work toward that new world.
So let us renew our commitment to work with God to make that world of love and justice and peace a reality.

Thanks be to God.

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789