Lent 3a
March 23, 2014
Pastor Ronald T. Glusenkamp
“Living h2o”
Chorus
-“Stirrin’
up the water
Stirrin’ up my soul
A
Light comes to the darkness
Come
and make me whole
Oh
Stir it up, stir it up, Oh Lord”
Stirrin’ Up The Water by Peter Mayer
John 4:5-42 is the Gospel Lesson for the Day.
I believe that these words (all 772 of them) provide a
refreshing oasis in the Bible. (The Gettysburg Address only had 272 words) Here
we have Jesus talking with this Samaritan woman who by all standards is an outcast.
She is a Samaritan woman. She has been married not once, not twice but five
times. She currently is cohabitating with a man who is not her husband.
We heard on Ash Wednesday that “you are dust and to dust you
shall return.” So now today this unnamed, finite, fractured being is being told
by the Son of God that there is something infinite and whole that can change
her life. And that message of life and salvation is for us as well.
I happened to be listening to A Prairie Home Companion on March
9, 2014 when Garrison Keillor was telling the story about Delores the Waitress
at the Chatterbox Café. She had unloaded a bunch of coffee beans, I think 600
lbs of them and she laid down in the back to take a little nap. The priest came
in after an Ash Wednesday service looking for something to eat. He found
Delores in the back room asleep, so he took out his ashes and made the sign of
the cross on the waitress as she slept. She awoke not too long after that and
after sometime realized that she had the mark of the cross on her forehead. She
thought about it and realized that commercials don’t tell you that- politicians
don’t tell you that, “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It is only
the church that dares tell the truth- that we are all made of the same stuff
and to that same stuff we shall return. Garrison Keillor went on to say that it
is when we think about what a mess we ‘ve made of things- that we realize all
those sins we think other people have, we realize we are capable of committing
them as well.
The Samaritan woman was a marked woman. Most likely she was at
the well at the hottest time of the day so she wouldn’t have to endure the
gossip or stares of the townspeople. Jesus happens by one dusty dry day and
engages her in conversation. As you heard and read, she is rather spunky. She
basically tells Jesus that he doesn’t even have a bucket, which is like being
up a creek without a canoe or even a
paddle.
But, Jesus cuts through all the stuff- the brokenness, the
gender issues, the racism and connects with her deep in her soul. He sees her
as she is, just as she is, a daughter of God.
And she sees, maybe for the first time in a long time that her
life can be more than what it appears to be.
Father Richard Rohr writes in Falling Upward-A Spirituality
for the Two Halves of Life,
“Jesus did not teach that one size fits all, but instead that
his God adjusts to the vagaries and failures of the moment. This ability to
adjust human disorder and failure is named God’s providence or compassion.
Every time God forgives us, God is saying that God’s own rules do not matter as
much as the relationship that God wants to create with us. Just the Biblical
notion of absolute forgiveness, once experienced, should be enough to make us
trust and seek and love God.” (page 56-57).
This past week, Fred Phelps died. He was the founder of
Westboro Baptist Church. If you don’t know his name or the name of that church
you might know the group that pickets the funerals of service men and women as
well as the group that holds up very homophobic picket signs at all kinds of
events. He caused all kinds of people all sorts of deep pain and anguish. More info
HERE.
Matthew Shephard’s mother released this statement upon the
death of Fred Phelps,
“Regarding the passing of Fred Phelps, [husband] Dennis and
I know how solemn these moments are for anyone who loses a loved one. Out of
respect for all people and our desire to erase hate, we’ve decided not to
comment further.”
I like to suggest to you all this morning that what a wild
scene it is at the dinner table this weekend up in heaven. At one end of the
table there is the Woman from the Well. Next to her on her right is Matthew
Shepard and next to her on her
left is Fred Phelps. They sit there
probably nervous and somewhat confused, but then Jesus sits down and motions
for them all to join hands and they do. And then the words of Isaiah 25 come to
mind for each one of them,
6On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained
clear.7And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,the sheet that is spread over all nations;8he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the
earth,for the LORD has spoken.9It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might
save us.This is the LORD for whom we have waited;let
us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Yesterday was World Water Day. (check out www.water.org ) or www.bread.org.
When you have a vision of how Living Water changes one’s life
there can be a flood of love, hope, grace and action.
“Stirrin’
up the water
Stirrin’ up my soul
A Light comes to the darkness
Come and make
me whole
Oh Stir it up, stir it up, Oh Lord”
Stirrin’ Up The Water by Peter Mayer
Amen
Question for the day- In his book, A Month of Sundays-
Updike offers an observation that is quite indicting -“In general -The churches
bore... for me the same relation to God that billboards did to Coca-Cola: they
promoted thirst without quenching it." John
Updike
Do you find that to be true? If so, how might we go about
changing it?
What
do you make of Regina Spektor’s song, “Laughing With”?
