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Sermon: The Third Sunday in Lent (A) - 27th March 2011
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7 & 8 am
Readings: Exodus 17:1-7 Psalm 95 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42
The Gospel reading is a part of Scripture that transforms conventional expectations and challenges the status quo. The setting of this story in Samaria is a scandal that may have lost its force for modem readers, but would have been noted by those of the first century. Jesus openly challenges and breaks open two boundaries: the boundary between “chosen people” and “rejected people”, and between male and female.
The reading has similarity with the parable of the Good Samaritan. In that story the scandal is that the despised Samaritan is the neighbour, and the agent of mercy. The Samaritan traveller touches the injured man’s wounds as he nurses him, an obvious violation of the restriction against contact between Jews and Samaritans, mentioned in our reading. Jesus holds up the Samaritan traveller as an example, suggesting to his listeners that acts of mercy should be governed by need and compassion, not by society’s conventions and fears.
Today’s reading conveys a similar challenge but in a more radical form, because it is not a character in a parable who upsets social conventions but it is Jesus himself. Jesus makes contact with a Samaritan, asking her to attend to his need. He then offers the Samaritan woman the gift of God and reveals his identity to her. He treats the Samaritan woman, and later the Samaritan villagers, as a full human being, a worthy recipient of the grace of God, not as the despised enemy from whom to fear contamination.
The preoccupation with protecting boundaries between the chosen and the despised peoples is not limited to the Samaritan/Jewish conflict of the first century. Throughout human history, people and nations have defined themselves over and against other groups. The history of race relations in South Africa, the notion of racial purity that was at the ideological heart of Hitler’s Germany, the ethnic wars that wax and wane across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe all have their roots in the same fears that divided Jews from Samaritans: the fear of contamination, the fear of sharing one’s gift and privileged call with others.
This gospel reading calls us to stop shaping our life according to society’s definitions of who is acceptable and to show the same openness to those who are different, as shown by Jesus when he travelled in Samaria. We are asked to cross boundaries as Jesus does instead of constructing them. It does no good to cling to notions of a privileged people or a privileged place, because Jesus has already ushered in a time when “you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem”.
The story also challenges boundaries constructed on the basis of gender. The disciples’ astonishment does not derive from ethnic considerations but because Jesus speaks with a woman. Jesus will not be governed by those fears and prejudices, either, and thus he treats the woman as fully human.
The woman’s role in this story has been misinterpreted because of imported assumptions about women’s sexuality, intellect and interests. We must be very careful to read the story properly and see what the John says about the woman, rather than pass on what we have always heard about it. The Samaritan woman is never judged as a sinner. She is in fact portrayed as a model of growing faith. As the story unfolds, we see the woman’s faith grow as she comes to entertain the possibility that Jesus might be the Messiah. Of even greater significance, however, the woman is portrayed as a witness, for we read that she invited her fellow townspeople to come and see Jesus.
The Samaritan woman’s successful evangelization of her town shows to be untrue the myth of the privileged position of men as witnesses and disciples. Because of her witness, the number of persons who believe in Jesus grows. Jesus treats her as a serious conversation partner, the first person in the Gospel to whom he makes a bold statement of self-revelation of who he really is. The Samaritan woman’s story is important for our Diocese to take to heart, so as to dismantle the boundaries it sets around women’s witness and work. Women should be full members of the Anglican Church in Sydney. They should be allowed full access to the ordained ministry in the same manner as are men.
Jesus’ action, in embracing both Samaritans and women, is an example of the way this story challenges the status quo. It shows how human interrelationships are to be transformed in the body of Christ. Jesus’ words in this passage also challenge the status quo. They do not attack it directly, but, like his actions, suggest what is possible in the new reality ushered in by his presence.
Jesus’ words overflow with metaphor: living water, the hour, food, harvest. Jesus wants to open the eyes of the Samaritan woman and his disciples so that they can see what is being offered to them in the present instead of continuing to view everything through the lens of the old ways. Jesus wants the Samaritan woman to see who is speaking with her at that very moment and the gifts that he offers. He wants her to see that the present moment is the time when God meets her. Jesus wants his disciples to see that the harvest is ready, in the present moment , contrary to popular understandings. The metaphors of these verses keep the terms of the conversations always fresh, always suggestive, always open to new meanings in changing circumstances.
Everything is to be newly defined by the arrival of the hour. God’s salvation is available now, to all who will receive it. Remember we read in 2 Corinthians 6, “See, now is the acceptable time; see now is the day of salvation!” Salvation will be offered on God’s own terms, however, not necessarily in the form that we expect. The Samaritans’ acclamation of Jesus as saviour of the world reminds us of that. The saviour in whom they put their faith does not conform to their prior expectations. The reality of God’s presence in Jesus redefines the Samaritans, and our expectations, of how God moves in our lives.
The woman, the disciples and the Samaritan villagers all received more from Jesus than their conventions and assumptions had led them to expect. An incredulous Samaritan woman becomes a witness to the gospel. Jesus’ questioning disciples become co-workers in the harvest. The despised Samaritans spend two days with the “saviour of the world”. This gospel story is a story of promise, of expectations overturned and surpassed. It suggests that the life of faith and discipleship will be refreshed and revitalised if we seek to put in place Jesus’ vision of transformed reality and, most importantly, to Jesus himself. Jesus’ metaphors of living water and worship in spirit and truth invite us to a new relationship to its God and to one another through his presence.
The give and take of the conversations, invite us to take an active role in story. The closing words of the Samaritan villagers hold the key to understanding the narrative techniques of this text. The Samaritans no longer need the secondary witness of the woman’s word because “we have heard for ourselves”. We can too sense that we have heard Jesus for ourselves. As a result of this story, we come to recognize that we are a “Samaritan”, one to whom the good news has come in unexpected places at unexpected times.
The sermon created using The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol IX, Abingdon Press, Nashville. 1995