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Sermon: The Third Sunday in Lent (A) - 27th March 2011
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30 am
Readings: Exodus 17:1-7 Psalm 95 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42
Australia prides itself as a multicultural success story. But the people who say this are usually white and wealthy. Societies are always praised by those who have benefitted most from them. But the fact is that Australia struggles with those who don’t fit the white middle-class stereotype. You only need to travel to towns in western NSW to see the tensions between the white and black communities. We used to have a ten dollar note featuring the face of an aboriginal on the back. Why were they discontinued? Because it was for white Australians to burn a hole through the forehead of the face with a cigarette. They were common in Burke. They were known as the Burke $10 note.
Racism is never hard to find in Australia like any other country. Both Germany and Britain have declared multiculturalism is dead. But what do you replace it with? Both of those countries are multicultural. At least Australian leaders are attempting to address the population that we have, in spite of some odd policies. For example, why are asylum seekers placed in high security gaols on Christmas Island? Isn’t the island itself enough of a prison? The island is over 1,000kms from the Australian mainland. Where do the authorities think these people will escape to? They haven’t learnt the lessons of history. When Sydney was established as a penal settlement no gaols were needed at first. The settlement itself was the prison. There was no where to run to.
Now we will all share differences of attitudes towards asylum seekers and to multiculturalism. But that simply reflects the difficulty we have in being able to get on with people who are different from ourselves. And we see these same issues arise in the life of Jesus. He had a Galilean accent. So in Jerusalem he was regarded as poorly educated, ignorant, and likely to be tainted by association with people not of a Jewish background. Constantly, the authorities would question Jesus regarding his authority. What right did he have to criticize them. Then, of course, Jesus spent so much of his time on the edges of Jewish society, interacting with foreigners, with the outcasts, the women of poor reputation and with tax collectors. Jewish society was highly segregated and Jesus suffered from a guilt by association. The rejection of Jesus is a simple demonstration of Jewish hatred of anything that was different.
And all of this demonstrates the difficulties humans have to get along with each other. And Christians have as much trouble as anyone else. Jesus gave us just two commands – love God, and love your neighbour as yourself. But when we think about it, we discover how impossibly difficult it is to do either of them.
And that is why John 4 is so important. When it comes to relating with God we often fail. When we attempt to love our neighbour we aren’t good at it. But here it is Jesus who takes the initiative, he bridges the gulf between himself and this Samaritan woman. Superficially, he would not be expected to speak to her and secondly she was a Samaritan. We shouldn’t forget the depth of hatred the Jews and Samaritans had for each other going back centuries.
And there was a third thing. Any Samaritan cup would be regarded as unclean by the Jews and they would never use them. Here we have three serious objections to Jesus’ behaviour. The woman refers to all three of them. “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Normally, this would never happen. But this is no way for people to treat each other and Jesus simply addressed the problem by speaking to the woman and asking for a drink. It was one small step and yet it was a great leap forward.
Several years ago Jenny was teaching a Muslim girl in Kindergarten. The girl’s father came to the class each afternoon and walked her home. One day he invited Jenny and me to his house for lunch on a Saturday. I felt very uncomfortable but we went. He and his wife spoke little English but we could understand most of what they said. But the food was wonderful. And there was so much of it. They were generous and gracious hosts.
But what was important was that they had made the effort in showing friendship and hospitality. They were building a bridge of friendship. They were Muslims and they were taking the first step. But as Jesus continued with his conversation with this woman there was plenty he could have objected to. At any point he could have said “This is all too hard.” But he didn’t give up. He offered to bless her with the gift of living water but she misunderstood what he meant. He tried to indicate to her that he was no ordinary person and she should consider that. But she said that Jacob had given them this well and surely he didn’t think he was more important than Jacob?
But Jesus didn’t let himself be side tracked. Then he brought up the issue of her husband which was a very touchy subject for her considering her list of relationships. We can wonder about the moral status of this woman which would have given Jesus another excuse just to walk away. But again, the persistence and patience of Jesus seems to have no limit.
Notice how this conversation jumps all over the place. It seems she doesn’t want Jesus to get too close. She will talk about religion in the abstract, but when it came to her and her husbands, she didn’t want to discuss that. Someone once re-wrote this conversation like this. Jesus said, “Call your husband.” She said, “I haven’t got one.” Jesus replied, “No, its five down and one to go.” “Oops,” she thought, I had better change the subject. “Are you a prophet by any chance? We have this thing about which mountain we should worship on. You have yours, and we have ours. Who’s right in the end?”
“Stop” said Jesus. “It’s the Spirit, not the mountain that matters; and our God is looking for Spirit-people right now.” “Is that so” she replied, “how very interesting – of course, one day the Messiah is coming. He’ll explain all that complicated stuff. Let’s change the subject shall we?” But there’s no way off the hook. Jesus held her gaze and said, “I am, the one speaking to you, I am Messiah.” End of argument. End of story. Its time for action.
The time for the arguing is over. To heal our relationship with God, it was God who took the initiative. He solved the problem. He sent his son to rescue us and to heal the relationship. This Samaritan woman was full of ideas, full of arguments, but none of them addressed the problem of alienation from God and her alienation from her community. She didn’t have the resources to solve her problem. But God sent his son to redeem her, to restore her to God’s fellowship.
And he does the same work in our lives, healing us, restoring us, making us whole, and sharing with us his eternity. But he expects more than that. As we pray “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,” we are expected to work to bring that to fulfilment. God’s will is that we love God, and love our neighbours as ourselves. But we know its easier to argue with your neighbour than it is to love him. Its easier to find fault with your neighbour than to be reconciled to him.
And loving your neighbour is costly. It costs our time, our patience and our pride. Its not easy. If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it. God wouldn’t need to give us this command. It wasn’t easy for Jesus to contact this Samaritan woman. It was like wrestling a barrel of monkeys. What Jesus calls us to isn’t easy. Its costly, and its uncomfortable. It involves work – hard work. But, never-the-less, God calls on each one of us to live like his son, copying his son, and loving like his son loved us.
In this way the people of God begin to look like the people of God. Then we see the power of the Cross, as Jesus’ death changes our lives and we look like a restored humanity, as we follow the Son while bringing honour and glory to the Father.