Sermon for March 4

The reading

John 18:12-27

12 So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. 13 First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people. 15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, 16 but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. 17 The woman said to Peter, "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not." 18 Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing around it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself. 19 Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. 20 Jesus answered, "I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said." 22 When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, "Is that how you answer the high priest?" 23 Jesus answered, "If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?" 24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. 25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, "You are not also one of his disciples, are you?" He denied it and said, "I am not." 26 One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, "Did I not see you in the garden with him?" 27 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.

The message

Today’s reading is one of the clearest examples that Jesus changes everything, that because Christ died and rose again for the forgiveness of sins, things are different.  We see that in how Peter responds to the first significant challenge to his faith and how he will respond later, after Good Friday when Jesus dies, after Easter when Jesus rises again, after Pentecost when the promised Holy Spirit fully enters the world, after the church exists to teach, encourage and strengthen faith.  

Peter’s three denials start when Jesus changes his tone. Right after Jesus washes his disciples feet in the beginning of John 13, Jesus reveals that one of those disciples, his hand- picked,  earliest, closest and most faithful followers, will betray him.  After that, we are told that Satan enters Judas, who gets up and heads out to sell Jesus identity and location to the religious authorities.  The disciples somehow miss the fact that Jesus said, whoever eats this bread I just dipped will betray me and Judas both eats the bread and leaves.  Now, with Judas gone, Jesus tells the disciples a hard truth “Where I am going, you cannot come”.  That’s a change, a first really. Before this, Jesus had consistently told them follow, promised I will bring you, I will take you, I will make you fishers of people, come and see.  

For this one moment the people who have given everything to follow Jesus have reached the end of their time with him.  They cannot follow anymore. Jesus knows he is off to death, that he will be executed, spend 3 days in hell and rise again, fulfilling God’s ultimate renewal of creation.  Even Jesus himself struggles with this, the Gospels report long, intense, tear filled prayers from Jesus,  in particular John has several chapters of Jesus’ pleas to “take this cup from me” and acceptance that God’s will be done”.   The disciples cannot follow. Even if they could, their deaths would not being salvation.  

Along with the news, you cannot follow now, Jesus tells them what to do instead, he shares a new commandment.’  that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. They used to be identified by being around Jesus, by being witnesses and participants in God’s healing, restoring and welcoming power.  Now they will be identified by love. Their faith will be lived out in the world, in daily life.  

Simon Peter, curious and dedicated, asks Jesus “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answers, the same as before “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward.”  Peter, realizing that Jesus will lose his life (but not clear that he rise again)  says to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”. Now the stage is set for Peter boldly walking with Jesus, telling the authorities, what you do to him , do to me, whatever happens, I will confess that you are my Lord and God.  Peter really believes he will do it.  To this generous, compassionate and faith filled offer,  Jesus answers, “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.  We never get Peter’s response, Jesus goes immediately into the words I have turned to for almost every funeral I have helped with over the past 9 years,  Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also”. And you know the way to the place where I am going.”

Now of course, Thomas and Phillip jump in with their questions. Thomas asks  “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Then Philip jumps in seeking some clarification “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” (I guess he wants something like a photograph or painting or vision)  Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’.   God is revealed through love.  

Even Jesus disciples seem to be in some darkness of misunderstanding, like Nicodemus and the woman at the well and everyone else Jesus encounters.  To the great proclamation, mystery and joy of the Word made flesh and dwells amongst us”, they say he must mean something else.  To Jesus frank and honest talk about his death and resurrection, they keep saying “eh can’t be, he must be talking about something else”.  To Jesus promise he will save all people from sin and death, they say, as though Jesus cannot do this by himself, “we’ll work on it with you”. 

Now, this morning, several chapters later, we see Peter’s answer to Jesus question, “will you lay down your life for me”. The opportunity presents itself, as Peter is questioned in the courtyard. .  The woman asks, you are not one of his disciples are you? And Peter says “no”.  Moments later, Peter is standing out, new to their community, odd on this of all nights for a random person to show up, a group asks Peter the same question, You are not one of his disciples are you?  I get the feeling this is after a conversation, is that the guy we say with Jesus, no, maybe im not sure, it really looks like him, I saw them on a boat together, well boats are far out in the water, you couldn’t tell, dude, im sure its him, yeah you were also sure you saw a guy floating in the moon, let’s just ask, if he’s a disciples, im sure he will tell the truth.  Again Peter says no.  Finally the third question comes, this time a direct witness, someone who saw Peter with Jesus in the garden, a relative of the man whose Peter cut the ear off.  Peter, confronted with the truth, deines Jesus the third time, saying it was not me, You must not be sure what you were seeing, it was dark, chaotic, frightening, fast, your relative got hurt.  If Peter said yes at any of these times, he would have certainly had the opportunity to lay down his life for Jesus.   Right after this, a rooster crows, a completely meaningless sound to everyone but Peter.

After Jesus resurrection, Peter will be asked three times, do you love me, and answer yes, undoing the denials we just heard.  about 20 years after that, Peter will follow Jesus, he will lay down his life for him. According to the earliest church traditions, Peter was crucified upside down, as he insisted he did not deserve to die in the same way as Jesus (and we’re left to believe his executioners didn’t care one way or the other). Most of Jesus disciples will end up being martyred, killed for their faith.    Jesus has shown us the way. We are an Easter people, things are different.  We are not just sharing theories or ideas, of self helpy life philosophies for successful living or some strong reason to be nice, we are not just community do gooders or semi social workers, we are not a relief organization, those things are all sort of who we are, but those things do not lead us to say “yes I am one of his disciples”, to act and confess and witness in the face of danger, attack or embrassment.  When we try to be church without Jesus, we end up saying No way too often. 

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Sermon for February 25th

The reading 

John 13:1-17

1 Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" 7 Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." 8 Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." 9 Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" 10 Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean." 12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

The message

It takes John’s Gospel 12 chapters to get to Jesus last night. It will take 5 chapters to describe those hours and their significance.  In the first 12 chapters of John, we see the 7 signs that will show the bold promises of the prologue we heard on Christmas are true, proof that Jesus is the word of God made flesh, evidence that he is the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. There is an aggressive argument that Jesus is superior even to Moses: This is set out in the introduction “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known”.

The 7 signs in John’s Gospel are Changing water into wine at a wedding for friends in Cana (told in John 2:1-11) Then there is the healing the royal official's son in Capernaum in John 4:46-54, Healing the paralytic at Bethesda in John 5:1-15 and Feeding the 5000 in John 6:5-14 (one of the few stories found in all 4 Gospels). After this, there is walking on water in John 6:16-24, healing the man blind from birth in John 9:1-7 and finally, Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead in John 11:1-45.  This list is not meant to be a complete or comprehensive description of what Jesus did, each sign is selected to show us something about Jesus.  The feeding of 5000 (plus an unknown number of woman and children) with a few loaves and fish shows that Jesus is greater than the prophet Elijah, who feed 100 with a small amount of food.  The power to heal a man born blind was never experienced or shown before, likewise, no one could raise the dead.  

Along with these signs, we hear reports of Jesus chasing the money lenders out of the temple (an early action that amplifies the conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities). We also hear of Jesus welcoming an outsider, a Samaritan woman with a hard story into the kingdom of God. Finally, these first 12 chapters are filled with information on how Jesus called, taught and equipped his followers for ministry.

Today’s reading is the start of John’s detailed description of Jesus last hours.  This reading from John 13 is one we usually reserve for Holy or Maundy Thursday, where we remember Jesus command, “do this in remembrance of me”. We usually focus on Jesus instructions and promises on Holy Communion first made this night as reported in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Paul’s 1^st Letter to the Corinthians. The challenge for us is that John’s Gospel makes no mention of Holy Communion, instead, we have this story of Jesus washing his disciples feet.  Communion is about God being present with us, in the world, mysteriously being what Luther calls “in, with and under” these common elements of bread and wine.  For John, the presence of God with us, in the world, can be shown in how we serve one another. In particular, how we overlook social, political or economic things and live seeing everyone as loved by God.  The foot-washing is a way that Jesus prepares his disciples for the work of being the church, for starting new congregations, preaching in the face of oppression and threat, defending their beliefs against other philosophies or ideas,  healing the sick, welcoming others and living a different way.

Foot-washing was a common custom in Jesus time, a basic act of welcome into someone’s home and a job reserved for the lowest of servants.  Today, most of us wash ourselves, it’s a private experience. In fact one of the biggest discomforts for many people as they grow older is the inability to care for their own bodies.  We also walk on cement, paved streets, travel in vehicles and mostly wear solid, hole free, closed shoes.  Even for our Holy Thursday worship services,  instead of footwashing, we purchase hygiene items (soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, washcloth, mouthwash, shampoo, etc) to be distributed to new arrivals at the Pam Am family shelter (and leave the washing to them).  This simple act helps us recognize the shared humanness of all those around us, the shared deserving and the shared need. 

I do not want to totally forget about the foot-washing.  It is not irrelevant to us today.  As Jesus prepares to wash his disciples feet, Peter objects, no way is he going to allow his teacher and Lord to wash his feet, that’s not right, Jesus has done more than enough already.   To this, Jesus answers, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand" and "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." After this, Peter decides instead of no washing, he wants full washing, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" to this, Jesus says  "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean. Jesus is giving his disciples a lesson in serving and caring for others.  In showing God’s care through caring for people. If Jesus, the teacher and Lord can wash their feet, no one can ever say “I won’t do that for a neighbhor”.   

There is another level here in this story as well. I keep thinking about one of the most annoying things that my wife Jennifer does.   It’s about walking barefoot in the house.  If I get caught doing it, she will yell put on sippers, when I go to bed, I hear  “do you have your slippers”, sometimes to be proactive she will say “I left your slippers near the bed” (with the assumption, they better be used).  My side is we do not wear outside shoes in the house and clean regularly, so what’s the big deal. I mean we don’t put booties on the cat, she can just walk around.  If I do get caught walking some steps with my feet unprotected from whatever is lurking on the floors, I get an ill, you need to wash your feet,  you don’t know what you are carrying around, bringing into bed, putting on the couch etc.  She might have a point here, our feet do take a lot of abuse and are surrounded by stuff the rest of our bodies can avoid.   

I also think back to Martial arts class as a kid (an oddly significant part of how I became Lutheran to begin with, we used to meet in the basement of a Lutheran Church and my mom would attend community meetings there, so when I left the Catholic Church, I just went there). Anyway, a lot of church basement floors are not so clean, so your feet would be black, a stamp of pride in some ways, showing that you did the work in class. 

As Jesus washes his disciples feet, we are reminded that our Faith, like our feet, is going to be used,  hammered, go through the dirt and mess and yucky stuff.  We cannot really put slippers on faith, it gets attacked by evil, by things we believe should not happen in God’s world, by people with other philosophies, by cries of hypocrites and mentally ill.  Our faith needs to be renewed, refreshed, strengthened, cleaned up, refocused, whatever you call it, faith needs to be maintained.  That is the work that happens here, this is the washing that Jesus offers, 

Sermon for February 11

The reading 

John 9:1-41 

1 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, 7 saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" 9 Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." 10 But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" 11 He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, "Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight." 12 They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know." 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see." 16 Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "He is a prophet." 18 The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight 19 and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" 20 His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him." 24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, "Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner." 25 He answered, "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." 26 They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" 27 He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" 28 Then they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." 30 The man answered, "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. 32 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." 34 They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?" And they drove him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" 36 He answered, "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him." 37 Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he." 38 He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind." 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?" 41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, "We see,' your sin remains.

The message

John’s Gospel is moving fast. We now have 6 weeks until Easter Sunday.  I wanted to review a little from the last few weeks, bringing us from Christmas until today.   On Christmas, I said that the first 18 verses of John  were called the prologue or summary.  In that introduction John shares his thesis, that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh and dwelling amongst us, who came for the forgiveness of sins and salvation of all people.  The testimony and witness of John the Baptist is the first proof John gives that these things are true.  The religious authorities suspicion, mistrust and doubt of Jesus starts right there in the first few verses. The rejection of Jesus is a significant part of the prologue,  people in the light see Jesus as the messiah, people in darkness, who are somehow able to deny Christ are in the darkness. We see this in Jesus meeting with Nicodemus the Pharieee at night and the Samaraitan woman at the well in the mid day sun.  Here things are reversed, the ultimate insider, the wise and powerful Pharisee does not exactly see Jesus is the Messiah, there are too many things in his way, clouding his vision, the model outcast, the Samaritan woman whose gone through quite a few husbands, all she has is faith and hope and she does see.  

 The official rejection of Jesus by the religious authorities starts with being tied to John the Baptist, the uncontrollable, unofficial but popular outsider. Christ being tied to John was already a big negative. We add to that Jesus first miracle and what happened right after and Jesus is definitely on the quick path to rejection.  The first miracle, turning water into wine, Jesus revealed he is the messiah who will change things.  The first thing he changed was going after the corrupt temple businesses, a large source of wealth for the authorities.  Immediately after Cana, Jesus chases the money lenders out of the temple. 

By today’s reading, viewing Jesus as a dangerous obstacle to business as usual is firmly planted. Change, even if it’s from God, is not seen as good by the authorities (who are very comfortable with how things are). The Pharisees had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. A group that was pretty slow and laborious to decide anything, quickly decided that Jesus was not the messiah and took tough positions to stop anyone else from thinking so.  

Today we have the second sign in John, the healing of a man born blind, shared again to show evidence that Jesus is the savior and bring the reader / hearer to faith.  This scene shows us the extent that the religious authorities will go to deny Jesus, to depend on themselves and their traditions and forgot that God can act outside of them.  Moments like the healing of the man born blind are what drove  Nicodemus to sneak out and see Jesus at night when no one was looking.  That was different, it was private, Nicodemus could listen, could be honest, could encounter Jesus without fear of reprisal.  Now, together, none of the authorities can listen to Jesus, none of them can openly consider the question if he is the messiah. They have all seen Jesus publically heal the man born blind. The person they have rejected, banned and attacked has done a sign of power and faith never before seen.  They go through great lengths to deny this. 

Even simply admitting this was done would be casting doubts on their dedication to the cause.  There is a vast amount of what we call cognitive dissonance here, the conflict between what you believe and what you see.  So they put their vast knowledge of the law and legal proceedings to work.  They try all they can to hide what just happened. They cast doubts by challenging if this was the man born blind or just someone who looked like him, They admit it was him but wonder if he was really born blind and call in his parents to verify it, hoping to bully them into making some questionable claim.  They admit it was done and they challenge Jesus for violating the law, for healing on the Sabbath.  They ask the same questions again and again and again, hoping to catch someone telling 2 different stories. They question where Jesus came from, that he could not have such power and therefore what everyone witnessed was somehow fake.  They do not need a lot of evidence, just a little spot of something iffy.           

All this fails, There is nothing they can use.  The man born blind, overjoyed at what has happened, his life restored gets fed up.  He has God to thank and life to celebrate, he speaks out, confronting all the ridiculous attempts by the Pharisees to hide what happened, to put the light of God out, enough fear, enough pretending, enough humoring the religious authorities and their desperate attempts to cover up what happened.  The man born blind gets honest "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.  We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.  Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."  

Now, the Pharisees pull out their last attempt to solve the dissonance, that conflict between the belief that Jesus is not the Messiah and that they saw him heal a man born blind.  They attack the healed man, dismissing him and hopefully casting doubt on what just happened.  "You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?" And they drove him out.  They hope the crowds somehow forget that they saw something amazing, that this man born blind was healed, perhaps all the people will remember is a no good man pretended Jesus was the Messiah and got proven wrong.  We see the inner workings of people, who become obsessed with being right, not faithful.

Jesus work was not quite done.  The man born blind was healed so that God’s glory could be revealed. Jesus goes back to him, reveals that he is the Son of Man, the long expected savior and confronts the religious authorities. This is not a political game for Jesus, this is truth, this is the work of saving the world, this is the forgiveness of sins and promises of God. Now, today this story makes me very uncomfortable (in that good sort of way that inspires change). The response to Jesus from the man born blind is an example for all people of faith.   What are we doing?  What are we fighting to keep to the point we are blind to the world around us. Is it being right, When will we have enough, when will we see what is happening all over the world and say, it is an astonishing thing,  

 I remember when the new gym lights went up as part of the Con Ed energy Audit. I was so happy to that much needed improvement to our space.  After a day or two I realized,  Wow, the gym walls look bad, like really bad, the dull light managed to hide something.  So, thanks to the Peruvian group that hosts events up there a few times a year volunteering to paint,  the walls are now done.    Shining light on things is not always pretty but its necessary.     

Sermon for February 4th

The reading

 

John 4:1-42

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, "Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John" 2 —although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— 3 he left Judea and started back to Galilee. 4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, "Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." 17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, "I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you." 27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" 30 They left the city and were on their way to him. 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, "Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, "One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." 39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

The message

On Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to lead the worship service at Leif Erikson School in Brooklyn.   This was where my brother and I went to preschool 30 something years ago.  Most of the service was led by students in the school and included all of the students from  kindergarteners through 8^th grade.  My only responsibilities were a short sermon, holy communion and the blessing at the end.  

The reading for the night was from the first letter of John:   “If, then we say that we have fellowship with God, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we are lying both in our words and in our actions. But if we live in the light – just as God is in the light – then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purifies us from every sin.”

As I prepared for the message, I knew I would be speaking to a congregation mostly of young students.  I wanted to share something they would pay attention to and could relate with.  I started off talking about all of the groups we belong to. I asked a series of questions, who uses Instagram, who voted, who was born in Brooklyn, who likes pizza, who likes football, who speak 2 languages?   

I shared some of my identity and groups I belong to, reviewing some groups I was born into,   having a twin, having 2 parents,  Some professional memberships, I am a pastor in the ELCA, I am a graduate of Brooklyn college, since my church in Woodside has a preschool, I am part of the Lutheran Schools Association. Other groups are social or personal, I am married, we have a cat, I have a beard.   Some of these groups are easy to come and go from, others have high bars for membership,

That little reading from 1 John is also about belonging to a group, in this case it is about belonging to the group that has fellowship with God.  This means being part of a group where you see everyone, no matter what, as a child of God, where you welcome and care for others because you see that they too are forgiven by God’s grace, fellow sinners cleaned of every sin by the death and resurrection of Jesus.    

The night went well but I was little disappointed. I was not able to reuse my work on Sunday and would have to prepare another sermon.  As I looked at today’s reading, I also realized that it had a lot to do with the groups people belong to and the message that, regardless of what other groups we belong to, the most important one is that we are all children of God.

This Samaritan woman we meet this morning, she was part of a group that others viewed as impure Jews because they did not worship in Jerusalem and did things differently. The idea that she is at this well at noon, the hottest part of the day, can indicate that she was not too popular with her own people either.  She is at the well during non-peak hours.  Most everyone else went to get their water at the coolest part of the day, at 5 or 6 in the morning, before sunrise.  We can assume her 4 husbands plus a 5^th she wasn’t married to didn’t make her the most respected woman in the city either.

Her conversation with Jesus starts off very similar to the story we heard last week, about Nicodemus the Pharisee sneaking out to meet with Jesus at night and see if he was the Messiah or not.   

Nicodemus is named, important, educated and an accepted member of the community and deeply restrained by his status and work.  The woman is unnamed, unaccepted but bold in her questions and her proclaimation,  Like the conversation with Nicodemus about being born again, Jesus and the Samaritain woman are talking different languages, there is constant misunderstanding.  Jesus promises her living water and she asks “where is your bucket”.  Jesus tells her 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."  To this great promise she says, sounds good, give me that water so I don’t have to bother coming to the well anymore. 

Nicodemus leaves with questions, concerns, uncertainty, an ambigious faith we never quite figure out, Nicodemus goes to see Jesus at night, curious and trying to put Jesus into some acceptable box.  The woman meets with Jesus in the daylight, being open to what God is doing.  The woman asks better questions, well she asks personal, faith questions, she wants to know “who’s right about where they worship”, who is part of God’s kingdom, these things matter to her life.  Nicodemus asks more academic questions, testing or probing Jesus for the right answers.  The woman at the well, she left her water jar and went back to the city. (don’t skip over that detail, she left her water jar there for Jesus, remember he did not have a pail and could not get a drink. This is her first, generous response to the gift of living water) She said to the people,  "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?". Her testimony leads many to go and see, to meet and speak with Jesus and believe, in fact many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done.".  

Interesting that she did not tell the city “I met a man who said he is the Messiah”.   That would be too easy to dismiss.  For her to say, he told me everything I have ever done, well that’s something else, that gets people’s attention.     

We remain in the Epiphany season, time set aside to look at how people figure out who was born on Christmas.   It happened with the gifts of the 3 kings, turning water into wine, healing the sick, restoring the skin of lepers and ensuring their welcome back to society. It happens in showing that the kingdom of God is for all people, that’s so radical, unpopular and upsetting,  it must be spoken by the messiah.  Like fellowship in 1 john,  the groups affiliations disappear, being with Jesus is more important than all those other groups the woman at the well or Nicodemus belong to.  She gets that, Nicodemus has a more difficult time with that news.   

Finally, I wanted to say a few words about “living water”.  This idea will come up several more times in John’s Gospel and can be found in places like the prophet Isaiah, always as a metaphor for God’s saving work in the world.  Today, we hear frantic news about the drought in South Africa and the countdown to the time when their reservoirs run dry (about 80 something days). We are reminded how universal water is, our earliest civilizations were literally built around it, our lives in faith begin with it in baptism, wars are fought over it,  There is no one who lives without water (even survival type instructions always start with finding clean drinking water, since you will only live a few days tops without it). For the woman at the well, God’s word is violently flowing water, she cannot contain it, she shares it,