The Transformation at the Well

 John 4:5-42  3rd Lent March 12, 2023

 We know that in Jesus time,

Woman at the Well
Wayne Forte

Samaritans and Jewish people were enemies.

Never mind that they share the same heritage

and much the same history as each other.

Maybe those are the worst rivalries.

It’s kind of akin to the hostilities between

Northern and Southern Ireland.

 

The Samaritans were from the Northern Kingdom

and the Jewish people, that Jesus was a part of,

were from the Southern Kingdom. The Samaritans were the people who were 

allowed to stay in Israel in the exile and their culture intertwined with gentile culture.

The Jews believed that the holiest place on earth

was the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

And the Samaritans believed that the holiest place

was on Mount Gerzim. There were other differences,

and hard feelings, but basically, it’s enough to know that

they two groups: Samaritans and Jews disliked each other.

 

So when Jesus was traveling through a Samaritan City

to get back to his home in Galilee, I’m sure all of the

disciples thought it was best for them and Jesus

to keep to themselves.

But Jesus wasn’t one to do that really.

So the person who was at the well was a Samaritan.

One strike against her.

 

We know from other cultures who still

go to wells to gather water, that gathering water is something that is 

usually done by women and girls, and that getting water was and is a communal activity.

Most of the women come to the well at the same time and they use that time to talk and share

information around the task.

And we also know that most people who do this,

do it in the morning so they wouldn't have

to carry a heavy load in the heat and they would want to use the fresh water for the day’s work.

 

But the story says that this woman came out alone to the well,

and it says she came at noon, in the heat of the sun,

when no one else would be there.

And we know is that she is alone at a time when most people didn’t spend much time alone,

they spent it with friends and others in their community.

Maybe she was avoiding the other women.

Maybe they had made it clear that she was not welcome

into their circle of friends.

Maybe they had made judgments about her life and her situation.

 
Even today, in our permissive culture,

we still make our own assumptions about this woman at the well.

Jesus points out that this woman has had five husbands.

He doesn’t tell her to repent or to change her ways,

or that she should be ashamed of her situation.

But lots of preachers today feel obligated to place their judgements 

and assumptions onto this woman.

 

Some say she was a hopeless romantic,

that maybe she was loose, or a seductress.

They suggest that maybe she can’t hold a relationship

together long term.

One modern, Christian preacher actually called her a

“a worldly, sensually-minded, unspiritual harlot from Samaria”

That’s some projecting there.

That probably gives more information about the preacher

who said it, than about this woman at the well.

 

 

The truth is, there is no evidence for any of those things.

Either from what she or Jesus says, or what we know about

marriage and women during Jesus time.

Women didn’t have many choices when it came to marriage,

and marriage choices had little to do with romance, or sex, or love.

Her marriages probably weren’t her own choices.

 

The most likely reason might have been that her husbands

had died and she bore no heirs to carry on the man’s lineage.

In that case, she would have been passed on to her

husband’s brother, and another brother,

until she had a child, then it would be called the child of 

the first husband. It was called a Levirate Marriage,

it was practiced in many patriarchic societies

and it is outlined for Jews and Samaritans

in the book of Deuteronomy.

 

This most likely isn’t a story about an impetuous woman

who can’t control herself. It’s more likely a story about a woman

who has been shuffled around by the system, and then who has 

been shunned by her community and left alone.

 

She was probably by that well in the heat of the day

because no one wanted to be around her.

She had bad luck, or a bad reputation, or whatever.

Two strikes against her.

And yet Jesus still talks to her.

 

And the basic reality of it, was that she was a woman.

Men were not supposed to speak to women directly.

Men were not supposed to  be alone with women.

When the disciples returned from the grocery store,

it said they were “astonished” because he was speaking to a woman.

A Samaritan. A woman. And a person with a complicated past.

Three strikes against her.

There are many levels of judgment

and prejudice that this woman wears.

It would have been in Jesus best

interest to avoid her all together.

It would have been assumed that he would.

But Jesus still comes to talk to her.

 

And when he does, he sees into her and somehow

knows her whole story and gives it back to her.
She is the woman who has had five husbands.

No judgment, no scolding, or shaming.
No calling her an “worldly, unspiritual harlot.”

Just the reality of her life and situation.

 

Now, the gospel of John was written about 30 years after the 

three other gospels and scholars have said that the gospel of John

seems to comment on things that were said in the other gospels. 

In each of the three gospels, in Matthew, Mark & Luke,

the Saducees ask Jesus a question to trick him.  They say:

"Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.'

25  Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother.

26  The second did the same, so also the third,

down to the seventh.

27  Last of all, the woman herself died.

28  In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be?

For all of them had married her." 

This is obviously outlining a Levrite marriage

 In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus tells the Sadducees

basically, that their question is ridiculous and irrelevant,

that God is the God of the living, not the dead.

 

 But John’s gospel, is not interested in answering this theological

minutia at all. John’s gospel is interested in the anonymous woman 

that the Sadducees are asking about.

 

When faced with a woman who is married five times,

passed around passed around from man to man,

The religious leaders would have asked

- In the end, who’s possession is she?

 

But Jesus shows us that the right question is posed to her:

Woman, aren’t you thirsty?

Don’t you want something that lasts forever.

Love that won’t die or leave you alone

or give up on you or go away after a little while?

At this point in your difficult life don’t you need

God’s love, acceptance, and grace?

Don’t you want living water?

 

That’s the question that Jesus would ask about a woman

who was shuffled off from husband to husband.

Jesus would find the woman and talk to her,

and engage her in her own theological conversation.

 

We live in a world that can be cold and unforgiving.
That can be sterile and hurtful we live our lives in systems in this 

world that doesn't care who you are,

where people are a checked box, a string of numbers,
a statistic, a vote, a dollar amount, a credit rating,

And if you don’t fit neatly into one of those categories,

you can be left behind to suffer alone.

And Christians have sometimes been the worst offenders

We have tried to cram people into our cold theological

judgments and rules. We have tended to be a force of division.

But like Jesus says to this Samaritan woman at the well:

“The hour is coming when we will worship God in Spirit and truth”

The hour is coming when these petty things like where we worship, or we’re married to, or what gender we are,

won’t separate us.

 

The truth is that God’s love is stronger than anything.

God’s love has the power to overcome any obstacle that is

put in front of it, even if the church puts it there.

We can’t forget that God’s love

is the spring of water that gushes up to eternal life,

The water that we can drink and never be thirsty again.

 

Christ is the living water,

and in him we are given the power over and over again,

to die to our old selves and rise again.

To die to our past, whatever was done by us -- or to us,

and rise to a new life a new reality.

But it’s not like those life experiences are just washed away.

They are transformed.

What the world counts as an insurmountable obstacle,

God counts as a benefit, God uses it to reach others.

 

Jesus offered the Samaritan woman

the living water of God’s love.

And afterwards, this woman leaves her water jug

goes to the center of the village that has brushed her aside

and tells them that she has met the Messiah.

And she is believed.

 

 She dies to her old identity:

(whisper) “the woman with five husbands.”

And now she has a new identity:

“The Woman With Five Husbands!”

The woman with a fascinating past and

a first-hand story of God to share.

 

She goes into the streets and tells everyone,

“Look this is the one. He told me everything about myself!

He can’t be the Messiah, can he?”

She is the first evangelist. The first preacher.

 

And just as Jesus came into this woman’s life

and transformed her, so it is with us.

The body of Christ - the love of God incarnate -

comes up to us at our well. Where we stand alone.

Across all of our obstacles and burdens.

Through whatever we’ve done or had done to us,

and reminds us, that that is not what defines us.

What defines us is God’s love.

 

The living water—God’s love—has the power to transform us.

In it, we can take our past and all those things

that once held us back, and use them

as a testament of how great God’s love and grace is.

 

And now our past is an asset, a strength, a witness.

This is how we die to ourselves and rise with Christ.

This is how God gives us new life.

Them and Us

 John 3: 13-17 Lent 2 March 5, 2023

 “For God so loved the world

that he sent his only son

so that everyone who believes

in him may not perish but have eternal life.”

 
It’s a wonderful message to remember.

This is one of the few lines from the bible

that all people might be able to cite

the chapter and verse of: John 3:16.

A lot of people know what you’re talking

about just by saying that.

 

I believe that for many of us, that credit is not due

to our Pastors or Sunday School teachers,

that credit is due to Rainbow Man.

You remember Rainbow Man?

 

If you’re not old enough to remember,

Rainbow man was at almost every sporting

event in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

He would wear a rainbow wig and

wear a shirt or hold up a sign that

Just said “John 3:16” on it.

 

He has found himself in the lexicon

of American pop culture parodied on the

Simpsons and Saturday Night Live and others.

 

Rainbow Man’s real name was Rollen Stewart

Rollen was a devoted Christian.

Even though he didn’t like sports,

he found that he could get on TV at sporting events

and thought that would be a good way to

get the message of Jesus out to the public.

 

 His first major appearance was at the 1977 NBA Finals;

and by the time of the 1979 MLB All-Star Game,

he had been at so many major games, that

broadcasters were actively trying to avoid showing him.

He appeared behind NFL goal posts, behind home plate,

near Olympic medal stands, and behind the final putt

at major golf tournaments . . .

he would strategically position himself for key shots of 

plays or athletes, by carrying a portable television with him to games.

 

Rainbow man made me look up John 3:16

when I was a teenager in our

giant, dusty, not-well-used family bible.

I had seen him on the news and I didn’t know

what John 3:16 said.

And I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found.

 

It is a beautiful message,

“God so loved the world. That he gave is only begotten son,

so that all who believed should not perish, but have eternal life.”

it is the Gospel in a nutshell as Luther called it.

The good news for everyone.

 

What a great message for Rainbow Man to

share over and over again on TV.

The story of God’s faithfulness,

God’s ever present love for this world.

And if the Rainbow Man story ended there,

it would be a great, heartwarming story.

But, of course, it doesn’t end there.

 

After the  1986 at the World Series, Rainbow Man’s

wife left him, she said, because he tried to choke her

because she held up one of the John 3:16

cards wrong at a World Series Game.

 

 Then, after that, later in the 80’s,

Rainbow man was angry with what he thought

was the “spreading of a false gospel message”.

So, he began a string of stink-bomb attacks.

His targets included Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral,

the Orange County Register, and the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Finally, in 1992, he felt like his popularity was waning

and he was not seen on TV as much and

he was angry about the country’s

rejection of the message that he brought,

so Rainbow Man tried to get his name back in the news.

 

Posing as a contractor, he brought two

day-laborers into a vacant hotel room

and attempted to hold them at gunpoint.

He surprised a cleaning lady and he drew the gun on her and she locked herself in the bathroom.

Eventually a SWAT team was called in and there was a standoff.

During the standoff, he threatened to shoot at airplanes

taking off from the nearby Los Angeles Airport,

and he covered the hotel room windows with "John 3:16" placards.

Everyone eventually got out alive, but now Rainbow Man is 

serving three consecutive life sentences on kidnapping charges.

 

Later, in 2008, still in prison, he said he doesn’t regret it.

He says it was a crime that he was called by God to do

to prevent greater harm: The harm of America rejecting Jesus.

 

Why am I telling you this story?

It’s true and interesting, that’s for sure.

But I also want to tell you this story because

it shows that a person can vehemently believe

in the doctrine and follow Jesus and still not understand.

  

You don’t need a pastor to tell you that something

is wrong with Rollen Stewart’s interpretation of the message of Jesus.

he got the words right, but the point was completely wrong.

 

This has been the problem with the church’s interpretation of 

Christianity for almost the full 2000 years of its existence.

The church has believed that it’s most important job is conversion.

Believe in things, and doctrine about Jesus, and call yourself Christian.

Mission accomplished.

The most important part about Christianity is having more Christians.

 

The more subtle question of Christianity has been,

“are you on our side or not?”

Are you now one of us, or are you still one of them?

And the definition of US becomes narrower and narrower.

Christianity has become a religion of “them and us”.

Which is the opposite of what Jesus intended.

 

Being “born again” has become only about

Confessing Jesus Christ as your lord and savior

and going to the right church, subscribing

to the right doctrine, finding yourself in the narrow lane

of what the correct church has defined as  acceptable,

and then going out to convert other people to from being

one of “THEM” to being one of “US”

If people are rejecting church, it’s not a rejection of Jesus.

It’s a rejection of this kind of shenanigans.

 

With this understanding, of “them and us”

there is not too far you have to go to get to violence.

We lots of examples. We have the Inquisition,

the Crusades, John Calvin recommending that his 

theological opponents be burned at the stake,  

Martin Luther recommending the destruction of the 

opposition in the Peasants War, The Holocaust, the war between Northern and Southern Ireland,

 

And yesterday, this very weekend,

at the Conservative Political Action Conference,

a main-stream political conference, Michael Knowles,

“born again Christian” and national talk show host said, and I quote, 

that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life 

entirely at every level” and this was received with applause.

Them and us.

 

Rainbow man didn’t have far to go to

be convinced that he had to set off stink bombs

and kidnap a couple of people and shoot down planes

to achieve the goals of Christianity.

As he saw it, he was saving people’s souls.

Them and us.

 

Jesus tells Nicodemus that to really understand,

that he must be born again, of the water and the Spirit.

Nicodemus doesn’t comprehend.

He was trying to understand Jesus

in a systematic way, a logical way.

 

But to be born again is not just a confession,

not just a thing you say or do, it’s not just a set of facts.

It’s not just subscribing to moral mandate.

To be born again is to truly understand God’s love

and have it work through you and in your life.

To be changed by it.

To be born again is to let God’s love transform us.

And that doesn’t leave room for threats or coercion,

or exclusion, or ultimate solutions.

God’s love doesn’t leave room for “Them and Us”.

 

Jesus objective was not to make more

converts to his religion. Jesus objective was not to

exclude some people from his table, or eradicate them from public life,

Jesus objective was not to make more of us so that

we can overpower them.

 

Jesus objective was to reconcile the world.

To bring “them” and “us” together so that we can all be “us”.

God so loved the world.

The whole world.

 

The wind goes where it will.

The Spirit goes where the Spirit wants to go

and works through whoever the spirit wants to work through.

Christians and non-Christians, believers and non-believers.

People who don’t look like us or act like us.

The Spirit is not contained by our religion, or our doctrine,

or our rules, or our ideologies.

 

And to be “born again” is to know that,

to accept that, and to live in that reality,

and to be united with God’s unfailing love for this whole world.

 

To be “born again” is to have every

part of our lives changed by God’s love.

 

I believe we are all still on that journey with Nicodemus,

waiting to be born again,

and to fully live into that love that Jesus revealed.

 

“God so loved the world that he gave his only son,

so that we would not perish, but have eternal life.”

God loves all, and there is room in that love for everyone,

no matter where we’ve been or we’ve done.

 

There’s even room in that love for Rainbow Man.

And for every other soul who has lost their way,

and broken the law, sinned and hurt other people.

And there’s room in that love for everyone who

the world or Christianity has rejected and called “THEM”.

And there’s room for you and me.

There is room in that love

for every single one of US together.