Conversations at the Well

Sunday, February 27, 2005
Lent 3A
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton
John 4:5-42

5So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7A 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.) 9The 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.) 10Jesus 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.’ 11The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ 13Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14but 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.’ 15The 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.’ 16Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ 17The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; 18for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ 19The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ 21Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But 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. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ 25The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ 26Jesus 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?’ 28Then 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?’ 30They left the city and were on their way to him. 31Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ 32But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ 33So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ 34Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35Do 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. 36The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.” 38I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.’ 39Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They 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.’

What moves, motivates, enthralls, engages, and generally affects us more than anything? What convinces, persuades, perplexes, challenges, and frustrates us most? Words.

Granted, there are, among us, those who are mostly unaffected by words, but more so by actions. And we all strive to strike a balance between the two.

There is an inherent danger in swinging too far in one or the other direction. When we are too caught up in words, we lose the sense of what it means to put actions behind the words, and when we are too involved in DOING things – be they all noble and worthwhile, we can lose the perspective gained by examination and reflection provided by words.

I remember sitting in classes in college, and I remember sometimes lively discussions, engaging professors, and challenging classmates. But the most significant events – the most powerfully moving moments I remember about those four years were in the midst of the conversations I had with my roommates, usually too late at night, and too far off the subject we were supposed to be studying, but that’s another story. The conversations would sometimes go on for days or weeks, stopping and then picking back up several times over that time. As we thought of new issues related to the subject, or questions arose that we’d not thought of before, the thread of the conversation continued. To some degree, they are still going on today. When we got together in Louisville Christmas before last, there were a couple of times when all it took was a single comment, and the conversation that we began back in 1983 picked right back up.

The same goes for seminary. I remember being even more enthralled in the classes than I had been in college – we were studying the stuff of LIFE. We were learning about and reflecting on exactly what it meant for faith and life to intersect … more often than not, we ended up finding that it’s not so much an intersection as a shared lane, depending on how you approach it.

While the subject matter in class was different from those in college, the most significant moments in seminary again came in the form of conversations, and not necessarily conversations in a classroom, but in an apartment, or in the library, or the cafeteria, or the post office. There used to be a couple of bulletin boards, that were a kind of no-mans’ land. They were primarily used to post notes about stuff you wanted to sell, or buy, or apartments for rent, or looking for a roommate signs, that sort of thing.

But they were also an open forum. They were the precursor to the internet chat rooms we have today. People would post letters, or messages, intentionally leaving room for people to post replies – or even if they didn’t leave room, people would find a space to jot down some sort of response.

It used to be one of my favorite pastimes: going to check my mail, and stopping to read the latest post. There were some pretty significant events noted on those boards. A lifelong friend of mine, also a student at the seminary, announced that he was homosexual, and that he was leaving seminary. People would post accusations and counter-accusations, others would throw in a comment to try to make light of a situation, and others would then jump on THAT person for not taking things seriously enough.

Southern at the time was a relatively healthy mix of views and ideas, of thoughtful opinions and interpretations of the usual hot-button issues, along with a growing number of stridently closed individuals who would in the end strengthen their grip on the institution to the point where the interchange of ideas is mostly in one direction: from the administration to the student. That is probably an unfair statement. But comparing the then and now is to compare two institutions with radically different approaches … and to some degree, objectives.

There are moments we savor for what has happened in them. Moments where we are caught up in what is being done – in the action of the moment -- that leaves a lasting impact. Building a house for someone, if you’ve ever been involved in a habitat for humanity project, that can be a life-imprinting event. If you’ve ever been involved in disaster relief, that can be as well. If you’ve ever been involved in saving someone’s life, or in averting an accident, things like that don’t happen and then fade quickly into memory. YOUR life is changed, not only the life of the other person.

We have a little of both in the passage today.

The words spoken at the well, the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman hold some of those first moments, where the sparking of ideas and the point-counterpoint of the questions and answers engage the Samaritan woman’s mind as well as our own.

What’s the difference between the Samaritans and the Jews? Why does one claim Jerusalem’s temple as ‘the’ place to worship, while the other claims Mount Gerizim, next to where they were carrying on the conversation, as ‘the’ place? Those were questions SHE raised then.

Christ’s response to her then and to us now is the same. The time is coming when it won’t matter so much WHERE you worship, as much as it will matter that you worship in Spirit and in Truth. We can become so wrapped up in the formalities of worship, can’t we? Jesus was saying it’s not about the formalities; it’s about where your hearts are. it’s not about how you sing, or if you follow a set pattern, it’s not about how it looks to others, it is about US – YOU and ME being in communion with each other. THAT is what it’s about. If you’re not in communion with me inside your heart, what difference does it make which four walls you stand inside of on any given Sunday?

The conversation continues, and what results is action. That happens today even as it did nearly two thousand years ago in Samaria. Jesus never engaged someone in conversation to have them walk away unchanged, somehow unaffected, or ignorant of the significance of what just took place.

In this case, after Jesus tells the Samaritan woman who she really is – confronts her, as it were, with her true self, she is compelled to run into town and tell her neighbors and the rest of the townspeople who she’s been talking to at the well.

THEIR response, in turn, is to be … drawn out to HIM. There’s always the possibility that it happened to be a slow day in town – nothing showing on TV, all of it reruns … but it’s also true that the story the woman at the well was sharing was pretty … compelling … we are so easily intrigued by people who can tell us things about ourselves that sometimes even WE are afraid to admit… I wonder how many of the people who ran out to meet Jesus were approaching him thinking “there’s no WAY he’ll be able to guess so-and-so about me.”

And yet, Paul tells us there will come a day when all our secret thoughts will be shouted from the mountaintops… for all to hear.

A little unsettling isn’t it?

I wonder how many of the other townspeople continued their conversations with Jesus around that same well over the next two days.

How many looked him in the eyes and realized they were looking into the face of an infinitely compassionate God, who SO wanted to be a part of their lives that he came to earth to live among them … how many hearts sang back when they heard the melody of God’s voice singing to them by name across the way?

How many of us have let the thread of our conversation with the Savior … drop for far too long? How long has it been since we engaged in the conversation that is our working out our salvation with fear and trembling? How long has it been since we raised that question that has been on our mind with our fellow pilgrims?

There’s room at the well for all of us.

Let’s pray.

Salt and Light

Sunday, February 20th, 2005
Lent 2A
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton (WMU Missions Emphasis Sunday)
Text: Matthew 5:13-16 (not from the Revised Common Lectionary)

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste Godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”
(From The Message )

The life marked by the beatitudes is not to be lived in isolation.

We often assume that these inner qualities can only be developed or displayed in isolation from the world; but Jesus wants us to live them out before the world.

That’s why we were called to the Northern Neck by the Rappahannock Baptist Association and by Jerusalem Baptist Church, to live out our faith before the world that we find in Essex, Richmond, Westmoreland, Northumberland and Lancaster counties.

Jesus points to broadness in the impact of the disciples that must have seemed almost ridiculous at the time; how could these humble Galileans salt the earth, or light the world? But they did!

We were faced with the impact we could make – as individuals, as a congregation, and as an association, through the ministry to the migrant and Hispanic community on the Northern Neck very soon after meeting and getting to know the people we work with FROM that community.

Within a couple of months of meeting them, we had already been extended an invitation to come visit them in their homes in Mexico. At the time, it honestly didn’t seem to be anything more than a dream. Time constraints and other demands and commitments seemed to confine us – in the best sense of the word – to the work we are involved in on a day-to-day basis both here at Jerusalem and in the Hispanic community that is here at any given time of year. So we went on about our business … the business of the Kingdom, we hoped.

Back to the passage: Notice that Jesus does not challenge us to become "salt" or "light"; He simply says that we are - and to put it bluntly, we are either fulfilling or failing that responsibility.

Salt as a picture of the Christian

In Jesus' day, salt was a valued commodity; Roman soldiers were sometimes paid with salt, giving rise to the phrase "worth his salt". Salt was used to preserve meats, and to retard decay; Christians being salt points to their preservation of society.

And as today, salt was used to add flavor - Christians should be a "flavorful" people. However, salt must keep its "saltiness" to be of any value; it is rightfully trampled under foot; in the same way, too many Christians lose their "flavor" and become good for nothing.


****

On the 5th day of our visit to Mexico, we were sitting in Isidra and Norberto’s living room, having just gotten up from an afternoon nap that they insisted on, after having traveled from Tlaxcala, where we’d spent the first part of our trip with Mundo Perez and HIS family, visiting the men who work in White Stone and their families. Isidra began to talk about how much it means to her to be able to worship with us when we have our gatherings. She said she feels the presence of God when we are together.

She spoke about how she doesn’t practice the veneration of saints, and freely tells others who do that they don’t need to be praying to saints, but directly to God through Jesus, that it is through faith in HIM that they are receive salvation. She spoke about her local priest coming to her house and leading a study on the importance of studying scripture, of understanding how it can impact their lives, and how important it is to seek daily communion with Christ. She went on to say that the priest still talked to the group of women about the importance of observing the sacraments, and how critical they were to carrying out their faith, so there was no question about where she stood in relationship to the Roman Catholic tradition, but she still looked straight at us and said ‘There needs to be a Baptist presence here.” I came across a Baptist Church not too far from here several years ago, and I’ve not been back by that area since then, but I think we need to go to see if it is still there, and at least establish contact with the Pastor and the people who attend there.’

This was a devout Catholic telling us that there needed to be a Baptist presence in her city. It made me wonder what we had shown her Baptists to be. I honestly wondered if we were presenting her with a true portrait of what Baptist believe … and the longer I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized that I think she came away with exactly the impression … that God wanted her to have. I don’t mean that we were necessarily that attuned to what God wanted to come out of the encuentros, though I hope we were more attuned than not, but I think that we were tuned ENOUGH to what God has been trying to say through the ministry and the heart of the Rappahannock Baptist Association, and Jerusalem Baptist Church in particular, to where the Hispanic Community that has chosen to JOIN with us is coming to understand that though there may be differences between us, we have at the heart of what we believe a common bond, the Lordship of Christ, and that that is a starting point for all the rest.

*****

Back to the passage:

Light.

The purpose of light is to illuminate and expose what is present; therefore light must be exposed before it can be of any value - if it is hidden under a bucket, it is no longer useful. It goes against the very nature and purpose of light for it to be hidden - so a Christian is truly fighting himself and the Holy Spirit by never letting his light so shine before men. Even as lamps are placed higher so their light can be more effective, we should look for ways to let our light shine in greater and broader ways.

Jesus gives the Christian both a great compliment and responsibility when He says that we are the light of the world; He claimed that title for Himself as He walked this earth (John 8:12 and 9:5).

The purpose in letting our light so shine by doing good works is so that others will glorify God, not us.

*****

That same evening, Isidra and Norberto convinced us to go with them to see if we could find that Baptist Church she’d seen so many years ago. By then it was nighttime, but still relatively early in the evening. We walked down to the main street, about 2 or 3 blocks down from their home, and hailed a taxi.

Taxis in Mexico are not like taxis here in the States. They are mostly, though not exclusively, Volkswagen Bugs, with the front passenger seat pulled out, to make exiting and entering the cars easier. Picture this: there were 4 of us, two of us pretty tall. Occasionally you’d see a larger model taxi go by, but not very often. One finally did stop, but it was the standard VW Bug. Isidra, Leslie and I piled into the back seat, and Norberto squatted in the front, beside the driver, where the passenger seat would have been had it been left in. Isidra explained to the taxi driver where to go, and as we got closer, the conversation got more specific about what we were looking for. We finally came out and asked the driver if he’d seen a Baptist Church around, as he was driving his fares back and forth. He thought a minute and finally said “I’m not sure. I think there may be one at ‘such-and-such a place, but I can’t be certain.” He proceeded to take us to a couple of churches, one where there was no meeting going on, and the other where there was. Both were Pentecostal. As we pulled away, Isidra tried to explain what a Baptist Church was like. She finally drew it down to the point of saying “Baptists are just like Catholics.”

The part of me that studied Baptist history in the face of state-sanctioned religious institutions cringed every time she said that. But the part of me that longs for a world where, rather than tearing each other down, or spending more time telling you why you should belong to this or that denomination, and how much better one’s chosen tradition is than others, denominations could recognize a common purpose, a shared GOAL, THAT part of me was thrilled to hear her say that.

Don’t get me wrong. I am proud to be a baptist, to stand for historic baptist principles of soul competency, local church autonomy, and religious freedom, but at the same time I long to join with other traditions and agree to disagree on some things but still maintain a common union … under the Lordship of Christ.

As the taxi ride got longer and longer, the conversation with the driver got deeper and deeper into the subject of why there are so many denominations. I finally spoke up in the midst of the expressions of some confusion and a little frustration, to say that I thought it was a good thing that there are so many denominations, that everyone needs to find a place where they are comfortable expressing their faith as they understand it, even though that results in differences, and sometimes arguments, my hope was that there would come a day when all our different traditions could be seen for what they are – a reflection of the wonderful varieties God has gifted us with – varieties of thought and understanding, varieties of styles and presentations, varieties of song and praise.

*****

A key thought in both the pictures of salt and light: distinction

There are, of course, any number of distinctions between Baptists and Catholics. But those distinctions disappear in the face of someone who has no faith, no inkling of what it means to have a relationship with God, who has never experienced that redeeming and welcoming love in the faces and words and actions of a congregation wholly given over to the task of being Christ’s presence in this world.

Salt is needed because the world is rotting and decaying; if our Christianity is also rotting and decaying, it won't be any good. Light is needed because the world is in darkness; if our Christianity imitates the darkness, we have nothing to show the world.

To be effective we must seek and display the Christian distinctive; we can never affect the world for Jesus by becoming like the world. So how will we be different?

The passage ends with a short, but beautiful picture at the end:

“Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”

What was so overwhelming to us over the course of those 7 days in January, was that everywhere we went, everyone we greeted and hugged and sat down and talked with, all the families of those we’ve sought to minister to here, showed us what it is like to be on the receiving end of that gift – and prompted us to open up with God.

Let’s pray.

Temptation


Sunday, February 13th, 2005
Lent 1
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ 4But he answered, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’ 5Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you,” and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’ 7Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ 10Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”’ 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

‘Paso de eso” …

My friend Juan looked at me in an entirely benign manner. We’d been talking, at his initiative, about differences between the Catholic and Baptist traditions, and the differing understandings of scripture. When he came out with that phrase, it was to emphasize for me that he didn’t really believe all things espoused by the Roman Catholic Church, and yet in the next breathe, he freely admitted that, although there were aspects of the Baptist tradition that he appreciated, he could never even consider becoming a Baptist because his father would simply disown him. His parents freely admitted that even they didn’t agree with much if any of the Roman Catholic Church’s strictures, imposed on them under the nearly 40 years dictatorship of Francisco Franco in Spain, which at the time had ended a little less than a decade earlier, but nonetheless, they had made it clear to him that if he (Juan) were to join up with a splinter sect such as we Baptists were still viewed as being at the time, he would be summarily disowned. And that was something he couldn’t even consider.

‘Paso de eso” …

Literally, “I’m past that”. In contemporary language, “I’m OVER it.”

It was the phrase I most often heard in conversations with Spaniards about matters of faith while serving as a missionary journeyman there back in the 80’s. It was the single most disheartening factor with which I was confronted in the two years I was there.

Having come from a background that was grounded in faith, breathed faith, and tried to live faith, day in and day out, over the previous 22 years, it was the first time I was confronted with that radically different a world view from my own. I would have expected a gap in understanding if I would have met a person of a different faith altogether, but on some level, whether I am conversing with a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, or a Buddhist, there is a core element of faith … an awareness of the divine … granted, within that shared awareness there are VERY different ideas, but there is an underpinning of knowledge in being aware of something greater than ourselves among people of faith. That is what allows interfaith dialogues to at least begin.

This was RADICALLY different, meaning, at the very root, there was no commonality. “I’m over that”, implying that I’m beyond that, I’m above that, I’m better than that … a sense that matters of faith are all but useless, if not harmful.

Where do you begin to respond to that? Where do you begin to build a bridge that says “I know we see differently here on this issue that is critical for me, but trivial for you … lets find a way to continue to carry on this conversation and neither of us feel like we’re wasting our time.”

I remember the last conversation I had with Juan, the day before I left Oviedo. He told me he envied me the assurance I found in faith, and I told him that I wished that same assurance for him.

What was so overwhelming about that being ‘over’ it was that it was so prevalent. It wasn’t just a few people here and there, intellectuals and cynics and artists, or communist party activists or militant atheists who were saying it; it was the vast majority of the general population that I came in contact with.

Last August, when we were on vacation in Kentucky and had a chance to visit with our friend Claude, he told us about his trip to Europe earlier that summer. He told me of the people he’d met, and the conversations he’d had with friends who had moved there and THEIR friends who were from there, and at the end of it, he surprised me by saying “with all their shortcomings, I would much rather have an Evangelical Protestant Fundamentalist in power than one of the folks over there – at least THEY BELIEVE in something!”

So let’s turn to the text for a bit. I’m sure most of us have heard some message on the temptation of Christ before. It only took me a couple of minutes of searching to find the traditional interpretations of the temptations that Christ faced in the wilderness:

1. Turning stones into bread: Jesus had been in the wilderness fasting for 40 days up until that point. Being tempted to feed himself after going hungry for over a month would seem to be a low blow, but it is at out weakest that we are confronted with what most beguiles us. Jesus was being tempted to put his own needs first – to be self-serving.
2. Bow down to Satan in order to rule all the world highlights the human lust for power and dominance. Jesus knew going into his ministry that he was going to be proclaiming a Kingdom different from that which the people were expecting. Here he was turning away from a final attempt to go about his ministry in the expected fashion.
3. To jump from the pinnacle of the temple in order to be caught by God’s angels before striking his foot on the ground is an appeal to … vanity, when it comes down to it. An appeal to that part of us that longs to be noticed or valued. To get our 15 minutes of fame, as it were. Jesus knew that was all it would be; a temporary flash in the pan, and he knew that the consequences would be eternal.
We can all, to some degree, identify with each of those temptations. We’ve all experienced moments when we would’ve gladly given in, and perhaps some of us may have even YIELDED, but this is a Gospel of grace, of forgiveness, and of reconciliation.

We give in because we’re human. Though we can help it at times, we are flawed creatures, “frail children of dust,” as Bill Hendricks used to address all of his classes at seminary. We can live in regret for what we’ve done and dwell on it, or we can move on in the sure and certain knowledge that God can use us despite ourselves at our worst.

But the lesson of the gospel today also goes in a different direction. Temptation is, unfortunately, rarely as obvious as if Satan himself were standing next to you with horns and a pitchfork asking you to conjure up a Big Mac with fries and a coke because you’re hungry. Temptation rarely offers us the opportunity to discern it from the good we might do, from the good we might BE, if we choose one way or the other.

In the film ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, Willem Dafoe as Jesus is confronted with his last temptation, coming down from the cross, marrying Mary Magdalene, and going on to live a ‘normal’ life of anonymity and child rearing, working in his carpenter’s shop and providing a quiet living for his family.

At their heart, temptations pull us away from our walk with God, this continuing relationship that develops as we each get to know each other. It is ultimately why God created us: for companionship. Our greatest temptation each day is to live the day as though God didn’t matter, to go about our regular daily activities without a hint of God’s presence or movement in our lives. God’s deepest sorrow is found when we walk away from him. His greatest joy is found when we run to him, like children eager to show our heavenly father what we’ve discovered, in creation, in ourselves, in our families or our family of faith that reflects him and his love for the world.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

Simply this: it is for us to resist with all our might the subtle, silent … temptation to go through a day – or any part of a day- without acknowledging that it is by the goodness of God that we were brought into this world, that it is by the grace of God that we are being kept all the day long, even until this very hour, and that it is by the love of God, fully revealed in the face of Jesus, that we are being redeemed.

Let’s pray.