Sermon 15th March 2020 –
3rd Sunday in Lent
Text: John 4:5-42 – Relational
Evangelism
Last Sunday we heard Jesus teaching
Nicodemus a lesson on God’s love.
It ended with the well-known text –
John 3:16 – God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
That was a teaching about God’s love.
Today we see that love put into
action by Jesus to show us what it means and how it looks.
Jesus meets the complete opposite of
Nicodemus.
She is female.
She is unnamed.
She is a Samaritan
She is not a leader amongst her
community.
This is where love comes to life and
it proves to be the catalyst for the Gospel being preached to her and her
community.
Where does this love begin for Jesus?
There are rules about how Jesus, a
Jewish male and a teacher should interact with people, especially with women,
especially with Samaritan women.
The Jews and the Samaritans were in
dispute with each other.
And the dispute was over worship and
we know that when there are disputes over worship or religion in general there
can grow an intense hating for other groups of people.
Those who can remember the Lutheran
Church before amalgamation in 1966 each other was referred to as “the other
Synod”.
We didn’t use their Synod’s name –
just calling them “the other Synod”.
It’s a division that continues today
even with our combined synod – worship styles, creation versus evolution,
ordination to name just a few.
Jesus’ love is shown in that he
communicates with her where she is at and not through the things that would
normally divide and working out who is right and who is wrong.
And she is the one who raises the
issue of their division:
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.)
Notice she highlights that she is
both a woman and a Samaritan – both conditions that would divide them.
Likewise Jesus’ disciples didn’t
understand:
When his disciples came they were
astonished that he was speaking with a woman.
So what is this story about – as I
said earlier it’s about where love comes to life.
Where head knowledge becomes heart
actions.
We transition from Nicodemus – a
Pharisee and leading Jews to an unnamed – unimportant Samaritan woman.
And what Nicodemus was struggling to
understand about being born again by water and the Spirit Jesus personalises by
offering this woman living water.
He doesn’t criticise her in the same
way he criticised Nicodemus for his lack of understanding.
Note how Jesus communicates.
Not by coming in all guns blazing but
a simple conversation starter:
Give me a drink.
He knew that request would raise many
questions by the Samaritan woman.
It’s an interesting introduction to
the woman, isn’t it?
Give me a drink.
Do you remember the time Jesus taught
- And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who
is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their
reward."
From that conversation it is the
woman who acknowledges the breakdown in their relationship.
She does her own soul searching.
And that asks the question of us –
where do we begin in our conversations when we want to share our faith?
Where do we allow a person to begin
their own soul searching?
Or are we the ones searching their
souls?
Often, from what I’ve seen, it has
started with questions like – are you saved?
Do you know that Jesus has died for
your sins?
Have you given your life to Jesus?
Jesus is exampling what we call
relational evangelism.
It is a sharing of our faith that
begins with where we are at with each other.
It is finding a connection with
another person that can lead to a continuing conversation that may lead to an
opportunity to share your faith.
As St Peter says – always be prepared
to give an “answer” for the hope you have.
From that initial conversation with
the Samaritan woman, Jesus is able to introduce himself as the Living Water.
Jesus then asks her to bring her
husband along to which she confesses that she has no husband –
Jesus knew that but he didn’t begin
by stating that which may have seemed judgmental.
He allowed her soul searching to
reveal that.
Maybe she is trying to cover up that
she is in a relationship that is not really approved of.
Jesus then confesses that he knows
her situation – that she has had 5 husbands and the man she is living with is
not her husband.
But at no time did he accuse her of
any wrongdoing.
At no time does he judge her.
Unlike the woman caught in adultery,
he doesn’t tell her to go and sin no more.
Instead she goes to tell her own
people about Jesus.
Come and see a man who told me
everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”
How is that for evangelism and all
because Jesus asked for a drink - a glass of water?
She sounds very much like Phillip in
chapter 1 of John’s Gospel:
Philip found Nathanael and told him,
“We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets
also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Nazareth! Can anything good
come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.
Relational evangelism can take longer
and sometimes it seems like you’re not really doing anything or going anywhere.
Sometimes it seems like you’re only
ever talking about the weather or football or politics.
But God can gently lead in a way that
is so subtle that we don’t always realise that we’re sharing the Gospel with
that person.
This conversation didn’t look like it
was really going anywhere until Jesus exposed a need.
It would appear that she may have
been dealing with guilt.
The reading doesn’t actually say that
and we can’t really be certain but we can take from her behaviour that maybe
she was feeling some shame.
She told Jesus that she didn’t have a
husband when in fact she had had 5 and was living with someone not her husband.
We don’t know the situation but Jesus
did not make her feel guilty about it.
She had come out in the heat of the
day at noon.
Maybe the other women had been
earlier to avoid the heat.
Maybe she had come when she knew
there would be no others around to judge her.
Again, we don’t know that but John
wants us to know those details.
Jesus begins with her needs rather
than trying to correct her ways – if they needed correcting (we don’t know
that).
Jesus is exampling what he taught to
Nicodemus – God’s love in action.
It began by sending his one and only
Son and now it continues by sending you and me.
And like Jesus we don’t know where or
with whom that might be.
God works that out – he simply places
them in our path like the Samaritan woman.
And it might not be the one we think
will respond, as St Paul tells us:
For there is no difference between
Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on
him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
But then Paul reminds us - How, then,
can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in
the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone
preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is
written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
And as we look at the panic and uncertainty around us and as we keep our
faith in God, what better opportunity to share the Good News.
And as Jesus said to his disciples
-look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.
May God bless you as you go and grow
for God’s Kingdom.
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