Rev. Paul Wrightman, Pastor

Independent and United Church of Christ

January 31, 2021

Dear Friends,

Please keep Mary Jane and Jack Hammerland in your prayers. ​​ Although their house was spared severe flooding, it has been a very stressful week for them as their home was ALMOST inundated.

More news regarding our latest storm: ​​ Kathy Curless’ home suffered a broken skylight. ​​ Larry Kuck graciously responded and covered the opening in her roof with a tarp which should hold until the roofers are able to come. ​​ Dolores Joblon’s home was spared this time. ​​ During our last major storm her house sustained significant damage. ​​ 

Dolores asked me to share with you: ​​ We have just received the good news that Jeffrey’s Restaurant Mid-Valley has generously offered to provide the February meal​​ for the I Help men. ​​ Please remember Jeffrey’s when you think about treating yourself to a takeout meal. ​​ Their food is as wonderful as their generosity. ​​ Please let them know how much we at Community Church appreciate their help in supporting the I Help program.

I mentioned last week that one of the ways to participate in our Congregational Meeting on February 28th​​ (in addition to email, conference call, and regular mail) will be via Zoom. ​​ If you would like a Zoom link for this meeting, you need to let me know. ​​ Please email me at​​ [email protected]. ​​ Thanks.

Stay safe, Take Good Care,And Always Remember that Jesus IS Emmanuel – God WITH Us. ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​ Pastor Paul

WORSHIP SERVICE FOR JANUARY 31, 2021

INTRODUCTORY READING: ​​ A Selection of Quotes on the Theme of Belief

Belief makes the mind abundant.​​  ​​​​ ​​ –W. B. Yeats

So, once again, you chose for yourself – and opened the door to chaos. ​​ The chaos you become whenever God’s hand does not rest upon your head.​​ 

--Dag Hammarskjold

That all things are possible to him who​​ believes, that they are less difficult to him who​​ hopes, they are more easy to him who​​ loves, and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues.  ​​ ​​ ​​​​ –Brother Lawrence

I believe in Jesus Christ, in whom I get a picture of God within the limits of my comprehension. ​​ Upon Him rests the whole fabric of my life. ​​ He alone holds it together in form and purpose, and without Him it would disintegrate.

--Hugh Redwood

There comes a time when we have to believe where we cannot prove, and to accept where we cannot understand. ​​ If, even in the darkest hour, we believe that somehow there is a purpose in life, and that somehow that purpose is love, then even the unbearable becomes bearable, and even in the darkness there is still a glimmer of light.  ​​ ​​ ​​​​ –William Barclay

Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.  ​​ ​​ ​​​​ –St. Augustine

SUGGESTED MUSIC  ​​ ​​​​  ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​ Amazing Grace​​ (Lyrics) – Susan Boyle  ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​ You Tube

OPENING PRAYER  ​​ ​​ ​​​​ St. Augustine (354-430)

Late have I loved you,

O Beauty so ancient and so new.

You called, and broke through my defenses,

and now I long for you.

You breathed your fragrance on me,

and I drew in my breath,

and now I yearn for you.

I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you.

You touched me,

and I burn for your peace.

LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father,

who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth

as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those​​ 

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever. ​​ ​​ ​​​​ Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING: ​​ John​​ 4:5-29, 39-42

(Please place yourself in this scene overhearing this conversation.)

But he had to go through Samaria. ​​ So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ​​ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. ​​ It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ ​​ (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ​​ 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.) ​​ 

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.

The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. ​​ Where do you get that living water? ​​ Are you greater than our ancestor​​ Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’

Jesus said to 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 give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’

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.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ ​​ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ ​​ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband;’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. ​​ What you have said is true!’

The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ​​ Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ ​​ 

Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ​​ The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ​​ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’

The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming. ​​ When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ ​​ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

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?’

Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. ​​ 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?’  ​​​​ 

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ ​​ So when the Samaritans came to him, thy asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. ​​ And many more believed because of his word. ​​ They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for​​ we have heard for ourselves.​​ 

SERMON – WHAT GOD’S LOVE​​ LOOKS​​ LIKE ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​ Rev. Paul Wrightman

(The underlining indicates what I would emphasize if delivered orally.)

Today’s text features one of the longest sustained conversations that we find in the Gospels between Jesus and a person who is not one of the twelve disciples.

How did this conversation come to us? In other words, who remembered it and wrote it down?

I suspect it was John himself.

We know from the end of John’s Gospel that he was following closely behind Jesus and Peter as they were walking and talking about Peter’s continuing role as leader​​ ​​ of the disciples. ​​ John 21:20 tells us that “Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them.”

My take on this text is that John was following Jesus and Peter on​​ purpose​​ so that he could overhear their conversation. ​​ John as​​ shadow? ​​​​ Definitely. ​​ --Thank God for the fact that he recorded many of the conversations that he overheard!

My take on today’s text is much the same. ​​ My conjecture is that John had conveniently positioned himself on the other side of the well so that he could listen in on the conversation. ​​ I believe that he did this out of love for Jesus and his teachings.

Given the oral culture of the time, and the​​ accuracy​​ with which the teachings of a revered teacher were remembered, I think we can safely assume that in this text we have a remembered conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well.

Now for some geographical and political background.

Israel is a long, narrow country.

At the time of Jesus, it was divided into three distinct parts: Galilee in the north, Judea in the south, and Samaria smack in the middle.

There was a great deal of bad blood between Israel and Samaria, caused by the fact that in their conquest of the Northern Kingdom in the 700’s B.C.E., the Assyrians deported much of the population and imported various captive people to take their place.

The populations intermarried, and in the minds of the “pure” Jewish populations of Judea and Galilee, the Samaritans were nothing but a bunch of half-breeds, worse even than Gentiles because they had defiled their Jewish blood.

The “real” Jewish people of Judea and Galilee imposed the same boundary-maintaining taboos on the Samaritans that they did on the Gentiles – no sharing of eating and drinking utensils, and as little social contact as possible.

If anything, the Samaritans were even​​ more​​ hated than “regular” Gentiles, because they were neither fish nor foul, neither Jewish nor Gentile.

A recent theological consensus among major theologians is redefining original sin as “the​​ rejection​​ of the​​ otherness​​ of the​​ other.” ​​ The Samaritans experienced​​ this rejection with a vengeance.

The​​ usual​​ route from Judea to Galilee would have involved​​ avoiding​​ having to travel through Samaria by walking the narrow strip of Israelite territory bordering the Jordan River to the east.

We know from the nuances of the Greek that Jesus specifically​​ chose​​ to take the route to Galilee that involved walking right through the middle of Samaria.

Given Jesus’ penchant for taking every opportunity available to him to​​ break​​ what he considered to be the​​ arbitrary​​ rules and boundaries of the Jewish religious establishment, his choice to travel​​ through​​ Samaria was in itself a renegade theological action, an action calculated to​​ break​​ down​​ the boundary between Jew and Samaritan.

As we know, it was for breaking down boundaries, arbitrary boundaries between men and women, Jew and Gentile, “worthy” and “unworthy,” “clean” and “unclean,” and I would say, by extrapolation, based on Jesus’ radical​​ acceptance​​ of the otherness of the other – straight and gay – that got him killed.

Returning briefly to an earlier text from John’s Gospel, one we looked at last week, I want to ask: What does “For God so​​ loved​​ the world (John 3:16)​​ look​​ like?”

God’s love looks like Jesus going out of his way to travel through Samaria, thus “offering himself to those whom social convention deemed​​ unacceptable” (Gail O’Day). ​​ 

“For God so loved the world. . .” looks like Jesus going out of his way to engage a Samaritan woman in conversation.

We know from the fact that the customary hour for obtaining water was early morning, not high-noon,​​ that the Samaritan woman with whom Jesus spoke was something of an​​ outcast.

We know from the social taboos of the time that Jesus broke no less than three of them in speaking to her: (1) Jewish people were not supposed to fraternize with Samaritans. ​​ (2) Jewish men, especially rabbi’s, were forbidden to speak with women in public, and (3) Jews were forbidden to share eating and drinking utensils with Samaritans.

The fact that the woman with whom Jesus was speaking was apparently a woman of doubtful morality makes his action stand out all the more.

In his conversation with the woman at the well, Jesus engages in dialogue strategies highlighted in John’s Gospel: ​​ (a) Jesus makes an​​ enigmatic​​ statement that has​​ two​​ meanings; (b) his dialogue partner invariably chooses to go with the more​​ literal​​ of the meanings; (c) Jesus counters by making an even​​ more​​ outrageous statement; (d) the person again misunderstands; (e) Jesus then springs his​​ trap, the effect of which​​ gives him the opening he needs to​​ clarify​​ what he was talking about in the​​ first​​ place.

In today’s conversation, we see these dynamics playing themselves out in Jesus’ enigmatic statement about “living water,” which can be understood​​ literally​​ as running water versus well water, or on a​​ deeper​​ level, as the​​ metaphorical​​ water of​​ eternal​​ life.

The woman, of course, goes for the literal meaning, which enables Jesus to up the ante and talk about never being thirsty again. ​​ The woman again takes this literally and asks for this “magic” water through which she assumes she will never have to fetch water again.

Jesus then springs his trap, asking her to go call her husband, which brings out her difficulty in maintaining any kind of stable marriage relationship.​​ 

She tries to change the subject by bringing in religion, in this case the competing temples of Samaria and Jerusalem, but this simply gives Jesus the opportunity to clarify what he’s been getting at all along.

During the course of this conversation this outcast of a person with multiple strikes against her receives from Jesus the most profound description of true worship that anyone receives in any of the Gospels (“True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”), and more than a hint about who Jesus really is. ​​ She asks about the Messiah and Jesus replies “I am, the one speaking to you.”

As her response to this encounter, this unnamed woman shares the Good News about Jesus with her village, thus becoming the​​ first​​ of​​ many​​ women apostles in the New Testament, totally​​ contradicting​​ the stand of the huge majority of Christian denominations​​ against​​ women in ministry.

What does “For God so loved the world. . .”​​ look​​ like? ​​ 

It looks like Jesus​​ affirming​​ the otherness of this Samaritan woman,​​ affirming​​ her as a worthy conversation partner, and​​ affirming​​ her abilities as a budding theologian!

In the context of this conversation, what does “For God so loved the world”. . .​​ not​​ look like?

It does​​ not​​ look like​​ rejection​​ or​​ judgment.

Rather, this conversation is all about the​​ transformation​​ and​​ healing​​ that can come about through contact with Jesus.

This is one of many texts in the Gospels where I would really, really like to know the​​ tone​​ of​​ voice​​ and​​ gestures​​ with which Jesus speaks.

I have a strong suspicion that when Jesus springs his trap and comments on the woman’s multitude of husbands, he does so with the hint of a​​ smile​​ on his face, and​​ humor​​ and​​ compassion​​ in his voice.

I don’t know about you, but this story​​ draws​​ me​​ in.

It makes me feel that I, like John, am​​ overhearing​​ their conversation.

It gives me a sense of what Jesus would say to​​ me​​ about my​​ own​​ areas of brokenness.

And it gives me the awesome feeling of being in the presence of Emmanuel, God-with-us in the person of Jesus.

One of the most beautiful aspects of this story for me is that when the woman at the well goes back to her village to tell​​ them​​ about Jesus, she unknowingly uses as invitation which Jesus himself had used earlier in this Gospel. ​​ She challenges her fellow villagers to “Come and see.”

They​​ do​​ come to see, they do come to check out Jesus, and wind up inviting him to stay with them, which he does for two whole days.

Imagine how many rules are broken here – eating, drinking, conversing with, even sleeping in the house of one’s “enemy!”

Her fellow villagers finally tell the woman at the well “It is no longer because of what​​ you​​ said that we believe, for we have​​ heard​​ for ourselves. . .”

This, I think, is one of the key points of this text,​​ that we don’t have to believe in Jesus because of what​​ others​​ say, and by extrapolation, that we don’t have to believe in Jesus because of what some​​ church​​ or what some minister or priest says​​ about​​ Jesus.

We can come to know Jesus​​ for​​ ourselves.

We can come to know him through stories like today’s Scripture text.

We can come to know him through our​​ own​​ conversations with him.

Now,​​ prayer​​ may not seem like much of a​​ conversation, but many of us can attest to the fact that prayer can often be a​​ gateway​​ to experiencing God, experiencing Jesus, and experiencing God’s Spirit.

And in our own actual prayer​​ experience​​ with Jesus, we can come to know the​​ truth​​ of what he means when he makes outrageous statements like. . .”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.”

Are you afraid of being rejected by God? ​​ Sometimes I am. ​​ 

To counter this, remember how Jesus​​ accepted​​ and​​ affirmed​​ this person with so many strikes against her.

Are you afraid that you’re not growing spiritually? ​​ Sometimes I am.

To counter this, in prayer allow yourself to be in the presence of Jesus, God-with-us, and you will experience a transformation similar to the one that the woman at the well did.

Finally, are you afraid of death? ​​ Sometimes I am.

To counter this, remember that Jesus’ metaphor of living water leading to eternal life is, finally, a metaphor about​​ himself.

Remember that the Jesus who refers to himself in terms of living water also refers to himself as

the bread of life,

the light of the world,

the door,​​ 

the good shepherd,

the vine,

the true and living way,

and the​​ resurrection​​ and the​​ life.

What does “For God so​​ loved​​ the world. . .”​​ look​​ like?

It looks like the​​ affirmation​​ of the otherness of the other,​​ the compassion, the forgiveness, the insistence on restorative justice, the unrelenting hospitality, and the promise of life over death given to us by the very incarnation, the very embodiment​​ of God in Jesus of Nazareth.

A crucial question to ask is: “Is the God we worship trustworthy?”

By revealing to us so clearly what God really cares about and what God is really like, Jesus not only gives us permission, but actually​​ encourages​​ us to “fire,” so to speak, any images of God we may have that are violent, abusive, and rejecting.

How do we​​ know​​ that by placing our lives in the hands of God, we’re in​​ good​​ hands, and that our eternal relationship with God will be one of unending goodness, truth, and beauty?

We know by making the​​ choice​​ – just as the woman at the well did – to​​ accept​​ our role as dialogue partners of Jesus.

Jesus wants each of us to experience a conversation

just as affirming of ourselves,

just as profound,

just as humorous,

and just as life-transforming

as the woman at the well.

Amen.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

• (a) What did it take for Jesus and this woman to get past their cultural differences to communicate like this? ​​ (b) ​​ What can you do to help overcome barriers to communication that exist in your world?

• ​​ Name your thirsts.

• Which of the quotations on belief in the Introductory Reading is your favorite and why?

CLOSING PRAYER  ​​ ​​ ​​​​ St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

Loving God, you are a deep sea,

into which the more I enter the more I find,

and the more I find the more I seek.

My soul ever hungers in your depths, Loving God,

longing to see you with the light of your light,

and as the deer yearns for springs of water,

so I yearn to see you in truth.

Amen.

SUGGESTED MUSIC  ​​​​ What a Friend We Have in Jesus  ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​ SE Samonte  ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​ You Tube

BENEDICTION

Patiently and persistently, God loves.

Relentlessly and unconditionally, God loves.

Now and forever, God loves.

AMEN.