Words for Worship

Ministry Today

John 4.4-14

 

A policeman stops a lady and asks for her license. He says "Madam, it says here that you should be wearing glasses."

The woman answered "Well, I have contacts."

The policeman replied "I don't care who you know, missus! I am booking you!"

But whether you have glasses, contacts or 20-20 vision, let me tell you Christ has a habit of changing how you see.

 

That certainly happened to Neil Alexander, the Episcopal bishop of Atlanta. For some years ago he had a chance encounter with a person that changed my life forever. He was living in New York at the time and was walking to his church one bitingly cold winter’s morning. It was then he encountered a homeless man who had slept the night on an old piece of cardboard. He was still shivering from the cold; his clothes were thin. He had no gloves, no hat, no coat and he appeared not to have eaten for several days. The Bishop reached in my pocket so as to give him money for a hot cup of coffee. But he seemed not to want anything that might make his life more comfortable on this cold morning.

"No, Father," he said, "all I need for you to do is to give me a blessing." "Give you a blessing?" the clergyman asked, somewhat surprised by his request. "Yes, that's all," he said, "a blessing." So they knelt down on the pavement and prayed. Then with a peaceful look upon his face, the tramp picked up his cardboard bed and a little bag of belongings and walked haltingly down the street in the opposite direction.

Later Neil admits that at first it seemed perfectly ordinary to bless a homeless man. But when the encounter was over, he realized he was the one who received the blessing. For, he realized that a homeless man without a name had crossed a barrier and shown him Jesus in a way in an utterly upside down way.

 

And the crossing of barriers, seeing differently and having worlds turned upside down takes us neatly to today’s gospel reading. For, it starts with Jesus transiting the break away region of Samaria and stopping in the heat of the day at a well. Here he meets a woman. It is then he commences his barrier crossing act. Since the idea of a Jew asking a Samaritan for anything was unthinkable. Now although our view of Samaritans is coloured by the Good Samaritan story, these people were not of pure Semitic stock. And as a result, they were utterly despised and discriminated against by their Jewish neighbours. But the situation was even more scandalous. For, the person who was asking for water from this ritually unclean person was a rabbi. He was therefore not only a teacher but also a guard on the ramparts of religious laws.  

Clearly then the whole business had got out of hand and if the disciples had been present they would have been horrified. Yet even worse was to come. For if we read on in our bibles, we learn that this Samaritan woman had led a less than blameless life – in fact, she is no better than she should be!

 

And for all these reasons the woman was at first taken aback. Then she was sceptically a bit cheeky – what’s your game mate? Then she started to see things differently and it all finished with her world changed beyond recognition. For in that encounter the water of her messy humanness was turned to the essence of what makes life worth living. She found that she had a greater dimension beyond the mundane drudgery of her days. She knew she was worth something just as herself.  Indeed, she saw she was truly blessed by God. And pardon the pun that left her with a spring in her step.

 

Now all of this came about through Christ doing three things – he didn’t obey the rules – he saw things as God saw them and he crossed barriers!

But that is Jesus all over for you. For, time and again his behavior surprises us; his words jolt us; his teaching forces us to rethink the way we see the world. And he always does that by sidestepping our boundaries and barriers.

Well, you might say I have no barriers around me. Maybe that is so – but probably that’s not true. For we build our own walls against people we don’t want and things we want to do.  We blockade too the person we could to be. We also have barriers built for us by others and by events and by circumstances. So during this Lenten time of preparation, we can valuably see more clearly all that hems us in and ask Christ to turn them upside down. For there is no doubt about it, give Jesus half a chance - he will find a way to transform your life, reorient your thinking, and replant your feet in midair!

All this sound pretty good doesn’t it. However, there is a snag. For if our teacher breaks down whatever is hampering us, then he also expects us to see the barricades others have imprisoning themselves with. Moreover, he looks to us leap across these bounding walls carrying with us the blessing of God. For as the woman of Samaria reminds us. That is the only way to make people see afresh how to break out to blessed freedom. It is the only way to turn their world upside down. In fact it’s the single way, to bring unbounded joy not just into one life but into two.

But what if you say – I’m quite happy with my personal barriers they give me a warm cosiness. What if we say I am frightened of seeing the truth if its going to turn my world upside down. And certainly I have no desire to across a barrier to someone else no matter what I take with me.

 

Well, all that forgets what Richard Dennis wrote in his book Over My Dead Body!

 

There is a story about a man who visited a church. He parked his car and started toward the front entrance. Another car pulled up and the irritated driver said to him, "I always park there. You took my place!"

The visitor went inside and found an adult class. So he sat down. A class member said, "That's my seat! You took my place!" The visitor was somewhat distressed by this rude welcome, but said nothing.

After the Bible meeting, our visitor went into the sanctuary and sat down in an empty pew. Within moments another member walked up and said, "That's where I always sit. You took my place!" The visitor was troubled, but said nothing. Later, as the congregation was praying for Christ to be present with them, the visitor stood, and his appearance began to change. Scars became visible on his hands and on his sandaled feet. Someone from the congregation noticed him and cried out, "What happened to you?" The visitor replied, "I took your place."

 

In other words, Jesus Christ crossed the greatest barrier so that we don’t have too! What’s wrong then in our taking a leap of faith. What is wrong in our demolishing a few barriers of our own! In all honest, what is wrong in our seeing it all his way!

 

 

Amen

 

Offering

 

HYMN…………………..

 

Leaping Barriers!