Sermon for March 23 - Lent 3A - "What's your story?"

Here is the sermon form Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Albany, MN for March 23, 2014. Text is John 4:5-42, Jesus encounter with the Samariatain Woman at the well.

As always the sermon as written is not exactly the same as the sermon as preached.

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Pastor Steve

+INI+

Verse 1-4 of this chapter of John tells us of growing conflict around Jesus. Verse 4 says that Jesus “had to go – was required to go – through Samaria.”

Why did Jesus have to go to Samaria? It was not to get to the other side. A look a map will tell you that he had to go out of his way. Why did Jesus have to go Samaria?

·      Long before the Samaritans had been good Jews, but they had been forcibly interbred with pagans and had begun to worship pagan Gods.

·      They didn’t accept the full Hebrew Scriptures – only the first 5 books, the 5 books of Moses.

·      They insisted that they could offer the Passover sacrifice in their way on their holy mountain – no need to go to Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

Nothing new here! Religion and race can be a powerful separator of peoples.

Why did Jesus have to go to Samaria?

“God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” Samaria is “the world” or at least the start of the world.

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I have a friend – a really big guy – he looks like a football ball player, which he was at SJU. If you were to meet him most likely he’d take your hand, look down at you (he’s a BIG guy) and boom out, “It is nice to meet you. What’s your story?”

This Samaritan woman has a story. What it is we don’t know exactly.

·      To be widowed 5 times would have been tragic but not impossible.

·      She could have been abandoned by a man who had promised to love and honor her.

·      If she couldn’t have children a women would frequently be put aside.

·      Her current relationship could have been what was called a “levirate marriage.”

If a man died without children his widow would live in his brother’s household. If she had a child it would be considered to be the child of her dead husband. She would have a place in the community but she would NOT be considered a wife.

We don’t know the details, but her story tells us she had a lot stacked against her.

Imagine yourself into this woman’s story.

You are just walking along, doing your job, living your life – it might not be the best life or the most important life ever lived, but it is yours. Then something extraordinary happens – something you never expected, something that you NEVER CONSIDERED EVEN A POSSIBILITY!

You are face to face with the Messiah of God

Jesus talks longer to this woman than he does to anyone else in all the Gospels--longer than he talks to any of his disciples, his accusers, his own family.

·      This nameless woman, of the wrong race and religion is  the first person to see the Messiah.

·      He is the first to hear Jesus claim the Name of God for himself – “I am.”

·      She is the first evangelist and her testimony brings many to faith.

 “I’ve met a man who knows everything about me and still accepts me. He knows my story and still loves me. Could this be the Messiah?”

Her neighbors check it out and they believe, too. “This is the savor of the world.” Savior = healer.

Jesus redirects her life, moves it off the rails. He grabs the wheel and gives it a sharp left turn.

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So, what is your story? We all have a story, a faith story.

I can hear you thinking – “I don’t have a faith story! Nothing has ever dramatic happened to me. I’ve not been healed. I’ve never seen an angel.”

What is your Story?

Lutheran’s do not grow up with personal testimony as part of our regular religious practices. Is that because we are afraid that our stories are somehow not going to be accepted by God and our neighbors. To tell our story would open us up to criticism and examination.

Jesus is the one who knows it all already. Whatever your story contains Jesus knows it already – and still accepts you and loves you.

The most liberating moment this nameless, tragic women ever had was that minute when she left her water jug – which I take to symbolize the routine of her life as she it had been up to that moment – and runs to her neighbors with the news.

But I say again to you again, “What is your faith story?” Because you have one.

·      You have met the Divine Stranger who goes out of the way to find us. Jesus, who gives us the Living Water that will not end.

·      You’ve met him in you baptism. You’ve met him in the Meal. You’ve met him in the eyes of the people you have met along the way – people who love God and love you.

In Jesus we are accepted and love no matter what story is. The one who knows you best is the one who loves you most.

+AMEN+