Isaiah 55:1-9; John 4:1-30, 39-42
Presented March 11th, 2007, by Jeanne Davies
Third Sunday in Lent
As I began thinking about this morning’s texts, I realized that several of my family’s often-repeated stories had to do with the recurring theme of wasting one’s time, energy, and money: my brother’s disappointment in his Snakes Alive game, the long anticipated and disappointing climax to the journey in search of a giant man-eating clam. Fortunately, my parents had the ability to laugh at themselves and I think that these stories were so often repeated because they were important life-lessons about believing in illusions, in deceptions, either created by others or created by ourselves.
My father was a child of German immigrant parents. They moved here in the aftermath of World War I, when Germany was destitute, in desperate straights. They worked hard and then ten years later they lost everything again in the Great Depression in this country. My father knew the value of a penny; he knew how to save, to spend thriftily, and to work hard. My father was also imaginative and made good use of opportunity. One summer vacation, he had my mother and all four of us children picking up rocks on a Lake Superior beach. He had learned that rock shops would pay good money for agates. He showed all of us what an agate looked like and instructed us to pick up any we found. We spent all day picking up those rocks and at the end of the day we had buckets full. Sunburned, tired, and excited, we drove to the rock shop and waited as my dad took a handful of our precious cargo in to show the shop owners. He came back to the car and said to us, in disgust, “We have a carload of flint. It’s not worth anything.” We took those rocks back home, put them in our garden and ever after, we laughed about the time and effort we spent picking up those rocks on the beach. “Picking up agates” became a metaphor for futile effort at a task not worth one’s time, just as “Snakes Alive” and “giant man eating clam” represented misplaced enthusiasm, belief in half truths, and a delight in delusion.
In Isaiah 55, God asks us, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” I think it is still all too easy to get sidetracked by Snakes Alive, giant man-eating clams, picking up buckets of agates and other disappointments, dead-ends and fruitless enterprises. God says, “Listen carefully to me and eat what is good, and delight yourself in rich food.” Now here, I must confess, that I am a little disappointed in the NRSV translators. The word in Hebrew that they translate as “rich food” actually means “fat” or “fatness.” In the RSV, God says, “Delight yourself in fatness.” Of course, we have so much fatness in this culture that it’s hard for us to imagine it being delightful. But it reminds me of the Yiddish word “schmaltz.” Schmaltz is chicken fat. It adds a richness and flavor to food. It’s “the good stuff.” Mmmmm… Delight yourself in schmaltz. God is offering us the good stuff.
But what is that good stuff? Would we know it if we saw it? What would it take to be truly happy? A new car? A different job? Six husbands? Or maybe someone who wasn’t a husband? Sometimes our limited vision of ourselves and our world keeps us from seeing what we truly need and what is truly possible. This is what happens to the Samaritan woman by the well. Her conversation is bound by her limitations and narrow expectations. One by one, Jesus shatters those limitations and takes her deeper in understanding.
At first she is limited by her understanding of normal interactions between men and women. The well is a scene of courtship in many other biblical stories—for Isaac, for Jacob, for Moses. This Samaritan woman has had six husbands. She is going to the well in the heat of midday—a time, perhaps, when she would not be likely to meet many others. Men, particularly holy men, would usually not speak to a woman, especially alone, for fear of temptation, ritual contamination, or even damaged reputation. (And, in fact, when his disciples return they are shocked that Jesus was speaking to her.) I’m sure this woman must have wondered why Jesus would even speak to her, let alone ask for a cup of water. And perhaps, having had six husbands, she could only think of one reason. I’m indebted to Mike McKeever for suggesting in one of our Sunday School classes that this woman may be flirting with Jesus. It changed the whole text for me. “So where do you get that living water?” For her it’s business as usual. Men are all the same. She has no idea who she is dealing with… and Jesus tells her so. “If you knew who asked you for water, you’d be asking me for living water.”
She’s also limited by the prejudice between Jews and Samaritans. Jews and Samaritans originated out of the same people. In fact the Samaritans used the Torah, or the Law, as their holy scriptures. But after the occupation of the Assyrians, the Samaritans and the Jews diverged in history, in culture and in custom. The Jews admitted later scriptures into their canon. The Samaritans built a new temple on a different mountain, a new mountain. Jews generally looked down upon Samaritans as inferior and wouldn’t have shared a cup or eating utensils with them. So, not only is Jesus breaking the conventions of interaction between a man and a woman but also between a Jew and a Samaritan.
When she recognizes Jesus as a prophet, the first question she asks is for him to settle the largest debate between the Samaritans and the Jews. On which mountain is God to be worshiped? Jesus does not choose the best and most fitting mountain but says the answer is no mountain. God will be worshiped in spirit and in truth. How many issues are we debating in the church today that miss the point? Is it literal or metaphor? Is it liberal or conservative? Is it about holiness or love? God points us to life that transcends our limited categories.
I wonder about this woman with six husbands. Did her husbands die and was she passed on to a brother or relative? Was she divorced and remarried? With each new husband did she hope that her life would be different, would be better? And how did she come to be living with a man who was not her husband? What hope was in her for who she could be, for what could happen to her in the future? One thing is certain. Jesus sees her potential. He helps her transcend the limitations of what is expected of a Samaritan woman of many husbands.
I must confess that I love this woman. She is so feisty. She is so inquisitive. She keeps the conversation going every bit as much as Jesus does. She is so thirsty. Are you better than Jacob, our ancestor? Where do you get this living water? Give me some. If you’re a prophet, tell me where is the right place to worship.
And one can almost sense Jesus’ delight in his good student. He gives her time. He respects her intelligence. With each new exchange in the conversation, he takes her deeper. What strikes her most is that Jesus knows her; he knows everything she’s ever done. It’s almost as if he says, “I know you. I know your m.o. How’s that working for you? You could be so much more.” And Jesus comes away from the well not with a bride but with a witness.
In his book, A Hand to Guide Me, Denzel Washington has collected stories of people who were inspired and guided by mentors. The proceeds of his book go to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. In the forward, Washington says, “We all get where we’re going with a push from someone who cares.” It is surprising how little it can take to change the course of someone’s life forever. Manny Villafana was one of the developers of the St. Jude’s heart valve. He also developed improved pacemakers. But he almost didn’t make it through high school. He grew up in a neighborhood in which he had to run from gangs to get to the local Boys Club. When one day he stole some nickels from the Boys Club, he recalls the reaction of the director, who called him into his office. He didn’t yell. He didn’t threaten. He asked him, “Manny, do you know what you’re doing?” He quietly talked to him about the consequences of his actions. Then he gave Manny some additional responsibilities at the Boys Club. Manny stepped up to the plate and that conversation was a turning point in his life.
Ron Sargent remembers mowing the lawn of one of the teachers at his school. He was twelve years old. Miss Dunlap stopped his work and asked him, “Do you plan to go to college?” Ron lived in a neighborhood where only ten percent of kids went to college. He told her he’d never thought about it. She said, “You have a good head on your shoulders. You should think about it.” Eventually Ron went to Harvard but he said he’s not sure he would have done so if Miss Dunlap hadn’t put it in his head that he could.
Are we open to God redefining our reality? After her encounter with Jesus, the woman at the well drops her water jar and runs to the city. In no need of well water now, she becomes the first evangelist. “Many Samaritans believed because of her testimony.” She is messenger of the good news to those who are despised by the Jews. In her action, Jesus message of salvation is broadened and deepened. Salvation is not just for the Jews but for all. The Samaritans embrace Jesus and his message, declaring him “Savior of the World.”
Our personal redemption, transformation, enlightenment is not only for our own sake. It is for the sake of the world. God knows us, and claims us. God cleanses and restores us. But God also calls and commissions us. We transcend our narrow prejudices and limitations in order to participate in God’s healing and saving action—feeding the hungry, healing the sick, welcoming the excluded—delivering the word of hope and encouragement that transforms lives. When you find out what the good stuff really is, the “schmaltz” of God, and when you figure out how to get it, then go and offer it to the nations. Isaiah says, “You shall call nations that you do not know and nations that do not know you will come to you… return to the Lord and…you shall go out with joy and be led back in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”
May we come to God hungry, thirsting for a new way of living, like the woman at the well. May we question and listen, and have the courage and audacity to ask God for the living water that transforms hearts and minds, shattering our illusions and giving us a new vision of what is possible. And may we live with joy, bearing a wellspring of that living water welling up in our hearts and spilling over into the lives of others, bringing hope, healing, and eternal life. Amen.