D. Moody Smith, Jr. - "The Woman of Samaria" (March 15, 1981)
Loading the media player...
Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(beeping) | 0:03 | |
(chiming bell music) | 0:16 | |
(soft bell music) | 6:51 | |
(upbeat bell music) | 7:29 | |
(bright bell music) | 10:01 | |
(upbeat bell music) | 14:22 | |
(paper rustling) | 17:43 | |
(somber organ music) | 18:21 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 21:22 | |
- | Oh, come let us worship and bow down. | 24:31 |
Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, | 24:35 | |
for he is our God | 24:39 | |
and we are the people of his pasture | 24:41 | |
and the sheep of his hand. | 24:43 | |
Seek the Lord while he may be found. | 24:46 | |
Call upon him while he is near. | 24:49 | |
Let the wicked forsake his way | 24:52 | |
and the unrighteous, his thoughts. | 24:55 | |
Let him return to the Lord | 24:58 | |
that he may have mercy upon him | 25:00 | |
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. | 25:03 | |
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, | 25:08 | |
"neither are your ways my ways," | 25:10 | |
says the Lord. | 25:14 | |
For we, like sheep, have gone astray, | 25:17 | |
let us confess to God that our ways are not his ways. | 25:20 | |
Be seated. | 25:26 | |
Oh, Lord, holy and righteous God, | 25:38 | |
we acknowledge before you that we do not fear you | 25:42 | |
and that we do not love you above all things. | 25:47 | |
We do not delight in prayer, | 25:51 | |
nor take pleasure in your word. | 25:54 | |
We do not really love our neighbor. | 25:57 | |
We lack the conscience | 26:00 | |
that should accompany our own Christian profession. | 26:02 | |
Our hearts are divided, | 26:06 | |
crossed by doubts and guilty desires. | 26:09 | |
We accuse ourselves before you, oh God, | 26:13 | |
we implore you, whose nature and whose name is love, | 26:17 | |
to forgive us, and in forgiving, | 26:22 | |
to heal us so that in our lives | 26:26 | |
something will finally be changed. | 26:29 | |
Hear these words of assurance from Saint Paul. | 26:52 | |
"For at the very time when we were still powerless, | 26:56 | |
"then Christ died for the wicked. | 27:00 | |
"Even for a just man, if one of us would hardly die, | 27:03 | |
"though perhaps for a good man, | 27:07 | |
"one might actually brave death. | 27:09 | |
"But Christ died for us while we were yet sinners | 27:12 | |
"and that is God's own proof of his love towards us." | 27:17 | |
Therefore, let us give thanks, | 27:23 | |
for God is good and God's love is everlasting. | 27:26 | |
Thanks be to God whose love has made us. | 27:31 | |
Thanks be to God whose mercy forgives us. | 27:35 | |
Thanks be to God whose promise secures us. | 27:39 | |
Amen. | 27:44 | |
We welcome you to the worship of God in Duke Chapel | 27:49 | |
on this second Sunday in Lent. | 27:52 | |
We pray God's blessings upon you | 27:55 | |
in this season of penitence and preparation | 27:57 | |
for the sacrifice of our Lord upon the cross. | 28:02 | |
Whether you live, work, or study among us, | 28:06 | |
or you are a visitor to us this day, | 28:10 | |
be assured that, because this is the Father's house, | 28:14 | |
and we are all his children, | 28:18 | |
you are quite literally at home with us in this hour. | 28:21 | |
We especially welcome the Bell Choir | 28:28 | |
of the First Baptist Church of Henderson, North Carolina. | 28:31 | |
They will be playing a brief concert | 28:35 | |
after the prelude, this morning. | 28:37 | |
After the postlude, forgive me. | 28:41 | |
We also welcome our guest preacher today, | 28:45 | |
who is in reality no guest to us at all. | 28:47 | |
Dr. D. Moody Smith is the professor | 28:51 | |
of New Testament Interpretation, | 28:54 | |
both in the Divinity School | 28:56 | |
and the graduate department of religion of the university. | 28:58 | |
Dr. Smith, we welcome you to our pulpit again. | 29:02 | |
- | Let us pray. | 29:14 |
Oh, Lord, our God, | 29:18 | |
you have given your word to be a lamp unto our feet | 29:20 | |
and a light unto our path. | 29:24 | |
Grant us grace to receive your truth in faith and love | 29:27 | |
that by it, we may be prepared | 29:32 | |
unto every good word and work, | 29:34 | |
to the glory of your name | 29:37 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 29:40 | |
Amen. | 29:43 | |
The Old Testament lesson is from Genesis, | 29:46 | |
chapter 12, verses one through eight. | 29:49 | |
Now the Lord said to Abram, | 29:54 | |
"Go from your country and your kindred | 29:56 | |
"and your father's house | 30:00 | |
"to the land that I will show you. | 30:02 | |
"And I will make of you a great nation | 30:06 | |
"and I will bless you and make your name great | 30:08 | |
"so that you will be a blessing. | 30:12 | |
"I will bless those who bless you | 30:16 | |
"and those who curse you, I will curse. | 30:19 | |
"And by you, all the families | 30:23 | |
"of the Earth shall bless themselves." | 30:25 | |
So Abram went as the Lord had told him | 30:29 | |
and Lot went with him. | 30:33 | |
Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Harran, | 30:36 | |
and Abram took Sarai, his wife, | 30:42 | |
and Lot, his brother's son, | 30:45 | |
and all their possessions which they had gathered, | 30:47 | |
and the persons they had gotten in Harran. | 30:51 | |
And they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. | 30:55 | |
When they had come to the land of Canaan, | 31:00 | |
Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem | 31:02 | |
to the oak of Moreh. | 31:07 | |
At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. | 31:10 | |
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, | 31:15 | |
"To your descendants, I will give this land." | 31:18 | |
So he built there an altar to the Lord | 31:22 | |
who had appeared to him. | 31:25 | |
Thence, he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel | 31:28 | |
and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west | 31:32 | |
and Ai on the east. | 31:35 | |
And there, he built an altar to the Lord | 31:38 | |
and called on the name of the Lord. | 31:41 | |
Here ends the reading from the Old Testament. | 31:45 | |
Amen. | 31:48 | |
(joyful bell music) | 31:57 | |
Will the congregation please stand | 36:34 | |
for the reading of the gospel lesson? | 36:36 | |
The gospel lesson is from the Gospel According to John, | 36:43 | |
chapter 4, verses five through 26. | 36:47 | |
So Jesus came to a city of Samaria called Sychar | 36:52 | |
near the field that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph. | 36:57 | |
Jacob's well was there and so Jesus, | 37:01 | |
wearied as he was with his journey, | 37:05 | |
sat down beside the well. | 37:07 | |
It was about the sixth hour. | 37:10 | |
There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. | 37:13 | |
Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink," | 37:17 | |
for his disciples has gone away into the city to buy food. | 37:21 | |
The Samaritan woman said to him, | 37:26 | |
"How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, | 37:28 | |
"a woman of Samaria, | 37:32 | |
"for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." | 37:34 | |
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, | 37:38 | |
"and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, | 37:43 | |
"you would've asked him | 37:48 | |
"and he would've given you living water." | 37:49 | |
The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, | 37:54 | |
"and the well is deep. | 37:59 | |
"Where do you get that living water? | 38:01 | |
"Are you greater than our father, Jacob, | 38:04 | |
"who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, | 38:08 | |
"and his sons, and his cattle?" | 38:12 | |
Jesus said to her, | 38:16 | |
"Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, | 38:18 | |
"but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, | 38:23 | |
"will never thirst. | 38:26 | |
"The water that I shall give him will become, in him, | 38:29 | |
"a spring of water welling up to eternal life." | 38:33 | |
The woman said to him, | 38:37 | |
"Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, | 38:39 | |
"nor come here to draw." | 38:44 | |
Jesus said to her, | 38:47 | |
"Go call your husband and come here." | 38:50 | |
The woman answered him, "I have no husband." | 38:53 | |
Jesus said to her, | 38:58 | |
"You are right in saying I have no husband | 38:58 | |
"for you have had five husbands | 39:02 | |
"and he whom you now have is not your husband." | 39:05 | |
The woman said to him, | 39:11 | |
"Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. | 39:13 | |
"Our fathers worshiped on this mountain | 39:17 | |
"and you say that in Jerusalem is the place | 39:20 | |
"where men ought to worship." | 39:23 | |
Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me. | 39:25 | |
"The hour is coming when neither on this mountain | 39:29 | |
"nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. | 39:32 | |
"You worshiped what you do not know. | 39:37 | |
"We worship what we know, | 39:40 | |
"for salvation is from the Jews, | 39:43 | |
"but the hour is coming and now is, | 39:46 | |
"when the true worshipers will worship the Father | 39:49 | |
"in Spirit and truth, | 39:53 | |
"for such the Father seeks to worship him. | 39:55 | |
"God is Spirit and those who worship him | 39:59 | |
"must worship in Spirit and truth." | 40:03 | |
The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming, | 40:07 | |
"he who is called Christ. | 40:12 | |
"When he comes, he will show us all things." | 40:15 | |
Jesus said to her, | 40:20 | |
"I, who speak to you, am he." | 40:22 | |
Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson. | 40:27 | |
Amen. | 40:30 | |
(somber organ music) | 40:32 | |
- | Let us pray. | 41:40 |
May the words of my mouth | 41:43 | |
and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable | 41:44 | |
in thy sight, oh Lord, our strength, and our redeemer. | 41:48 | |
Amen. | 41:53 | |
The story of the woman of Samaria is an intriguing story | 41:56 | |
and a great story. | 42:00 | |
It's a good story. | 42:03 | |
It's not a short story, though. | 42:04 | |
And even our gospel reading | 42:07 | |
for this morning does not tell the whole story, | 42:09 | |
although it ends on one of its climactic points. | 42:13 | |
Jesus reveals to the woman that he is the Messiah | 42:18 | |
and yet, the story continues from there | 42:24 | |
as the disciples come back, the woman leaves, | 42:26 | |
and the Samaritans arrive on the scene, | 42:31 | |
but we didn't have time for all of that | 42:36 | |
in our gospel lesson. | 42:39 | |
The Gospel of John is, in some ways, a strange book, | 42:42 | |
and one of the outstanding testimonies | 42:47 | |
to its character occurred here | 42:49 | |
in this chapel a number of years ago. | 42:51 | |
A student was reading the Scripture, | 42:55 | |
John 14:18-24 was the announced lesson. | 42:58 | |
And I was listening as one, I must admit, | 43:05 | |
sometimes listens to Scripture, | 43:07 | |
attending and then not attending, | 43:10 | |
and suddenly I realized we were in chapter 15. | 43:14 | |
That's a little long, I thought. | 43:20 | |
Then, chapter 16, | 43:24 | |
and I thought maybe he will read all | 43:29 | |
of the Farewell Discourses. | 43:30 | |
That would make some sense but not as the morning lesson. | 43:33 | |
I remember distinctly we were not standing for the gospel, | 43:38 | |
on that occasion. | 43:42 | |
I thought surely he would stop at the end of chapter 16, | 43:45 | |
but, all of a sudden, Jesus lifted up his eyes to pray | 43:48 | |
and I realized we had begun chapter 17. | 43:53 | |
One of my boys had taken off his jacket, about chapter 15, | 43:58 | |
and now he removed his tie. | 44:04 | |
And I thought, well, maybe it will end | 44:08 | |
at the end of the prayer, | 44:11 | |
but no, Jesus and his disciples go out | 44:13 | |
across the Kidron Valley | 44:16 | |
and we're in the Passion Narrative proper, chapter 18. | 44:19 | |
And I'm wondering if it will ever end, | 44:23 | |
but just where it says that Peter was standing | 44:27 | |
and warming himself, | 44:30 | |
hands reached up and pulled the young man down from behind. | 44:33 | |
Thus endeth the reading of the gospel. | 44:40 | |
(congregation laughs) | 44:42 | |
The sermon, mercifully, was a little shorter that morning. | 44:46 | |
As I then scrutinized the Order of Worship, | 44:52 | |
I decided the lector must have thought | 44:55 | |
that 14 colon, 18 hypen 24, | 44:57 | |
meant through the 24th chapter of the Gospel of John. | 45:02 | |
Of course, we were then clearly headed for trouble | 45:08 | |
because the Gospel of John ends with the 21st chapter. | 45:11 | |
It would have been interesting to see | 45:15 | |
whether we would have gone on into the book of Acts, | 45:17 | |
looking for a 24th chapter. | 45:20 | |
But fortunately, we shall never know. | 45:22 | |
Now, I think there was something wonderful | 45:25 | |
about this bizarre interlude | 45:27 | |
and I wouldn't take anything for having been here | 45:30 | |
when it happened. | 45:33 | |
Of course, there were a few moments of puzzlement | 45:35 | |
and embarrassment all around. | 45:38 | |
Actually, the only people who should have been embarrassed | 45:41 | |
were those of us who might have briefed the young lector | 45:44 | |
more thoroughly on his assignment. | 45:47 | |
However that may be, | 45:51 | |
I found this out-of-the-ordinary occurrence | 45:53 | |
quite appropriate to the character | 45:55 | |
of the Gospel According to John, and in two ways. | 45:57 | |
First, John, unlike the other gospels, | 46:02 | |
contains lengthy episodes, conversations, and debates. | 46:07 | |
As in the case of the woman of Samaria, | 46:11 | |
it's sometimes hard to know where you ought to stop. | 46:14 | |
In addition, John's gospel is full of surprises, | 46:18 | |
particularly the people who talk with Jesus are surprised, | 46:23 | |
and shocked, and perplexed. | 46:27 | |
The Samaritan woman certainly was, | 46:31 | |
and sitting in this chapel on that morning, | 46:34 | |
I, with several hundred other worshipers, was surprised, | 46:36 | |
shocked, and perplexed. | 46:41 | |
But there was something genuinely, if vaguely, right | 46:44 | |
about that scene. | 46:49 | |
For in John's gospel, | 46:51 | |
the people who encounter Jesus must think, | 46:52 | |
"This can't be happening or | 46:56 | |
I can't believe what I'm hearing." | 46:59 | |
Jesus' conversation with the woman of Samaria is like that. | 47:03 | |
He asks her for a drink. | 47:07 | |
She cannot understand how a Jew can ask that of a Samaritan. | 47:09 | |
And we're told that the Jews had no dealings | 47:13 | |
with the Samaritans. | 47:16 | |
Although maybe what John meant is | 47:18 | |
that Jews do not drink from the same utensils as Samaritans | 47:20 | |
and that would explain the woman's surprise, too. | 47:25 | |
But either way, it amounts to the same thing. | 47:27 | |
And then Jesus says, in effect, | 47:31 | |
if you knew anything worth knowing, | 47:32 | |
you'd have asked me for a drink instead | 47:34 | |
and I would have given you living water. | 47:36 | |
It could mean, and be translated, running water, | 47:39 | |
and the Evangelist plays upon that double meaning. | 47:44 | |
Running water, living water. | 47:47 | |
The woman is thinking of running water | 47:50 | |
from the spring or well, | 47:52 | |
while Jesus means the living water, which he dispenses. | 47:55 | |
They are not the same. | 48:00 | |
The woman does not know it, | 48:02 | |
but Jesus knows it and the reader is invited to learn it. | 48:04 | |
Meantime, the woman's consternation is great. | 48:10 | |
"Can Jesus be greater than Jacob, | 48:13 | |
who gave us the well in the first place?" | 48:15 | |
"Hardly," she thinks. | 48:18 | |
And yet, John wants us to understand | 48:21 | |
that Jesus, in fact, is greater. | 48:24 | |
Jesus then tells the woman that the water he gives, | 48:28 | |
unlike the well water or any other water, | 48:31 | |
will quench thirst forever and never run out. | 48:35 | |
And she says, "All right, give me this water, | 48:39 | |
that I may not thirst nor come here to draw." | 48:42 | |
Now, if anything is plain in this story, | 48:47 | |
it is that Jesus and the woman are talking | 48:50 | |
on different levels. | 48:53 | |
He understands her but she doesn't understand him. | 48:55 | |
He knows there is a living water different | 49:00 | |
from any earthly water. | 49:03 | |
She does not know it and is perplexed. | 49:05 | |
And the result is that they talk past each other. | 49:09 | |
The woman does not comprehend Jesus. | 49:13 | |
He may understand her but, in the story, | 49:16 | |
there is no indication that Jesus even hears her | 49:18 | |
and if you take it on the level of ordinary conversation, | 49:22 | |
Jesus seems unspeakably rude. | 49:26 | |
But then, this is no ordinary conversation. | 49:30 | |
Every sign and hint in the narrative shows | 49:33 | |
that it's an extraordinary conversation. | 49:37 | |
How can the woman ever understand Jesus, | 49:42 | |
unless he gets down on her level? | 49:46 | |
And we have no assurance | 49:49 | |
that they will come to any meeting of the minds. | 49:51 | |
Just when it seems that the conversation is going | 49:57 | |
to go off in, or has gone off, in opposite directions, | 50:00 | |
a break occurs. | 50:05 | |
"Go call your husband and come here." | 50:06 | |
"I have no husband." | 50:10 | |
"You're right in saying I have no husband | 50:12 | |
for you have had five husbands | 50:14 | |
and the man you are now living with is not your husband." | 50:17 | |
"Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet." | 50:22 | |
So Jesus knows this woman thoroughly. | 50:26 | |
He announces to her the character of her life | 50:30 | |
and she is astonished. | 50:33 | |
How did he know this? | 50:35 | |
Well, we may, with the woman, draw our own conclusions. | 50:38 | |
He is a prophet and, as she will later muse, | 50:42 | |
even the Christ. | 50:46 | |
And Jesus will go on to reveal | 50:50 | |
that he is, indeed, the Christ. | 50:52 | |
But before that, he has, so to speak, | 50:54 | |
revealed to this woman who she is. | 50:58 | |
And only now may she begin to appreciate | 51:03 | |
what he may be for her. | 51:08 | |
Crucial to our understanding of this text is the link | 51:13 | |
between Jesus' revelation of the woman's past | 51:18 | |
and her consciousness of her thirst. | 51:22 | |
I want to think, to reflect, about that | 51:26 | |
for a moment or two. | 51:29 | |
She wants the kind of water that can quench earthly thirst | 51:31 | |
and she wants it in unlimited supply. | 51:36 | |
She wants the water she already knows | 51:40 | |
for a thirst she knows that she has | 51:45 | |
and that she will experience again and again. | 51:47 | |
Her thirsting is this-worldly, down to earth. | 51:50 | |
So is her desire for water. | 51:55 | |
She wants the water she already knows to continue forever. | 51:58 | |
Now, the woman's desire to have a kind of assurance | 52:04 | |
that her water supply will be permanent | 52:07 | |
can very easily be trivialized. | 52:10 | |
Maybe she is just stupid or without any sense | 52:13 | |
of what Jesus is about. | 52:16 | |
She wants an everlasting waterworks. | 52:18 | |
But I don't think it's quite so simple. | 52:23 | |
Her desire to have this water is the expression | 52:26 | |
of a natural human longing | 52:29 | |
to be assured of those good things | 52:31 | |
that meet our needs and make our lives meaningful. | 52:34 | |
This is the same | 52:39 | |
as our wanting the things we have possessed, | 52:40 | |
and know to be good in neverending supply. | 52:44 | |
I wanted Arthur Ashe always to play Davis Cup for the USA. | 52:49 | |
I wanted Walter Cronkite always | 52:55 | |
to give the CBS Evening News, | 52:57 | |
and before that, Eric Sevareid to tell us what it meant. | 52:59 | |
I wanted Arthur Fiedler always to conduct the Boston Pops, | 53:05 | |
and Gene Banks and Kenny Dennard always | 53:11 | |
to play forward for Duke, but alas. | 53:13 | |
All these wonderful things and people run their course. | 53:19 | |
We have them and we have them not. | 53:23 | |
They cannot be for us a well of water leaping up | 53:27 | |
to eternal life. | 53:31 | |
The woman's thirst and Jesus' revelation | 53:34 | |
of her past are bound together. | 53:37 | |
She wants a neverending water supply | 53:41 | |
and she has had five husbands and a lover. | 53:44 | |
Sometimes John tells us more than we want to know, | 53:49 | |
other times not enough. | 53:54 | |
This time he does not tell us enough. | 53:55 | |
What exactly do the five husbands mean? | 53:58 | |
Are they the five gods, | 54:02 | |
the five false gods, of the Samaritans, | 54:03 | |
as some commentators say? | 54:05 | |
There's nothing explicit about that in the text. | 54:08 | |
Do they reflect on the character of this woman? | 54:12 | |
Probably. | 54:14 | |
She is no paragon of virtue, | 54:16 | |
but her immorality is not the point. | 54:19 | |
But what if they represent her quest | 54:23 | |
for fulfillment in life? | 54:25 | |
Can it be that the Samaritan woman is the counterpart | 54:29 | |
of so many modern quests for self-realization? | 54:32 | |
Self-fulfillment? | 54:37 | |
While on a trip last weekend, I had the car radio on | 54:40 | |
and for the first time, and I hope for the last, | 54:45 | |
I heard an awful ballad, | 54:48 | |
which must be called "Alice Doesn't Love You Anymore." | 54:50 | |
Probably cribbed from "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore." | 54:56 | |
I don't remember all of the sordid details, | 55:00 | |
but the ballad is sung from the standpoint of the husband. | 55:02 | |
His wife has just dropped off the children, | 55:07 | |
put the dog out, taken the car, | 55:11 | |
and left town, and him, for good. | 55:15 | |
She leaves behind a note. | 55:19 | |
She has gone away to seek whatever it is | 55:22 | |
that life may hold for her, | 55:25 | |
because it sure hasn't held much so far. | 55:27 | |
Now, there's a familiar story. | 55:32 | |
We've all seen Kramer vs. Kramer. | 55:36 | |
That film was popular for many reasons, | 55:40 | |
but one of them was its accuracy in showing a slice | 55:43 | |
of contemporary human life. | 55:47 | |
People, not just wives, people leave responsibilities | 55:50 | |
and break off human relationships | 55:53 | |
because they don't live up to their expectations. | 55:56 | |
Our days pass, our lives pass with them. | 55:59 | |
It's not simply a matter of unfulfilled sexual desire. | 56:04 | |
More likely, it's fulfilled sexual desire, | 56:08 | |
accompanied by emptiness. | 56:12 | |
The promise of youth is not fulfilled. | 56:15 | |
Hopes dry up and aspirations wither. | 56:18 | |
The story is basically the same | 56:23 | |
in many times and many places. | 56:24 | |
You can fill in the names. | 56:26 | |
Now, John does not say all of this, | 56:29 | |
but he suggests it. | 56:32 | |
The unfulfillment, the longing, | 56:35 | |
the estrangement of the Samaritan woman's life are mirrored | 56:38 | |
in her five husbands plus one. | 56:42 | |
If so, she is, indeed, an ancient counterpart | 56:46 | |
of many uneasy and unnerving quests | 56:49 | |
for personal fulfillment in our own day. | 56:53 | |
But she is more than that. | 56:57 | |
She is the symbol of our own thirsting | 57:00 | |
for the water of life. | 57:03 | |
Thus, the woman's thirst for water | 57:09 | |
and Jesus' revelation of her life belong together. | 57:12 | |
She desires the assurance of the good things of this world, | 57:18 | |
even as her own quest has led her to and fro, | 57:21 | |
away from any steadfastness and stability in her life. | 57:26 | |
She knows of her need, | 57:31 | |
so she jumps at the chance to be fulfilled, | 57:34 | |
to have her thirst quenched, | 57:38 | |
quenched by the miraculous water that Jesus can supply. | 57:41 | |
Still, she really does not know what, | 57:47 | |
or whence, he is. | 57:51 | |
Now, this is far from the end of the story | 57:56 | |
and we'll not go through all of it this morning. | 57:58 | |
But we have reached an important vantage point. | 58:02 | |
The woman of Samaria has had her life | 58:06 | |
and her need exposed, revealed, by Jesus. | 58:09 | |
And Jesus presents himself as the giver of water, | 58:13 | |
the giver of water that can quench the thirst | 58:18 | |
of unfulfilled human life. | 58:21 | |
The woman recognizes Jesus to be a prophet | 58:26 | |
and then asks that religious question | 58:30 | |
about where people ought to worship, | 58:34 | |
here or in Jerusalem? | 58:37 | |
Now, as a clergyman, | 58:41 | |
I have some sense of what is happening here. | 58:42 | |
I am sitting on a plane or at a well, | 58:46 | |
and having a good conversation | 58:49 | |
and it comes out that I am some kind | 58:51 | |
of professional religious person. | 58:53 | |
So, the conversation immediately shifts ground. | 58:56 | |
The tone and the subject matter change. | 59:00 | |
In the presence of a person of the cloth, | 59:04 | |
people tend to assume a different style. | 59:07 | |
They may tell me about Aunt Sarah, | 59:09 | |
who saw spooks and heard voices. | 59:12 | |
While in seminary, I had a barber whose rich, human insights | 59:15 | |
and wisdom were couched in exquisite obscenities | 59:20 | |
and I would never tell him who I was | 59:25 | |
for fear, or in the certain knowledge, | 59:28 | |
I would never hear from him again. | 59:31 | |
Well, the analogy with Jesus and the woman of Samaria is, | 59:34 | |
of course, not exact, | 59:37 | |
but it is a fact that she does now send the conversation | 59:39 | |
in a new direction | 59:43 | |
and that gives Jesus the opportunity | 59:45 | |
of speaking about worship in Spirit and in truth. | 59:47 | |
Spirit and truth. | 59:53 | |
What do they mean? | 59:56 | |
First, they do not mean invisible and abstract. | 59:57 | |
Jesus is not here contrasting sacrificial worship | 1:00:02 | |
with a Quaker meeting. | 1:00:06 | |
Spirit and truth are the Spirit of God | 1:00:08 | |
and the truth of God as Jesus brings and reveals them. | 1:00:11 | |
God, in fact, is Spirit and seeks true worshipers | 1:00:15 | |
who will worship him in that way. | 1:00:19 | |
Now, our woman never gives much indication | 1:00:22 | |
that she has understood. | 1:00:24 | |
She goes away still amazed | 1:00:27 | |
that Jesus could tell her the most intimate details | 1:00:29 | |
of her personal life. | 1:00:32 | |
She testifies, and many of her fellow Samaritans believe, | 1:00:34 | |
and later on in the story, these Samaritans meet Jesus | 1:00:38 | |
and invite him to stay with them. | 1:00:42 | |
The woman's report about Jesus' startling revelation | 1:00:46 | |
then becomes the beginning point | 1:00:49 | |
and not the end of their faith and they say to the woman, | 1:00:52 | |
"It is not longer because of your words that we believe, | 1:00:55 | |
for we have heard ourselves and we know | 1:01:00 | |
that this is indeed the Savior of the world." | 1:01:04 | |
The Savior of the world. | 1:01:08 | |
Perhaps the noblest title ascribed to Jesus | 1:01:12 | |
in the New Testament and yet, it was also, | 1:01:15 | |
in antiquity, ascribed to the Roman emperor. | 1:01:18 | |
But apart from Spirit and truth, | 1:01:22 | |
apart from the living water, | 1:01:26 | |
that title, Savior of the world, is so universal, | 1:01:29 | |
so grandiose, as to be nearly meaningless. | 1:01:33 | |
We do not need the Savior of the world | 1:01:38 | |
so much as we need living water. | 1:01:41 | |
Jesus, the Samaritan woman is told, gives the water of life, | 1:01:46 | |
the water that makes possible a different quality of life, | 1:01:52 | |
the water which wells up into eternal life, | 1:01:57 | |
and that water was available to the Samaritan woman, | 1:02:00 | |
as little as she may have understood. | 1:02:04 | |
Can it also be available to us? | 1:02:08 | |
"The hour is coming and now is | 1:02:13 | |
when the true worshipers will worship the Father | 1:02:16 | |
in Spirit and truth." | 1:02:19 | |
And now is. | 1:02:24 | |
That now is the now in which we, | 1:02:27 | |
as well as the Evangelist, live. | 1:02:30 | |
The hour has come, it is present with us. | 1:02:34 | |
Here we are at worship. | 1:02:39 | |
Can this be what John is about? | 1:02:41 | |
What Jesus means? | 1:02:45 | |
It's all too easy to say, of course, | 1:02:48 | |
this is what Jesus means. | 1:02:50 | |
Christ is the answer, whatever the question. | 1:02:52 | |
Christ is available to us here today as we worship. | 1:02:54 | |
It's all too easy to say that, | 1:03:00 | |
but it's not, in principle, wrong to say that. | 1:03:03 | |
John the Evangelist speaks as one who knows Christ. | 1:03:10 | |
Whether he was an eyewitness and disciple, | 1:03:15 | |
scholars may debate. | 1:03:18 | |
What is not debatable is John's strong sense | 1:03:20 | |
of the presence and the reality of Jesus Christ. | 1:03:23 | |
"Do you believe because you have seen? | 1:03:28 | |
Blessed are those who have not seen | 1:03:31 | |
and yet believe." | 1:03:35 | |
Those who have not seen and yet believe know Christ | 1:03:38 | |
through tradition and through eyewitness, that's true. | 1:03:42 | |
But they also know him in worship. | 1:03:46 | |
What John says about Jesus | 1:03:50 | |
and in the name of Jesus is inconceivable | 1:03:52 | |
apart from a worshiping community. | 1:03:55 | |
And John is one of those who worships | 1:03:58 | |
in Spirit and in truth. | 1:04:02 | |
Are we? | 1:04:06 | |
Yes, we may be. | 1:04:08 | |
No, I'd go farther than that. | 1:04:10 | |
Yes, we are such a community. | 1:04:12 | |
Our worship does not depend on pious, or good feeling, | 1:04:15 | |
or even upon our liturgy. | 1:04:19 | |
It depends, in the first instance, on our act, | 1:04:22 | |
our response of faith, | 1:04:26 | |
however questioning in coming here, | 1:04:29 | |
in gathering in the name of Jesus. | 1:04:32 | |
Our being in this place is a significant response | 1:04:36 | |
to the word from John, | 1:04:39 | |
that God seeks those who will worship him | 1:04:41 | |
in Spirit and in truth. | 1:04:44 | |
Even in this predominantly Protestant setting, | 1:04:47 | |
perhaps particularly | 1:04:50 | |
in this predominantly Protestant setting, | 1:04:52 | |
the significance of our gathering for worship needs | 1:04:56 | |
to be underscored. | 1:05:00 | |
That we are here is cause for reassurance | 1:05:02 | |
and ought to raise high expectations. | 1:05:07 | |
Therefore, in conclusion, it is good and fitting | 1:05:15 | |
that this congregation should be concerned | 1:05:19 | |
with how, and under what conditions, we worship. | 1:05:21 | |
Worship is at the basis of what we say and do as Christians. | 1:05:27 | |
Then ought we to spend $24,000 for altar pieces? | 1:05:33 | |
Or should we spend a lot more to air-condition this place? | 1:05:38 | |
If you'd been here on that warm August morning | 1:05:43 | |
some years ago when four chapters of John were read, | 1:05:46 | |
you might agree that we should spend that money | 1:05:49 | |
to air-condition this place, but seriously, | 1:05:51 | |
we can certainly worship truly without either | 1:05:55 | |
and maybe we should. | 1:05:59 | |
New Testament Christians could not afford such tokens | 1:06:02 | |
of affluence, but then again, | 1:06:05 | |
New Testament Christians could not afford | 1:06:09 | |
a chapel like this. | 1:06:11 | |
There's a sense in which we have already decided, | 1:06:14 | |
that is, the community has decided historically | 1:06:17 | |
and, in principle, about the character | 1:06:20 | |
of this place of worship. | 1:06:22 | |
How we appoint and furnish it is a matter | 1:06:25 | |
of serious practical and ethical importance, | 1:06:28 | |
as well as taste. | 1:06:32 | |
But unless we forgo the building | 1:06:35 | |
and the use of houses of worship such as this, | 1:06:36 | |
the answer to these | 1:06:40 | |
and related questions is not immediately obvious. | 1:06:41 | |
In fact, John gives us no explicit guidance | 1:06:45 | |
and I don't propose to make a judgment this morning. | 1:06:48 | |
Such decisions require the illumination | 1:06:52 | |
of all the relevant facts | 1:06:56 | |
and the considered judgment of the community. | 1:06:58 | |
They're serious business. | 1:07:01 | |
Whether and how we worship really is important. | 1:07:04 | |
The water of life, about which Jesus speaks, | 1:07:09 | |
is the meaning and the fulfillment that he gives to life. | 1:07:12 | |
He is not, or is obviously not, the only source of meaning | 1:07:19 | |
or apparent meaning. | 1:07:23 | |
That is, people draw meaning | 1:07:25 | |
and fulfillment of different sorts from different sources. | 1:07:26 | |
But if Jesus is anything, | 1:07:31 | |
he is the source of meaning and fulfillment | 1:07:33 | |
for those whose other sources have run dry | 1:07:37 | |
and that, sooner or later, is all of us. | 1:07:41 | |
As important as our encounters | 1:07:45 | |
with our fellow human beings may be, | 1:07:47 | |
in revealing our true disposition toward Jesus, | 1:07:50 | |
and they are very important, that is not all there is. | 1:07:53 | |
The worship that we render, | 1:07:59 | |
whether in community or alone, | 1:08:01 | |
is the touchstone of our participation in Christ | 1:08:05 | |
and in just that sense, | 1:08:10 | |
it becomes the channel | 1:08:12 | |
through which the living water comes to us. | 1:08:15 | |
So be it. | 1:08:20 | |
Amen. | 1:08:21 | |
(somber organ music) | 1:08:29 | |
(choir faintly singing) | 1:09:16 | |
(somber organ music) | ||
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 1:12:41 |
We believe in God who has created, and is creating, | 1:12:45 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus | 1:12:50 | |
to reconcile and make new, | 1:12:53 | |
who works in us and others by the Spirit. | 1:12:55 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the Church, | 1:12:59 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 1:13:03 | |
to love and serve others, | 1:13:06 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 1:13:09 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 1:13:12 | |
our judge and our hope. | 1:13:16 | |
In life, in death, in life beyond death, | 1:13:18 | |
God is with us. | 1:13:23 | |
We are not alone. | 1:13:25 | |
Thanks be to God. | 1:13:27 | |
The Lord be with you. | 1:13:29 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 1:13:31 |
- | Let us pray. | 1:13:32 |
Let us pray for the Church Universal | 1:13:48 | |
that she may be the true and spiritual servant of her Lord. | 1:13:51 | |
And for this chapel, | 1:13:56 | |
that it may always be the true | 1:13:58 | |
and faithful servant of Christ's Church. | 1:14:00 | |
Let us pray for the infirmed, | 1:14:09 | |
those whom each of us know by name, | 1:14:12 | |
and those whom we all know in spirit, | 1:14:16 | |
that they may find relief from their suffering | 1:14:19 | |
and release from their affliction. | 1:14:23 | |
Let us pray for the poor | 1:14:33 | |
whom Christ has named the children of God, | 1:14:35 | |
that they may find comfort from their physical distress | 1:14:39 | |
and consolation from their spiritual anguish. | 1:14:44 | |
And let us pray for ourselves who are rich, | 1:14:54 | |
that we may turn from the impossibility | 1:14:59 | |
of passing through the needle's eye | 1:15:02 | |
and seek Christ's kingdom among the least of his children. | 1:15:05 | |
Let us pray that we who are Christ's Church | 1:15:15 | |
may be the servants to the infirmed, | 1:15:19 | |
the bearers of good news to the poor, | 1:15:22 | |
that we may love as Christ has loved us. | 1:15:26 | |
Let us pray for this nation, | 1:15:35 | |
that it may truly be one nation under God | 1:15:39 | |
and that we, and our leadership, | 1:15:43 | |
may never confuse our obedience to our Lord | 1:15:46 | |
with our loyalty to country. | 1:15:50 | |
In these troubled times, | 1:15:54 | |
may we not sacrifice the needs of the infirmed and the poor | 1:15:57 | |
for the sake of social and economic advantage. | 1:16:02 | |
In these confused times, | 1:16:08 | |
may we cease the insanity of capital murder | 1:16:10 | |
under the guise of just punishment | 1:16:14 | |
and a search for social stability. | 1:16:17 | |
In these frightening times, | 1:16:22 | |
may we escape the terror of passion and brutality. | 1:16:26 | |
Pray especially for frightened children | 1:16:32 | |
and bereaved parents in Atlanta, Georgia. | 1:16:35 | |
Pray especially for the growing company of hostages | 1:16:41 | |
who are the senseless victims of arrogance and extremism. | 1:16:46 | |
Pray especially for the masses of El Salvador, | 1:16:53 | |
caught between oppressions, | 1:16:58 | |
and longing only for life and peace. | 1:17:01 | |
Let us pray for this university | 1:17:09 | |
that she may teach the truth | 1:17:13 | |
and that she may be the true and faithful steward | 1:17:17 | |
to that one Spirit who is the way, | 1:17:21 | |
the truth, and the life. | 1:17:25 | |
Let us pray the prayer that our Lord has taught us to pray. | 1:17:32 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, | 1:17:37 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 1:17:39 | |
Thy kingdom come, | 1:17:42 | |
thy will be done, | 1:17:43 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 1:17:45 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 1:17:48 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 1:17:51 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 1:17:53 | |
And lead us not into temptation | 1:17:58 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 1:18:00 | |
For thine is the kingdom | 1:18:03 | |
and the power and the glory, forever. | 1:18:04 | |
Amen. | 1:18:09 | |
(somber bell music) | 1:18:20 | |
(paper rustling) | 1:21:51 | |
(bright bell music) | 1:22:09 | |
(grand organ music) | 1:23:52 | |
Oh, Lord our God, | 1:25:01 | |
receive our praises and prayers | 1:25:03 | |
and these, our offerings, which we present before thee. | 1:25:06 | |
And with them, ourselves, our souls and our bodies, | 1:25:10 | |
a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to thee | 1:25:16 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 1:25:21 | |
Amen. | 1:25:24 | |
(grand organ music) | 1:25:27 | |
(choir faintly singing) | 1:26:07 | |
(grand organ music) | ||
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, | 1:29:37 | |
keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love | 1:29:42 | |
of Christ Jesus. | 1:29:45 | |
And the blessing of God Almighty, | 1:29:49 | |
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be among you | 1:29:52 | |
and remain with you always. | 1:29:57 | |
Amen. | 1:30:03 | |
(joyful organ music) | 1:30:06 | |
(joyful bell music) | 1:33:29 | |
(congregation applauding) | 1:35:34 | |
(muffled speaking) | 1:35:43 |