Introduction
Every so often I get to know people whose lives are a mess. This isn't to be judgemental, often they tell me their lives are a mess! By a mess I mean that the problems they have are so complex, so integrated with each other that it is like a huge ball of string which has got knotted over and over again so that no matter where you start to untangle, you will get stuck!
Sometimes these messes are financial, most often they are to do with bad relationship following bad relationship. Sometimes they are to do with work, sometimes with faith, often all of these things build upon each other until we are in the heart of a mess with seemingly no way out.
The Woman at the Well
The woman Jesus spoke to in today's reading was in a mess. She seems to have made some rather bad decisions about her love life - to get through five husbands takes some doing - whilst divorce was allowed for Jews and Samaritans, that number of divorces, would, then as now, give rise to some comments. She is also living with someone to whom she is not married - again very unusual in that age.
The fact her life is in a mess is underlined by the fact that she goes to the well in the middle of the day by herself. Water is heavy to carry and the women of a village would probably go together, at the start or the end of the day. They would go together to catch up on the gossip and they would go in the cool of the morning or the evening to make the job easier. Also, if you consult Biblical commentaries it seems that the well was about a mile out of the nearest village.
This woman's life is so messy that the other women don't want to be seen with her. She has to go out when everyone else will be dosing in the heat of the day, and she has to go to a well further away.
No doubt the local religious people and the local religious leaders would have shunned her. Yet Jesus doesn't. Jesus asks her for a drink and gets talking to her. Jewish men in that era didn't talk to women by themselves. Jews of that era did not talk to Samaritans who didn't worship God in the proper way and whose racial ancestry made them beyond the pale for good Jewish people.
So we have Jesus talking to a woman whose lifestyle mean she was an outsider, who the "good" people of her village wouldn't associate with her and whom religious people would have condemned.
What does Jesus do? Does he pile on the condemnation? Does he tell her to get her life sorted? No, he engages her in conversation and starts to work on her deepest needs.
Yearning Within
Jesus manages to see past the mess of the woman's life and to see her inner yearning for spirituality and meaning.
We know lots of "women at the well" and lots of "men at the well". People who are yearning for meaning, yearning for faith, but who make bad choice after bad choice with their lives. We know people who time and time again choose partners who are bad for them; one of my closest friends seems only able to fall in love with men who will treat him badly. If ever he gets to know a guy who is kind, gentle and loving, my friend will love them dearly as friends but feels no romantic connection to that type of person at all.
Sometimes when our self image is low, when we really don't like ourselves, we will get involved with people who will re-enforce that self image. Why should someone else love us if we have problems loving ourselves.
I know people who move home time and time again just to escape the consequences of bad choices they make; normally financial, but often to do with friends and neighbours.
We all know people whose lives are a mess. We all know people whom we need to get along side and follow the example of Jesus with the woman at the well. What did Jesus do? It seems to me from the passage Jesus did three things with the woman once he got into the conversation with her. He called her, he taught her, and he sent her.
Calling
His initial conversation about wanting water gave him a chance to talk about a living water which comes from God which would give lasting satisfaction. She is caught, as Jesus understands her yearning for things that last. He tells her about the mess of her life which confirms to her the insight he has. We have also been called by Jesus. For some of us this calling was dramatic. A whole sequence of events conspired together to bring us into a living relationship with Jesus. For most of us, however, the calling was gentler, quieter, more imperceptible, something we grew up with.
All of us, however, are continually called by Jesus to continue following him. Sometimes we think our response to this call is a once and for all event. We are called to start the journey but, it seems to me, that Jesus continues to call us to follow him, especially when we get tired, or when we get too comfortable along the way.
We can get distracted by things around us, by the wonderful things in our lives, by the pain in our lives, by niggles with others which we don't address. It's not for nothing that our membership vows include a commitment to deal directly with others - if we don't then the niggles build up and explode, causing us to turn away from following Jesus.
Teaching
After Jesus had gained the woman's attention he started to teach her. He taught her about true worship which is not dependant upon a certain place, or upon sacrifices of animals. True worship is a matter of the heart, where we worship the God who is spirit, with our own spirits.
Sometimes Christians skip this stage in the evangelism process. We attract people to our churches and then get them involved in ministry before ever really teaching them about what the Christian faith is all about. Jesus did not make this mistake. Sometimes Christians still puzzle about "right" and "wrong" ways to worship. Someone, from a very evangelical tradition it must be said, came here a few weeks ago and smelt the unmistakeable smell of incense. Of course our friends at St Chrysostom's are rather fond of incense and it can take some time for the smoke to clear - of course if you come to worship here you don't really see the smoke clear! Now whether or not you like the smell is largely something to do with personal preference and how you were brought up. I was taken into Catholic churches as soon as I could walk and the smell of incense is as lovely and as natural to me as the smell of bread baking. To others it is strange and heavy. However, our evangelical friend thought that the use of incense was wrong (which I think meant she didn't like it) and it must show that St Chrysostom's weren't true believers (which I think means she is quite arrogant). Not liking something is not the same as saying it is wrong - but Christians often seem not to make this important distinction. I tried to explain to our evangelical friend that biologically there is not much difference between raising one's hands in worship or bending the knee in genuflection, but I don't think she was impressed!
Thorough teaching in the faith helps us to understand difference and diversity. Being taught our faith, through sermons, through other forms of teaching like the daily devotionals, help us know our Bibles better and able to cope with questions and queries thrown at us. It equips us for service and is one of the main tasks of the church.
Sending
Jesus then sent the woman to go about spreading the good news. This is not explicit in his encounter with her but she goes and spreads the message of Jesus among the people in her village. This was risky - going to speak to people who had shunned her took a lot of courage. We to are sent - the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations applies to us too. We do this in many ways, some of them more risky than others.
Philip maintains a website which is one of the best I have ever seen. Many people come onto that website each month and look at our church. Some of those who came here over Europride said that their first contact with our church was via the web.
Those of us who worked on the stall took a few more risks. We risked people's hostility. It was quite amusing to see people coming down the corridor in front of our stall and then turning very sharply when they saw a clerical collar! To go and spread the gospel in our community is about taking risks because of what the Church have said to our people over the years.
Sometimes to go to our community is as risky as that woman at the well going to her community.
Conclusion
The woman at the well had a life which was a mess. Jesus saw past that mess and called her, taught her and sent her. As a church we too come into contact with people who live in a mess. We need to call them, to love them, to teach them, and send them, with us, to our people.
Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.