Eric Dillenbeck

March 23, 2014

Exodus 17:1-7 & John 4:5-42

"Living Waters for Contested Hearts"

Exodus 17:1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ²The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” ³But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” ⁴So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” ⁵The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

John 4:5-29

⁵So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. ⁷A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” ¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” ¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” ¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” ¹⁷The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” ¹⁹The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” ²⁶Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

²⁷Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” ²⁸Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 

The Word of the Lord Thanks be to God

"Living Waters for Contested Hearts”

 On Thursday, Russia's Lower House of Parliament voted to approve a treaty with the Ukraine that includes the annexation of the Black Sea Peninsula of Crimea. On Friday the upper house of the Russian Parliament finalized the treaty, even as the Ukraine was signing a treaty with the European Union.  

The news of this Russian Treaty is somewhat surprising to Ukraine since they don’t remember requesting a treaty with the Russians; they didn't realize they were looking to unload 1/3 of their coastline and access and control of valuable natural gas deposits. This move should not be too surprising since the Russians have been blockading Ukranian troops on their military bases for weeks now. Major economic sanctions have been imposed to try and convince Russia to change its plans.  Meanwhile, as this political play unfolds Ukrainian citizens of every ethnic persuasion live in contested lands…which means they live in the midst of political unrest and in constant threat of violence and war.   

Too many others in the world today know what this is like.  

Venezuelans find their lives disrupted and in peril as violent clashes between government officials and protestors continue to rock the capital city, Caracas. At issue there, access to necessary goods, high inflation and high crime. Government officials blame the protestors; protestors blame corrupt government officials…meanwhile Venezuelan citizens find themselves living in contested lands.  

Rueters is reporting that “South Sudanese rebels and government troops both said they controlled the capital of an oil-producing state on Thursday after days of fighting.  This comes as another attempt to resume peace talks in neighboring Ethiopia fell through,” leaving the South Sudanese living in contested lands.  

Residents of Israel and Palestine are no strangers to what it means to live in Contested lands. The world watches as the two sides struggle to find peace, the world cries as these efforts fail again and again. Walls have been erected to divide the one from the other…those same walls cut off many from important sources of livelihood. Actually, our denomination has called for a boycott on certain items made by Israeli companies in the contested territories.  One of these is the Soda Stream company, specifically because of its use of water from contested lands. Apparently the issue of the water in these contested lands is an age old problem.  You see this well discussed in today’s passage from the Gospel of John was located in contested territory. 

Even though the well was in Samaria, it was recognized as Jacob’s well, the place where he met Rachel and as such was a place of special significance to the Jews. And even though both the Jews and the Samaritans claimed Jacob as a patriarch, through the years the Samaritans had come to feel like 2nd class citizens in their own land. 

You see, for generations the Jews and the Samaritans were at odds over where worship should take place. The Jews claimed Jerusalem was the only acceptable place of worship while the Samaritans claimed Mount Gerizam in the north was the only acceptable place of worship. The power and influence of Jerusalem far surpassed that found in the northern lands so the Samaritans were vilified and denied access to the the Temple. And then came the Babylonian invasion and the destruction of the temple.  When that happened the powerful and important were carried away into exile. Those left behind, largely the Samaritans, were deemed unimportant which reinforced the belief that the samaritans were unworthy. When the Jews returned from exile generations later the old patterns and prejudices began to reassert themselves, but at the time this story was told the Samaritans still had this well. They controlled this important place, this place of life that sustained humans and animals alike.  

Most women from the town of Sychar would come to this well in the mornings when it was still cool to gather their water, to spend time with other women, and to protect one another.  

But not this particular woman…

This woman came to the well by herself at noon.  Through the years, many Biblical Scholars have called this woman a prostitute, but I and many others don’t see any evidence for that in the text. Certainly, it is clear she has had a tough life. She has had 5 husbands…we don’t know why.  Maybe they left her because she couldn't have children…maybe they died…it is most likely that at least one of them died because the man she is with now is not her husband…she could be living with that man because she was dependent on, or be in what’s called a Levirate marriage (where a childless woman is married to her deceased husband’s brother in order to produce an heir.) Someone in that situation was not always technically considered to be married. 

What do we know?  This woman came to the well at noon…this was the authors way of signaling to the readers that she was excluded from the morning fellowship and safety net, this was a woman who understood isolation and uncertainty; a woman who lived on the margins; this was a woman with a contested heart. 

Contested hearts…Contested lands…these are not safe places for strangers…These are not places for people to go poking around… Certainly you would not break EVERY social norm just to ask someone with too many burdens to bear for a favor…Certainly you would not stay longer than absolutely necessary…Most assuredly you would not stay and have the longest conversation you have ever had with someone in a situation like that.  And in that conversation you would, without a doubt, NOT risk creating friction by bringing up old stigmas, and highlighting a person’s brokenness and vulnerability… Certainly any sane person wouldn’t do something like that…certainly Jesus wouldn’t do something like that.

But then again, this is Jesus we are talking about. When he leaves Judea for Galilee he takes a mighty curve.  In verse 4, the text says, “⁴But he had to go through Samaria.”

No he didn’t…the Jews didn’t get along with the Samaritans…they hated each other…there was no reason he HAD to go through Samaria.  He could have avoided it…he could have gone around like everyone else.

When Amy and I moved to Cleveland 5 1/2 years ago we left Atlanta right after Amy finished her last day of work. I had the cars packed and when she got there we piled the three kids, the fish and the dog into the two cars and drove through the night.  As we got close to Cleveland it was about 3:00 AM.  When we checked our GPS route and saw that we were going up 77 to E55 to Kinsman we quickly hit that handy REROUTE button…we didn’t want to brave those contested lands at 3 in the morning.  

But no, Jesus wasn’t about to hit the REROUTE button. He HAD to go through those contested lands…he had to see for himself. But why? What drew him to that well? 

The contested heart of a lonely woman who, I think, represents the distance between all God’s people. Knowing what could happen, Jesus goes to the town of Sychar and waits at the well. As this broken woman approaches he engages her and reveals himself as the Messiah of God, filling her with his light, casting out the shadows in her heart, leaving her with no other option but to rush back into the heart of those contested lands to become the first witness of the Messiah. Jesus enters without fear into the contested areas of life and calls us to follow, inspires us to run out and share the news. But following Jesus into contested lands is scary. 

I mean, the disciples were not far behind Jesus and they were asking themselves, “what are we doing here,” they are desperately trying to hit that reroute button…

and when they finally catch up with Jesus they are speechless. Jesus isn’t only talking to a samaritan, he is talking to a Samaritan WOMAN!  And now she’s running off to the town to tell everyone.  It is time to go. It’s about to get real uncomfortable for these disciples…but Jesus doesn’t go. There’s more division that needs to be overcome…there’s more reconciliation that needs to happen…there’s more LIGHT to share in that place.  

We LOVE the idea of sharing the light of Jesus in this world. For many years our tagline was “Fairmount: the Light in the Heights.” We imagined ourselves as a great big lighthouse on a hill, spreading the light of Christ’s welcoming love out into the world, a beacon of hope and peace drawing people into warm welcome of God’s embrace.  

And you know what…we are all of those things.  This community is filled with the light of Christ’s love…I see it everyday. Our worship inspires, our welcome is genuine and palpable…we truly believe and strive to express that God’s love is for ALL people.  Come and join us for you are welcome here. Come and join us and know God is present.  

When we have identified contested lands and contested hearts in our midst we have immersed ourselves in the Living Waters of Jesus’ love and had our own really long conversations that have resulted in witnesses going out to share the good news of the messiah at work in this place.  

Having grown up on coastal SC, I feel like I know a thing or two about lighthouses. First of all they are stationary. That one is kinda obvious, I know…but for us it is an important factor. The other things to consider, the light from a lighthouse only goes SO far.  In fact, a lighthouse will usually cast light no more than 15 miles out to sea and I am being generous there.  This light pulls the ships into safe harbors.

We have always considered ourselves to be more of a lighthouse, drawing folks to us, but as we see in today’s text Jesus shows us that we have to do more.  We are called out into the contested lands…to encounter the contested hearts. And there are many contested lands out there and many contested hearts.  In the Ukraine and Venezuela, in South Sudan and in Israel/Palestine, in La Romana and on Kinsman, in Chagrin Falls and Pepper Pike, in East Cleveland and in Cleveland Heights.  There are many contested lands and hearts just beyond our horizons.  And we can’t hit reroute.  

Which means we need to turn our lighthouse into a Lighthouse Ship.  Otis Moss III just introduced me to the idea of a lighthouse ship.  I had never heard of these things before. You see a Lighthouse Ship is a SHIP that takes the light out onto the seas.  These ships were designed to withstand over 100 MPH winds and their light was designed to go beyond the horizon so that ships in peril can find their way home. Lighthouse ships are mobile...they can go where there is trouble; they can provide light beyond the horizon, past the places we allow ourselves to see. On his way to Galilee so long ago, Jesus boarded his Lighthouse Ship to cross the contested areas where "good people" wouldn’t usually go. And in that place Jesus’ light shined bright allowing so many to find their way home.  

Our light shines bright in this place, but it only hits the horizon.  You are called to carry this light out into the contested places; to offer the Living Waters of grace, peace and love to all who need to hear it. Jesus calls YOU out past the horizon so that others may know the Messiah has come near.  

Amen and Amen.