Meanings
of the Cross: Reconciliation
Sermon preached by the Reverend Patricia Farris
February 27, 2005
Scripture:
Romans 5:1-11 and John 4:5-30, 39-42
Now
into the third rainiest season in recorded LA history, I knew that
no one would want to hear about water this morning. After water pounding,
drizzling, rushing, seeping and flooding for days on end, I knew that
no one would want to hear anything more about water. After witnessing
the extreme power of water to destroy, I knew that everyone was ready
to think about anything but water.
But as a preacher and as the community
of faith, we are confronted this morning whether we like it or not
with one of the most beautiful and transforming stories about water
in the Bible. It’s the story of a woman with the water Jesus
needs to save him from dying of thirst. And it’s the story of
the water he has to save her from the living death of rejection and
sin. The sharing of these waters brings reconciliation and healing.
It’s a story about still another meaning of the cross.
I only read you about half of their
conversation. Do you know that the dialogue between Jesus and this
woman is the longest conversation anywhere in the whole Bible? It
is twice as long as Jesus’ exchange with Nicodemus. That’s
how important the message of this story was to the writer of this
gospel. In John’s Gospel, this woman is the first person to
engage in a serious theological discussion with Jesus and the first
to acknowledge him as the Christ - a woman, a Samaritan. Jesus talks
with her. Jesus takes her seriously. Jesus drinks from her ritually
unclean Samaritan bucket. How amazing is that?
In
last week’s story, we remember, Nicodemus had come to Jesus
at night to learn about being born of water and the Spirit. Today,
we develop that theme further, but the situation could hardly be more
different. It is the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. Instead
of being questioned by a leader of the Jews, a learned Pharisee, Jesus
is here confronted by a marginal, unnamed woman of questionable character.
Not only that, this woman was not even a Jew but a despised Samaritan.
Rather than occurring under cover of darkness, this exchange takes
place in the glaring light of the burning noonday sun. Unlike Nicodemus
who sought Jesus out, there is no apparent intentionality in today’s
encounter: the two just seem to run into each other. There they are,
out in the middle of the desert. There are no crowds around this time,
no disciples; just two at-risk people at an ancient watering hole
- Jesus and the woman at the well.
(continued...)
"Meanings of the Cross: Reconciliation"
Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris, Feb. 27, 2005 John
goes to great lengths to set up a powerful dynamic tension between Jesus
and this Samaritan woman. He wants to make it so clear that there’s
no way we can miss the point. He’s telling us one of the meanings
of the cross. It’s about finding new life in spite of every barrier
humans can construct. It’s about reconciliation.
The disciples have gone off to buy food,
leaving Jesus alone in a dry land. He could have died of thirst. He
finds a well all right, but then has no cup or bucket with which to
draw water and drink.
Again, it seems, God’s angels
are out there in the wilderness ministering to him. There is someone
at the well who can assist him—but it turns out to be just about
the last person on earth Jesus might want to encounter there. It’s
a woman, at a time when Jewish rabbis were not to engage women in conversation
period. Not only that, but this is a divorced woman. A woman with a
shady past some said.
That’s the only way to explain
what she was doing out there that day all alone. Women usually went
to the well in small groups in the cool of the morning. They went together,
friends, neighbors, family. Then as now it was dangerous to be in the
desert all alone. The fact that this woman is out there alone at the
hottest time of the day tells us that she had no friends, no family,
that even her own people had rejected her. This woman needs living water,
the water of love and the water of life.
But, there’s another problem,
another barrier between these two. She was a Samaritan, the enemy and
ritually unclean. At that time, Jews would have avoided traveling through
Samaria but would have instead taken the extra nine hours to go around.
And yet, Jesus seems to have told his disciples to journey right into
enemy territory, in order to be in the place he needed to be that day.
So what happens between these two is
truly astonishing. It is nothing short of miraculous. These two strangers,
these two enemies, these two whose worlds should never have connected—these
two discover that they need each other.
Jesus seems to know everything about
the woman’s life. He speaks truth to her, and in that honesty
and grace offers her living water. She needed the fresh, living water
that only he could provide, to find healing and wholeness and a whole
new life. Jesus needed fresh water to drink to stay alive, water she
could draw from the well in her bucket. At the well, we see that the
Jewish Jesus and the Samaritan woman need each other to live. At the
well, these two enemies connect in order for life to continue. At the
well, these two discover how new life can spring forth. Reconciliation
makes new life possible.
The
hope that is found in reconciling the differences that divide us from
one another in this
(continued...)
"Meanings
of the Cross: Reconciliation" Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris,
Feb. 27, 2005
world,
indeed from our own deepest humanity, is a powerful and life-giving
message for our time.
Last
week, I finally saw the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” the true
story of that country’s descent into horrendous genocide and
abandonment by the world community. I want to thank Ben Ing who worked
on post-production for bringing it to my attention and who encouraged
me to see it. The teacher in me would like to make it a requirement
for everyone living in this country. It’s probably better just
to say that it’s a fine film, the acting is strong and I hope
it wins some kind of award tonight so that more people will decide
to go and see it. It tells a story we all need to know, a painful
story, but a true story, about what happens when people convince themselves
that other people are so different that they can be disposed of or
written off. There are the Hutus and Tutusis, two cultural groups,
both Rwandan and both Christian. This is the story of how, in 1994,
jealousy and hatred could propel Hutus to kill nearly a million Tutsis.
It’s the story of the indifference of the rest of the world
that could look away and let it happen and not intervene, not care.
These truths about us need to be exposed
to the light of day and examined. We need to repent. We need living
water to bring healing and forgiveness and new life. But the movie
shows us as well that love and loyalty make a difference in this world.
We see that Hutus and Tutsis who loved each other as family and as
friends could transcend the spiraling violence around them and refuse
its ugly power. We see that blacks and whites, Africans and Westerners,
can stand together for what is good and right in this world. We see
that in holding fast to our common humanity, barriers can be overcome.
Reconciliation and new life can occur.
The story of Jesus and the woman at
the well shows us this very barrier-breaking power of love at the
heart of the cross.
We know that we can live for awhile
without water, but not for long. We know that we can live for awhile
without love, but not for long. We know that the world can exist for
awhile with people boxed into various opposing camps, but not for
long. Without water, without love, without mutual respect and relationship,
without reconciliation, we will die.
But Christ calls us to new life. Christ
offers us the living waters that flow from the grace of God. Christ
pulls us into reconciliation with everything from which we have been
separated.
At
the heart of the cross, is reconciliation. Its horizontal beams connect
us to one another across all barriers of race and culture, language
and gender, custom and nationality. The horizontal beam of the cross
makes us one with one another in such a strong and powerful way that
we cannot deny our common humanity and our common destiny.
(continued...)
"Meanings
of the Cross: Reconciliation" Sermon by Rev. Patricia Farris,
Feb. 27, 2005
Its
vertical beam connects us to God, to the living source of healing
and salvation. The vertical beam connects us with the suffering and
risen Christ in such a strong and powerful way that we need never
give in to the despair of the world.
In
the cross hate is overcome by love and despair is overcome by hope.
In the cross we are reconciled—we are reconciled to one another
and we are reconciled to God, our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sustainer.
Thanks
be to God.
Notes:
© Patricia Farris, 2005. Permission is given for brief quotation
with attribution. All other rights reserved.
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