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Hespeler, March 19, 2023 © Scott McAndless – Fourth Sunday in Lent
1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 23, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41

The question that is asked at the beginning of our reading this morning from the Gospel of John is, in many ways, the oldest and most fundamental question of humankind.

Jesus and his disciples are walking along one day when the disciples notice a man by the side of the road. He is begging because he is blind and has been from birth. And so the disciples ask what, to them, seems to be a natural question: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Full of Assumptions

And that is a question that is simply overflowing with unspoken assumptions. And these are not just assumptions about the man himself or about his family. These are assumptions about the moral and ethical nature of the universe itself.

The question just takes it for granted that, if anyone is faced with adversity, whether it be a disability or an illness or some other misfortune, that it must be somebody’s fault. Somebody has to be to blame, probably the person themselves or someone close to them.

They are Oblivious

But the really amazing thing is that the disciples seem to be totally oblivious to the fact that they are making an assumption. They are unaware. You might even say that they are blind to their assumption. They simply ask Jesus a question assuming that he’s going to give one of two answers – either the man himself or his parents.

It never even seems to occur to them for a moment that there could possibly be an answer outside of those two possibilities. That is how deeply ingrained the assumption is; they don’t even know that they’re making it.

But I honestly don’t think that we should be too hard on the disciples for making this assumption. They are not the only ones. Later on in the story, the Pharisees, who are perhaps the most important religious leaders in the local community, make it pretty clear that they are also labouring under the same unconscious assumption. When they are trying to argue with the now former blind man and he actually demonstrates that he is not ignorant and can hold his own in the argument, he makes them look bad. They finally end up shouting in frustration, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?”

When these Assumptions Come out

It is at those very moments when we are really frustrated at our own unexamined shortcomings, that our deepest underlying beliefs and assumptions come out. So it is made clear that the Pharisees have been assuming all along, just like the disciples were, that this guy (or at least his parents) must have done something to make him deserve it.

So, the disciples make the unconscious assumption, the religious leaders make the unconscious assumption, but these are not the only ones. For this is an assumption that runs right through society until this very day. Oh, we often don’t say it. In fact, it has become rather rude to say it out loud, but that doesn’t seem to stop us from making the assumption all the time. If someone has suffered some tragedy or misfortune, we all pretty much assume the same thing. It must be their own fault.

All the Time

It happens all the time to victims of various crimes. You hear a story of someone who has been raped, for example, what are the questions that automatically come to mind? What were they doing there at that place at that time? If she was a woman, what was she wearing? What had she been drinking? What kind of lifestyle had she been living previously? These are all questions that come to mind automatically.

They are also the kind of questions that will be asked of that woman if charges are laid, and she is forced to testify in court. It is almost never said in so many words, but the underlying assumption behind all of those questions is that she must have done something to deserve this terrible thing that happened to her.

The Assumption Behind our Prejudice

It is also the fundamental assumption that lies behind so much racism and other forms of prejudice. When you see some racial group within society that seems to suffer from various problems whether it be endemic poverty, addiction or violence, the default assumption that we tend to fall back on is not that this has been caused by some sort of structural imbalance in society or past history of oppression that is affecting present generations.

No, it is always easier to fall into the assumption that there must be some sort of ethical failure within the community itself – that they don’t want to work hard or that they don’t have good families or whatever it might be. There must be some reason why and it must be their own fault. That is the assumption of the racist and I suspect it is an assumption that every one of us, no matter what our racial background might be, can fall into far too easily.

And, yes, even when we are dealing with people who are suffering from illness or disability, we may make this assumption without even being aware of it. I mean, of course we don’t want to think that it’s somebody’s own fault if they are sick or if they lost their sight or anything like that, but if we can find some sort of cause behind the problem that can somehow be traced back to something that they did, it’s like we relax. It’s like the world suddenly makes sense again.

Why we do it

And I think I know why we do this. We do this because the world is a very scary place. It is a place where bad things often happen for no particular reason – at least not for any reason that we can understand. And when the world doesn’t make sense, which it often doesn’t, we will grasp for any reason that we can find in order to force it to make sense.

And often the easiest reason that we can find is to blame the victims themselves for what it is that they are suffering from. They must have sinned in some way. It must be their own fault. It’s a terrible thought; of course it is. It’s just that at least it seems better than the alternative which is to give in and admit that we live in a universe where something really bad could happen to me or to somebody that I love for no reason at all.

And if I can just take it for granted that that man was born blind because somebody sinned, I can feel safe because I don’t think I have sinned in anyway that might make me deserving of such a fate.

Jesus Doesn’t Share it

So, the blind assumption is very common. But what is particularly notable in this story is that Jesus doesn’t share that assumption. In fact, he takes the assumption and rejects the entire premise behind it. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus replies. He forces his disciples to consider that there might just be something going on in this situation outside of their easy and comfortable assumptions. And with just those few words, Jesus tears apart most of our assumptions about the moral universe.

What if everything that is bad that happens doesn’t have to be somebody’s fault. What if it is actually not at all helpful to waste our energy finding someone to blame or to shame for everything that has gone wrong. In fact, what if our whole approach of finding a reason for why a bad thing happened is completely wrongheaded?

A New Way of Thinking about it

That is exactly where Jesus redirects the disciples’ thoughts. Jesus says, “He was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” And I want to be clear on what Jesus is saying here. He is not proposing an alternate reason for why the bad thing has happened to this man.

I know it’s sometimes taken that way, but Jesus is not saying that it was God’s will that this man be born blind so that Jesus might do an amazing thing by healing him. He is not talking about cause and effect; he is talking about effect and opportunity.

God does not will for anybody to have horrible things happen to them. I believe that such things sadden the heart of God even more than they sadden our hearts.

Where we Need to Spend our Energy

No, instead Jesus is challenging them and all of us to look at such tragedies from a different point of view. As much as we would like to, we may never know why some things happen – not in this life anyways. And that is why we cannot consume ourselves in searching for scapegoats and people to blame.

But, Jesus is saying, in every problem, every tragedy, there is an opportunity for action. There is a possibility of revealing God’s works in this world for good. He is asking us to focus on that possibility instead of focussing on the question of who we can blame.

The Result: Enlightenment

And, of course, the whole remainder of this story is all about what happens when we make that shift. The result is, quite literally, enlightenment. The result is not only that the blind man is made able to see, but also that he is given great insight into who Jesus is – insight that far exceeds the wisdom of the Pharisees who think they are experts about such things.

So, you might say that, with his response to the disciples, Jesus is enlightening all of us about the true moral nature of the universe.

A Message for our Time

There is much in this story that speaks to us where we are in our lives at this time. We seem to be living in a moment, after all, where life is hard. People are struggling, I know that they are. They are having a hard time paying the bills. People are really struggling with difficult emotions and mental health challenges. Others are struggling to find better health.

We are seeing these things in our own lives or in the lives of the people that we love, and we often don’t know how to respond. The easiest response is usually the most ancient one. The easiest response it to ask, “Who sinned that such a thing should happen?” We look for someone to blame.

Blaming the Victims

And it often easiest to blame the victims themselves. If you are the one struggling, how easy it is to blame yourself. “I am too weak.” “I am too lazy.” “I made the wrong choices,” you repeat the litany to yourself. It is also stunningly easy to blame the people you love when they have their own troubles.

I’m not saying that there never are reasons for why people struggle and I’m not saying that they never have anything to do with it themselves. But I would say that those reasons are usually far more complex than our blame and shame reflexes would imply. Even more important, becoming fixated on those reasons, unless you are addressing them in a constructive way, will rarely get you out of the situation.

No, adopt the approach that Jesus takes. Focus instead on where, in this situation, there might be an opportunity for God’s works to be revealed. If you do, you may be amazed at the wonderful new thing that God brings about. Enlightenment in some form will follow!

Our Journey Together

This doesn’t just apply to our personal struggles, but also to where we are in our journey together as a congregation. We are in a moment in the story of this church when we are struggling with how our ways of being church just don’t seem to work like they used to. And we feel as if we are flying blind and don’t quite know what to do to meet our future.

And what is the temptation when we are living through such difficult times? The temptation is to look around to find someone to blame. “Who sinned,” we want to know, “that the church should be brought to such a state.” And we can usually find someone to blame and, oh, it feels so satisfying when we do.

But it doesn’t actually solve anything. The causes are always much more complicated than the simplistic blame we choose to lay. And the cycles of criticism that ensue are rarely, if ever, constructive. I wonder what Jesus would say when we asked who to blame, this person or that person for the struggles we are dealing with in the church?

“Neither,” he would say “but this present challenge has emerged so that God’s works might be revealed in us.” How might such a radical rethinking of the issues transform how we see the challenges before us today?

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Hespeler, March 12, 2023 © Scott McAndless – Lent 3
Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42

Women in the Bible are often interpreted harshly. Take the story of the woman at the well that we read this morning for example. Traditionally, in many sermons, this woman has been described in the most derogatory of terms. She is called as a prostitute or, at least, a loose woman.

Many preachers have pointed to the fact that she comes to the well at noon as an indication that she has been shunned by the other women in the community and so she has apparently waited until everyone else is having their midday siesta before coming. But that is actually not what that means.

No, the fact of the matter is that the Gospel of John is giving us a very particular message through the character of this woman. And it is, I believe, a message we definitely need to hear at this point in our journey. It turns out that this woman is an ideal disciple as far as this Gospel is concerned.

Night and Day

In the previous chapter, John told us the story of another potential disciple that encountered Jesus. In chapter three, it is Nicodemus who comes to Jesus to have a discussion about what it means to become his follower. But does anybody remember at what time of day Nicodemus came to Jesus? He came at night, in the dark. And the purpose behind that seems clear. He was afraid of being seen. He was afraid of declaring his allegiance to Jesus in a public way.

But this woman is the complete opposite. She comes to Jesus at the brightest time of the day. The image of Jesus as the light of the world is a theme that runs through this entire Gospel and this woman, understanding that, comes in the light of day.

She is the First

She is also the first one in the entire gospel to hear Jesus speak of his own divinity when he says, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” Every time Jesus says something like that in this gospel, it is a reference back to what God said to Moses at the burning bush: “I am who I am.”

And, of course, this woman is the first person in the Gospel to become an evangelist in her own right, sharing the good news of what she has learned from Jesus with all the people of her city. She might just be the best disciple of Jesus that we meet in this whole Gospel.

But She is Different

But there is just one thing. She is very different from Jesus. This is something that is highlighted again and again in this story. She is a woman, he is a man. She is a Samaritan, he is a Jew. And we are explicitly reminded that, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.” They also worship in different places and different ways. There are so many things about this woman that would seem to make it impossible for her to become a disciple of Jesus, and yet we see her stepping into that role perfectly.

Our Lenten Journey

And I believe that God has sent us this passage to dwell on today for a very good reason. We are on a special Lenten journey. We are in a time of wilderness wandering, trying to seek the answers to those essential questions that came out of the first part of our journey. We are expecting God to speak to us about these matters. And I do believe that God is speaking to us in this particular passage today.

One of the questions we are asking is this: “How can we be both kind and honest with one another? How can we engage in tough conversations that strengthen our community?” That question, ultimately, is all about how we can become mutual disciples together, despite the significant differences we might have amongst ourselves. It is about recognizing that we can disagree sometimes in all honesty and yet still be kind and actually strengthen one another.

Jesus’ Example

And I think that’s what makes this story of Jesus and the woman at the well so helpful. It’s all about Jesus engaging her, despite their differences, bringing about some pretty spectacular results both in terms of personal growth and the growth of the Christian community. So, let’s take a good look at Jesus’ interaction with this woman. I believe it has a great deal to teach us.

He Seeks her Out

The first thing that I would note that Jesus does is this: he seeks her out. The very fact that Jesus is even in this town where she lives and draws her water is actually kind of remarkable. Jews in Jesus’ day simply did not pass through Samaritan territory. Even though Samaria lay right in the middle, directly between Galilee and Judea, it was the common practice at that time for Jews to go the long way around just to avoid the possibility of having to encounter an actual Samaritan.

But Jesus is there, which means he has intentionally chosen to go that way. And we need to be willing to engage with people who are different that intentionally. The temptation most of the time is to just avoid those who are different from us and spend all of our time just talking to people who already agree with us.

But Jesus seeks her out and he intentionally engages in conversation about the very things that set them apart, not in a mean or insulting way as we might sometimes be tempted to do, and yet in a refreshingly honest way.

The Woman and her “Husbands”

This is something that is often misinterpreted in the story. At one point, Jesus says to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”

And I know how that is usually taken. This is often taken as Jesus criticizing her, perhaps even shaming her, over her past sexual history. I know, that’s always where our minds go. But that really doesn’t make any sense. It’s not as if he’s accusing her of any sort of unsavory relationship. He says that she had five husbands, not five johns. And she takes no offense from what he says either, because she knows that that’s not what it is about.

Jewish View of Samaritans

What Jesus is actually referring to here is a longstanding point of contention between Samaritans and Judeans like himself. You see, the Jews didn’t think that the Samaritans had a proper relationship with God, that is to say they weren’t married to God in the same way that Jews were. That’s what Jesus is referring to when he says that she has no husband.

And when he speaks about the other five husbands she has had, he is referring to a popular belief that the Jews had about Samaritans. You see, according to a passage in the Second Book of Kings (2 Kings 17:30), the real problem that the Samaritans had in their relationship with God was that there were five tribes among them who mixed the worship of Yahweh with the worship of foreign gods.

So Jesus isn’t talking personally about this woman and who she has slept with. He is talking about what the Jewish people accused the Samaritan people as a whole of doing wrong in their worship.

She Replied in Kind

And she understands exactly what he is talking about. She doesn’t react as if he had just made some sort of judgement on her sex life. Not at all! She understands that they are in a discussion about how to properly worship the God of Israel and so she responds with her own challenge about such matters. “Sir,” she says, “I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”

So really, between the two of them, they have just managed to raise two of the most contentious points of disagreement between their two peoples.

And the whole question of the Samaritans worshiping on “this mountain,” that is to say Mount Garizim in Samaria, was a particularly sore point for the Samaritans. You see, they had had a temple there right up until the time that the Judeans came and destroyed it about a century before the time of Jesus. They still continued to worship in the same place, and you can bet that they resented Jewish interference in their religion every time they did.

Engaging Openly and Honestly

But there is a lesson in this about how we can enter into a constructive faith relationship with people who are different from us. All too often, it is tempting for us to just avoid the difficult and potentially uncomfortable conversations about how we are different. And, as a result, we retreat into talking about safe subjects where we do not risk disagreement.

But it is when we step out in faith and take that risk in conversation with someone else that we encounter the greatest possibility of personal growth as well as the growth of the church, as we see in this story.

Finding the Greater Truth

But also notice the perspective that Jesus brings to this potential disagreement between the two of them. Now that they have both acknowledged that their people have radically different approaches to the worship of the God of Israel, Jesus goes on to say, “But 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.”

So, what is he doing there? He is acknowledging the differences in approach and practice of worship. He does not seek to minimize them or dismiss them. And yet, he encourages them both to look beyond those surface differences and recognize that there is a greater and far more transcendent truth to which they can both reach despite their differences: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

How it Applies to us

It will always be true that the people we encounter will have different approaches, different ways of thinking, different ways of being. We should not be afraid of that. We must engage them in openness and honesty valuing that difference because it is something that will enrich both of us.

And at the same time, we need to remain open to embracing the greater truth that goes beyond those differences. In doing that, we can find a unity of spirit that is able to transcend whatever differences we may struggle with. That is what Jesus finds with this woman and that is what we can find with those who are different from us.

The Water Imagery

There’s one particular image that runs through this entire encounter between Jesus and the woman by the well, and that is the image of water. She comes to draw water for herself, Jesus asks her to draw some for him as well. And then Jesus makes an incredible offer of a different kind of water to 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.”

And this image of living water is very clearly an image of someone who has been perfectly united with Christ to the point that new life wells up within her. And there is something in this story that indicates that this woman accepts this incredible gift from Jesus.

She Left her Jar

It’s a little point that is often missed but it is really important. It comes after Jesus makes this offer of living water, after their disagreement over proper worship and after Jesus has called her to embrace the higher truth that God is spirit. After that, the gospel writer tells us this: “Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.”

Now why would she do that, why would she leave her jar? There is only one explanation that makes sense. She has believed what Jesus has told her; she has accepted the gift of living water that will flow up from within her. What need has she for a water jar anymore? This is the symbolic way in which the gospel writer tells us that she has become a perfect disciple.

The Results

And what happens as a result of that? Something quite extraordinary. The entire population of the city, it seems, is brought to faith in Jesus along with her. We’re talking about extraordinary growth of faith in Christ.

That is the power of actually engaging someone who is different from us. We are both able to grow in the process when we open our hearts to truly listen and speak to someone who is different.

But the most surprising result of all is enormous growth, growth that may come in various forms. It doesn’t always mean numerical growth for the church, of course, but growth is inevitable. And so, though it may be hard to engage with people who are different from us, though it may feel uncomfortable at times, it is always going to be worth it.

So let us take the example given to us by Jesus himself and of this woman who left her water jar behind. Let’s expect the great things that will come from learning how to talk about how we are different and finding richness in that diversity.

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