"He Told Me Everything I Have Ever Done"

“He Told Me Everything I Have Ever Done”

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

March 23, 2014; Third Sunday in Lent, Year A

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

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(John 4:5-42)  Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The 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.) Jesus 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." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but 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." The 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."

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said 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!" The woman said to him, "Sir, 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." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

Just 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?" Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, `Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, `One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

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Nathaniel Hawthorn’s masterpiece The Scarlet Letter opens with the village gathered at the town scaffold for the punishment of Hester Prynne, a woman who has been found guilty of adultery.  Her sentence:  she must endure three hours of public shaming on the scaffold, and she must wear a scarlet “A” on her dress as an enduring sign of shame.  Her accusers, including the minister of her church Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, demand that she name the father.  Hester refuses.

Hester survives the sentencing and then goes on with her life, living with quiet dignity, raising her child, making a living with her needlework, and wearing her scarlet letter. 

Gradually we learn the identity of the father.  It is Reverend Dimmesdale, who has lived with such guilt and hidden shame that over time it ruins his health.  At the end of the story, knowing he is dying, Dimmesdale climbs upon the scaffold and confesses, dying in Hester’s arms.  Later, there are some who say they saw a stigma upon his chest in the form of a scarlet “A.” 

In the Middle East, women go to the well to draw water in the cool of the morning.  They go together in groups and enjoy each others’ company.  Our gospel story today opens with a solitary woman drawing water from Jacob’s well at noon, the hottest time of the day.  The inference?  She is ostracized.  Shunned in a culture where community, connection, and family are everything. 

The setting is in Samaria.  The scripture says, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.”  That’s putting it mildly.  A Jew was regarded as unclean if a Samaritan’s shadow crossed him.

Two other cultural notes.  In the Middle East, it is unacceptable for an adult man to speak to an adult woman who is not a member of his own family.  And further, to ask another person for a drink of water has a deeper meaning in the Middle East.  It is a coded message.  To ask for a drink of water is to extend an offer of friendship.  If the person addressed does not wish to accept the offer to share friendship, they will point to the jar or bottle and say, “Help yourself.”  If they wish to accept friendship, they will pour the water themselves.[i]

So, it is noon, and a weary Jewish traveler stops at Jacob’s well to rest.  He speaks (horrors!) to the lone Samaritan woman.  “Give me a drink.”  An offer of friendship.  The woman is stupefied.  “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”  Such an offer crosses unimaginable barriers. 

Then Jesus offers her even more.  Not just water, or even friendship.  But “living water… gushing up to eternal life.”  His offer touches some deep aching need in her heart.  “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water,” a daily reminder of her outcast status.

“Go, call your husband, and come back.”  I think at this point the woman caught her breath and paused.  Jesus has touched her shame.  Her past, and maybe her past history with men, is probably the reason for her exile.  Jesus has hit a painful note.

The woman now has a choice.  She can retreat into her protective shell.  She can cut off this unorthodox conversation, get her water and go back to her familiar life.  Or she can risk.  She can risk emotional honesty.  She can be vulnerable and tell him the truth. 

TED Talk star Brené Brown says, “Choosing authenticity means cultivating the courage to be emotionally honest, to set boundaries, and to allow ourselves to be vulnerable.”  She says “we are all made of strength and struggle,” so we can be compassionate to one another.  We are all “connected to each other through a loving and resilient human spirit.”  Brené Brown asserts that “nurturing the connection and sense of belonging… can only happen when we let go of what we are supposed to be and embrace who we are.”[ii]

“I have no husband,” the Samaritan woman says to Jesus in courageous, vulnerable honesty.  “You are right,” replies Jesus.  “…for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.  What you have said is true!”

How will this woman react to this vulnerable knowing?

Listen again to Brené Brown.  “Authenticity demands wholehearted living and loving – even when it’s hard, even when we’re wrestling with the shame and fear of not being good enough, and especially when the joy is so intense that we’re afraid to let ourselves feel it.”

I believe the Samaritan woman felt a certain joy.  She knew herself as being known.  Yes, exposed as not good enough.  But there was something in the manner of the knowing that touched a possibility of joy she had never known.  This man could be different from the other men in her life.  Would her fear shut her down, or could she risk wholehearted living and loving even while wresting with her shame?

She risks joy.  “Sir,” she speaks.  “I see that you are a prophet.”  And she opens up the conversation.  What a conversation it is!  She speaks of her people and their deepest hopes.  Jesus speaks and gives her hope.  The joy expands in her.  She finally wonders, “Could this be?  Could this be Messiah?”  “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

I imagine she barely took notice of the disciples who then arrived at this astonishing scene.  She was so excited she didn’t even notice the left-behind water jar she so laboriously had carried every day at noon.  Instead she hurries back to the village, the place where she was shunned, and she dares to speak.  “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!”  She knows she risks ridicule.  She risks stoning as an outcast.  Yet she claims her voice. And a miracle happens.  Many of the people of the city believe her words.  Then a second miracle.  Samaritans invite a Jewish teacher to stay with them.  And they come to know the Savior of the world.  A shamed woman becomes a missionary of truth.

I opened this sermon with the story of another shamed woman of grace, Hester Prynne and the father of her child, Reverend Dimmesdale.  Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story reminds us that there is public shame and there is private shame.  So I want to close with a reminder of last week’s gospel – maybe a story of private shame – the story of Nicodemus’ visit with Jesus. 

You remember.  A leader of the Pharisees, Nicodemus visited Jesus at night.  He must have been drawn to Jesus by something within him; something must have been eating at him.  But he didn’t have the courage to come in the daylight.  When Jesus told Nicodemus he must be born from above, born anew, born again, Nicodemus didn’t seem to get it.  He leaves, seemingly unenlightened.

But later in John’s gospel, when Jesus is being tried by the authorities, Nicodemus speaks up, reminding them of the rules of a fair trial.  He is shouted down.  Then, after the crucifixion, Nicodemus reappears.  He joins Joseph of Arimathea to claim the body of Jesus and give Jesus a dignified burial.

Rebecca Hass sent me a picture of a statue she saw during the choir’s recent trip to Europe.  It is a sculpture in the church of St. Gervais in Paris.  In the center of the image, Nicodemus is bearing Jesus’ body descending from the cross.  He stands shirtless, proud, serious, strong with an open, knowing intensity in his face.  He bears Christ’s body in the open, now in the light, willing to be seen by any, by all.  No shame; no perplexity; no fear.

Jesus brings living water to the Samaritan woman living in public shame.  Jesus gives new life to Nicodemus carrying his brokenness privately.   Each of them lets go of something old and receives life anew.  As Brené Brown says, “Nurturing the connection and sense of belonging… can only happen when we let go of what we are supposed to be and embrace who we are.”

"He told me everything I have ever done!"

Joy!  

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[i] Thanks again to my friend Paul McCracken and his weekly Lectionary Notes, email for the Third Sunday of Lent, March 23, 2014.  Notes archive at www.jibe-edu.org

[ii] http://brenebrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Authenticity_download-1.pdf

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