"Scandalized Whacking" March 19, 2017

Exodus 17:1-7 John 4:5-42 Two years ago on Easter, I arrived at the Church early, to prepare before the 6:30am Sunrise, and when I went to unlock the doors, there was a man sleeping against the door. I awoke this young man with shoulder length brown hair and a beard and invited him to come in where it was warm and dry. He brought in his sleeping bag. I asked if he needed food or a hotel, he said “No, just a place to rest from the world, and maybe your blessing” I made him a cup of coffee and rushed off to the Gazebo. But that experience changed me. We do not need to fear strangers, they may not be looking for a great deal, maybe not even all that we have to offer, just a blessing and a place away from the world. So Tuesday and Wednesday, when the Winter storms came, I intentionally left the Church unlocked. Yet, throughout, I received texts and calls from others saying “I found the church unlocked, so locked it up. Is everything all right?” Lent is not the time after Christmas and before Easter, when nights are longer than days, and bitter winds blow: that is winter. Lent is the season of 40 nights and days (not counting Sundays) for repentance and self-revelation. Nostalgically perhaps, there was a time of Community Support, Negotiation and Compromise between people who disagreed. However, times changed, conflict escalated, with every Tribe, Nation and Political Party believing they could teach others. This escalated further, into each wanting to Win, in the 1980s the phrase was coined “Road-rage,” when people were so bent on competition, that they had to get ahead at all costs to others. Over the last 30 years, our distrusts of one another have escalated, to where what matters is not winning, but making certain others lose. Ironically, when we disagree, whenever there is conflict, all we need do to escalate the conflict is to match one another, making them back down or raise. YET to lower the tension between us, we simply need to try to not beat the other, to recognize that being part of something together, living in relationship is more vital than winning, or causing them to lose. All we ever need do is to forgive, which is not about giving-in to the other but changing how we claim the other. Bottom-line, there are two ways to live life, unexamined, going from circumstance to circumstance never learning, making mistakes again and again, always in a state of dependence, as the Slaves to the Egyptians, and lost for 40 years in the Wilderness of Tzin; as the Samaritan Woman, going from her father’s house to each of her husbands in succession; OR whether to Stop as a Sabbath, and re-examine living life differently, in Covenant faith, trying to trust, revealing to ourselves who we are. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob over time had become slaves of Egypt. They prayed and cried out to God, and miraculously God heard their prayers! Through Moses, God brought a series of 10 Plagues upon Egypt! God blotted out the Sun, turned the Nile River to Blood, rained down hail and lightning, finally killing the first born child of every Egyptian family right up through the Pharaoh, but passing over the Hebrews. Although pursued by Pharaoh’s Military in Chariots, they were miraculously protected by God, led by a pillar of fire, hidden by a column of smoke! Trapped with their backs to the Red Sea, God miraculously parted the waters of chaos and drowned Pharaoh’s Army and horses. In the Wilderness the only water was brackish, unfit to drink, and God miraculously gave Moses the strength to pull a tree out of the ground and throw it into the water, which caused the water to be cleansed pure! The Hebrew people who left Egypt were over 2,000,000 and they were hungry, and miraculously God gave enough Quail for them to eat. Then daily gave them Manna in the wilderness to sustain their lives. The Hebrews encountered Canaanite armies, and miraculously whenever Moses lifted his arms to Heaven, the Hebrews were victorious, but when Moses lowered his arms from fatigue and weariness, the Hebrews failed. Would you be convinced of the reality of faith, the love of God for you, the power of God, by a miracle? How many times, how many miracles would it take for you to be convinced to change? What does it take to believe? The Hebrews were one of the first to have a written language with letters and grammar, as such they loved word-games, nuance in synonyms and homonyms. “The Hebrews moved on by stages” literally means that all 2,000,000 did not break camp at once, but day after day, week after week, they ventured out in groups like wagon trains of 100 people. “TZIN” is an area of the wilderness north of the Sinai desert and south of the Dead Sea. However, “moving on by stages from the wilderness of Tzin,” paints a picture of stumbling from one bad experience into another, living from crisis to crisis, compounding sin upon sin. Family Therapist David Mace described that “Relationships are not built on shared experience, common goals or genetics, but the Trust of Self-Revelation.” Massah and Meribah is a poignant story of people putting God to the Proof, testing God to see if they could get God to do whatever they desired, when they wanted? Taking the stories of Massah and Meribah together, the first time they were thirsty, God instructed Moses to take his staff and whack the rock for what they needed; but later, the people of faith (because of our doubts it is difficult to refer to us that way), commanded Moses to take his staff and strike the rock when people wanted. The pain of the Scriptures is that we do get what we want when we want, but doing so betrays our trust, breaks covenant with God. Adam and Eve did not die by eating what they desired, when God had told them to exercise their will to restrain desire. They did not die, but they became mortal, knowing death, knowing loss, which in covenant that never experienced before. God provided for the every need of the people in the wilderness, as the people learned to trust God rather than being dependent on Pharaoh. But when people demonstrated their fear and distrust by making Creation obey them to have what they desired when they wanted, God chose to not bring this generation out of the wilderness. It is a scandalous story. A story of the People of Faith not having faith. God’s people did not trust God. The faithful did not believe and broke Covenant with God by hacking at the Rock of their salvation. Earlier this week, I was visiting with someone who described “A Mixed Marriage” in their family, what she meant was not racial, not cultural, not even between different religions, but marriage of two Christians, one was Lutheran and one Catholic. One of the earliest laws of the Jewish people, prevented their inter-marriage with non-Jews. The Samaritans were Hebrews who when conquered by the Greeks were bred with their victors. Throughout the culture of the Bible, there was nothing approaching equal rights for women or children. The only ones permitted to speak in public were men. This week was St. Patrick’s Day, in Ireland before 1800, the only persons recorded in a Census were men, men who had paid taxes on property; all others were not counted and did not have rights to vote, or authority to speak in the Courts. In the Middle-east at that time, it would have been scandalous for a man and woman who were not married or at the least betrothed to speak alone, far more so to speak in public, and a Rabbi to ask a favor of a Samaritan Woman! Women and children, and those not purely Jewish, were considered unclean; and Water represents Life and Purity, would be a thing no man would not ask of a decent woman, let alone a scandalous one. We have the modern luxury of turning on the tap, whenever we desire, hot or cold water. We can purchase Spring Water, Mountain Water, Skinny At Last Water, we can acquire water from any sink, even refrigerator doors, and we have luxurious indoor plumbing. In our lifetimes, we have known homes without indoor plumbing, and with racially segregated laws about water to drink. This particular Samaritan woman had had a hard life. We have no way of knowing why she had been married so often, why she presently lived with one who was not her husband. Perhaps she had had the horror and loss of burying a succession of five husbands each whom she loved. Then again, given Jewish Levitical laws, she may have had one man as husband, but when he died, her husband’s brother took her into his home to provide for her, then another brother was responsible for her, then a cousin. Like the example given in Luke, to put Jesus to the proof, a woman had one brother after another, and now survived as an indentured servant, or slave. But she was scandalized by the very culture that provided for her in these religious laws. Ordinarily, in South Sudan, and Israel and Samaria alike, the very first chore that a woman does, every woman, every day, is go to fetch buckets of water, while it is still cool out, while the water in the well is undisturbed and clear. The Biblical fact, that at midday, she was fetching water, indicates that she was not allowed by others to get water in the morning Daily she was hacked away by the scandal of others. What she heard Jesus offering in Living Water, is the opportunity to not be scandalized, not be attacked by others every day, but simply to live life. What Jesus means by Living Water is the trust of self-revelation, living in covenant with God. The marvelous part of the Gospel of John, is that before anyone else, anyone else, this woman, this Samaritan, who had had five husbands and lived with a man not her husband, left behind the vessel of daily water, and became the first Evangelist, the first one in the Gospel to go and tell others of the love of God and to bring them to faith. What will it take, how many miracles, before we will let go of our trying to swallow our thirst, when we want, in order to share with others Living Waters?