A) Jesus and the 12 are travelling from Judea in the South back toward Galilee in the

Transcription

1 Hein 1 Text: John 4: 5-42 Sermon Title: In Spirit and Truth Author/Preacher: Intern Pastor Shane Hein Date Preached: March 23, 2014 Location Preached: Resurrection Lutheran Church, Saskatoon A) Jesus and the 12 are travelling from Judea in the South back toward Galilee in the North. To do that, though, they have to go through the territory of Samaria. The Samaritan people are largely despised by the Jews because of their mixed Jewish/Gentile heritage, and their practice of blending the worship of foreign idol-gods with worship of the one true God. Jesus and his disciples grow hungry as they near the city of Sychar, which is within the boundaries of Samaria. Jesus goes to rest by Jacob s well as the disciples go into the city to purchase some food. At the well, Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman and engages her in conversation, which was not something that was popular among the Jews of the day. Jesus asks for a drink of water from the woman, which surprises her as she is well aware of the Jewish attitude toward Samaritans, especially female ones. As they converse, Jesus slowly begins to reveal to her who he really is. He talks about being the source of living water that will permanently quench the thirst of anyone who drinks of it; as opposed to the water that she can offer him to drink from the well, which quenches only physical thirst. The woman begins to realize that she is dealing with more than just another Jew as Jesus recounts to her her own somewhat checkered past. Jesus goes on to reveal to her that the location of where her people had traditionally worshipped God is not nearly as important as they think it is. He says to her that the hour is

2 Hein 2 coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. Rather, the focus of worship must be in spirit and truth. The woman, perhaps reeling a bit in disbelief at what she has heard from Jesus, leaves her water jug behind and returns to her village to tell everyone what she has just heard and seen. The disciples return from their trip to the city with some food, which they offer to Jesus, believing him to be as preoccupied with hunger as they are. Jesus tells them that the only food he is interested in at the moment is the food of doing the work of God, which he has just done with the Samaritan woman. Jesus has them observe what is going on around them. They are in a midst of a group of people in Samaria who need the Gospel, and who are just as worthy to receive it as the disciples themselves are. In the meantime, some Samaritans, having listened to the woman, come to see if Jesus really is who he says he is. After Jesus remained with them for two days, the Samaritans confessed to the woman their belief that Jesus is indeed the awaited Messiah. The story of the Samaritan woman at the well is a detailed and beautiful portrayal of Jesus showing grace to a Samaritan woman; a social outcast in the eyes of the Jews. At the heart of this story, though, is an extremely important revelation from Jesus that is overlooked at times. B) Jesus reveals to the Samaritan woman that worship of God the Father is not dependent on a particular location neither on the mountain where the Samaritans traditionally gathered for worship, nor is it even the Holy City of Jerusalem. Instead, says Jesus, God desires worship in spirit and truth. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Jesus stresses that God is Spirit and cannot be contained in a building, a city, or even in a nation. God is available for worship, praise, thanksgiving, and for hearing her pleas whenever or wherever the Samaritan woman finds herself.

3 Hein 3 Jesus, who has revealed himself to be the truth, frees this woman from the kind of religious legality that demands that God will only hear her from on a mountaintop. Many ordinary citizens, be they Jews or Samaritans, had to work long hours, doing labour intensive tasks in order to provide for themselves and for their families. We can only imagine that taking time off to climb a mountain in order to worship was not a small task. Nevertheless, places of worship are what the people of her time were conditioned to focus their attention on. Jesus reveals the error in this kind of thinking during his visit with the Samaritan woman. Because God is Spirit, he wants her to approach worship by her own spirit; not from her bodily labour, but meeting the Spirit of truth revealed to her by Christ, with her own spirit. C) We today tend to gravitate to the part of the story where Jesus is talking with the social outcast, because we are rightly concerned about social exclusionism in our own time, and this section of the text speaks to it in powerful ways. We also pay attention when Jesus compares the fulfillment of doing God s work of spreading the Gospel message with the satisfaction we get by eating food to ease our hunger, because we are striving to be a missionfocused church. These are tremendously important messages, and because they are, an equally important message for is often skipped over. Like the people of Jesus time, we in the church today have a tendency to place a high priority on our places of worship. Although we Lutheran types do not normally associate worship with a particular geographical location, such as Jerusalem, Rome, or even Wittenberg, Jesus continues to speak to us today in reminder of this revelation. Salvation is not merited through maintaining a structure, or travelling to a certain city to get closer to God. As followers of Christ, we have certainly made tremendous strides in this area; we no longer emphasize having to travel to a certain location so God can hear us better, and therefore gain additional merit for ourselves, but we

4 Hein 4 nevertheless become very attached to objects, such as buildings. Jesus reveals to us what God s desire for worship really is, and from where Grace really comes. There are many beautiful church buildings around the world today; we are very blessed to be worshipping in one of them this morning. And I suspect most, if not all of them, are dedicated to the Glory of God. There is nothing wrong with that. However, God is not as impressed by that as we suppose. And because God s primary interest is not in a building or in a particular location of worship, Jesus draws us away from that. He frees us from the bonds of despair and lament over, for example, the closure of church buildings. Jesus, by his saving Grace, has revealed to us that God s Spirit is present everywhere and anywhere we happen to find ourselves and is therefore available for us to call out to at any time for pleading, for thanksgiving, or for praise. We at Resurrection have embraced, and have committed to putting our trust in Jesus revelation that God will meet us anywhere. And as a result, we have put our full support behind ministries such as the Martensville/Warman Church Plant Project, which at this time does not have a permanent address, but we are empowered by Jesus nevertheless to worship God from wherever we find ourselves. Our worship of God was never meant to be inseparably linked to a particular location, or to a building. And because our worship is not tied to those things, neither is our salvation. Jesus Christ alone died and rose again for the forgiveness of our sins neither a church building, nor a holy city can ever do that for us. Our own work at maintaining our structures, while important in many respects, can easily become the focus of our trust, and then a burden a burden which Jesus frees us from today. D) Even though we have been granted that freedom though, and have begun to embrace it here at Resurrection, it is still difficult for us to let go. We are now living in a time and in a

5 Hein 5 place where church attendance is rapidly declining. When we see empty seats in the sanctuary, our natural desire is to seek to fill them. We fear for the future of our institution. And when our fear overwhelms our trust in Jesus, our motivation for gathering God s people to worship becomes more about numbers, and less about our God-given mandate to make disciples of all nations. It is important that we do not misunderstand what is being said here. Church is an important institution in the life of a Christian. The church building is meant to be the place in which we congregate together regularly for worship, fellowship, and from where we can gather to organize and carry out God s work in the world. Having a set location and regular times of worship assists us in keeping up the habit of communing with God and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is when maintaining the structure and the institution displaces God as the focus of our attention, and when the church displaces Jesus as the means of Grace, that we find ourselves at odds with God. Too much focus on maintaining the structure of the church also distracts us from the work of the church: that is, the call of Jesus to be in communion with all the world, not just with the people within these four walls. E) Jesus calls on us today to trust in him, and in him alone, rather than in our own strength to maintain his church. Jesus challenges us today to trust him as we strive to make disciples of all nations, rather than labouring to fill church sanctuaries. And Jesus comforts us today, when we are frightened and saddened by the closure of a church building, by reminding us that the heart of worship does not come from our human creations, directed to a confined God, but rather from our spirit and from his truth, to the God who is Spirit. Amen.