No But's About It!

4th Sunday of Lent

John 9:1-41

“You know…that man…the one over there…the one called Jesus”

This is how I imagine the response the newly sighted man gave to his neighbors in the story narrated in John 9:1-41. A bit further in the story, when answering the Pharisees, he calls Jesus a prophet. And by the end of the story, we might even call him a theologian as he steps in to defend Jesus and give glory to God.

The newly sighted man has gone through all the stages in the RCIA process in one episode!

What he has is the kind of sight that can take in the broad view of things. He won’t get caught in arguments that don’t seek true understanding. 

All I know is that I was blind and now I see. 

Let’s work backward from there. 

Let’s presume that such a marvelous happening is a very good thing.

There is a signal, in my language, that I must listen for.
Yes…but.

Yes…but.

When I say YES and then BUT

I really mean NO, BECAUSE

It is a false YES

It is a YES to something I have already stopped listening to
It is a YES that says “just skip to the end and let me tell you why you are so wrong”

It is a YES, that…well, really means NO!

The man says he was blind, and now he sees

Yes…but.

Yes…but was it the Sabbath?

Yes…but are you a sinner?

Yes…but are your parents sinners?

The man born blind has the kind of sight I want

The kind that leads to Glorifying God

No YES…BUT’s  about it

The Joy of Being Someone*

Third Sunday of Lent

John 4: 5-42    

The Woman at the Well

From Morning Prayer service recorded for the St. Stephen's community who are practicing social distancing

(I love this icon because beyond Jesus and the Woman there are the confused disciples in the upper left and the receiving townsfolk in the upper right---it captures better the wholeness of the story)

INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL:

The encounter between Jesus and the Woman at the Well
is by far the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in the entire New Testament

The Gospel of John is very deliberate
we can be sure that this fact is meaningful.

The story of the Woman at the Well is so rich on its own
But adding the context…better to say contrast…with what came just before
adds even more depth and richness

It was last week’s Gospel reading
Nicodemus seeking Jesus
(But today…Jesus seeks the Woman at the Well…there is an aura of divine appointment in the story)
Nicodemus came to Jesus under cover of night
(Jesus meets her in the full light of day)
He is well-known
He is powerful
He is a man…and a Jew
He has a name
She is an outsider…worse she is a hated Samaritan
She is an outcast among her own people
She has no name and no power
He, Nicodemus, doesn’t listen
He comes with his answers
He isn’t open…at least not yet…to the power of the encounter…he leaves confused
She leaves to evangelize to share her Good News

John puts these stories side by side
the contrast helps illuminate the meaning

Encountering Jesus happens in conversation, in dialogue, in listening.
Sometimes it takes the form of prayer and meditation
Sometimes it happens in Worship when we hear the Gospel proclaimed and expounded upon
Such an encounter happens sacramentally in our sharing around the Eucharistic table---(Sacrament with a capital ‘S’)
And we encounter Jesus in the ‘other’ as we allow ourselves to serve humbly in Jesus’ name
We encounter God…God’s beauty…in all of creation

God wants to know us
Jesus came and through the Incarnation, we can know God concretely
We are invited to use all of our senses to experience that presence

And so the three of us are going to read the narrative in parts.
I invite you to put your bulletin down
you can always go back and read it again
but the idea of encounter always involves
person to person contact

Though we aren’t physically together…
Let's pretend that we are
       
Let's do our best to experience an encounter
an encounter between the three of us
all of you
the gospel story itself
And, of course, in the power of the Holy Spirit
an encounter with Jesus

READ THE GOSPEL IN PARTS 

HOMILY 

Homily/Monologue-in-Character:

You just heard it…
Or did you???
Perhaps you’ve just heard
what you have been trained to hear…
Filling in all the gaps in the story
with what you’ve been taught
since you started coloring pictures of me at the well in           Sunday school
Brain-washing that's what it is…Gotta be suspicious when the stories are told by the winners...
the ones allowed to go to school
the ones who can afford quills and ink
         and…parchment

It seems to me that we all need is a good dose of robust Christian imagination!!!

So how about we try real hard to listen as I set a few things straight.

First of all…Why do I go to that well in the scorching heat every day?
Hint: 4 husbands ago I went in the morning with all the other women…that was when I was welcomed in the community…when I wasn’t so isolated
…AND when it was cool and refreshing

But now…I’ll take the scorching heat over having to cross paths with those…those…self-righteous hypocrites!

What’s that? You want to know what happened?
Okay…you asked…Wow…you really want to hear my side.

See…what they saw in me
Was an easy convenient place to heap a ton of lies…
an easy scapegoat

Well…It didn’t take long for me to get the message
…I said “go ahead if that’s what it takes for you to feel good about yourselves…I CAN DO WITHOUT THE LIKES OF YOU!

It was all about this husband thing.
As if I had ANY control at all!
There isn’t some big sex scandal here…
And they know it
But juicy gossip is so very tantalizing!!!
         …addicting really...

The 1^st two…both before I was 18
         …thanks Dad for that arranging!
They divorced me…OF COURSE
         …I have no rights to such action
Why…you ask?
They got a little too impatient when I didn’t conceive right away…Sticking me with that word
         that cursed word:  BARREN!
CRUEL they were…It’s like having a sign around your neck   saying:
CORONOVIRUS---COME AND GET IT!!!

Then Josiah (He was a builder)
Truly such a fine man
The love of my life
Laughter, and music, and joy…
And then the miracle…
I was pregnant.
Joy upon joy!
It is amazing the healing power of pregnancy
What a different time it was around the well then…

……He was working alone on that roof…
Getting a little overtime to help us prepare for the baby
Then came the accident…the roof collapsed

It is hard to speak of it
I was so grief stricken
         …I didn’t even notice the labor pains…
         just a few hours…that’s all.
         She lived just a few hours.
Just long enough for me to behold and adore.

Then the rumors began in earnest
I must be cursed…I get it from 1st-century folks
But NOT you all…you know better than that...don’t you?

Things went from bad to worse
Jeremiah then Philip
It was a blur…such grief…two years of grief and blur …grief and blur

Ever been there?

Then I slowly, slowly began to come back together.
And YES…He’s not my husband
         But he’s a good man…a Greek
         A traveling salesman---comes home twice---three times a year
It works for both of us.
I feel safe…I feel quite free… actually.
I know I don’t look so good on paper
And so I keep to myself…
I’m too tired to fight for a place at the morning well
It’s my life…
I come to the well at noon
It works for me

Well…enough about that aspect of the story
I’ve given it too much ink as it is
but two thousand years of really bad interpretation
I suppose I needed to.

Back to the story:
To put it mildly
I was shocked when this Jesus man talked to me and asked me for a drink…
It just doesn’t happen
Jewish man…Samaritan woman…public place
On so, so many levels…it just doesn’t happen…just wrong

I was a bit sassy,
I’m a little gun shy with men…as you can understand

And…when he started talking all weird and creepy
I was only half listening…

But then……..Lengthy pause……

When He spoke my story…
I knew…This guy is different
but I was so frazzled so confused
So uncomfortable

And he just waited…it was such a comfortable silence
And slowly courage welled up inside me
and I asked him about Worship
about the ONE thing that between Samaritans and Jews
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS
sparks contention and debate and hatred

But this man stayed with me and my question…
He followed my lead…
No sparks, no contention, no debate
Just a revelation
A revelation about worship…and what matters most
…Spirit and Truth and Living Water that wells up to eternal life!!!

And then he put his hands on my face (cup my face tenderly)He did, he touched me, I know it doesn’t say it
But…trust me…he touched me.

My face…He HOLDS it
As a treasure
Do you remember EVER being treasured that way???

And Jesus
Jesus…he revealed himself...his heart...his peace
         and his truth to me...
         He did it then…and will do it every day…
         if I but let him HOLD MY FACE…

It felt like a lifetime
but I'm sure it was just a few moments...

The men returned
They were caught off guard when they saw my face
         in his hands...
         my tears rolling down my cheek...
         they couldn’t hide their disbelief

I didn’t care
HE certainly didn’t care…he didn’t notice!

They couldn’t break the moment…
truth and life...can't break

And so I went…bringing my newfound courage with me
I Called the community
I must have changed
Because…They listened to me…
And because of what I said…they too went in search of him.
They begged him to stay and he did.

…Lengthy pause…

Being seen by Jesus
Really seen
Well…it just makes you someone!
And when you’re someone…really someone
you can’t help but go and tell everyone all about it!!!

And they listen…
no matter what time of day you come to the well!

My friends 

“Living water that gushes up to Eternal Life”
That is surely what everyone is thirsting for!

-----

I received an email from a friend this week
Someone who I shared ministry with years ago

And she signed off the message with
“MAY YOUR LENT TURN YOU INSIDE OUT”

The woman at the well was turned inside out by Jesus
by his tenderness
his compassion
by his ability to see through
         to her tired, wounded, frightened, inside
to see it and love it and free it to come out in the open
He gave her the gift of being a person…a ‘someone’

We are all
each one of us…seen and cherished…and therefore…‘someone’
our faces are beheld and cupped in God’s hands!

 MAY OUR LENT TURN US INSIDE OUT