First time for everything!

I did my very first sermon – on the Samaritan woman at the well from the Gospel of John– my choice of passage – it was lovely to have that freedom! Here's my outline - some of it was vamped, but this was the general structure!


I met my best friend in Grade 5, but we didn’t get to know each other until we were in Grade 10. We had different interests, ……
So that is where I friendship really started. So when we both graduated high school
Went to University …
Were Roommates …
I studied Geo to be a teacher
She, sciences to be a doctor
She graduated – got married – moved to Rochester NY with husband and daughter.

I know when someone describes a friend to me, even if they don’t give a physical description, I get a mental image of that person. And I wonder if that happened for you when I described my best friend. We call images forth in our imagination the way we know them, or how we assume a person to be. Images are often the first way we interact with a person. I wonder how you pictured her – I wonder how many of you pictured her with your skin colour.

In the past couple of years our conversations have been around religion, spirituality, God, experiences with the divine. Our goal is to understand each other – me – a white middle class, Christian, woman working in the corporate world. And her – brown skinned, Pakistani, Muslim, Doctor. Her struggle has been about putting on a Hijab. It is a promise between her and God. It is a covenant and in my Christian lingo, it sounds like a sacrament to me. It is an outward visible sign of an inward invisible grace. And the whole world will look at her differently because of that symbol. Not only will she be a visible minority, but she will be identified with a group of people who are often considered terrorists, she already has long waits at boarder crossings when she comes back to Canada, people have left her harassing notes on her car, telling her to go back home.

To be a Christian doesn’t mean that I have to dress a certain way, in fact often the only visible physical symbol of my faith is the cross around my neck. But even that has become popularized as a fashion accessory, a mere silver trinket. These physical symbols, these assumptions about who we each are, about what we believe in and about what is important to us, have traditionally allowed us pick and choose who doesn’t belong – those whom we are not supposed to associate with. Skin colour, clothing, neighbourhood you live in, car you drive, turban, hijab, or cross. The sad thing that my friend and I have discovered along our journey together is that scripture in any tradition has often been distorted and used to justify these forms of hatred and discrimination.

But that is not what the Koran teaches. That is not what their Prophet teaches. That is not what the Bible teaches. This is not the message of the child of Bethlehem. This is not the teaching of the Rabbi from Nazareth. That is not the love and compassion of the Crucified Christ. That is not the grace of God.

In our Gospel reading today we came across the Samaritan woman at the well. It was noon – the hottest part of the day, and she came to draw water.
Gathering point
Usually morning or evening
She must have done something to make her not come when the rest of the town did.

Her responses are pretty cheeky to Jesus. For it was well known that Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans and vice versa. They believed in different Gods. They had different symbols that identified them. There were stereotypes that haunted their relationships. I love this line: “How is it that you, a Jew ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria” You can almost hear her voice – shamelessly mocking him – for she had nothing to lose by speaking this way. But this little interaction was so contrary to the culture of the day. Not only was Jesus a Jew and the woman a Samarian, but Jesus was a man and she was a woman – the two would have never spoken this way to each other.
Jesus is portrayed as a counter revolutionary. He is taking the social norms, the cultural assumptions and turning them on their head and reaching out to ask the help of this woman.

Wow.

There are many, many stories, and lives and parables and teachings that turn this exclusivity, this I’m right and you’re wrong attitude into the counter cultural revolutionary, all inclusive all encompassing life that Jesus is teaching us to live - today.

Of one being with the father
Through whom all things were made
Not all things Jewish. Not all things Christian. But all things. All beings.
Fat/skinny,
Tall/short
Black/white
Christian/Muslim
Jew/Gentile
Slave/Free
Male/Feamle.

All are one.

All are one.