GENESIS II: HOMOPOLAR, GOD DAMN IT! HOMOPOLAR!: CLAIRMONT PRESBYTERIAN: YOU ARE SOMEBODY?

In the Psalms we read

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord."

“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;

worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

We believe that

Christ calls us to usher in the Kingdom of God

1st(?)in the world,

2nd(?)in our community,

3(?)in our hearts.

And as we go,

we find hope in Jesus’ vision for this world:

“I am making everything new!”

Is God Personal Enough?

John 4

5/4/2014 from Clairmont Presbyterian on Vimeo.

John 4 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you[c] say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 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. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 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.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he,[d] the one who is speaking to you.”

27 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?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah,[e] can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.

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39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 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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We continue in our series called “Can I Get a Witness?” looking at people who met Jesus and the difference that He made in their lives. Jesus made such a great difference that they introduced other people to Him. Last week we looked at Paul’s witness in the great city of Athens. He made intellectual, philosophical, contextual arguments to introduce them to the unknown God ‘s who had created all things. This week’s witness is a different kind.

The woman at the well comes out of nowhere in her encounter with Jesus. She was undertaking the mundane, everyday task of taking her pitcher to the community well to draw water. And there it was that she came face to face with the man who would change her life for the better. She became a witness. To this point, the story of her life had been pretty bleak. She had heard about a Messiah to come but knew that whoever this Messiah was coming for, it wouldn’t be her. She even starts by putting up the reasons why Jesus should not speak to her. Her question in verse 9. Jesus had asked her for a drink of water and her reply was “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” Now here is where it is important to know something about the context in which Jesus lived. Women were second (maybe third) class citizens. They did not have property rights and other basic elements of dignity in that society. They were essentially the possession of whatever man they married. Men thought it beneath them to talk to a woman as evidenced even by the disciples own words in verse 27. “They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman.” But take note- just as an aside- at the rest of verse 27… “but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?”

Finally for this woman there was this matter of the brokenness of her life. 5 husbands? Living with yet another man who was not her husband? It is a mark of the brokenness of our world that our relationships are so broken as well. But note the posture that Jesus takes while acknowledging that having five husbands and living with a sixth is not good...Jesus does not condemn or judge or look down on her. Jesus befriends her. She had three full layers of why Jesus should not speak with her- even as a man, much less the son of God.

Jesus spoke a word of prophecy into this woman’s life that exposed what she thought was hidden from Him. He knew exactly what her history was and what her current situation was as well. Imagine her surprise then when Jesus reveals that He indeed is the Messiah! “I am He.” This man at the well who spoke with her and befriended her event though she was a Samaritan...even though she was a woman...even though she was of questionable reputation. He knew it all and still reached out to her as a person. He told her that she was somebody.

How was she supposed to respond to such an act of love? The literal translation of the Greek here is that “She freaked out.” She even left her water jug. And she started telling others about Jesus. “He told me everything I have ever done!” He knows everything...all of it.

Starting in verse 39 we begin to see the village coming out to the well to meet Jesus… and JOhn tells us that many Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman’s story. “ He told me everything I had ever done!” Finally in verse 42 the villagers confess to the woman that they no longer believe just because of what she said. “

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.”

~(embellishment)~

em·bel·lish

emˈbeliSH

verb

verb: embellish; 3rd person present: embellishes; past tense: embellished; past participle: embellished; gerund or present participle: embellishing

make (something) more attractive by the addition of decorative details or features.

"blue silk embellished with golden embroidery"

synonyms:

decorate, adorn, ornament;

beautify, enhance, grace;

trim, garnish, gild;

deck, bedeck, festoon, emblazon;

informaltart up, pimp;

literarybejewel, bedizen

"weapons embellished with precious metal"

make (a statement or story) more interesting or entertaining by adding extra details, especially ones that are not true.

"she had real difficulty telling the truth because she liked to embellish things"

synonyms: elaborate, embroider, expand on, exaggerate More

"the legend was embellished in later retellings"

What a witness this woman provided! What an impact her witness had on an entire village! Her message and method were dramatically different than those of the Apostle Paul in Athens but the impact was immense in the lives of the people in her village. She told them that the Messiah was personal. He knows everything! And that is the surprising good word for us today as well. He knows everything about me! Not all of us can come with the philosophical nuanced witness that Paul gave, but any of of who have met the Lord at some point came to the stunning realization that “He knows everything about me!” It is a strange moment of terror and relief isn’t it? When you realize that the jig is up? Ever since the garden of Eden humans have been trying to hide their business from God. Remember when Adam and Eve sinned what did they do? They hid themselves from God. We do the same thing in our lives. We hide because of our sin but the real question becomes “Who do we think we are hiding from?” Do we think that if we don’t confess our sin that God just won’t know about it? It is the Good News when we realize that He does know everything and that He really loves us. The real, authentic, messy, imperfect us.

Maybe for some of us today that is the Gospel message that we have never heard before...or never experienced before in our own lives. Let me speak those words of the woman’s witness clearly “He knows all of my stuff and He knows all of yours...and He loves us. He tells us that we are somebody.

Perhaps the revelation today is different for you. Perhaps you have known of God’s personal, authentic love for years. The question for you this morning might well be what will you do with that? For too long and too often the Presbyterian church especially has not followed the example of faith set out by this woman. The picture is more like we met Jesus, He told us that he knew everything about us and we went home and ate dinner and said our prayers. Good prayers. Nice prayers. Theological prayers with big fancy words. Heartfelt prayers.

But it is a sad reality to acknowledge that we have met the savior of the world and He has shown us personal love as God’s children… He has made us to be somebody… and we have simply gone home. While the Savior is available...while we know where He is… we don’t tell anyone. We don’t bring anyone to meet Him as well. Why can’t we be more like this woman? Did she have all the answers? No. Was her theology perfect? No. Had she resolved her home situation? No. But here’s the thing...at that moment when Jesus told her everything and revealed that He indeed was the Lord, she felt compelled to share it because other people needed to hear it too. And how wonderful is it to comprehend that this woman’s witness was vastly more effective than that of the 12 disciples.

Will you follow the example of a woman from long ago and share the Good News with someone else that Jesus makes us somebody?

POST SCRIPT

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In the Psalms we read

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord."

To be invited(?)by the Holy Spirit into worship is(?)an amazing privilege.
Keeping that in mind,
we(?)seek to honor(?)God
with
our lips, our hearts, our minds,

our(?)talents and our(?)tithe.

Then there is the question of our trees...?

As opposed to the humankind who alternates between breathing in oxygen and exhaling as carbon dioxide, our trees are absorbing the carbon dioxide while releasing back into the air at the same time, the oxygen all animal life needs to live.

Isn't this still considered breathing also?