Reflections on Exodus 17 & John 4
“Is the Lord with us or not?” How common a question is this?
In the story from the book of
Exodus we are told this is what the people of Israel were asking, “Is the Lord
with us or not?” At the first sign of
trouble in many of our lives this is one of the first questions that slip from
our lips as if we have been abandoned to some terrible fate that others
excluded from. Sometimes it is expressed
differently in the words, “What have I done to deserve this?”
Of course, the reality is that
people everywhere, those of great faith and those of none, face various trials
in their life, or as Jesus puts it God, “makes his sun rise on the evil and on
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”
Trying to make a connection between
these trials of life and God’s actions is a complex and mysterious matrix to
traverse, to the point at which many in our so called enlightened western
community prefer to ask the question, “Is there a Lord or not?”
The source of such questions
is based on whatever our personal understanding of God is. Do we believe in a god who micro manages our
lives; opening doors for us; providing opportunities; or’ trials and tests as
if all according to God’s plan? Or, do we believe that the world is independent
of God’s action, and that we have freedom in our decisions, and there is a
certain ordered randomness of the natural events which occur around us?
Maybe it is we because we ask
such questions of God and ourselves that we find ourselves here this morning,
not because we are people who have discovered the answers, rather because we
are people still searching for answers – in this sense we quarrel with God.
But if we are to listen to
Jesus teaching and to be followers of Jesus there are all sorts of questions
raised by what he says and does.
Consider for a moment the
story of the woman at the well. The
circumstance of her interaction with Jesus suggests she is a woman who might
indeed have some significant questions for God about how her life has
unfolded. Her conversation with Jesus
certainly indicates that this is the case, but her questioning also involves a
desire to listen and to find out more.
Jesus for his part thought
speaks in cryptically symbolic language about living water and he names one of
the key issues of her life:
“You are right in saying, ‘I
have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is
not your husband. What you have said is true!”
There is a danger in
listening for what Jesus might say to any of us, because it is more than likely
he will name some home truths about who we are and what we have done in our
lives, despite the fact we may see ourselves as faithful church attendees.
Jesus constantly had jibes
for those who considered themselves to be the upstanding members of the Jewish
community – the so called holy people of his day: the Scribes and Pharisees. We should be wary of thinking that Jesus’
jibes do not apply to us because consider ourselves holy people.
For example, Jesus raised
serious questions about the distribution of wealth and power and given that
everyone in this room is rich we must hear Jesus words to the rich young man as
particularly confronting “Sell everything you have and give it to the poor.”
Moreover, Jesus preserved his
blessings for those who were poor, those who were hungry, those who were
mourning and those who were in prison.
And Jesus injunction to those
who follow him was that they should go and share the good news in word and deed
teaching others so that the world might come to believe.
The Jesus that many of us
would want to follow is an upright citizen who would not ruffle feathers or
cause us to question our position and place.
However, the Jesus who the woman meets at the well is the same Jesus who
turns over the tables in the temple: he challenges but the religious, economic,
social and political systems of his time.
Put bluntly we have sought to
domestic Jesus so that following him does not cost us too much.
I think that John includes
the questions that are not asked of Jesus and the woman by the disciples
precisely because they were the questions on their minds “What do you want?”
or, “Why are you speaking with her?”
In short the disciples were
offended. Part of the irony of the story
is that it is the woman with whom Jesus has had this chance encounter that goes
off the to share the good news of her experience with Jesus whilst Jesus is
teaching the disciples that this is precisely what they are supposed to be
doing, “see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.”
The Samaritans of Sychar
believe the woman’s story and up the ante proclaiming that Jesus is not only
the Messiah but he is indeed the Saviour of the world. Given the tension between Jews and Samaritans
in Jesus day this is an amazing outcome from the story, one that questions the
very core of the disciple’s beliefs and ideas about their own religion.
Ultimately, the promise of
the woman at the well is that Jesus is with us, Jesus is with unexpected people
in unexpected placed. Or, to go back to
Exodus, the Lord is with us. This is the hope that we cling to despite our
inadequacies as Jesus disciples that God is with us, that God is for us and
that the future which is unfolding is God’s future.
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