The First Evangelist -- A Message for February 21, 2024

 

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.^[a])

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

 

 

Let us pray….May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

The First Evangelist

          As a woman, and as a mother of daughters, I have been disappointed over the years because many of the Biblical role models held up as examples of faithfulness for us often happen to be men. When I was a little child, I heard about the marvelous accomplishments and risk-taking of David and Moses and Daniel and Noah.   I learned about the journeys of Abraham and Paul, the strategic leadership of Joseph and Joshua, and the Wisdom of Solomon.  If women were mentioned, they were often secondary – they were there to be support for the men.

          Since I have become an adult and a minister, I have cherished the stories of women in the Bible. In them, I see something that was not emphasized when I was a little girl in Sunday school classes – many of the women written about in our scriptures overcame tremendous obstacles to serve our Lord. The Samaritan woman at the well is one of those women.

          Jesus met the Samaritan woman early in his ministry….Jesus was beginning to become recognized by the Pharisees and by the followers of John the Baptist, but was only beginning to have a larger audience. The Pharisees were starting to be suspicious of Jesus’ activities, and so, Jesus decided to leave Judah and return to Galilee….to put a little space between himself and the religious authorities.  To get there, Jesus and his disciples had to cross the territory of the Samaritans. Although the Samaritans and the Jewish people had common ancestors and related faith-traditions, the groups disagreed about several key faith points, including where to worship God.  When Jesus and the woman talked, we hear the woman refer to this disagreement – she said the Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gerizim and the Jewish people worshipped in Jerusalem.

          Either way, the Samaritans and the Jewish people had long-standing disagreements and did not get along. They avoided each other. Therefore, many of the things that occurred when Jesus met the woman at the well were odd for the sensibilities of first century followers of God.

          When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman, he broke many taboos – First, he was speaking to a woman, in public, who was not his wife, and was not even Jewish. In the 1^st century, most Jewish men would not speak to women in public…they would not even speak to their wives in public... And, yet, Jesus spoke to the woman at the well. He had a conversation with her. He discussed theology with a woman in a time when rabbis ignored women and refrained from having theological conversations with them ….and would avoid both men and women who were not Jewish.

          The second taboo Jesus broke was that he asked to drink from the woman’s bucket of water. Since the woman was Samaritan, the bucked would have been perceived as ritually –unclean by Jewish people. Yet, Jesus asked her for a drink despite breaking the cleanliness laws.

          Jesus knew the woman had been married 5 times. Jesus knew she lived with a man who was not her husband. Jesus knew she was shunned by the other women and was drawing water at midday to avoid them. Yet, the third taboo Jesus broke was to not avoid her when all of the rules of propriety would have led him to do so.

          Jesus broke all the rules, all the taboos, to offer the woman the living water of the Holy Spirit.  This gift of Jesus represents abundant life, eternal salvation and our opportunity to have an intimate relationship with God.  The Holy Spirit satisfies our thirsty souls and motivates us to do the work of God in the world.

          The woman’s encounter with Jesus must have been incredibly invigorating and amazing for her. The woman had suffered under the harsh judgment of her neighbors.  And, yet, after her encounter with Jesus, she rushed to tell them about meeting him.

          This woman became the first Christian Evangelist. Her neighbors were astonished by the woman’s description of what Jesus told her.  Even though the woman was an outcast among her people, her words were so convincing that many of her neighbors came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They rushed to meet Jesus themselves and invited Jesus to stay in their town so that they could all learn from him and could also receive the living water of the Holy Spirit.

          One of the problems for people with curious minds is that we don’t always know what happened before we meet the people in our scripture. We wonder about the woman having 5 husbands, but we don’t have answers to how she got into that situation: did her previous husbands die and she had really bad luck? Did the previous husbands divorce her because they were jerks or did she had a disability they couldn’t handle? What was deal with the man she lived with when she met Jesus – was he her brother, or her uncle, or her boyfriend? We will never know the details.

          What we do know, though, is that she was an outcast….despite her status, and despite many taboos against it, Jesus offered the woman the living water of the Holy Spirit. And, once she received Jesus’ invitation, the woman turned around and offered it to countless other people.

          Like the woman at the well, we often doubt ourselves….perhaps we feel ashamed about things we have done in our pasts….perhaps we don’t feel like we have led very holy lives….perhaps other people have said things and done things to us that make us feel unloved, rejected, or unworthy. No matter what it is, no matter who we were, not matter what we have done, Jesus came to earth for us. God loves and forgives us. Jesus gives us the living waters that will keep us from ever being spiritually thirsty again.

          Like the woman at the well, it is our work to tell others about Jesus….to tell others how to receive the living waters that will never allow them to be thirsty again. No matter who we are, or where we are on our life’s journey, we can share the Good News of Jesus with others. We don’t have to be perfect to receive the Holy Spirit’s living waters….we don’t have to have unblemished pasts to receive the Holy Spirit’s living waters….we don’t have to be holy to receive the Holy Sprit’s living waters….we just need to be open to receiving the Good News, embracing it for ourselves, and then be open to sharing it with others. The gift of the Good News is both life-giving to receive and life-giving to share.

Let us do so today and all days. Amen.

God's Loving Paths -- A Message for February 18, 2024

Scripture     Mark 1:9-15

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 

Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 

And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 

and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Jesus Announces the Good News

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray:

Message                  God’s Loving Paths

            Over the next six weeks, we will be immersed in the Christian season of Lent. The name “lent” comes from an old German word for Spring – lenzin. There is a relationship between the old German word and the word “lengthen.” During these 40 days of Lent, it will feel like the days will be “lengthening” as the sun sets later and later and we journey closer to the summer equinox.      Despite the winter weather we are experiencing today, the Lenten season occurs when the weather is gradually warming up and the first hopeful signs of spring are appearing – blooming daffodils and crocuses, budding trees and bushes, birds singing. The earth will warm up and the outdoors will feel a bit more cheerful as we go through the weeks of this season.

 

            Jesus went straight to the wilderness after his baptism. He must have felt a stark change of mood – the baptism was probably the highlight of Jesus’ life. At the baptism, as Jesus was coming out of the water, it seemed like the heavens were torn open and the Holy Spirit poured out of the skies onto and into Jesus. Then, God’s voice rang out announcing Jesus was God’s son, that God loved Jesus, and that God was pleased with Jesus.

            Mark says, “At once the Spirit sent Jesus out into the wilderness.” So, as soon as God said he was pleased with Jesus, Jesus was sent out into the wilderness. Jesus went from the high of the baptismal event to the low of the desert temptation. After God clarified for everyone God’s relationship with Jesus, Jesus was sent into the unknown. God said that God loves Jesus, and then Jesus went off to be alone in the wilderness with the wild animals, the angels and temptations.

            We all have experienced these strange mood-shifting moments in our lives. On the evening I graduated from high school, I went to Denny’s afterwards to have ice cream with my family. I remember running into some friends who were studying at the Denny’s– it was weird to see people who had no idea why I was dressed up and in a good mood – I was riding high on the good vibes of the graduation -- an accomplishment for my young life – and it sort of broke the mood to have to explain to them why I was so smiley.

            Jesus went to the wilderness to prepare for the work he was about to accomplish. He went to pray….to meditate….to prepare. He knew he would face trials. He knew his message would be unpopular in some places. He knew he would always be at risk. And, Jesus probably knew that his life would eventually end in a tragic and brutal manner. So, Jesus went to the wilderness to prepare for the tremendous work ahead of him.

            Our lives are a series of high moments, low moments, and a lot of days that are in-between. We need those in-between days to catch our breath, to relax, and to prepare for both the happy or rough events that will eventually occur. We never know what will pop-up….and it helps to have a full tank of energy and compassion when surprises occur. Our cars won’t drive when our gas tanks are empty. Our bodies and brains can’t handle stressful events well if we are already exhausted when they occur. We need to have those peaceful in-between moments to prepare for the stresses that eventfully crop up.

            Over the 40 days of Lent, we are invited to slow down, say no to invitations, stop checking our email and text messages every few minutes, and breathe. This is our opportunity to rest and recover, to focus on prayer and meditation, and to relax. We need a season to refuel our mental energy tanks so that we are prepared for future stresses. The high and low moments will come, and in this season, we are called to rest and prepare our hearts and minds for whatever they may be.

Amen. 

 

Compassionate Community -- A Message for February 11, 2024

 

Today, it is the final Sunday of the Season of Epiphany – Lent begins this week on Ash Wednesday. Annually it is our tradition that we remember Jesus’s Transfiguration today.  Listen to how Mark records the event unfolding as we read the story of Jesus’ transfiguration from Mark, chapter 9, verses two through nine:

Scripture:    Mark 9:2-9

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 

His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 

And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 

(He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 

They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 

But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Message                  Compassionate Community

            Every winter, the story of the Transfiguration is read and remembered. Despite our annual worship service focused on this story, we still find it to be very weird.  Even Biblical scholars and commentary writers have trouble explaining what happened on the mountain that day.

            For the writer of the book of Mark, the Transfiguration was a turning point in Jesus’s ministry. Before this event, Jesus’s ministry was preaching, teaching, healing, and proclaiming the realm of God on earth as it is in heaven. After the transfiguration, Jesus began the journey that led to his death on the cross.  We hear this in the conversation Jesus had with his followers after he was transfigured…Mark writes: “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” The disciples then had a conversation among themselves about what Jesus meant when he mentioned “rising from the dead.” In the weeks and months leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus told the disciples he was going to rise from the dead….but the Disciples didn’t know what he meant.  They couldn’t hear and accept that Jesus would die….and they couldn’t understand that after that death he would rise again.

          Isn’t it interesting how sometimes, even when we are explicitly told something, we have trouble understanding and believing? If we have our minds made up that something will happen one way, and everyone around us voices concerns and points out flaws in our plan, it is still difficult for us to adjust and shift.  Unfortunately, sometimes we have to experience the failure of our idea or plan  before we accept our thinking was flawed.

          The Disciples were believers. They believed Jesus to be the Messiah. But, they had a lot of ideas about what that meant that were not based on the reality of who Jesus was. They expected the Messiah to lead them in overthrowing the Roman oppressors and to make Israel into the preeminent country in the world – the Jewish people would rule over all others.

          Jesus didn’t come to earth to become a king. Jesus didn’t come to earth to become a politician. Jesus didn’t come to earth to be a general leading an army.

          Jesus came to change the world. Instead of winners and losers, rulers and ruled, the playing field was neutralized. All people are invited to become part of the family of God. All people are invited to follow God, believe in the Good News, and be on the God-team.  As Paul wrote to the Galatian  church, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” There is no longer Protestant or Catholic; American nor Ukrainian nor Russian nor Palestinian nor Israeli; citizen nor immigrant; white person or person of color; for we are all one in Christ Jesus.”

            The Good News of the Transfiguration event is that Jesus came to save us. All of us.  And, despite the disciples who witnessed the majesty and mystery of the Transfiguration not really understanding what they saw on that day, and despite them not understanding how the messiah would act and what the messiah would do, Jesus came to save them, and Jesus came to save us. All of us. We all receive new life in Jesus – Jesus came to save us, to give us new life, and to teach us that we are all the children of God, all of us. As the children of our loving God, we are called to work to make this world more and more the place God created it to be – where we are working towards everyone hearing the Good News of Jesus and everyone having access to life-giving resources. It is our work to spread the Good News of Jesus to everyone and to share the blessings God has bestowed on us with others.

            Sometimes, we struggle to understand things….even things that are happening right before our eyes. The disciples who witnessed the Transfiguration maybe didn’t understand what they saw, or understand what Jesus meant when he said he would rise again, but their lives (and our lives) were and are immensely blessed by their relationship with Jesus and their relationship with God. Let us work to share the Good News with others, and work to help Jesus change the world.

Amen.

Source of Strength -- A Message for February 4, 2024

 

Scripture                 Mark 1: 29-39

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 

Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 

So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 

The whole town gathered at the door, 

and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 

Simon and his companions went to look for him, 

and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 

So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Prayer: 

Message                                          Source of Strength

            When I started seminary, I was 22 years old… Although I was technically an adult, the other adults I was used to being around were also young. When I started attending my seminary classes, most of my classmates seemed very old to me – many of them were in their 40s…..ancient.

 

            Most of my fellow classmates had much more work experience than I had at the time. And, unlike me as a 22 year old, they also had life experience juggling working and parenting and volunteer jobs and caring for older relatives. Some of the things the professors emphasized in their lectures went right over my head…the other students seemed to get their points, but not me. This was particularly true when the professors would talk about the stress that is part of pastoring a congregation and the necessity of self-care. The teachers would talk about how we would need to make our doctor’s appointments and exercise and take vacations and eat healthy and have down time, and I was unimpressed. I didn’t think stress would ever become a problem for me.

 

            And, then, after I graduated from seminary, I was called to be the associate pastor of a UCC church in Berks County. I worked with a lovely senior pastor who had served churches all over Ohio and Indiana and Pennsylvania. He was generous and dedicated and sincere – and he didn’t take any days off. He worked 7-days a week. He had no down time. Sometimes, very occasionally, he took a Saturday off, but that was only if we didn’t have anything happening at the church.

 

            I could tell he was tired. And, his wife made sure I knew she was tired. 

 

            So, I asked their Consistory if I could have a weekly day off work. My question led to a major debate. None of their other pastors had taken a weekly day off work, so why should they allow me to do so? Ministers work for God, and God doesn’t take a day off….so why should the minister. Ugh. The words of my professors danced through my head…I finally understood why they made such a big deal about ministers taking little mental health breaks. 

 

            Fortunately, here at Trinity, I have Monday’s as my protected day off work. In our reading this morning, we read about Jesus’ first very busy days after he began his “public” ministry. Jesus and his friends went to Capernaum and he made his debut at the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He read from the scripture, taught and explained what the scripture meant, and then he healed a man who was filled with an unclean spirit. Afterwards, the word got out that Jesus had the ability to miraculously heal people. So, the people came out of the woodwork, bringing to Jesus everyone in town who needed to be healed. 

 

            Jesus quickly became exhausted. So, he got up early in the morning, snuck away to a solitary place, and rested and prayed. He needed down time….he needed a day of rest.

It is telling that even Jesus needed to take a break. 

 

We all need to take breaks.

 

God established the requirement that we are to take breaks and practice “self-care” right from the beginning. In the first chapter of Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth and the vegetation and the creatures over the course of six days. And, on the seventh day, God rested from all God’s work. “Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” (Genesis 2:3)

 

When God gave Moses the 10 Commandments, the 4th Commandment says: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.”

 

From our creation, God established our need to rest and take a break. Taking breaks are built into the foundational rules of our faith. And, Jesus took time away to rest and meditate and pray and have a break. 

           

But, it is often difficult for us to allow ourselves to rest and pause. Even when we are not “at-work,” many of us are reading our work related emails on our phones and tablets.  Sometimes we are taking work calls in the middle of the night or zooming into video calls at inopportune times. And, even if we are not doing “work” work, many of us fill our hours with chores and classes and word puzzles and video games and binge watching tv shows – even when we are not working, we are busy.

 

Just as God has established a weekly day of rest, God also established an annual season of rest. In a week and a half, we will begin that season. The 40 days of Lent that start on Ash Wednesday are designed to be an interruption, a break into “life-as-normal.” Over the 6 weeks of Lent, we are invited to slow down, to say no to adding things to our calendars, to take a pause on all of the busy-ness. 

 

Instead of all of the busyness and work, over the weeks of Lent, we are called to rest and listen for God. We are called to take time off to pray and meditate on the Word of God. We are called to rest and sleep more and spend more time staring out the windows and checking out God’s creation.

 

Sometimes, it is difficult for us to listen when we are told things for our own good. My long ago professors were telling us to take breaks for our own good. And, God has told us over and over again to take breaks – at creation, in the commandments, in the actions of Jesus, and in the establishment of the season of Lent. Let us keep our ears open to the guidance that tells us to rest and let us do what God commands – give ourselves a break.

            May we do so with love in our hearts. Amen.