Welcome & Opening Prayer

Well, good morning, everyone. We are so delighted to be gathered together today on this third Sunday of Lent. I don't know if time is somehow speeding up. I know we lost an hour last night, but it does feel certainly like life just keeps going faster and faster and faster. And before you know it, we'll be through Lent and in April, celebrating on Easter Sunday.

But part of the goal of those of us who seek to follow the way of Jesus and who seek to be present to the world around us, part of the goal is to do what we are able to slow life down, to slow life down. And so as we come together today in order to hear from the word of the Lord, it is our goal that we would be able to settle into this moment, to be present, to the Holy Spirit that is in us and with us, and to be present to one another, as the Lord calls us in his way.

And so let's pray together. God, would you capture our attention today? Whatever are the things that are going on in our minds and in our lives that might distract us from this moment. We pray that you would separate those things from us, that we might hear your word, and in hearing your word that we might be inspired to live in your ways. For the sake of the world, and for the sake of your name. Amen.

The Kingdom of Heaven Is Already Here

Today, we have the privilege of reading one of my favorite stories in just a few moments. One of my favorite stories in the book of John. But before we get there, we have to unpack it a little bit. At the end of our gatherings, each week, we pray following communion, we pray that the Lord would send us out to be the what? Hearing some of the some of the murmurs there. I think what you said was to be the body of Christ in the world, right? So good job for that. And we pray that we do that until we feast with Jesus at his table of glory forever, right? That is the prayer in which we conclude our gatherings. This for us isn't just a nice prayer to pray. It is actually the anchor of our gatherings. It is that which cements us into the kingdom of heaven, both in this moment, and for the week that we are about to live. And so we gather around Jesus' table, and then we pray that we continue to be the body of Christ in the world until we are at that table feasting with Jesus in glory.

Part of the understanding of that prayer, and the reason why we conclude our gatherings each week with that, is because we try to follow Jesus' teaching about our lives in relationship to the kingdom of heaven here and now. Those of you who are around my same age. I don't know that it captures kids' attention these days, but we grew up, and even those of you who are a little older than me. We grew up watching Peter Pan, right? And in Peter Pan, there comes this event where Tinker Bell shows up, sprinkles her magic fairy dust, and the children are taken from this reality. the reality of the world around them, two, the third star to the right, and strain on till morning, I believe. And once they get there, they are in a different reality called Never, Neverland. Never Wonderland? Something like that. Never land, where they meet the Lost Boys and everybody's nemesis, Captain Hook, right?

Great movie, but bad theology. And it's bad theology, because we have adopted this idea that we live here on this earth, in this world, and then, at some future moment, upon breathing our last breath, we will be transported into a different world, that is on some different place. And if you live your life, right, you will wake up in that reality. Jesus however, did not teach that. What he taught was that the kingdom of heaven, that is separate from the kingdom of the world, just as much as it is separate, is also present, is also here. Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So we begin to understand that the kingdom of God is just as much the reality in this moment as it is in some future moment when we will feast with Jesus at the table of glory. It is here, but not fully is how Jesus talked about it. But even though it's not fully here, it is still, just as much of a reality, as it has ever been or ever will be. That's sort of the tension that we're invited to live in.

And so, we feast at the table of Jesus here, in this moment, in this day, because we will feast with him forever in glory in some future moment when all is made. Right.

Widening Circles — Setting Tables for Our Neighbors

And so to live into this as the church, we understand that our role in the world around us is to set tables for our neighbors and welcome our neighbors to the feast that we have received and taken part of. This year we are calling this widening circles. Jesus said, when asked what was the most important commandment, he said, love the Lord your God, and the 2nd is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. We might try to parse these 2 ideas out. We may try to discover how one is actually more important than the other, but Jesus did not do that. He tied them together. And remember, Jesus also proclaimed that he did not come to abolish the law or what the prophets had said previously, but to what? Fulfill it. So we understand that in Jesus and in his teaching, to love God and to love neighbor is not just a good idea, but it is actually the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, and that is what Jesus is calling us to. So, to widen our circles, we seek to widen our circle in our understanding of God, to know God, and to be known by God, to know and be known by one another, and to know and be known by our neighbors.

But anytime we start talking about tables, the question turns to, who is invited and are there enough seats at the table? Right? My family loves to host other people in our home. We very rarely have enough chairs to host people. We have a finite amount of chairs, and it is a small number, considering that 5 of them are already taken by the people who live in our house, right? And so, we drag chairs from the office. We chairs from the kids' room. We pull out chairs from our camping collection, and we try to have enough seats at the table, but a lot of times we end up short, and so we have to try to get creative. I don't know how many how many chairs you have around your table at home. But there is a distinct difference in our tables and the table of Jesus, and that is that at Jesus' table, no matter how many people are there, there is always room for one more. There is never, we've never reached capacity as a table of Jesus. There is always room for more.

Who Is Welcome at Jesus' Table?

And then we might wonder, well, who is able to sit at Jesus' table? Well, this actually is not a question that we have to pontificate on, right? Which is a fancy word of discuss. We do not have to try and decide and figure out or determine who was welcome at Jesus' table because we know who was welcome at Jesus' table. I want to read for you. in Matthew chapter 9. Here is what the scriptures tell us. Well, Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house. Where do you suppose they were eating dinner around what? A table, right? Most likely. Maybe they were doing walking tacos or something, which by the way, the question of, will there be tacos in heaven? I have never been more certain, that the answer is absolutely yes. Unequivocally there will be tacos in heaven, just to put that out there. But eating around a table at Matthew's house. Many tax collectors and... sinners. Oof. They came and ate with him and his disciples.

When the Pharisees saw this, who are the Pharisees, they're the people in positions like me, right? They're the leaders of the religious circles. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? On hearing this, Jesus said, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick, but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

What "Sinner" Really Means

For a lot of us, that word center is the S word, right? Or one of the S words. It's a word that we don't want to say or a word that we are very uncomfortable with. And to be clear, this word has been used previously and currently to distinguish righteous people from unrighteous people. to distinguish those who believe correctly between those who do not believe correctly. It has become a label by which we put people in their place and suggest that we are welcome, but they are not. However, that is a misunderstanding of the word center, because the word center is not an insult, nor is it a comparison, a tool of comparison. It actually is a theological designation. So listen to what Eugene Peterson says about it.

It's not a moralistic judgment. It's not a word that places humans somewhere along a continuum ranging from angel to ape, assessing them as relatively good or bad. It designates humans in relation to God and sees them separated from God. Sinner means something is awry between humans and God, to call a person a sinner, is not to blast their manners or their morals. It is a theological belief that the thing that matters most to them is forgiveness and grace.

— Eugene Peterson

And so, to put it, simply, the term center is a theological designation that there is a problem that you and I and no one else can solve. But what we know in that same conversation is that this is a problem that though we cannot solve it. It has been solved by the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

And so we are called those of us who have received mercy, we are called to not just simply set tables, but to set tables of radical welcome and hospitality, where instead of them being an exclusionary tool, they become a welcoming duel that all are welcome. And we, as the church, receive the same designation, as Jesus, where people look at the church and say, they welcome the tax collectors and the sinners. And we're just not quite sure about that. Because we know that if it is good enough for Jesus, it is wet. Good enough for us. Jesus never once called us to do something that he himself was not willing to do. right? He gave us the example, not just in words, but in action and in his life, that painted the picture for how we are to conduct ourselves in the world.

Unlearning What We Think We Know

In this section that we are about to read in John, we read last week about Nicodemus, today we're going to read about the Samaritan woman. These are encounters that Jesus has with people that completely turn what is kind of standard operating procedure upside down. It's not just simply think about it this way or consider this. It's actually begin again at the beginning. right? Start all over from the very beginning. Unlearn what you have learned in order that you can trust, that what Jesus is saying is true.

H.A. Williams said it like this.

Our doctrines are not photographs of reality. They are the attempted description of heavenly things by means of hints and guesses, which earthly things provide. They are hence and guesses.

— H.A. Williams

In other words, the things that we know to be true about God that we have labeled as doctrine, they're not photographs of reality, they're simply hints and guesses. They're simply ideas that point us to this already here, but not fully here, kingdom of heaven, that leads us from where we are, and roots us into the source of the kingdom of heaven, which is Jesus, and nourishes the roots of our lives, so that we are compelled, that we are filled with God's spirit to the point to where the kingdom of heaven is filling us. And as a result, filling the world around us.

Being Salt and Light — It's Not About Being Right

Jesus talked about this as being salt and light, right? This is his call to us, to be salt, and to be light. Being salt and being light, I've said this a couple of times recently, it's not about being right. You can be, right, and yet still be so wrong. You ever been there? You can be right, but yet still be so very wrong. A lot of times this happens in relationships. I am most aware of this in my relationship with my wife, because believe it or not, from time to time, we have disagreements. And what I tell people always is, I don't even disagree with myself half the time. How am I going to agree? I don't even agree with myself half the time. How am I going to always agree with somebody else?

But when we have disagreements, oftentimes, If you are similar to me, maybe you have the same experience, I feel like I am right. And the other person is wrong. Right, you ever been there? You feel like you're right, and it is the other person who is wrong. But I can tell you that in conflict of relationships which you value when your goal is to prove that you are the one who is right, you are always wrong. When you are the one who is seeking to prove that you are right, you are always wrong. And you're wrong because you are more interested in proving that you are right, than you are into investing in the relationship. So when we think about being salt and light, it's not about being right. It's about being formed into the image of the kingdom of heaven, of Jesus, and about being present in the world around us.

In our modern age. We think that our strength is found in certainty, but that is actually a false strength. Our true strength is found in trusting and entrusting the way of Jesus. Belief is important, but formation is the goal.

The Woman at the Well — John 4

And so I want to read for us this encounter of Jesus in a Samaritan woman, and we'll just kind of work our way through it as we go. And I want you to consider what is Jesus calling you, how is Jesus calling you to unlearn in order that you might learn the way of the kingdom through this story? We're going to start reading in John chapter 4, verse 5. A little bit of background. This story contains an interaction of Jesus and a Samaritan woman. Okay? Jesus is a Jewish man. He is a leader in the Jewish faith. He is a teacher, a rabbi, a respected teacher in his circles. This woman who he is interacting with is pretty much, whether in reality or in idea, the exact opposite of that. She is by association of her lineage and in history. She is an outcast to people who have the same belief and faith of Jesus. Viewed as lesser than, uh, viewed as, um, not much to add no value of little value and worth. And so, for Jesus as a Jewish man, he had no real business interacting in any sort of way with this Samaritan woman. But as you can guess, if you've never read this story, Jesus doesn't generally do what other people are expecting him to do. And so let's read about it.

Verse five. So Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Cycar near the plot of ground, Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus tried tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. Little Old Testament history for us to understand. If you read the beginning of Genesis, Before you get too far into it, you will learn that God is known as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are the forefathers of the nation of Israel. Jacob is the last in that lineage. And as his story goes, there is a well that watered and fed his family and his livestocks. And this is where the Samaritans came to draw water. The Samaritans claim is that they are the pure, unadulterated line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their claim was that during the exiles, the Jewish people were taken to other places, that their culture was watered down, that their lineage was watered down, but they remained, the Samaritans remained, and are the pure descendants. And actually, to this day, there are still Samaritans that live in the same exact place that they have since this time and before to the time of Jacob. Okay, so there, needless to say, there is a lot of tension that comes out in this passage.

So when a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 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 did not associate with Samaritans. 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. Jesus says, in other words, I am not speaking of water that will quench your thirst. I am speaking of a reality that is so much more than that.

Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, as did his sons, and his livestock. This question is very important because she is pointing out her claim to the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the question is, are you greater than our ancestors who gave us this will? Listen to how Jesus responds. Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, in regards to your ancestors, they may have had water to drink, but guess what? They're still thirsty. Whoever drinks the water that 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.

Jesus is calling the attention of this woman not to simply having your need of thirst quenched, but to become awake to the kingdom of heaven, which is a preposterous thought for this woman and this man in this conversation. There is no way that a Jewish rabbi would suggest that a Samaritan woman, especially one that has some issues would be able to experience the kingdom of heaven that is here, not fully, but here nonetheless.

Jesus Breaks Every Barrier

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. He told her, go and call your husband and come back. I have no husband, she replied, Jesus said to her, you are right when you say that you have no husband. The fact is that you have had 5 husbands, and the man that you now have is not your husband, what you have said is quite true. Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship and is in Jerusalem. Right?

So this dialogue takes a turn, and Jesus says to this woman, I know who you are. And where most of the time who you are is going to create division and walls between you and people like me. I am still making this water available to you. Can somebody say amen? Amen.

Jesus replied, Believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said, I know the Messiah called the Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. And Jesus declared, I, the one speaking to you, I am he.

Jesus is tearing down the walls of division and hostility that have been built to keep certain types of people out, to isolate them from the kingdom of God, and he is tearing them down and saying that what is coming is a new day, when all will be able to enter into the kingdom. of heaven.

Her Testimony Changes Everything — John 4:39–42

And I want to jump down, Chandler. going to skip forward to verse 39. She goes back to her town and tells them of this encounter that she has had with Jesus. Here what it says, verse 39. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony. He told me everything I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed for 2 days. And because of his words, many more became believers, 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.

Trust — The Only Requirement at Jesus' Table

This is a remarkable story of Jesus offering salvation to someone who previously was ineligible to be a recipient of it. Yet Jesus calls into question, not the woman, but the divisions in the world that are rooted in brokenness that keep people from the kingdom of heaven. This story and the story we read about Nicodemus. They challenge for us, the very fabric of what we know about God or have been taught about God. One, a story of a righteous man who put his trust in his own abilities, one of an outcasted woman, looking in every direction to find significance. Jesus makes room for both of them and invites them both to uniquely trust in him.

And so we learn that the one thing that you cannot be at Jesus' table is the same. The calling at Jesus' table is the same for the most righteous amongst us and the most broken amongst us. It is always trust. And so the question for us today is, are we willing to trust this barrier breaking God to radically welcome those who he calls?

Closing Prayer