Good Afternoon.
I’m reminded today about all the times that I’ve been warned to stay away from “slippery slopes.” People whose lives are rooted in rigidity – which is usually the result of fear and insecurity – are always worrying about allowing their minds (or their hearts) to wander into areas that they find too difficult to handle. They can’t explore some ideas without jeopardizing the sanctity of the tall walls they have built around themselves. They can’t continue to rationalize their rigid beliefs unless they avoid certain places: the slippery slopes.
The problem that I have with the “slippery slope” mindset it this: Jesus spent his entire ministry on the slippery slopes. He socialized with all sorts of people that the conventions of his society said he shouldn’t go near: thieves, prostitutes, tax collectors, mad men, lepers, soldiers, the poor, a variety of outcasts including Samaritans. In his day he should not have even spent as much time as he did talking to women.
Today’s Gospel lesson is the famous or infamous conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. In terms of the social rules of his society, he shouldn’t have even spoken to a woman alone. The text tells us that the disciples had gone on to get some food in the village, and he was alone at the well with the woman. In terms of religious views, he shouldn’t have been asking a Samaritan – man or woman – for anything. They were considered a sort of cult that had broken off from traditional Judaism. They had their own traditions and stories; their own priests and teachers. Add to that the character of this woman: she was alone at the well at noon because the other women in the village wouldn’t have wanted to be around her. She had been “married” at least five times and was now living with another man to whom she wasn’t married. And Jesus asks her for water! To anyone else in the village who saw this, they would have been convinced that Jesus must have been a seedy character. He was well onto the slippery slope!
Even this woman seemed to have accepted some retaining walls around her life. She responded to his request: “’How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)” She was reminding him of the walls that should have made him leave her alone. Jesus took advantage of this meeting to talk to her about the proper way to come before God. It didn’t matter to God if you were a Jew or a Samaritan. He told her: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” He revealed himself to her as the Christ, a very unusual thing for him to do. And then he revealed to her that no one whom the world had placed into some second class category, no one who was living on what the world saw as a slippery slope or even at the bottom of that slope in the mud, was beyond his redeeming power and the forgiving love of God.
It happened because Jesus wasn’t afraid to wander out onto that slippery slope and meet those who lived there. He came to redeem sinners, and there are sinners everywhere: on slippery slopes and in the level halls of churches and synagogues. We are all sinners who have fallen short of God’s glory. No matter what we think about how good we are, we cannot save ourselves. More importantly, no one, none of us, is beyond the redemption that Christ offers.
Thanks be to God.
Prayer: Lord thank You for the redeeming power of Your great and forgiving love. Forgive us when we use others to convince ourselves that we are pretty good. No matter how many good works we perform, we need Your forgiveness no less than the most obvious of blatant sinners. Humble us, O Lord, that we may never forget our need for You and the grace that You have sent to us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Today’s readings are Judges 13:15-24; Acts 6:1-15; John 4:1-26; Psalm 101, 109 and 119:121-144.
Blessings.
Pastor Jim
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