September 18, 2016 Under Construction: The

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September 18, 2016 Under Construction: The Samaritan Woman John 4:4-26 Pastor Wayne Puls, Senior Pastor at Hope Lutheran Church There she was, all alone. A woman all by herself at a village well. It was high noon, in the heat of the day. The rest of the women from the village had all carried their heavy water pitchers in the cool early morning hours. But this woman knew she wasn’t welcome in their company. She knew the whole village looked at her with eyes of contempt. They saw her as a mess. They all saw her life as a huge mess. Everyone in the village looked at this one particular woman, and they all saw an outcast, a loser, a person with a scandalous, ridiculous marital history. One disastrous life choice after another. A complete mess. So there she was, the Samaritan woman, all alone, at the village well. Do you ever see people like that in our contemporary society? People ostracized and judged? People labeled “loser,” or “reject,” or “messed-up?” People who feel condemned by everyone? People who feel all alone? Are there people like that in our contemporary society? Yeah, there are. Just ask the uncool kids in any school if they ever feel labeled and left out. Ask people who are profiled and discriminated against because of the color of their skin or their religious preference. Ask ex-convicts or recovering addicts if society trusts them, or accepts them easily. Ask undocumented immigrants, or even people with disabilities, if they ever feel isolated and alone. Forget this woman in the Bible story. We can see with our own eyes people in our town, in our state, in our country, who know what it is to be rejected, labeled, excluded. For some of them, it’s through no fault of their own. For others,

it’s because of their own mistakes and missteps. But there they are, in our own day and age. People, just like the Samaritan woman, all alone at the village well. If Jesus walked the earth today, would people like that remain alone? He approached the Samaritan woman, didn’t he? Jesus asked her for a drink of water from the well. Jesus was a Jew, and Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans. They sure didn’t drink from the same cup. And Jesus, with his divine sight, could with one quick glance see all of her disgraceful past mistakes and all of her present problems. Because nothing’s hidden from Jesus. Jesus saw it all in her – all of her overt and covert deficiencies – and, yet, he still approached her. Jesus engaged her in conversation. Jesus talked with her about where she could find the spiritual refreshment that she really needed in her life. He spoke with her about where she could find eternal life and salvation. See, when Jesus looked at this Samaritan woman, he didn’t see what all of the people in her village saw. Jesus didn’t see a loser, a failed life, a mess. Jesus looked at this woman, and he saw a soul in need of rescue. He saw a child of God headed for destruction, in need of intervention. So Jesus intervened. He spent precious time with her. He got to know her. He didn’t condone her lifestyle. He didn’t just say, “Whatever you choose to do in your life is cool.” But neither did he recoil from her, or shun her. Jesus approached her. He made a connection. She came to the well looking for water, and she found in Jesus the living water that she needed for her soul. So there they sat at the village well. Can you picture this in your mind? The Samaritan woman, no longer alone; and Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, bringing love and care and salvation to one precious child of God at a time.

I love that visual picture. I love this story in the Bible. It teaches me so much as a pastor. It teaches all of us so much, as followers of Jesus. I think that this magnificent story challenges us all to examine carefully and honestly the way we see certain people – or certain kinds of people – in our society. How can we be so quick to judge, and to point fingers? How can we be so hesitant to approach the disenfranchised and the marginalized members of society, and so eager to distance ourselves from them? Jesus isn’t like that. And Jesus doesn’t approve when we are like that. Our church shouldn’t ever be like that. Our church has to be careful never to build walls, or to push people away, or to broadcast to certain kinds of people how bad we think they are. That’s not our job. That’s not our mission. Here in our church, and out there in our everyday lives, we Christians are called to live like Jesus lived, to love like Jesus loved, to approach and engage people who are hurting. Our calling is to follow Jesus in speaking and standing up for the truth of God’s Word, but to do so always with grace and compassion. We’re moved by Christ to seek out the lost sheep, to spend our precious time with those who are all alone. And I know how hard it is to do that. It’s easy to preach about it, and to talk about it. But it’s hard to be that open, isn’t it? It’s really hard to be that free, to be able to see other people the way Jesus sees them. Where do we begin? Here’s where to start. Stay with me on this. I want you to look today at just one person. Take a good look a just one messed-up, sin-filled person. Look with your eyes at just one child of God who’s made a whole bunch of wrong turns and missteps in life. Where do you find this one person? Look in a mirror. Look at yourself. If we’re being honest, we’ll see

that there’s a bit of a mess inside each and every one of us, isn’t there? We may be pretty good at hiding or masking our covert deficiencies. But Jesus knows all of our hidden thoughts, our secret desires, our imperfect character. He sees it all. And we can only start changing the way we see others when we see ourselves as Jesus sees us. We are all a mess, and we all come up short. Yet Jesus still approaches us, doesn’t he? I’m no different than that Samaritan woman, am I? And neither are you. But Jesus intervened in our lives when he gave his life on the cross to pay for our sins. Jesus rescued me and you, by his death and resurrection. He sees in you a soul in need of his love and care and salvation, and he alone can provide for those needs. Jesus sees in you a precious child of God, worth dying for, worth saving, worth loving. And Jesus sees in you today a person capable of loving others, a Christian who can learn to love with his love, see with his eyes, and approach those who are alone and in need because Jesus first approached you. Start by looking in the mirror. And see the person there that Jesus sees. Then start seeing the people out there who need you to see them, too. God help us to see. Amen.