Developing Discipleship - Launch (wk3)

Theme: Developing Discipleship - The Woman at the Well

Sit down in front of the Communion Table, and for a moment say nothing...This caused a ripple - Well worth it! 

Have you ever been so tired that you can’t stand any longer?

Or do you remember walking with children, perhaps out for a walk with the dog, or a trek round the shops, and comes the familiar moan that they can’t walk any further...or the cute falling asleep thing they do as they try to stay awake...

Jesus is tired, physically tired.  

We think of Jesus as superhuman, able to do it all but occasionally the authors remind us that he was human.  He felt tired, weary, even frustrated and discontented in the world around him. I wonder if he had had enough - bickering, hungry disciples moaning about how far they had walked.  It was noon and they needed their lunch...Jesus sits down next to the well, the early Jewish Starbucks or Motorway service station.  The disciples go on into town. 

As Christians, many can expect us to be super human.  We keep going when the world goes to pot.  We smile even though we are breaking, we give even when we are broke, we stay the course even when everyone else is bailing.  We don’t lose our cool with the frustrating or our temper with the downright nasty.  We are full of grace at all times and in all places.  Aye right! But the expectation is there. But sometimes we just need to sit by the well and rest. 

However, there is a time to sit by the well and rest, but we can’t fall down the well.  Mentally, we climb inside the well (wouldn’t recommend physically) but we do mentally.  We lose ourselves in the well of self-pity.  God, why do I have to walk with these moaning, miserable, demanding disciples?  Or we just want to hide?  As the disciples come back and look for Jesus who has done a disappearing act...where did he go?  Oh yes that well symbolises much, for it becomes a place of renewal and hope. 

Stand up 

Again, this is a story we have covered again and again, and so rich. For today though I want to pick out a little bit from it.  Jesus is tired, weary, drained but as he rests a moment occurs that is life changing - probably as much for Jesus as for the woman. On the surface it is just a conversation around the water cooler of that society.  But Jesus is resting alone, in a country where Jews are not loved or necessarily welcomed.  It is the middle of the day so prime time for those who are hiding from society to appear, especially at the water cooler.  The woman is obviously a shunned woman, but she is intelligent and blunt.  To be out at that time of day - she doesn’t want awkward conversations or to hear the gossip about her.  So to meet Jesus who asks her for a drink...

Again like Nicodemus, Jesus sparks curiosity.  She knows he is Jewish, and that what he asks is culturally wrong.  Interesting God consistently challenges our definitions of barriers and prejudice.  Makes me wonder every time we put up a barrier, just how He will knock it down.  Anyway, Jesus throws in his bombshell which actually hints at his current frustration with his disciples.  If you knew who I am you’d ask me for water...

It is almost an off the cuff comment, and yet the woman rises to it.  She embraces the challenge thrown out, and Jesus honours her as a human being.  Even when he pushes her about her husband, he knows that she truth tells, and therefore because he proves the truth of that statement, we know and he knows that her theological understanding is true.  She doesn’t feel the need to lie to him.  What is interesting is that we don’t have the full conversation.  When she goes back she tells them to come meet the man who told her everything she ever did.  Whatever her story, whatever reason she is shunned for, she owns it.  And Jesus doesn’t limit her, punish her, ignore her - indeed he inspires her and she is launched into the mission field. 

Her full story - he knows everything and still she is the one who opens up a whole new mission field.   

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 Saviour of the world.”

Often we think that God cannot use us for anything.  We don’t know enough.  Our past is littered with poor decisions.  We have hurt people, we have broken several of the ten commandments, whatever it is, we write ourselves off. Even society looks down on human beings simply because they are poor or learning difficulties or additional support needs, or some kind of physical disability.  Sometimes because they are child or a woman or coloured or gay or something we are not. 

God knows - Jesus knew the woman spoke the truth about her husband or not husband and yet he didn’t turn away in disgust.  He inspired her so much that despite being a shunned woman she ran back and yelled it from the rooftops. 

Folks, God wants to launch us into the wider world - not out of a cannon, but that we are so inspired by him that we cannot help but go and shout it from the roof tops.  Come meet the man who told me everything I ever did and still wants a relationship with me. 

Previously we spoke about commitment, not perfection.  We don’t have to be perfect to be used by God.  We just have to be open to meeting him and accepting him.

We might feel weary as Christians, worn out by the expectations of others and the Church.  We might think there is no point to this mission lark, and then we have that encounter.  That person who comes after dark like Nicodemus or the one we meet in the coffee shop or the queue at the till, the random conversation you never anticipated like I had one day in Boots the Chemist. A staff member who had recently returned to church put me through my paces...but it was awesome. I was distracted going for a meeting in the national office but needed something on the way.  A stop by the till and God was there. 

In a time of change and decline, where are the pit stops, the wells we stop to rest?  Not to climb in and hide, or fall down into self pity, but where we encounter others, and Christ leads the conversation, inspiring them and us.  The conversation I had with that lady in Boots gave me a boost all day.  And for Jesus it was a boost - he was a like a new person when the disciples returned, back to his somewhat enigmatic self.  He was fed, filled by the Holy Spirit, buzzing...so much so the disciples wondered how that was possible. 

When we are actually actively engaged in sharing the Gospel through word and action, we are empowered and inspired.  It makes sense and is exciting.  

So sit by the well but don’t get stuck there...please.  

Amen