...but others will benefit by your being here.

Brad Sullivan

3^rd Sunday of Lent, Year A

Sunday, March 23, 2014

St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX

Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95

Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42

I don’t know how many times I ask myself what Jesus would teach me in this or that situation, how would I follow in Jesus’ way, but it’s a lot…and quite honestly not enough, truth be told.  How often do I find myself spiritually and emotionally parched, hurting with thirst, and then I turn back to Jesus and find the living water that he gives.  Jesus’ teachings, his life, Jesus himself is living water to give strength to the weary, to give growth to our souls, to satisfy our thirst, and to carry us safely along our way. 

Jesus met a woman at a well, and offered her the living water for her thirsty soul.  I love that Jesus simply ignores the customs and hatred of his people, that he spoke to this Samaritan woman in the first place.  It’s almost as if in his divinity, Jesus was saying, “you silly people, you’re all my children, Jew and Samaritan alike, and I’m not going to play your games of hatred toward each other; I’m going to share myself with you; come and have living water.”  Forget the customs of his time, Jesus was reaching out and offering living water to a woman in need.  For us too, it doesn’t matter who we are or from where we come, Jesus offers us himself, the living water welling up inside us to springs of life that never ends.

Notice also, that Jesus was near a Samaritan village where his disciples went in to get food, but they weren’t going to go in to teach.  By reaching out to this woman, Jesus was also bringing the message of his Gospel to a whole city which would not have been reached by his disciples.  The woman had had five husbands, and the feeling I’ve often been given with this story was that she was to be viewed as promiscuous with her serial marriages and as a wayward soul, living in sin with this man who was not her husband.

In their custom back then, however, only men could divorce.  Women and men weren’t exactly on equal footing regarding marriage, either entering in to marriage or choosing to end a marriage, so five different husbands had either died or divorced this Samaritan woman, and now she was living with a man who wasn’t doing her the honor of marrying her.  Cast off or widowed five times and now dishonored by the man with whom she was living, this woman was definitely in need of the living water which Jesus offered.  Jesus was being a light to this woman who was in darkness.

Jesus was being a light to the nations, which Israel was created to be, even if Israel had not entirely lived into who they were.  The Samaritan woman, then, received the living water from Jesus, caught the fire of Jesus’ light, and carried the fire with her to the people of her city so that she could be a beacon to them, pointing them back to Jesus, to the streams of living water.

This woman, along with Jesus’ disciples were beacons for others, or as Jesus said, they were reapers of the harvest.  The fields were ripe for harvest, Jesus said.  People were ready to hear Jesus’ word and to follow him and believe in him.  People were thirsty for the living water which he offered.  People who had been in darkness were ready for the light of Jesus.  The fields were ripe for harvest.

So, the disciples were sent to reap the harvest, to be beacons of light, pointing people to the living water of Jesus.  The Samaritan woman was sent to reap the harvest, to be a beacon of light, pointing people to the living water of Jesus.  We are here to reap the harvest, to be beacons of light, pointing people to the living water of Jesus. 

I think of those people in my life who have been beacons, pointing me back time and again to the living waters of Jesus.  A friend in college who asked in a public place to pray with me and for me.  Another friend from college who, years later, wrote and spoke beautifully about her faith, and hearing the depth and beauty of her faith strengthened mine.  Family who have stuck their noses in cautiously and lovingly to listen, to advise, to pray, and to be a beacon of Jesus for me.  Parishioners who have lovingly again advised me that I didn’t seem to be leading as Jesus would have me lead.

I’m guessing we’ve all got stories of people who have been beacons for us, pointing us back again to the living waters of Jesus.  Many of us have been beacons for others as well.  That is who we are individually as Jesus’ disciples, and as a the Body of Christ as St. Mark’s.  We are beacons to each other, and St. Mark’s is a beacon to the community.  As Jesus said to his disciples, the fields of Bay City are ripe for the harvest.  There are so many who are thirsty for the living waters of Jesus, so many who are in darkness of one kind or another.  There are so many who need us to be beacons to give them to light of Jesus and lead them to the streams of living water. 

Being a beacon to the community is who we are and why we do so much of what we do.  We’ve had concerts here at the church, and we have another coming up on April 5^th.  We had a pub mass at the Fat Grass on St. Patrick’s Day.  Partly, we had those events simply because they were fun.  I thought green wine with pub songs sounded like a lot of fun for a Eucharist.  The other reason we had these events is to be a beacon to the community.  Having a concert at the church or a pub mass isn’t going to make a new Christian, but those things can help lower the bar for people who wouldn’t come to the church, who wonder, “what are those crazy Christians up to.”  Having these fun events can help people who come realize, “hey, these crazy Christians aren’t so bad.”  This place and the people here are opened up to others through these fun events so we can shine as a beacon to the community.

We have outreach breakfasts on Friday mornings and we give bags of food to hungry folks partly because people are hungry.  We also do that here at St. Mark’s because people need the living waters of Jesus, and serving people helps keep the beacon of St. Mark’s alight for the community to see.

We are beacons of light through personal invitation, in being here on Sunday mornings, sometimes largely for the sake of the other.  People come here looking for the living waters of Jesus, sometimes for the first time, and there is no one to welcome them but us.  Kristin is going to be here this morning with our month-and-a-half old daughter, Ellie.  Kristin was talking about the challenge that would be.  Ellie is still nursing, she’d probably have to go in and out as Ellie really started crying, and she said to me, “I just don’t think I’m going to benefit much from being there on Sunday.”  

I said, “Your right.  You’re not going to benefit much being here on Sunday, but others will benefit by your being here.”  Sometimes, purely for ourselves, we might benefit more by staying home on Sunday.  Sometimes we just need some extra sleep.  Sometimes, however, we come not only for our sake, but for the sake of the other who would benefit by our being here.

The beacon to the community that we are at St. Mark’s grows stronger by our being here, sometimes even when we don’t think we need it..

Jesus is living water that fills us and feeds us and gives us life, and I keep thinking, we could shout it to the hills…except of course there are no hills in Bay City.  There are, however, lots of people in need of living water, and St. Mark’s is here as a Beacon to the Community to guide people to the living water of Jesus.  Amen.