Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
In
today’s Gospel text, Jesus goes to a place where His disciples wouldn’t in a
million years have thought He would be seen.
Not only in Samaria, among a people despised by the Jews for their
unfaithfulness to God, but at a well in Samaria. The well, or the watering hole, was the
ancient singles scene. If you remember,
Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, was found at the well where she fulfilled the sign that
was asked of God and not only gave water to Abraham’s men but watered the
camels as well. Jacob also found his
long for labored bride, Rachel, as he rolled the stone away from the well and
watered the sheep that she was tending.
And of course, where did the Jungle Book’s Mogli find his bride? At the watering hole.
Jesus is in Samaria hanging out by the
well. It’s like Jesus has posted His
profile at eHarmony and is looking for a bride that He couldn’t exactly take
home to mom. It’s like He’s going out of
His way to find a bride who’s sure to be a woman from the wrong side of the
tracks, one who’s sure to be less than faithful.
Then
she comes along; a woman with three strikes against her. First, she’s a Samaritan, of a people who have
strayed from God’s ways. Second, she’s a
sinner of the highest caliber, an offense to the community; she’s had a
revolving door of men going through her home.
Third, she’s currently living with a guy who’s not her husband. It appears that Jesus is trolling for a bride
and He finds one that’s unfaithful, who’s sure go back on her pledge of
fidelity, who, in return for His love, is sure to let her eyes wander. Today’s Gospel text is a picture of the faithful
Bridegroom coming to His unfaithful bride and meets her at the well.
Not
unlike us, is it? Jesus doesn’t go
looking for a bride who’ll be loyal and faithful. He, rather, takes to Himself one who is
unclean and unfaithful. A bride that any
other suitor wouldn’t give a second look.
He takes the Church as His bride, as St. Paul says in Ephesians 5, “This mystery [of marriage] is profound and
I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.” He takes the Church as His bride with all her
warts and sins, with all her failings and transgressions. He finds a bride at the baptismal well. He finds you.
He
finds you like He finds this Samaritan woman - covered is sin and shame. He finds you giving away your faithfulness
without regard. We have all gone astray,
followed our own way, ignored God’s Word of Law that He has set down for our
own good. Like the Samaritan woman, we,
the Holy Christian Church on earth, is an unworthy bride. And our Bridegroom sees and knows every act
of faithlessness we commit collectively and individually. The Bridegroom watches every act of infidelity
His bride commits. He beholds every
transgression that we do. Every act of
iniquity that we run into headlong. We’ve
lusted after other gods: money, possessions, even our own selves, and give away
our hearts, our fear, love, and trust to these.
We have failed to submit to Christ as a faithful bride. So, for all our faithlessness, for our sins,
we must repent.
We’re like the
bride that God commanded the prophet Hosea to marry – the strumpet Gomer -
whose utter faithlessness was a picture of how Israel had given up on their
faithfulness to God for other gods. And
so it is for us, the Church, the New Israel.
Our fidelity is less than perfect and we deserve to be thrown out,
divorced from Jesus’ love and mercy, to wallow alone in our guilt and shame.
But
Jesus, the loving and faithful Bridegroom, won’t have that. Knowing all of this, He meets us at the
water, quenches our lips parched by sin at the baptismal well where the
forgiving and cleansing water that flowed from His pierced side has been
splashed onto your heads. Where the
water made alive by God’s Word cleansed you from all guilt and shame. Where, the Bridegroom dresses His bride –
that’s you - in His own holiness and righteousness.
There’s
a reason why in the baptismal rite Lincoln, and all who have been baptized,
receives a white garment. We go to the
baptismal well with the blackness of sin, but Jesus covers our sin in His white
and pure holiness. Today, Jesus has met
Lincoln at the baptismal well, where He has been incorporated into the bride of
Christ, the Christian Church, where Jesus has covered Lincoln in His very
righteousness.
Apart
from Jesus we’re unholy, unrighteous, and faithless in every way; a bride who
is unworthy of her husband’s love. But
where we’re so often faithless, Christ is always faithful. Faithful unto death as He lays down His life
for you. Like a faithful bridegroom, He
suffers for His bride, for you, that all that troubles your soul, all the sins
that plague your conscience, the sins that you’re not even aware of are
forgiven, washed away in the tide of His blood.
Jesus
meets us at the well. Like the Samaritan
woman, He sees us covered in our sin, in our shame and guilt but, by your
baptism He has covered you in His holiness and righteousness, all flowing from
the cross. Ours is a faithful
bridegroom, who has laid down His life for you, who calls
us and receives us back after every act of infidelity. Ours is a long-suffering bridegroom, who
loves His bride the Church, who loves you, even unto death.
Jesus
meets us at the baptismal well, where we return each and every day in
remembrance of our baptisms because this living water is the gift that keeps on
giving even throughout our lives.
We
don’t know what ultimately happened to the Samaritan woman. Later tradition
says that she was baptized and given the name Photini, which means,
“enlightened one;” and is said to have been martyred in the year 66 AD under
the tyrannical Emperor Nero. This is a
tradition, who knows if it’s true or not.
But we do know how the Church’s story culminates. It culminates with the marriage feast of the
Lamb in the New Jerusalem, where you, with all the saints, shall be presented
to Christ with robes made white in the blood of the Lamb, as a bride adorned
with her jewels.
Despite
all our sins and failings, iniquities and transgressions, the Bridegroom
doesn’t divorce us, but shows love and kindness, grace and mercy that comes
through the cross, where Jesus has laid down His life to sanctify – make holy –
His Church where you have been made a part through the baptismal well. Jesus loves you. Jesus is faithful to you. Jesus died for you. Jesus gives you His pardon and peace. What a Lord we have. What a gift we’ve been given. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life
everlasting. Amen.
