The overnight on Friday with the Breakfast Clubers was enjoyable...lots of laughter, lots of interaction, lots of mixing it up - engagement. It's always a little more physical with the guys and verbal with the girls, but either way, it's the same...goad, prod, spark a reaction, and games. You know the one where you say, "I'm not touching you...I'm not touching you!" Well, fortunately we didn't have any of that, even though we did have a brother and sister along. But they were cool. No worries!
But we did have two truths and a lie...and the guess as to which is the lie. We did have "Honey, I love you, but I just can't smile.....Oh, you smiled...no I didn't...yes you did!"....engagement...that's where the fun is. That's where the interest lies. And maybe the women on their retreat this weekend had engagement too - a little different, but hopefully there was genuine engagement.
Well, on a middle school overnight or a women's retreat, that's what you expect. But on a trip to the neighborhood quick stop between two people as different as they could be? Could two people actually find their connection with each other and God in such an unlikely place?
It begins innocently enough. One day Jesus, the Son of God, Messiah, and an unnamed Samaritan Woman meet at the well because they both were thirsty - maybe even parched. They both had need of the most common resource necessary for life. There they were, at the well. Like anyone - Jew, Greek, slave, free, holy, unholy, happy, sad, fulfilled, searching, black, white, gay, straight, young, old...like all of us, none of us being any different in this regard...we all get thirsty....Jesus and the Samaritan woman stop for some water. It's the common meeting place, the quick stop of 2000 years ago where you might run into anyone, if you're inclined to look up from your errand. Not a normal place for connecting...but anything is possible with this free-ranging Spirit of God that might lead us to engagement anytime, anywhere.
And maybe we underestimate the differences of class, status, ethnicity, sex in Jesus' day. After all, they all seem so different from us modern folk, that how could they be that different from each other? But different they were...as different as Bill Gates and Queen Latifa, who both, by the way, drink water too.
It's interesting that this encounter of two very different people follows on the heels of last week's story, where Jesus and Nicodemus engage each other - or attempt to. On the surface it might seem that they share a lot in common, and so a conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus seems somewhat natural, even expected. Both Jesus and Nicodemus are teachers/rabbis. Both share a common faith tradition. Both know and study the same scripture. But by the end of the story you come away with the impression that no two could possibly be more different - one a superficial literalists who can't quite get his imagination around the truth of God, and the other, well, the other deeply connected with the living, spiritual presence of God at work in his life.
But now, as different as they are, Jesus and the Samaritan woman end up to be startled and amazed at a common truth they both share - that they are both connected with a God who is Spirit. This is not a set and bounded God that is easy to put in a box, or who is hemmed in by boundaries of consistency. This is a God who isn't confined to the temple in Jerusalem where the worship of the Jews is centered. This is a God you might encounter at the quick stop, in a woman whose life has been anything but consistent. Here, at the well, talking to Jesus, she verbalizes a hope that she carries within her. "I know Messiah is coming," she says. And it's the first time in the New Testament that Jesus affirms what she's saying in a way that is as open about himself as the woman is open with Jesus. There is real engagement in this conversation. Jesus says, "I am he."
And what's startling is that they, in their differences, share much more in common with each other and their engagement and understanding of each other runs far deeper than Jesus and Nicodemus ever got in their conversation in the night. She's so filled with this new connection with God's living Spirit and her own calling that she leaves her water jar behind at the well, runs back to her community so bursting with the experience that she can't contain herself. She becomes the first evangelist in the story, pointing ahead to the courageous women who see and believe what's suggested in the empty tomb while the men, Nicodemus-like, continue to huddle and ruminate.
It proves again something that we continue to doubt, locked in our expectations of what is possible and not possible....it proves: You just never know! If there's anything certain about this God, this is it: You just never know! It's just not a God who will be bounded by our expectations
So this story, in a way, got personal this weekend with the middle-schoolers. Emmy was leading a discussion with them. And the question was asked, "How old is your van anyway?" No, that wasn't the question...even though it was asked on the ride home. No, the question was, "Do you think ministers are more spiritual people than others?" I slunk down in my chair and waited. It's all about the engagement, right?
And there were a few kind comments that were respectful of the kinds of things that ministers study and what we know because of that. But they all knew that wasn't the question. You have gracious children! But you also have truthful children. And they told the truth: that position and Spirit, that role and calling are two different things.
And I began to think of the spiritual people I've known in my life... My grandmother, a friend who just used to stop in the church office every once in awhile and ask how things were going - and meant it in the most deeply spiritual sense, a person who would have given their right arm for the mission of the church...on and on. And yes, I've known a couple of ministers who bore the Spirit in their lives too, but the point is that it isn't predictable. Even a woman at a well may become the bearer of Good News. And you, are called to be the bearer of that Good News too.
So I hope you know that your spiritual journey and your spiritual calling is full of surprises. If God was a river (get the water imagery?)...if God was a river it would be moving, changing, untamable. It might not even be connected with the minister or even with the church. The river banks overflow, they sometimes change course, they meander in ways that defy prediction. Just know this: that the Spirit is moving, calling, drawing you into its purpose. God has something in mind for you. We call it, in our protestant tradition the Priesthood of all Believers. Honor that call in your life. And I'll pray for you, if you'll pray for me... that we may be as open to listening as the woman at the well...and then as open as she in her sharing. It's in the engagement of yourself, the Spirit of God, and others that amazing things happen.
Let us pray,
God of love, how wonderful are your ways! You surprise those burdened with guilt with a forgiveness that draws us in. You surprise those who doubt with a light that breaks through and reveals. You challenge us to value the gift of the spirit wherever we find it, in all who bear your image. Let us honor that call in ourselves, in others, that your Spirit may engage us in the ministry of Jesus Christ.
Children: Can you hear this dvd? Mmmm, they told me there was great music on here. Oh, you need a DVD player? That reads the disc and allows us to hear the music? Maybe God needs us to make his love real too, so people can see it and know it?