Over the past two weeks I think all of us have been amazed and terrorized by the video footage of the tsunami in Japan as a result of the earthquake. Seeing waves thirty feet high sweeping away whole cities, villages and farm lands just make real about the power of water. When water is gentle, warm and good, it can quench our thirst, cool us off on a hot summer day, and clean our bodies and clothes. When water is angry because of a storm there is almost nothing water cannot destroy.
Water is not the only thing that can be creative or destructive. Words in the course of a conversation can give life to the people exchanging ideas and information, or they can be as destructive as a tidal wave.
Actions can also be constructive or they can destroy. Our intentions behind those actions can have a wide range of outcomes. At times it is difficult to see in advance how people will judge our intentions within our actions.
Today's readings are about conversations. A conversation between the Israelites, Moses and God in Exodus 17:1-7. A conversation with the Romans from Paul in Romans 5:1-11. And a conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well in our Gospel of John 4: 5- 42.
As the conversation between Jesus and the woman continues its course, we see the barriers between men and women, nationalities and religious points of view broken down. The woman after her encounter with Jesus began the work of an apostle. She went to the near by town to tell others what had happened in her life. She encountered the God who transforms hate into love. The woman wanted others to know the person who had changed her life for the better.
Among the ways that God's grace changes things for the better is that those who are separated from God's community through prejudice and ideologies that are manufactured by faulty theologies and dogmas find a place to dine at the table of the Lord.
Throughout Christian history we have seen many groups of people being excluded from the Church. The Bible has been used by fundamentalist thinkers and Ecclesiastical "authorities" to attempt to "legislate" God's grace for the salvation of another person's soul.
We can easily see through this Gospel that God is not limited to our dogmas or canons. God's gracious love is always above and beyond our comprehension.
The many social and religious opinions surrounding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people, as well as women and all the other minorities of humanity have had tragic consequences. Those opinions have left many of God's precious youth to fend for themselves, as the Church has failed to feed the souls and hearts of God's lambs who are LGBTQ
In Paul's letter to the Romans we read that God has saves us through faith. Not because of anything that we may have done by which we merit God's grace.
All individuals including LGBTQ people and others on the margins of society and the Church are among God's redeemed people through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The living and flowing waters that Jesus speaks of, represents the Sacrament of Baptism through which we are able to share in the Paschal Mystery of Christ and find our salvation and happiness in God's extravagant love.
It is through the flowing waters of the Sacraments that are visible signs of inward grace, by which God communicates and converses with all of us. Our sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, race, gender, wealth or health status etc are all part of who we are as God's beloved people
God's grace is greater than our prejudices and customs that exclude people who are different from ourselves. God's grace is greater than any erroneous Bible interpretation. God's grace does not stigmatize or marginalize. God's grace does not look for excuses to use destructive rhetoric or violent terminology to oppress people of any type or kind. God's grace is inclusive and seeks the justice and equality of all who are left out by human error and injustice.
As we continue through our Lenten journey may we pray for the grace to engage in conversations that change the attitudes of prejudice and exclusion to bring about justice, equality and inclusion of all God's holy people, redeemed by Christ's saving acts of reconciliation.
Prayers
Water is not the only thing that can be creative or destructive. Words in the course of a conversation can give life to the people exchanging ideas and information, or they can be as destructive as a tidal wave.
Actions can also be constructive or they can destroy. Our intentions behind those actions can have a wide range of outcomes. At times it is difficult to see in advance how people will judge our intentions within our actions.
Today's readings are about conversations. A conversation between the Israelites, Moses and God in Exodus 17:1-7. A conversation with the Romans from Paul in Romans 5:1-11. And a conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well in our Gospel of John 4: 5- 42.
Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.There was a real issue with women as well as Samaritan people, especially Samaritan women in the time that the Gospel stories would have taken place. Notice also that the disciples are amazed that Jesus is conversing with a woman.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."
Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, `I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."
Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" They left the city and were on their way to him.
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, `Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, `One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."
Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
As the conversation between Jesus and the woman continues its course, we see the barriers between men and women, nationalities and religious points of view broken down. The woman after her encounter with Jesus began the work of an apostle. She went to the near by town to tell others what had happened in her life. She encountered the God who transforms hate into love. The woman wanted others to know the person who had changed her life for the better.
Among the ways that God's grace changes things for the better is that those who are separated from God's community through prejudice and ideologies that are manufactured by faulty theologies and dogmas find a place to dine at the table of the Lord.
Throughout Christian history we have seen many groups of people being excluded from the Church. The Bible has been used by fundamentalist thinkers and Ecclesiastical "authorities" to attempt to "legislate" God's grace for the salvation of another person's soul.
We can easily see through this Gospel that God is not limited to our dogmas or canons. God's gracious love is always above and beyond our comprehension.
The many social and religious opinions surrounding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people, as well as women and all the other minorities of humanity have had tragic consequences. Those opinions have left many of God's precious youth to fend for themselves, as the Church has failed to feed the souls and hearts of God's lambs who are LGBTQ
In Paul's letter to the Romans we read that God has saves us through faith. Not because of anything that we may have done by which we merit God's grace.
Romans 5:1-11 (NRSV)
Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
All individuals including LGBTQ people and others on the margins of society and the Church are among God's redeemed people through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The living and flowing waters that Jesus speaks of, represents the Sacrament of Baptism through which we are able to share in the Paschal Mystery of Christ and find our salvation and happiness in God's extravagant love.
It is through the flowing waters of the Sacraments that are visible signs of inward grace, by which God communicates and converses with all of us. Our sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, race, gender, wealth or health status etc are all part of who we are as God's beloved people
God's grace is greater than our prejudices and customs that exclude people who are different from ourselves. God's grace is greater than any erroneous Bible interpretation. God's grace does not stigmatize or marginalize. God's grace does not look for excuses to use destructive rhetoric or violent terminology to oppress people of any type or kind. God's grace is inclusive and seeks the justice and equality of all who are left out by human error and injustice.
As we continue through our Lenten journey may we pray for the grace to engage in conversations that change the attitudes of prejudice and exclusion to bring about justice, equality and inclusion of all God's holy people, redeemed by Christ's saving acts of reconciliation.
Prayers
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for the Third Sunday of Lent, Book of Common Prayer, page 218).
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis, Book of Common Prayer, page 833).
Look with pity, O holy God, upon the people in this land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, page 826).
No comments:
Post a Comment