Preached by the Reverend Canon Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral at the 8:40 and 9:50 am services on Sunday, September 24, 2006.
The grace of our Master Teacher — the love of God in the unity of Spirit — be with you all.
Creator of all life, You give us the inspiration, wisdom and guidance to celebrate and worship You in the style that is best for us. Sometimes, though, our traditions become ineffective and need to be renewed with a more affirming artistic expression. You give us all we need to make the necessary changes so we can better worship you.
Yet, we are afraid to change because we have never done it that way before. Lord have mercy.
We need to choose the style of worship that connects us closer to you. Christ have mercy.
We can express our love and respect for you through the arts. Lord have mercy.
God of all Goodness, forgive us for not even attempting to think about changing the many vibrant ways we can celebrate you. Help us to affirm artistic expression as a way of reflecting Your joy, creativity and prophetic voice in whatever may seen, heard, felt, tasted, sung and spoken. All this we ask in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen.
The Phoenix Affirmations: # 4
The Path of Jesus is found where Christ’s followers make sincere and vibrant worship of God as central to the life of their community as Jesus did. We…affirm artistic expression as a way of reflecting God’s creativity, joy, and prophetic voice in what may be seen, heard, felt, tasted, sung, and spoken .
Bhagavad-Gita
I am glory, prosperity, beautiful speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness, and forgiveness. I am the divine seed of all lives. In this world nothing animate or inanimate exists without me. I am the strength of the strong; I am the purity of the good. I am the knowledge of the knower. There is no limit to my divine manifestations. Whatever in this world is powerful, beautiful, or glorious, that you may know to have come forth from a fraction of my power and glory.
John 4:3-21, 23-24 (CEV)
3Jesus left Judea and started for Galilee again. 4This time he had to go through Samaria, 5and on his way he came to the town of Sychar. It was near the field that Jacob had long ago given to his son Joseph. 6-8The well that Jacob had dug was still there, and Jesus sat down beside it because he was tired from traveling. It was noon, and after Jesus’ disciples had gone into town to buy some food, a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well.
Jesus asked her, “Would you please give me a drink of water?”
9”You are a Jew,” she replied, “and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink of water when Jews and Samaritans won’t have anything to do with each other?” 10Jesus answered, “You don’t know what God wants to give you, and you don’t know who is asking you for a drink. If you did, you would ask me for the water that gives life.”
11”Sir,” the woman said, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get this life-giving water? 12Our ancestor Jacob dug this well for us, and his family and animals got water from it. Are you greater than Jacob?”
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again. 14But no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give is like a flowing fountain that gives eternal life.”
15The woman replied, “Sir, please give me a drink of that water! Then I won’t get thirsty and have to come to this well again.”
16Jesus told her, “Go and bring your husband.”
17-18The woman answered, “I don’t have a husband.”
“That’s right,” Jesus replied, “you’re telling the truth. You don’t have a husband. You have already been married five times, and the man you are now living with isn’t your husband.”
19The woman said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. 20My ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say Jerusalem is the only place to worship.” 21Jesus said to her:
Believe me, the time is coming when you won’t worship God either on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 23But a time is coming, and it is already here! Even now the true worshipers are being led by the Spirit to worship God according to the truth. These are the ones the Eternal is seeking. 24God is Spirit, and those who worship God must be led by the Spirit to worship according to the truth.
You look at me and you think to yourself, “there’s a sophisticated urbanite.” But not so. No, the truth is that I come from the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. My family owns property so deep in the hills that the Jehovah’s Witnesses haven’t found it yet. So whereas I have spent many years in Dallas and New York and Boston, and now Ft. Lauderdale, my beginnings were very rural. “Green acres is the place to be…” That kind of rural. “Let me tell you a little story about a man named Jed…” That kind of rural.
I remember once a neighbor of ours, the Nazarene preacher, was riding his bicycle for a bit of exercise. As he passed by another neighbor he noticed a sign in the yard that said, “Mower for sale.” The preacher stopped and asked how much the owner, Mr. Porterfield, wanted for the mower. Mr. Porterfield said, “just enough to buy my kid a bike.” The country preacher, a decent enough sort, said, “well, would you consider a swap? You can have my bike and I’ll take the mower.” Mr. Porterfield thought that was a fine idea and the trade was made. In the hills, we are a bartering people.
Well, the preacher tried to start the mower and he pulled and he pulled and he pulled on that rope that is supposed to get the motor going. But it didn’t start. Soon, the preacher’s arm is tired and he’s drenched in sweat and he says to Mr. Porterfield, “how do you start the thing?!” Mr. Porterfield says, “you have to swear at it.” Now, this faithful Nazarene wasn’t comfortable with swearing, and said, “Mr. Porterfield, I’ve been saved and sanctified for so long I wouldn’t even remember how to swear.” Mr. Porterfield said, “keep pulling on that rope; it’ll come back to you.”[1]
In the gospel today, Jesus had a different sort of encounter with someone. It’s a long story, but a powerful one that communicates in that way that the art of storytelling does so well. Let’s look at some of what happens in this bit of sacred prose.
We learn that Jesus left Judea for Galilee and wound up going through Samaria. The Samaritans are culturally, geographically, even religiously different from Jesus’ people. They are the “other.” So from the beginning, we see Jesus modeling how we are to live. The other may be different, may look, sound, and even worship differently than we do, but that doesn’t make them of less sacred value than us.
Hot, and tired, he stops at an historic site, Jacob’s well. But he doesn’t have anything with which to draw water. So, he asks a Samaritan woman also at the well if he can have some of her water.
The woman is a little taken aback that he will even speak to her. She’s not accustomed to people like Jesus engaging people like her. We can see her point; the presumably male writer who tells her story doesn’t even show her the respect of telling us her name. She’s just this woman. And she says, “You are asking me for something?”
Jesus protests a little bit. He says, “I’m not like that. If you knew what I was really about, you’d like me. We’d develop that life-sustaining kind of friendship that doesn’t go away.” You drink, but you’ll get thirsty again. But love — that’s something that just goes on and on. Jesus says, “I’m not about condemning or judging or keeping prejudices and hatreds alive. I’m about love and the permanent, life-giving difference it can make.”
The woman, let’s call her Alice — everyone deserves a name — Alice says, “Whatever you’re selling, I’m buying.” If Jesus really is radically inclusive, unconditionally loving, then she’s ready to give him a chance to demonstrate it — because he’s the first person in her life who has been.
Now, within this artistic prose, full of storylines that cause our imaginations to call up pictures in our minds, we see even more art. Jesus starts to improvise with her…plays some theatre games with her. In other words, instead of making an argument, he SHOWS her what he means. He says, “Go get your husband.” Alice, maybe looking a little perplexed says, “I don’t have a husband.” And Jesus says, “I know it. You’ve had 5 husbands, and you aren’t married to the man you’re living with now.”
This is where some homilists go off on the loose morals of this woman and how forgiving Jesus is. In my view, they have totally missed the point.
In Alice’s culture and time, women cannot file for divorce. If Alice has been divorced 5 times, that means she has been abandoned 5 times. Men have left her. She hasn’t divorced, she has been divorced. Man after man has promised to love her, only to leave her before too long. Jesus sees her, really sees her, and says with love and compassion, “I know you’re not married. I know that man after man has promised to love you only to leave you later. And this latest winner hasn’t even bothered to marry you. I know how you have been judged and mistreated and excluded and hurt, and I say yes — you have something to offer. Of course I would take water from you. Of course, I want to speak to you. Certainly, I will befriend you. And yes, I’ll give you the kind of love that won’t dry up like regular water or the shallow promises of the men in your life.” Jesus isn’t judging her, he’s affirming her. And in this artful, imaginative tale of unconditional love and positive affirmation, Alice receives a miracle, as will we when we put ourselves in her place.
Alice says, “You’re good. But you’re people say you have to worship in the Temple. My people say you have to worship on a holy mountain. How do we get past the religious differences?” And Jesus says, “God’s not limited to a temple or to a mountain or to a group. God is big enough to love us all. God is the Breath of Life and can be worshiped by everyone who breathes and who participates in life.”
This story was written about three decades after the Temple of Jerusalem had been destroyed. So the author is telling us that where and how we worship may change — maybe our denominations merged, or died, or maybe we got kicked out. Who knows? Things change, but God is still available, universally available. The writer is also showing us that our enemy, really isn’t. We’re all children of God. And other children of God may have not treated us as their equals, but God does. In this story everyone is affirmed. No one is left out.
Why do we drum? Why do we dance? Why do we tell stories? Why do we sing? Why do we show slides? Why do we want the best possible organ? Why an orchestra? Why have beautiful stained glass? Because these artistic means, each in their own way, communicate the one message. Through beauty and celebration and affirmation, we are each lifted up and reminded of our sacred value. The message is too good to not communicate to as many people as possible in as many ways as possible. Amen.
© Durrell Watkins, Sunshine Cathedral, 2006
In poetry, prose, and preaching, I hear God’s Good News.
In singing and dancing and laughing, I celebrate God’s Good News.
In banners and windows and paintings, I see God’s Good News.
In the art of worship, I live and share God’s Good News.
I am now blessed, strengthened, comforted, and renewed.
That is Good News!
And so it is.
