We will be looking at two pieces of scriptures. They come from the gospel of John in the 3rd and 4th chapters and tell the story of two individuals from the different sides of the economic and cultural divide. Often these stories are preached separately but when compared and contrasted they display an incredible truth. As we look inside ourselves and confront our prejudices, expectations, priorities and even our worldview in this message series entitled glass houses. We hope to come to better understanding of what enslaves us and keeps us from more fully knowing Jesus and the value of his work for our salvation.
So in an effort to help us hear the stories in a fresh way, I would ask that you turn your attention to the screens on either side of the altar to hear the story of the woman at the well from John 4.
<Video link 2:40> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49BbfgJbto
“To be known and be loved” might also be Nicodemus the Pharisee’s life verse from Chapter 3 of John’s gospel. He longed to do it right. To follow where God was leading but his religious journey of absolute right and wrong was killing him slowly. He knew in the deep recesses of his soul that something was just not right. Now don’t be to judgmental of him because this happens to us as Christians too. Almost any time, we make our walk with God about doing or what we say we run the risk of making God Just another item on the to-do list. So when Jesus came with signs and wonders, he wanted, no needed, to investigate further. He came at night not wanting to be seen. He didn’t want jeopardize his standing. He didn’t want others to know that the hole in his soul was getting larger day by day. As he crept in and sat with Jesus, he heard the words that would change his life, “You must be born again.” Nothing seemed more absurd. He was still of the world. He had not yet come to know that “the love of the law” is not love. He asks questions. He was challenged. How could his love of law be so off track? Jesus shares with love and nick wrestles. Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, the flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to the spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘you must be born again’.” Nicodemus squirms in his seat. Jesus is relentless with his message, “for God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life in Him.” It’s a cosmic shift for Nick to move from “the love of the Law” to “the love of the Lord is the law.” It’s a simple phrase but a monumental shift in perspective.
-A perspective as different as the social and economic divide of the woman at the well and Nicodemus.
In the scripture, we see a woman from the wrong side of the river and a man from the right side of the establishment. One’s an outsider by birth place, marriage/divorce and economic status. The other is favored by heritage, education and wealth. One has spent a life chasing what feels good and the other has chased what culture has deemed proper and right. Both wrestle – sometimes consciously but most of the time subconsciously “to be known and to be loved.”
But don’t we all? There comes a point in everyone’s life where they lift their head from the toil of life and ask: is this all there is? Or as my favorite actor Jack Nicholson says, “what if this is as good as it gets?” Is what I spend the majority of my time actually of any value? Is this what I have been created for? In that moment, we are making a judgment about what is worthy and what we will worship. What will we give our lives too? Let’s face it, we all are worshiping something and in doing so we are making a decision for what will save us. There are hundreds of pseudo saviors: career, spouse, children, money, and even morality. All of which the world will deem as worthy because it lives by humanity’s internal compass – unfortunately, it’s a compass whose default setting is broken. Don’t believe me; watch a 3-4 year old lie or a 6 year old purposely disobey a direction. The priest and theologian Martin Luther liked the Latin phrase, “In curvatus in se” which means curved and turned in on itself. We are so instinctively self centered that we don’t believe we are as warped as we are. It’s almost impossible to fully know one’s self. So how can a warped mind then have a proper view of the world in which it lives? The answer is, “it can’t.” It is only through Christ coming that we get a glimmer of what a life worthy of honoring the and worshiping the creator looks like. We are inherently broken, we demand more and more from the world, only to arrive at a nexus moment in which we realize there is nothing we can do or achieve that will satisfy this deepest need within. It’s at that point; we must be willing to cast aside our presuppositions to achieve what our soul truly clamors for.
Both characters, the woman at the Well and Nicodemus, encounter Jesus longing for their souls to be satisfied. Jesus uses two different tactics: for the insider he uses direct and forceful and for outsider, the woman at the well, he is gentle and stresses openness. Now realize that both are equally lost in their sin. Nicodemus thinks he is better than he is and the woman thinks she is less of than she is because they both have subscribed to the same cultural presuppositions about how God operates. They are living with the cultural idea that God saves only the saint and condemns the sinner. Jesus, on the hand, is trying to get them to see that “all fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And that without Him, neither, can or will, be satisfied.
Can you imagine what could happen if we let go of our prejudices, expectations, priorities in favor of Christ’s viewpoint? What would happen to our church, our community our world if we made a decision to remove our judgment and condemnation of others and looked only to sharing the news of Jesus forgiveness and love?
Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death”
And
Romans 10:13 says, “For everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved.”
Imagine a world whereby each of us displaces our presuppositions and engages another in the desire to understand another so as to understand why God has created them, why they are of so much value he would die and rise for them and finally, why he would have your paths cross if not for us to learn more about Him and this life. TO FIND God’s value in them
Tell a story of someone you probably never would have hung out with otherwise except then there was no one else and you learned what God saw in them as he created them.
Imagine a world in which “To be known is to be loved. To be loved is to be known by Christ and to be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be saved by his action of love.”
https://communitycenter.life/rev-robert-butler-info
