Sermon: Within singeing distance

It may sound a bit unlikely, but reading through passage of John's gospel made me think of a comedy sketch by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie called ‘Argue the Toss'.  It is a satire on an arts criticism programme. Launching into a very pretentious discussion piece one of the pair starts up the conversation by saying, ‘I feel it works so well on two levels'. 

‘Only two?' comes the reply. 

‘Ah no, I was being simplistic. I meant five.' 

‘Five? I think I detected nine'. 

And so it goes on.

So, how many levels did you detect in the story of the woman at the well?

For me, one way into that question is to ‘compare and contrast' this story with the story from chapter 3 which we had last week, the story of Nicodemus. 

Certainly there are contrasts. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night but Jesus encountered the woman in broad daylight.  Nicodemus was a high-ranking important person in Jewish society but the woman was an outsider to that society, an untouchable perhaps.  And yet these contrasts can hide an important level at which the stories are similar. In both, Jesus was questioning and challenging tradition. His words and his actions were all giving the same underlying message. ‘Look forwards, not backwards. Think: ‘sprit, truth and love' not ‘tradition, law and compliance'.' Think ‘living water', not ‘well water'! Think ‘dynamic', not ‘static'! Think ‘flowing', not ‘stagnant'!

And there is yet another layer in this if we look at the process through which Jesus reveals himself to the woman.  It comes in several stages.

• First, he is a strange man who asks for water.
• Then he says, ‘but it is really I who have something for you'.
• And then his words disclose that he is a prophet.
• And finally he self-identifies as Messiah.

Stranger, giver, prophet and then Messiah.  It's quite a sequence. It's a story within the story.

But the way in which Jesus answers her question about whether he is the Messiah instantly adds yet another layer. When the woman starts to talk about Messiah, Jesus replies, ‘I am he'. But in the Greek the phrase is simpler. Jesus simply says, ‘I am'.  That's a direct reference to the story of Moses and the burning bush. Another strange, one to one, encounter with God out in the open. And here talk of layers sounds too thin. Here we must speak of depth.   

And another, similar but contrasting, depth is revealed if, like the scholar R.H Lightfoot, we contrast this story of the woman at the well with John's account for the passion of Jesus in John chapter 19.  (Lightfoot, R.H. St John's Gospel: A Commentary p122)

• Both begin with a note of Jesus' weariness or physical condition (4.6 and 19.1-2).
• Both have a reference to Jesus being thirsty (4.7 and 19.30) which is the only reference to Jesus' thirst in this gospel.
• And there is a similar Greek verb to be found both in Jesus' last words from the cross in (19.30) and his words later in this chapter (4.34).
• And again, and this is what clinches it for me, John is at pains to point out that both of these events occur at the sixth hour - high noon (4.6 and 19. 14).

What all this tells us is that the Jesus whom the woman meets at the well, like the Jesus who goes to the cross, is weary, thirsty, alone and yet both Messiah and gloriously Divine.  Thus this seemingly innocent story of the woman at the well points both back to the burning bush and on to the cross. In other words, it tells us a lot about God.

And so it is quite natural that the conversation at the well turns to the question of how to worship. ‘Who is right about worship', she asks, ‘the Samaritans who say that God must be worshipped on the mountain, or the Jews who say that God must be worshipped in Jerusalem?' (v20) William Temple, makes a helpful comment about this. Writing before the Second World War he says, ‘as so often with our Lord's reply to enquirers, it does not answer the question, but leads to ground where the question does not rise at all. It is often so. There is no Christian solution of the problems presented by human self-will; but there is a Christian cure for the self-will, and if that is effective the problems is (not solved but) abolished.' (Temple, W. Readings in St John's Gospel p 62.)

This community-searing and political dispute about the right place for worship is revealed, in this brief exchange, to be based on a wrong understanding of God.  Bad theology. And here we come back to one of the first layers that we encountered in this story. The one about the theology of tradition. This problem cannot be solved by the mere interpretation of tradition, the reading of the past. The correct understanding of tradition is to see it as forward-looking. John's witness is that while it is right to reference and absorb tradition, the spiritual reason for doing so is not to feel its backward pull but to experience its forward power. Thus John nudges us towards a proper theology of tradition, one that would see it not as magnetic or attractive but as kinetic and propulsive; not as the undertow that you feel in the surf but as the wave itself which is always driving forward. God's direction, God's trajectory, is forward, through time. And so Jesus is also forward-looking: forward to the saving revelation in cross and resurrection and forward to the coming of God's kingdom.

But I want to say a little more about worship and ministry, in particular that of cathedral liturgists. . The ministry of precentors and succentors can be simply put.  It is to help others worship well, to make the worship in the cathedral good.  But what makes good worship? Today's gospel tells us that ‘God is spirit and those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth.'  Thus truth - or integrity - and spirit - or freedom - are the key ingredients. 

But these powerful words are no mandate for liturgical anarchy or for avoiding the challenge of worshipping together as the ‘gathered church'. Rather it is because we recognise that it is humanly difficult to hold the assembly together in truthful and spiritual worship that church has liturgy. It is because there is so much more to doing this than reading a book in public that some are called to be practical liturgists. It is a challenging and costly calling. It involves occupying a contested and sometimes rather hot space with dignity and openness. It involves the stress of detailed preparation. It involves balancing the practical demands of the present, the emotional demands of the past and the theological imperatives that our belief in the priority of God's kingdom brings into the situation. Liturgical ministry, like all Christian ministry, is an art not a science. And like all good art it seeks to hide its workings. When it is successful the innocent observer can all too easily think, ‘there is not much to this' and fancy themselves an expert. And that this happens often is an unintended and unrecognised testimony to quality and skill.

There is much that might undermine the vocation and ministry of the practical liturgist.  But a faithful church will always want to encourage and support those whom God has called and equipped.  And this is as true of the practical liturgists as it is of any other minister. For it is demanding to stand so often within singeing distance of the burning bush. It is costly to keep getting wet while trying to dispense ‘living water'. It is challenging to be one who encourages people to approach Jesus like Nicodemus, in the dark, but to leave bearing the light of the risen Christ.

Our careful reading of John chapter 4 has revealed many layers, profound depths and real challenges.  But these all combine in the experience of worship. Let us end with some inspiring words about the power and importance of worship in sprit and in truth by the former bishop of Manchester whom I have already quoted:

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God

It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness

The nourishing of mind with His truth

The purifying of imagination by His beauty

The opening of the heart to His love

The surrender of will to His purpose

And all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable ... (Readings p68)

God is spirit, free and forward-looking, gracious and vulnerable. So let us ever worship God together in spirit and in truth.