Bigger than we thought

If there is truly God, all these things will happen, and they will upset all of the little sandcastles we have built, like the rising tide washes clean the beach and puts things in a fresh order.

There are great parallels between what we discovered in the Gospel lesson last Sunday and what we hear today.

Last week we heard about Nicodemus the scholar slipping in to talk with Jesus by night.

Today it is Jesus meeting up with a woman at a public well in Samaria.

At first glance, they don't sound at all related.

But both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman want to have Jesus all neatly categorized, in a box of their own making, and in the end, irrelevant.

Nicodemus was the ultimate insider, scholar, teacher, socially prominent...academically curious.

He comes by night to ask questions from his lofty academic perch.

But Jesus will not stand still and fit within the neat categories he has constructed for him.

The Samaritan woman is the ultimate outsider.

She is the wrong gender, the wrong nationality, in the wrong place at the wrong time of day.

She has her own set of expectations as to who Jesus is and what Messiah is supposed to be like...

and Jesus doesn't fit them.

Insider Nicodemus and outsider Samaritan woman discover that Jesus can't be boxed in.

Jesus offers a different picture of reality, and he keeps offering it patiently and persistently,

until the time is right for the person to respond.

Since we know that Nicodemus came and helped to bury Jesus, we wonder if he came to faith after that night meeting.

Since we hear that the Samaritan woman kept asking the question as to whether Jesus might be the Messiah, we wonder if she also came to faith.

Through these stories, Jesus is challenging us also, whether we are insiders or outsiders.

Will we come to faith, or not?

Walker Percy writes about not praying for a miracle for his daughter dying of a cancer.

“Suppose I had prayed, and suppose God had answered that prayer with a 'Well, OK.'

How would I live the rest of my life?

It would have to be different, wouldn't it?”

As it happened, the girl died, he never did get around to praying,

and the man was thus able to hold onto all of his excuses for anger against God,.

He didn't allow any conversation with God to temper his cynicism or his hate.

But God is bigger than that box, he'll be back, he'll get at that man some other way that we don't yet know. Thanks be to God!

I had the opportunity to encourage a mother to keep on praying for her wayward son, one of the many who have no time for the Lord God Almighty, who apparently have made themselves a little, controllable, boxed-in god.

“Keep on praying,” I said to that mother.

“Keep on praying that God will shatter that boxed-in existence with a power, a presence, a goal much larger than your son can even imagine.

And keep on inviting him to be a part of this or another congregation, because it may be that we in this room are part of God's answer to your long-continued prayers,“

I said to the sad and anxious mother.

Jesus took the time to talk with Nicodemus when he could have been sleeping.

Jesus took the time to talk with the Samaritan woman when he could have just gotten a drink and been on his way.

Jesus will take the time that is needed in order to get through to us,

and also to get through us to others.

Here are two samples

“My service as a Stephen Minister is the best thing that has ever happened to me.” said one of our care givers,

who is understanding how life and work and service are interrelated in a different way.

And then from the care-receiver's side across the years we have heard things like:

“I've talked about important things with my Stephen Minister that I've never verbalized with anyone before”,

things about life and faith and relationships

things that I really have needed to think and to say.”

Jesus getting in and changing things.

Jesus breaking out of the little boxes we try to construct for him.

Jesus, bigger than we thought.

I came across an intriguing statement this week:

We know our discourse in meaningful not by what we have said but by what has yet to be said. Soul (that is, our connection with God) draws our speech forward in the direction of the unspeakable.

What is that author trying to say?

Jesus says several times that he has more to teach that his listeners are not yet ready to hear.

Part of the teaching will be in words, part in actions, and part in the kind of promises that have a heavenly fulfillment, ones that enliven us in anticipation.

We can spend a lifetime reading these same scripture stories, and each time benefit a bit more from them.

They shape us not so much from the past as from the future.

They pull us toward what Jesus intends us to become.

This is so much different than the small-box gods that we would construct on our own.

Those would be the easily controlled gods, the predictable gods, the gods who merely pat us on the back and tell us how wonderful we are by ourselves.

But the Lord God is not one of our construction, this God is not a projection of ourselves writ large.

This is the God who creates us with the capacity to say NO to him;

and who yet loves us in his creation so much

that he intends to woo us, entice us, encourage us to take the baby steps in the kingdom of God.

What wondrous love of God this is!

What patience!

What endurance on God's part

to keep working with the likes of Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and us!

As we talk with folks, we can discover that Jesus will use a variety of means to get through to us.

For some, it will come in worship.

For others, study will be the key.

Still others will see Jesus as they help someone in Jesus' name survive another day, and live to work on another problem.

We have known persons who have responded to Jesus in one or more of those ways.

It is always a joy when that happens.

Donna has an interesting technique to work with the dogs.

She will set out the toys or raw materials for what she wants to happen and then sit quietly with the dogs.

The dogs try to figure out what she wants to happen.

They will try picking up something, or stepping on a particular box, and whenever they do something even remotely close to what she desires, she sounds a click and gives them a bit of the food they crave.

The dogs will try again and again, and eventually may accomplish the task she intends for them.

There is no force applied, no punishments, just opportunities, and encouragement.

There is loving attention and purpose given by Donna, and the dogs respond with growth and action toward the goal that Donna has set.

It is an amazing process to observe.

Things are not that much different with us.

God has set before us a wild variety of resources.

We've attempted various things this week, some OK, some not so good.

We have the catechism [10 C, Creed, and LP] to keep us focused on the things Jesus desires us to know and do.

In worship and study and service we receive the encouragement from the Lord Jesus.

We are fed here with a sample of the heavenly banquet.

Each of these things is shaping us a bit at a time, so that in turn we will have that same effect on others, as does the Samaritan woman on her fellow villagers.

The death of God has been greatly exaggerated.

God is not dead; he has decided against the Thor-thunderbolt routine.

Instead he has chosen to work in quiet ways, exercising encouragement rather than force.

What wondrous love is this... [LBW385]

Truly, this is a God bigger than we thought,

more complex, more wonderful than we imagined,

and more determined in ever to get through to you and to me.

Not in fear, but in joyful anticipation we say “Come, Lord Jesus, quickly come.” AMEN.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.