Boundless Grace
Part III of "Boundaries and Beyond"
by Rev. Dr. Michael Stotts

John 4:5-42

If someone comes up and starts talking to you--someone you don't know---how do you react? The Samaritan woman here was shocked. She was a woman alone. And this Jewish man--Jesus-- suddenly appears--in the noonday sun when she thought she'd be alone at the well. She was shocked even further that he'd strike up a conversation with her--even asking her to give him a drink! If you think about it, we probably would have been shocked, too. For isn't it true that our world teaches us all kinds of boundaries, between ourselves and others, that ought to be respected--never crossed.

In this Lenten season, we've been exploring boundaries--those that God wants us to draw around our lives, with regard to some kinds of behaviors, but also other boundaries that clearly the Lord wants us to get beyond--with an openness and love toward others, our world, and God. Today, as we heard the dialogue between Jesus and this Samaritan woman, and how he gets beyond some of the discriminatory boundaries between different groups of human beings, we come to know Jesus and who he is. Jesus we see here at the well, is one who comes to bring grace from God-- a forgiving and accepting love that calls us also to reach beyond the boundaries that divide us as human beings-- and instead to share, well . . a righteous grace with others.

For what was all that about living water, if it wasn't about grace. Think how refreshing it is in our world today--that so likes to be a world of people judging one another--how refreshing it is when instead someone treats you with a love that accepts and cares for you as your are, faults and all. Isn't that refreshing? Doesn't it revive you--like living water? Exactly like the waters of baptism, which tell us that God has that type of forgiving, accepting love--grace, for us. We're loved from the beginning, with the living waters of baptism, signifying God's love for us, as we are--faults and all--a love we call . . .grace.

And Jesus begins that process here, for the Woman at the well. Just to strike up a conversation with her, and care about her--he a Jew and she a Samaritan--yes shocks her at first, but then amazes her--gets her attention, and becomes a refreshing well of new life possibilities for her.

So how do we find and share that living water ourselves, in our own lives? Well first, clearly, by sharing a forgiving, accepting love with others beyond the usual boundaries we draw between us and others. Yes, sharing a grace-filled love across the boundaries we've too often put up--between us and those we don't like, or those who aren't like us, or those who aren't of our own group, or those we shun, even put away somewhere, because they've done wrong? Yes, to discover the living water that Christ is talking about we have to find ways to get beyond our usual divisions between each other, and begin instead to share a refreshing grace-- a love that takes others, loves others, as they are.

Do you have occasions like I do when suddenly you realize with horror how discriminatory you are? That is, how you'll often make snap judgments about people, and mentally put them in one group or another?: those you like and those you don't--those who are my kind of people, and those who aren't? What's especially harmful about that kind of common mental process is that we shut out many people who we might very well come to love and have close friendships with--if only we'd get to know them. If only we'd get beyond those mental boundaries that have shut them out.

Yes, too often we're like, well like the young people in a brief but telling article I ran across several years go. The article, which was both humorous and telling, appeared in Harpers Magazine. Talking about a certain group of children. It said:"The rules of a secret society of 9 and ten year-olds, in a certain community on Long Island, that shall here be nameless, are as follows: (The rules?:)

1. Do not tell a white lie, unless necessary.
2. Do not hurt anyone in any way.
3. Do not hit anyone-- except Ronny.
4. Do not tell a black like.
5. Do not use words worse than "brat"
6. Do not curse at all.
7. Do not make faces, except at Ronny.
8. Do not be selfish.
9. Do not make a hog or a pig of yourself.
10. Do not tattle, except on Ronny.
11. Do not steal, except from Ronny.
12. Do not destroy other people's property, except Ronny's.
13. Do not be a sneak.
14. Do not be grumpy, except to Ronny
15. Do not answer back, except to Ronny

Yes, except Ronny. Without realizing it, are we like the children in that club--so selective in who we relate to in God's world, we draw boundaries around our group, and become selective in who we love? Do we even become selective in the sharing of God's love--sharing it with everyone, except the Ronnies we want to exclude?

Oh we may think we're more loving toward others than that. But think about it. Around how many places in your life, have boundaries been drawn specifically to keep others out who we don't like, or aren't our kind, or just aren't in our group. We learn such behavior at an early age. Was your high school, for example, as full of cliques and exclusive groups as mine was?

In high school, when I was growing up, in the high school cafeteria the kids you sat down with to eat your lunch were always the same people, and woe unto you if you dared to sit at the table of the popular kids, or the geeks, or the jocks! You had to be with your group. But what a shame that was, for it meant that some perfectly nice kids never got to know each other, and to learn from being with different kinds of people--not to mention just learning to get along with those different from them.

And do you know, when I went back for my 20th reunion, years later, the same old cliques were still there? People still sat at table with the same old group, and there was no attempt to get us to cross those old invisible boundaries that divided us all.

Clearly, as Jesus reaches out to the woman at the well, with an accepting grace, it is a call to us to begin reaching beyond all those divisive boundaries we've put up between us, and instead begin to share grace--an all accepting, forgiving love with far more people than we most often do. Look at Jesus behavior here. It teaches us: sharing the water with her, even between two people who in their world, propriety would have told them they should never be talking to each other. It was clear she needed that grace, for her world had made her a "Ronny", too. You can imagine what she'd heard in her world--the boundaries her world had taught her: "We don't associate with those Jews, not us Samaritans , and certainly it's improper, for a man to directly interact with a woman, when they're by themselves--not to mention that it's inappropriate to associate with this woman!"

Yes, her world--her community had made her a "Ronny", too, hadn't they? Jesus calls us to reach beyond those discriminatory boundaries that are far more prevalent in the way we relate to others than we often realize. He calls us to reach beyond those divisions, with a caring, accepting, even forgiving love. With grace.

Then notice, that the refreshing water Jesus shares with the woman, the Living Water, as he refers to it, not only is full of grace--acceptance, love and some forgiveness. It is also a righteous grace that he shares. That is it's a loving, caring judgment, that in a merciful way calls the woman to change her ways--this woman, who is seen as sinful apparently, by her community--so much so she has to sneak to the well in the heat of the noonday sun, to avoid others. That tells us something, too, doesn't it? That while offering a loving, accepting, grace-filled care toward all peoples, yet it's often important to share a loving, or gentle judgment toward others--calling a sin a sin, as it were--to force someone to recognize how they in fact are only hurting themselves by their behavior. The woman at the well became a new person when she was loved and accepted by Jesus, but yet confronted, then, by him about her sinful ways. He made her face herself, and tear down those self-deluding boundaries that we sometimes put up-tear them down, to see how we're hurting ourselves.

You see, it was a kind of righteous grace that Jesus sought to teach us, as he reached across all those boundaries to care for this woman at the well. He was forgiving and loving, yet showed her a new and right path in the process.

I'll never forget a time when a parishioner in one of the church's Peggy and I served, was very much changed, because, I acted toward him with a kind of loving judgment, and he in turn was open enough, loving enough to accept it. The man was a leader in this particular church, but a kind of behind the scenes leader. Unfortunately he had a kind of gruff attitude if you will--came off as being too judgmental at times, and in a grumbling way. So I began to notice when I first moved there that while he did a lot of work for the church, yet still he was often obstructive. When we were in meetings, it seemed like he would always be the one to point out some objection--as if he was purposely trying to find fault all the time. One time, we had an Administrative Board meeting--in that church it was a large Board, and this individual, and a close friend of his , kind of sat outside the circle around which everyone else was seated, and throughout the meeting it seemed he and his friend were complaining to each other about what was under discussion, and as usual this complaining lay person, only spoke up and participated in negative ways.

So finally, on an important vote for the church that was under discussion, when once again he raised an objection about something, I'd had enough, and said to him, Les, everyone else seems to be okay with this, so unless you have something positive to say, we need to agree to this and move on. Well that very much quieted him for the rest of the meeting.

Now of course I worried that night afterwards, and the next morning, about whether I'd chased him away altogether. (Oh, some people we may wish that would happen to at one moment, but when we think about, you hate to hurt anyone and feel that you just can't get along). Well fortunately, in this case, the man called me, that very next morning and said he'd like to come see me. So I said, "of course, come ahead."
When he arrived, as he began to tell me what he wanted to talk about, he surprised me at first by saying something like "I got the feeling you were angry with me, Mike, for some reason. Is something wrong?" Well, 'Good!' I said to myself. I could be truthful with him! And I was. I said,"Well, yes, I was upset and concerned about you because I sensed that in your dealings with people you come across as always being very negative and complaining."

Well he was surprised by that, and he told me that really, most of that demeanor was kind of his "act"--that he saw himself as a curmudgeon--a kind of grumpy but friendly grandpa. Well I thanked him for explaining, but then said that unfortunately, his 'act' was often taken by people as criticism, and that he was turning people away. I told him I thought he was an important person in the church, and that people listened to him, so I needed his support with things, not his criticism all the time. Well he seemed to accept that, or at least to say he'd think about it.

I wondered if I had helped or turned him away. But you know what? He loved that church, and to hear how he was perceived by others brought him up short, apparently. Woke him up. And do you know that thereafter, he be-came a much more caring and yes positive force in the church--more of a loving grandpa, for everyone, instead of a complaining one, and very much helped us move forward in that church community in some positive ways.

Living water, you see--that refreshes us and makes us new persons--when we hear the message that we are loved but yet are helped to see clearly, where we have gone wrong. If that kind of judgment is shared in a caring way, or if shared with us, and we're open and accepting and grace-filled enough about others to listen, then new life can occur in our relationships, in our lives--a gift of living water from God!
Let that water--that grace from God that loves you, yet help you see a new path. Let that grace renew your life today--yes, like living water. Look and see where God's love gives you the courage to become a new person--the person God lovingly wants you to be today--a person who reaches beyond the boundaries of fear or exclusiveness, to love others and the world with grace. How refreshing that living water can be. It leads to a new life of loving others, and bringing others to new life--with a righteous but loving . . . grace. That's a kind of water worth . . . well, worth living for. Living water, indeed! Amen.