- Sermon - Mickey Anders

Text: John 4:28-30, 39-42

I suppose most people grow up with a family repertoire of pithy sayings. Perhaps in your family, you had worthy sayings like, "The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."

But in my family, we had "old sayings." In fact, my grandmother began most of her sentences with the preface, "As the old saying goes,…" She would quote sayings like this:
"As the old saying goes, she's as jumpy as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs."
"As the old saying goes, he's lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut."
"I'll be there, as the old saying goes, the Lord willing and the creek don't rise."
"As the old saying goes, I feel like I wuz rode hard and put up wet."
"As the old saying goes, this thang is plum whomper-jawed."

One of my favorites from my Arkansas days was "As the old saying goes, every tub sits on it's own bottom." I don't think I have heard that colorful phrase since I have moved to Kentucky, so you may be unfamiliar with it.

"Every tub must sit on its own bottom" seems to be obvious. A tub can't very well sit on another tub's bottom. The meaning, of course, is that people have to be responsible for themselves. There are certain matters about which we must be independent. There are some things that no one else can do for us. We must take care of our own matters. We must sit on our own bottom.

I thought of this old expression when I read the story about the people of Sychar, and how they responded to the woman at the well. This is one of the most popular and familiar stories in the Gospels. And as I studied it early in the week, I discovered that it was filled with sermon opportunities.

Sychar was an ancient town about a half mile from the site where Jacob had dug a well 2000 years before. The town nestled against the southeastern slope of Mount Ebal. It was, no doubt, a very typical town. Every town has its outcasts, and Sychar had the woman at the well. And there I found the first sermon possibility. There is a sermon in the woman at the well.

We really know only two things about this woman – she came to the well at noon and Jesus said she had had five husbands and was now with a man to whom she was not married.

The fact that she came at noon is the most revealing fact. Most of the women came together in the cool of the day, but this woman intentionally came to carry water in the hottest part of the day, apparently so that she would not run into others. It is safe to say that she was either a loner or an outcast.

But what about those five husbands? Many have used this bit of information to paint her as a bad woman. But Fred Craddock says that interpreters have largely been unfair to this woman. He says, "Evangelists aplenty have assumed that the brighter her nails, the darker her mascara and the shorter her skirt, the greater the testimony to the power of the converting word. (On the other hand) critics of institutional religion who find all church members false and empty but all thieves generous, all drunks lovable and all hookers deeply spiritual heap upon the woman of Samaria both praise and sympathy."

Craddock points out that we really do not know the circumstances of this woman’s six relationships with men. Did her five marriages end in death, divorce or legal tangles? Or was she merely promiscuous? We really do not know.

But we do know that she came to the well expecting to be alone. Much to her surprise there was a stranger there, a Jewish man who was tired from his journey. She expected him to ignore her as she drew her water from the well and returned to Sychar. Instead, the man asked directly, "Give me a drink."

And there is a sermon in the bridging of the barriers between Jesus and this woman.

She replied, "How is that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" Then John goes out of his way to explain that Jews and Samaritans do not get along. The parenthesis in verse 9 says, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.”

To an outsider, the hostility between Jews and Samaritans is surprising. Samaria is and was a part of the land of Israel. In fact, the Samaritans share the exact same heritage as the Jews.

Their faith was almost identical. They both continued to worship the same God in largely the same way. The main difference was the location of their holy site. The Samaritans had chosen Mt. Gerazim, within sight of Sychar. The Jews had chosen Jerusalem, off to the south.

But some of the Samaritans had intermarried with foreigners, so they were not pure blood, according to the Jews. So, as often happens, great prejudice developed among these two groups.

Not only did Jesus shock the woman by speaking to her, but he also launched into a spiritual discussion about living water. Surely there is a sermon in the living water.

He said, "If you knew who I was, you would ask me for living water."

As John often does, he tells the story on two levels at the same time. The woman thinks he is talking about water from the well, and quickly points out that he has no bucket.

Again, Jesus talks to her on a spiritual level saying, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."

The woman's reply shows that she is still thinking about real water. She says, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

In an effort to get this woman's mind off the mundane and onto the spiritual, Jesus decides to give her a clue about his identity. He says, "Go, call your husband, and come back." There is a sermon in Jesus' attitude about her relationships with men.

She replies, "I have no husband."

Jesus says, "You are right, for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband."

The woman immediately recognizes that this man is at least a prophet. He finally has her attention and her focus on spiritual matters. But she now wants to talk about the differences between the Jews and Samaritans, "Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."

There is a sermon in the discussion about true worship.

Like Alexander Campbell, Jesus was not interested in discussing the differences in sectarian beliefs. He moves the discussion further up and transcends the differences between Jew and Samaritan. He says, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

Finally, Jesus has this woman's attention. She now realizes that he is more than a prophet, maybe even the long-expected Messiah. She says, "I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us."

Jesus replies, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

There is a sermon in Jesus admission that he is the Messiah.

At this point the disciples, who had been sent to Sychar to buy food, arrive back on the scene and are much surprised that Jesus is talking to a woman. But none of them was willing to confront Jesus and ask him why he was speaking to a woman. Their arrival puts an end to this conversation between Jesus and the woman.

She left her water jar at the well and went back to the city. She, of all people, becomes a very effective witness for Jesus.

There is a sermon is the way this woman witnesses. She says, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?"

I love the humility of her witness. She is not overbearing, dogmatic, or pushy. Her witness begins with "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done." It's as if she were saying, "Come and see for yourself." She does not come with a four-point witness, arguing her case. Instead, she invites - "Come and see for yourself."

And then she plants a seed about Jesus being the Messiah, but she does it using the negative. "He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" I find it very interesting that she does not say, "He is the Messiah." Or even, "I think he is the Messiah." Instead she asks a question, "He cannot be the Messiah, can he?"

Her humble, indirect witness turns out to be perfect for this audience. Many of the Samaritan people left the city of Sychar and made their way to the well to meet this Jesus.

All of those would have made good sermons, I am sure. But the sermon that jumped out at me came in the last few verses. Listen again to verses 39-42, "Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony… And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, 'It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.'"

You know what they were saying? They were saying, "We believe because every tub sits on its own bottom." There are some things that no one else can do for us.

I once sat down for a church dinner, and one of the members could not eat the pizza because of her new diet. She said, "I love that pizza so much, but now I can't have any. I want you to eat a piece for me." Well, I gladly obliged and ate two pieces just for her.

But we all laughed about the joke, because everyone knows no one can eat for another person. And no one can grow spiritually for another person either. Every tub must sit on its own bottom.

I love this concluding line of this story because it points to an experiential religion, a faith that is experienced for oneself. "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

Some people may think they can ride the coattails of another's faith. Some think they are right with God because they were born into a Christian family. Some think because their parents are deacons, elders or ministers in the church, then they too will be right. Some people say, "Well, I was born into the Disciples of Christ." One might well retort, "If you were born in the back seat of a car, would that make you a Chevrolet?"

I believe the individual stands before God alone. The witness of the woman at the well was one thing, but the people of Sychar had to hear it for themselves.

I wish I could make others grow spiritually. Some people want to be spoon-fed their spiritual growth. I wish it was as simple as changing the oil in my automobile. Drain out the old contaminated oil, and pour in the new. Drain out the old sinful self, and pour in a loving, kind, gentle spirit just like that of Jesus. If it were that simple, church work would be the most rewarding of professions.

But in fact, no one can do it for another. The reason church work can be so frustrating is that one can preach and pray and work a lifetime and never see some people changed.

In the spiritual life, change must come from within. The Bible has a great power to change us, but only if we read it and study it and apply it to our lives. Prayer can bring a grace-filled life, but only if we dedicate the time and energy into it. Service to others has a transforming power, but only if we can look beyond our own selfishness long enough.

I hope that we will all come to the place where we can also say, 'It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.'" Remember, every tub must sit on its own bottom.