“Be the change.” I’ve always admired that succinct exhortation that puts responsibility on us to to make a difference in the world. But the admiring is quite different from the executing.
I think of Jesus taking a detour into a Samaritan village just to talk with a woman who had taken five husbands. (John 4:17-18). It’s a rare appearance by Jesus in Samaria, which would have been considered an outlier in Judaism in his time.
This woman was also an outsider: a five-time loser, a Samaritan, and a follower of a mountain cult, who thought God was located in high places. None of this puts her at the center of Jewish religious thinking. Yet Jesus made a detour to speak specifically with her.
I don’t believe this was entirely intentional on Jesus’ part. He went to the local well, as any traveler might. He asked for water from a woman who had a shady past, and then used the occasion to offer her living water, a rather obscure blessing. Over a simple transaction, Jesus had gone from physical to spiritual needs and ended up preaching to an entire town about the kingdom of heaven. He seized the opportunity.
Sometimes we infer too much from scripture. We don’t need to go to a local watering hole and preach. The point, I think, is that we can offer faith, hope and love to people most unlike us and especially people down on their luck. We probably meet these people every day, but they are invisible to us, because we prefer to hang out with the most respectable, people like us..
The main point lies here. People not like us. They could be from South or North, vegetarians or carnivores, Republicans or Democrats, hockey fans or badminton fans, but a little off our center. Those are God’s people; we need them more than they need us.
Even in writing this blog, I anticipate those who read it will be more like me. So I’m thinking I need to branch out. Or maybe find another medium of communication. Not sure where to take this, but I’m conscious of sitting in my comfort zone.
That’s what I get from the Woman at the Well story: looking for opportunities to meet people less like us. From Jesus’ point of view, he could not have found someone less like him, someone who did not even honor this Galilean coming to the well without a pitcher or cup to drink from. The Samaritan woman had to step over boundaries to even talk to Jesus, and so did he.
For most of us it’s about opportunities, not explicit missions. We are not all called to full-time service, but full-time willingness. That’s barely a step beyond the comfort zone. That’s a good word for someone like me or not at all like me. That’s all there is to spreading the Gospel.
As Brian Mclaren says,
God’s message of love is sent into the world in human envelopes. If you want to see a great spiritual migration begin, then let it start right in your body. Let your life be a foothold of liberation. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox/FMfcgzQVzNwdqBvfxhlnjNjKvRsTTgrS
Bill Tucker
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