×

The third Sunday in Lent

We have a story about a woman at a well. She is a Samaritan woman, drawing water at midday. As a Samaritan, she would have been rejected by Jews. Since she was drawing water at noon, we also know that she was also rejected by the other women in the town. Women got their water either early in the morning or late afternoon. They wanted to avoid the heat of the day. They wanted to avoid the direct noonday sun. They also would have wanted to have gotten the water early so that they could get on with the other work of the day. Why is this woman out here at noon. Why was she an outcast in her own town.

Jesus tells us why. He tells the lady that she has had five husbands, and the man she has now is not her husband. This is why she was an outcast. We do not know the exact circumstances of the five “husbands” she had had, nor do we know the exact circumstances of the man that she currently had. What we do know of the culture was that even if she were doing nothing wrong according to the law, since she had had so many husbands, she was not considered to be nice by the women of the community. She was not considered to be a “good person”.

I remember growing up in churches where they said that they were biblically based, but then they added rules that were not in the Bible. They added rules against smoking and drinking. They added rules against gambling and swearing. Let me be clear. There is a rule against swearing in Matthew 5. This is a rule against swearing oaths. This would mean that we could not swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; or to preserve protect and defend the constitution. If we actually followed this rule, given by Jesus himself, Christians would not be able to serve on juries, in public office, or in the military. This rule does not prohibit so called dirty language, as is prohibited on the radio. Such words are not prohibited anywhere in the Bible.

What has happened is that many Christians have replaced what the Bible says with a theology of being nice. It is well illustrated by the expression “don’t be angry, be nice.” This statement is anti-Christ. When Christ saw the money changers in the Temple he got angry. If we are able to see injustice, and not get angry, we are sinning.

This theology of nice is closely linked with a lie that there are good people. Jesus says that there is nobody who is good except for God. We are also told in 1 John 1:8 that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. This lie, that there are good people, and equating it with being nice, has made many churches impotent to address the issue of drug abuse in our communities. Jesus accepted people, just as they were. When church members do not accept people who smoke, people who abuse drugs or alcohol get the message that they also will not be accepted. Though they might not be able to state it this way, they realize that these people do not have a clue about the gospel, and that they need to keep looking.

What would these people be looking for? A church that actually preaches the scandal of the gospel. What is the gospel, and why is it scandalous? It is the message that we are all sinners, that we are all equally sinners, that we can do nothing to save ourselves, and that we are made right with God only through trusting God’s promise of forgiveness.

James 2:10 tells us that if we keep all the law, but fail in just one commandment, we are guilty of breaking all of the law. Jesus tells us that the first and greatest commandment is to love God perfectly. We do not do this for even a second, so every second of every day, we are sinning by what we are failing to do. We are not just all sinners, we are all equally sinners. (Those who think that they do not sin are pretending to be equal to God.)

Jesus expands, or binds, the law in order to show us that keeping the law is impossible. This is to force us to turn to him. It is to force us to turn to the cross. It is to make us to admit defeat, that we cannot save ourselves, and surrender to God’s grace. We cannot save ourselves: all we can do is trust God’s promise that we have been given forgiveness, and that it is purely a gift, not something we have earned. This is the gospel, that we are justified by grace through faith, and not in the least through our own works.

(“From the Pulpit” is a weekly sermon provided by the clergy members of The Weirton Ministerial Association)

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today