June 23, 2013
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How does God view relationships?
Sacred texts:
Exodus 19:2-8
2 After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.
3 Then Moses went up to God, and God called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a monarchy of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
7 So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words God had commanded him to speak. 8 The people all responded together, “We will do everything God has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to God.
Matthew 8:5-13
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my house-boy lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my house-boy will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the monarchy of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the monarchy will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his house-boy was healed at that moment.
John 4:4-30, 39-42
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his children and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Creator neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Creator in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Creator seeks. 24 God is spirit, and worshipers of God must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When the Messiah comes, Christ will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am the Christ.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
End of sacred texts.
Everything comes down to relationships; our relationship with others, our relationship with ourselves, our relationship with the rest of creation, and our relationship with God. Relationships are foundational to the function of religion. The obvious relationship with an external force believed to have the power to control our circumstances. Every society as far as we can know has some form of religion, meaning an organized method of relating to the forces around us. Societies developed ritual practices in an attempt to either please or control the force and most likely a little bit of both. These religious practices quickly developed rules to control the relationship between people and to define the relationship between humankind and the rest of creation. It is not always clear to us how the desire to be in relationship with the Divine force evolved into controlling each other. It is clear that most religions have changed radically when they went from being persecuted by societies and governments to being the agents of society and government.
Political leaders have always sought to claim connection to the Divine as a way of maintaining control and punishing those who behaved outside the rules of the religion. During the time of the Original Testament nations had their own god and the gods of different nations and societies were expected to enter into the battles that were the result of human disputes. The power of a god was measured by the success of those who claimed that god as their own. Conquered people were subjugated to the authority of the god of the conquering people and they were forced to adopt that religion. One of the challenges for people of faith is to reconcile the stories of a national god with our understanding of the one God. The struggle is made more difficult by the vested interest of political authorities to claim God as being on their side. Abraham Lincoln is reported as having been asked if God was on the side of the Union and he replied the more important question was whether the Union was on God’s side. Similarly some have said it is more important the America blesses God than to ask God to bless America. If we seek to understand our relationship with God as one of our seeking to know and follow God then our religion and its impact will be very different than if we think of God as a source of giving us particular blessings withheld from others. The Exodus passage for today comes from the Hebrew tradition of being God’s chosen people, a treasure among the nations. Today, Christians read this passage as not a national treasure but as the treasured status of Christians over other faith traditions. I would suggest the passage teaches us about God’s love for one who hears God and seeks to obey God’s commandments regardless of what faith tradition has introduced one to God.
The word used in the oldest version of this passage we have today refers to the eagle using the feminine form. God is described as a mother eagle who teaches her young to fly by carrying them on her wings until they could soar as eagles themselves. God is portrayed as teaching us how to fly by example, by giving us commandments on how to live together in harmony, not as superior or inferior to each other or to creation but as one creation. It is only in finding this harmony with the rest of creation that we can find our harmony with God the Creator. We are challenged to give up the need to control others or the environment in our sense of superiority but to understand it is only when we live in harmony with each other and with the environment that we can live a truly peaceful and safe existence.
The two stories from the Gospels also talk about relationships. The first is the relationship of the Centurion and his companion. The original Greek words translated as servant were a combination of boy and servant and are best translated as house-boy because the words imply a greater level of intimacy than one would have with a servant. We cannot know if this companion was actually a sexual partner for the Centurion, they may have had a father/son type of relationship but they were clearly very close. Jesus honors this relationship without question. Jesus is impressed by the faith of the Centurion and his compassion for his house-boy. Jesus feels no need to clarify the relationship or judge whether the Centurion should have a house-boy or whether it was appropriate for there to be love between these two persons. Clearly to follow Jesus we need to be less concerned about whether we approve of a relationship and more concerned about bringing the power of God’s healing to the relationship.
This concept is even clearer in the story of the Samaritan women. On the surface, Jesus challenges the concept that Samaritans and women are outside of God’s compassion. If God were the God of the Jews, then Jesus would have nothing to do with a Samaritan. If God believes women are inferior to men, Jesus would not have brought the news of Messiah to a woman in a Samaritan village. Have you ever notice how often God has used women to announce God doing a new thing. The Samaritan women tells the village the Messiah is at the well and Mary tells the disciples that Jesus has risen. God clearly has a very trusting relationship with women and women are clearly open to hearing God tell them good news. This person is an outcast in an outcast community. The Samaritans are outcasts and she has had five husbands and is living with a man who is not her husband which would have made her outcast in the Samaritan culture of the day. I have been told the reason she came to the well at noon is because it would have been unsafe for her to come at other times when it would be cooler and others would be present. I can believe Jesus stopped at the well at this time knowing this woman needed to hear the good news of God’s love for her. Jesus did not condemn her for being a Samaritan nor did he condemn the fact that she had been in numerous intimate relationships. How often we miss the fact that Jesus does not tell her to get herself into a committed monogamous relationship so she can receive life giving water of God’s love. He doesn’t even tell her to go and sin no more. Jesus does not see this as an opportunity to tell us about the evils of intimacy with more than one person or the evil of living in a relationship not recognized or condoned by the moral or legal authorities of the day. Instead he uses this as an opportunity to share with her and through her with the rest of us God’s desire to satisfy our thirst. Maybe there is a couse and effect between her numerous relationships and the thirst Jesus seeks to quench. Maybe that is another sermon topic but for today it is only important that we recognize that Jesus accepts her and her relationships without judgment.
How does God view relationships? God views them as critical to our survival in this world as God created it. God has not created us to put us in dominion over each other and the environment. God has instead created us to be in relationship with the Creator and through that relationship to find our harmony with all of creation so we may live in peace and safety. Amen.
