Spiritual Hearsay

Lectionary Reading: John 4:5-26

Hearsay – (def) –1: talk or opinion widely disseminated with no discernible source 2: a statement or report current without known authority for its truth. (Miriam-Webster Online).

As Christian people we are taught to avoid “heresy” (ideas or opinions contrary to the position of the official “church”). However our faith and our world would be much better if we were taught to avoid “hearsay” as well. Spiritual hearsay are the things we are told or believe about the Bible with almost no real evidence, scholarship or reason. Sometimes we repeat things other pastors have told us (repeating what they heard from someone else most likely) or we just hear something that “sounds right”. Either way, Spiritual hearsay is all around us. Think of the things we hear from pillar, pulpit and post:

“Well, the Bible says ‘God helps those who help themselves’.”
No, it doesn’t. Benjamin Franklin said it (and it was an Athenian Proverb from Ancient Greece before Ben published it).

“Mary Magdalene was a prostitute”
No, she wasn’t. There is no biblical evidence to support that view – just popular (and papal) gossip.

“The Samaritan Woman whom Jesus met at the well was a shameful woman who drew water in the middle of the day when the other women weren’t there because she didn’t want to face society.”

Not necessarily. She could be there at the time for any number of reasons including she was drawing water to feed livestock back from droving (like women in the OT), or she just wanted a drink in the middle of the day or the Holy Spirit brought her to the well to prepare her for an encounter with the Messiah. For centuries, this poor woman has carried a mantle of “shame” that is nothing but unnecessary gossip preached from the pulpit.

Dr. Frances Gench called this kind of church sanctioned character assassination “interpretive litter” in a lecture I attended last fall. To paraphrase her, “I often go to Wal-mart in the middle of the afternoon to accommodate my schedule or sometimes can’t sleep and shop at 2:00 AM. I would hate for people to announce from the pulpit I am a woman of loose morals, simply because I shop at odd hours.”

Yet year and after year, sermon after sermon – the poor Samaritan Woman is relegated to the “bad girls” of the bible on nothing but circumstantial evidence at best. In fact, clergy get so excited about talking bad about her and the fact that even though she must be a terrible sinner – Jesus talked to her – they miss so much of what this story really could teach us. Let’s look at a few of the real lessons in this wondrous tale.

A life of racism

We know she has lived a life separated from Jews, and has felt the sting of prejudice. She’s shocked when Jesus – a Jewish male - talks to her – a woman, and a Samaritan. She has been used to being treated “less than” because of her race, and her gender. She is astounded and taken aback by the equality represented in this conversation.

In our xenophobic country, where the immigration debate sometimes hinges on the fact laborers from Mexico don’t readily assimilate into American culture (because we are egocentric enough to think they should turn their back on their beautiful language, their rich heritage, and their family-centered lives), we need this woman’s experience to ring in our hearts more than ever. We need to remember Jesus encountered people on his life journey every day who had been separated and stung by racism and cultural ignorance and what he did was treat them with respect, guidance, generosity and hope. He didn’t suggest she should stop being a Samaritan (as if she could. As if any of us can truly stop being the person God made us to be) nor did he withhold the good news from her because she wasn’t a “citizen” of the temple. He explained that the day was coming when all people would have a chance to access the Messiah equally and worship in spirit and truth.

A life of loss

Of course, a lot of the “shame” people have dumped on her shoulders is due to the fact she tells Jesus she has no husband, and he rightfully assesses she has had 5 husbands and the man she is living with now is not her husband. Does that mean she’s a prostitute or loose woman? Certainly not.

She could have been legally divorced (“put away”) because she was barren, and the law allowed for that to happen so a man could have children by a wife. She could have lost her husbands to death – life expectancy was very low and disease, hunger, Roman occupation or farm accidents could easily take her men away. We don’t even know how old she is. We don’t know about the man she has now – is he a lover, a neighbor who has taken her in as a servant (to fetch his water in the middle of the day), a lame or blind man who requires her help but can’t marry her in the temple? In short – we simply don’t know.

What we do know is that this woman has had a life of loss. For whatever reason her marriages were ruined, lost or taken. She was involved with vows and promises 5 times and each time something disappointed her. How heart breaking her life must have been. Jesus rightfully tells her story to prove to her he is a prophet. He also rightfully understands that what this woman needs is not our judgment and scorn, but our empathy and our hope for her future. In meeting Jesus her life will change. She has found the one whom, in spirit, she will never lose.

In a world of divorce, multiple divorce, blended families and all kinds of family units – let us not be so quick to condemn, but be swift with mercy, hope and love. We don’t need to know someone’s “story” to know that the story of Jesus says we are to love first, foremost and always.

A life of thirst

The woman has lived a life of racism, sexism, injustice, disappointment and change. She, like any who have been denied justice, security and constancy – has developed a thirst. A thirst for a God who will never forsake her or take her loved one, a thirst for equality and spiritual freedom, and a thirst for hope and peace.

I’ve had that thirst. Maybe you too? I have had a thirst for a family who would love me without harm, and a community which would accept me without expecting to me fulfill their expectations of my personhood. I have had a thirst for justice for the poor and poorly educated, so that opportunities are given to them to know real peace, real hope and real escape from hunger and disease. I have a thirst to see people in community, and worship filled with diversity. I have a thirst to know the Messiah has come and because he has come, our world will be different, better and whole.

Perhaps I find myself frequently defending the Samaritan Woman because we have the same thirsts, and because we have the same experience. We have both met the Messiah, and he has told us both the truth about our lives. He gave us living water that will never run dry, and he sent us both into our community to tell the others the light of life has come. Once we dispel the need to cast her as a villain – we see her as she could truly be: as our sister, our mother, our daughter, our friend – certainly our neighbor.

Perhaps if we all stop with the spiritual hearsay, and look at spiritual truth – that we are all God’s children and all able to encounter the sacred (no matter what time we go to the well) – we would know a stronger forgiveness in our own lives, and feel a more sincere welcome in our churches, hearts, and homes.

Let us pray for that day, now and ever more. Amen.