Once again, by remarkable co-incidence, our Gospel reading for today coincides very nicely with our sermon series about 'Marks' - or characteristics - of an authentic church. We have so far covered six out of the ten topics that I want us to explore.
- We've thought about how we need to reflect Jesus' priority for the poor and the sick.
- We've explored how wide and generous is God's grace to us.
- We've mused about how to understand sin as the absence of Love, and
- how Christians need to be producers not consumers.
- Two weeks ago, we considered how we can have an intelligent understanding of Scripture;
- and then last week Fr James invited us to think about how to blend the scientific with the mystical.
Now, having listened to the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, I'd like us to think about how we are called to be 'tolerant and open to all'.
The Samaritans were people who lived in what had been the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Their capital city, Samaria, was located between Galilee in the north and Judea in the south. The Samaritans were a racially mixed society - with both Jewish and pagan ancestry. Although they worshiped Yahweh like the Jews, their religion was not mainstream Judaism. For example, they accepted only the first five books of the Bible as canonical (or legitimately from God), and their temple was on Mount Gerazim instead of on Mount Zion in Jerusalem (Jn 4:20).
The Samaritans of Jesus' day were strict monotheists. In some respects they were more strict than Jews about the commands of the Mosaic law, especially the sabbath regulations. In some ways there are similarities between Samaritans and the stricter forms of Islam that we encounter today. They were fiercely bound by rules, and utterly convinced that only their interpretation of Scripture was the right one.
The Samaritans were despised by ordinary Jews, and they believed that contact with a Samaritan would contaminate them. For example, Jews who were traveling from Judea to Galilee would cross over the river Jordan, bypassing Samaria and then cross over the river again as they neared their destination. The Samaritans also hated the Jews just as much! (Lk 9:52-53). And as our Gospel story for today tells us, Samaritans and Jews would not normally even drink from the same well.
Can you imagine, then, the reaction that Jesus would have got by spending any time at all with a Samaritan - let alone asking for water from their well? Even today, people get very twitchy indeed if our leaders have any kind of contact with people we hate. Many of the negotiations which took place with the IRA in the 1990s had to be done in secret, because the public would not have stomached our leaders talking with terrorists. If you listen to any political radio debate today, it is often striking how many political opponents won't even sit in the same studio as each other. Instead, the interviewer has to ask questions of one side, and then later put the same questions to the other. It's as though politicians fear that if they sit in the same studio as someone from an opposing view-point, that they will somehow be contaminated by them - or that supporters will think they've gone soft.
Sadly, the same is true in matters of religion and morality too. Many high-church or orthodox leaders will simply have nothing to do with, say, evangelical or charismatic Christians - and vice versa. Different Christian groups look down on each other with disdain, believing somehow that God has shown only them the correct way to worship, and the only way of interpreting the Bible. Across different faiths, it is sad but true that many senior Christian leaders have never set foot in a mosque or a synagogue. Many Muslims and Jews have never entered a church.
Jesus cuts through all this stupid separation between peoples. He asks for a drink from a Samaritan well, and then enters into a tolerant an open debate with a Samaritan woman. Among many topics that they range over, a central one is the question of where it is most correct to worship God. Jews had a temple on Mount Zion, and the Samaritans had theirs on Mount Gerazim. Which one was right?
But notice how Jesus doesn't let himself be drawn into the question of who is right or wrong about where to worship. Instead, he cuts straight through such petty issues, and points to a much deeper, greater truth. "The time is coming", he says, "when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth". In other words, he says, the question of where to worship is so much less important than the question of how to worship. Wherever worship happens, it should be done in 'spirit and in truth' - or perhaps we could say, with the soul and the mind, or with spirituality and integrity.
Jesus, then, cuts through the petty squabbles of humanity (the questions about who is right or wrong) and points us back to the source of all life, our heavenly Father. He reminds us that we are all children of God, and we are all capable of worshipping God in spirit and in truth, not least through him who reveals to us what the Father is like.
An authentic church, then, is one which, following Jesus, refuses to let itself get locked into silly debates about what is right or wrong about our religious practices. An authentic church, is one that recognises that people have a wide and varied understanding of God, and that no-one but Jesus himself can legitimately claim to be right on almost any topic you care to mention. Is it right for women to be Bishops? Only Jesus knows. Is it right for gay people to be married to each other? Only Jesus knows. Is it right for priests to wear robes, or would a shirt and jeans be easier for non-Christians to relate to? Only Jesus knows. Is it better to sing ancient hymns to the sound of an organ, or to crank up a drum-kit to the sounds of Graham Kendrick? Only Jesus knows. Is the celebration of the Lord's Supper properly called a 'Mass' or a service of 'Holy Communion'? And should there be 'smells and bells', or not? Only Jesus knows. And fortunately, or unfortunately (depending on your feelings in the matter) he is not recorded as having said anything at all about such matters - at all!
An authentic church, then, holds onto its theological views and its traditions rather lightly. But it doesn't stop searching for meaning and for truth. True tolerance, between people of different beliefs, is not about creating a melting pot, where all ideas are up for grabs, and where nothing matters any more. To worship God in spirit and in truth means that we have to keep on doing the hard work of seeking God with heart and mind. The word tolerance doesn't imply the creation of a blended soup, where all the flavours run together until there is no distinctive taste at all. Rather, true tolerance is more like a tossed salad. Flavours (or ideas and views) find a way to live alongside each other, accepting with humility that no-one but Jesus has the authority to judge between different ideas about God. An authentically tolerant church takes seriously the command to 'judge not, lest ye be judged'. It focuses, instead, on helping all people, wherever they come from, whatever their background, to begin to see God in spirit and in truth.
This is, in fact, one of the specific and deliberate features of what it means to be Anglican. The Anglican church is a messy place, without a doubt. We argue and debate all sorts of different understandings about tradition and theology. We have charismatics and orthodox churches. We have liberals and conservatives. We have traditionalists and modernists...but we are all Anglicans. We all worship, in each Diocese, under the authority of one Bishop, whose role is to be a focus for unity for an infinitely wide and diverse bunch of people.
In May, I will be travelling back to Ghana, to spend time with my friend Bishop Matthias and his clergy. Matthias and I disagree on almost every aspect of theology and church practices that you could mention. He believes in the reality of Satan; I don't. He believes that women should not be priests, let alone Bishops; I do. He believes in robes and high church liturgies...I'm really not that bothered, either way. He is convinced that we should drive on the right hand side of the road, I am wholly committed to the left! But, despite all these differences, we are friends. Despite our sometimes passionate arguments on a whole range of topics, he is going to install me as a Canon of his Cathedral in May. Despite knowing that I disagree with him on many subjects, he is going to embrace me as a brother, and give me a seat of honour in his Cathedral.
That, my friends, is what authentic Christianity looks like. It's a Christianity which does not judge another person, but which is tolerant and open to all, without sacrificing one's own beliefs. An authentic church - which I dare to suggest the Anglican church is, at its best - embraces difference, throws people together like a tossed salad, and adds the dressing of love.
Amen.
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Sermons in this series:
1) Introduction
1a) Reflecting Jesus' priority for the poor and the sick.
2) Having a wide and generous understanding of God's grace - Jesus poured out grace and forgiveness to everyone he met. Are we the same?
3) Understanding Sin as the absence of Love - How should we understand Sin? Breaking Rules? Who decides what is Sin anyway?
4) Encouraging Christ-ians to be producers, not consumers - We live in a consumer society. Is there a danger that some of us ‘consume’ Christianity?
6) Blending the scientific with the mystical - Was the world created in six days? How did Noah get all those animals onto the Ark?!
7) Being tolerant and open to all - How do we connect with other human beings?
8) Embracing tradition while being open to the contemporary - How can we honour the old and embrace the new?
9) Understanding that forgiveness is How the World is Set Right - Is forgiveness the answer to the World’s problems?
10) Being a Eucharistic Community - How does taking Jesus into ourselves help us?
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