Sabbath Reflections

By jdgoodwyne on Feb 21, 2010 in Blog

Worship was wonderful at Uptown Church this morning. I had a sense of both the transcendence (bigness) and the immanence (closeness) of God. It is so good to participate in worship with the saints, bringing their (our) broken selves before the throne of grace, glorifying God, crying out for mercy, receiving it. This morning our sermon was delivered by Dr. James Anderson, Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary just up the road, and a member of our flock. Here is a summary and some thoughts:

Dr. Anderson expounded on John 4:1-45. This is the passage where Jesus stops to rest at Jacob’s Well in Samaria, and a Samaritan woman meets him there. Jesus speaks to her, crossing all sorts of cultural boundaries, (1. Samaritan 2. Woman 3. Serial Monogamist 4. Adulterer) confronts her with her own sin to bring repentance, and gives her life, and ultimately reveals to her the true nature of worship, not primarily concerned with a physical location, but with a spiritual orientation. However the point of this passage is not only to show how Jesus corrected this woman, but show just how far across cultural bounds the gospel travels. The key verse, according to Anderson is v. 42. After the woman told the town what happened, they believed and invited him to stay with them. To the woman, they said “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” And this is meat of the text. Because to a Samaritan, this Jew claiming to be the Son of God must have been worse than NO news. Without delving too much into the history, suffice it to say that Samaritans were part Jew, part various pagan, and were hated by Jews. Samaritans had convinced themselves over generations that they were the rightful bearers of the promise of God, and for a Jew to show up as the Messiah sealed it that they were wrong, that they WERE half-breeds and they WERE heretics. But then Jesus destroys these wicked walls of hatred, racism, sexism, and judgementalism in one fail swoop with his interaction with this woman. He was not pluralistic, but maintained that the Samaritans were wrong, that salvation would come from the Jews. But even so, Christ in his very actions declared that the gospel, the good news of salvation was for ALL people. Not for every person, but for people of every race, language, sex, class, intellect, moral failure, ability, age and whatever else divides.

The question is, do we believe it? Do we look around us and believe that the gospel crosses boundaries? Dr. Anderson was incredibly humble to describe a situation from his on life just the previous week. Standing in the line at the DMV, he was behind a young African-American man wearing a hoodie with a hip-hop logo on it, dragging on a cigarette, with his baggy jeans hanging on the ground. Dr. Anderson is a very thin, very white academic (geek, as he describes himself) who was born in England, and lived mostly in Scotland. They couldn’t have had less culturally in common. He thought of the fact that he would preaching on this passage of scripture, and considered the possibility that the Lord in his infinite wisdom may have put him in this situation for that reason, and that he should strike up conversation with this man. Then he thought that perhaps that thought was sufficient to illustrate the sermon. And finally, he thought that simply thinking about crossing culture to talk to this man was not enough, that he probably should actually do it. At that moment, the doors to the DMV opened, and they walked inside, and got in two different lines. Dr. Anderson’s first feeling was relief. And his second feeling was shame about his first feeling.

I know that feeling all too well. It is amazing to me sometimes just how prejudiced I am. I know the feeling of wondering if an African-American man I walk by on the street has a gun, of locking my car doors in a predominately black or hispanic area, of assuming every poor person I encounter has probably blown their fair shake on drugs, alcohol or hookers. I am primarily concerned with protecting what’s mine, whether life, property, or identity.

I think it’s difficult for churches to be truly multicultural or to cross boundaries of class. This is not just true of white, suburban, middle-class churches either. And instances I’ve seen of forced integration seem to cause more problems than they’ve solved. But regardless of what we can accomplish in this life, we should ask what our blinders are, and how we can confront them. So we say we believe the gospel is for all people, but when we look around, do we just see people like us? Then it seems likely that we don’t really believe the gospel is for all people. I don’t believe every church should look the same, rather that different traditions have different strengths and we collectively form a holistic body of Christ. But we should always be seeking the Spirit’s sanctifying power, working wickedness out. So let’s pray, and ask the Lord to tear down these walls, to reveal ways that we can cross cultures, to believe that the gospel is not just for us, but for the whole world.

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