Most of us like to hang out with people who are a lot like us. We know that differences exist in the world, but we don't want them to clutter our own lives. We're a tribal people. We're northsiders or southsiders, democrats or republicans, Cub fans or Cardinal fans. When we enter a room, we gravitate to people who look like they may be one of us. We watch TV programs, even networks, that affirm what we think because we feel "at home" with them. We attend churches where the people are likely to worship God like we do, and we make sure to sit on the "right" side of the stadium when we go to a watch a game.
The North going Zax and the South going Zax don't talk much because they don't think they have much in common. There's no doubt about that, but the issue with tribalism is deeper than socializing and rooting for our favorite team...because the circles we draw isolate us and make others... the targets of our fears. The circles that keep others out tend to isolate us, and in a surprisingly short period of time, they also "demonize" others. Thus, people who are different from us...become people who are dull-witted, mean-spirited, even evil. And so it was between the Jews and the Samaritans in Jesus' time. They despised each other. The Jews considered Samaritans to be deplorable at the time and they would go out of their way to avoid them. But the Bible says (John 4) that Jesus and his disciples journeyed through Samaria en route to Galilee one day, and that they stopped at the site of Jacob's well. According to John, while his disciples went into town to buy food, Jesus waited by the well... and a Samaritan woman came alone to draw water at noon. "Can I have a drink?" Jesus asked, and his question took the woman aback. "How can you, a Jewish man, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" she replied. It was a good question because Jesus had violated two important social boundaries. In the first place, men didn't talk to women whom they didn't know, and in the second place, Jews didn't talk to Samaritans. The woman was caught off guard, but Jesus noted that she would've asked him for living water, if she knew who he was.
Well, the Jewish rabbi and an unnamed Samaritan woman talked on. They talked about religious differences and other things, but their dialogue ended with the woman saying, (v. 25) "I know that God's Messiah will make all things clear when he comes"... and Jesus said, "Ego eimi, I am!" I am the Messiah, the One who can meet your needs... for water, self-respect, acceptance, forgiveness, and love. I am, he said, in the first of his "I am" statements in the Gospel of John. It is to this woman that Jesus reached out. She is the one to whom he offered living water. She is the one he told to tell others what she had seen and heard. Which she did. She ran and told the others all about Jesus, and invited them to come with her and see for themselves.
It's a great story that reveals Jesus as a "boundary-breaker," and it calls us to consider the circles that we draw to keep some people in and others out. In this Lenten season, we are invited to ask and answer these questions: 1) What people do we avoid? 2) What kinds of people are deplorable to you? 3) What sort of people do you walk out of your way... not to see? 4) Who are the Samaritans in your world? 5) Are there people who make us "anxious, suspicious, even angry" simply because they are part of a group... that falls outside of our circle of love? Black people? Jewish people? Muslim people? Poor people? Tattooed people? Loud people? Gay people? Abusive people?.... (and I confess that I have trouble with tattooed people and even more trouble with abusive people).
How wide is your circle of love? Christ lived in a world that was filled with boundaries. Jesus knew that. Better than we do. He knew that he wasn't supposed to welcome children, let Mary sit with his disciples, eat with sinners, heal a Centurian's daughter, touch lepers, or converse with those who were leading unsavory lives. He knew all of these rules and ignored them... because love demanded it! His circle of love included everyone who was willing to be included. It still does! God's love is like that. It's inclusive and welcoming. So, let's be careful with the circles we draw. May they include family, church, friends, and people who root for the same teams as we do, but may they also include people who are troubled, difficult, unmotivated, manipulative, dishonest, compromised, and different, in all the ways we think people are different. May our circles of grace be so large that they include anyone who wants to be in, and anyone at all... even Samaritan women should we meet one at the well. Amen!
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