Tuesday, August 8

Living In Brokenness

Have you seen the question posed on social media:

Aside from Morgan Freeman, who would you have narrate your life?

(listen for responses)

There are four narrators of Jesus’ life - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Each one writes about Jesus and His words and deeds. And each one writes with a different voice.

Last night we looked at beginnings...

We all have one.

ME

Kansas City Kansas

Aug 11, 1956

And then several other ‘beginnings’ or significant re-starts as well -

-when I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior -Commencement Ceremony - i.e. graduation:

1974 - HS

1979- BA in Ed

1987- M.Div

2019 - D.Min

Aug 2, 1976 - WEDDING DAY

July 28, 1982 - Josh

April 17, 1986 - Meg

Aug 1, 1991 - Pastor of Community Baptist...

(I know…I’m like ancient)

Lot’s of beginnings…but along the way there have been serious seasons of brokenness -

2 miscarriages; the death of Cindy’s dad, my mom, the passing of grandparents, the death of friends -

relationships that have been broken - by distance, by words too hurtful to ignore, acts of betrayal too deep to let go… and on and on.

A recent book by a respected psychologist suggests that

Mental health is not about feeling good. Instead, it’s about having the right feelings at the right time and being able to manage those feelings effectively.

Lisa Damour,PhD. The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable, and Compassionate Adolescents

(New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2023) 27.Broke.

BROKEN

The word has many different meanings.

“I’m broke!”

“He/she broke it...”

“The screen on my phone/tablet is broken”

A doctor might say, “it’s broken”

“He/She broke up with me...”

“I’m sorry - I heard your parents broke up - and are separated”

John 4 tells the story of Jesus entering into one very broken person’s life.

Two sections of what we now call Israel were Judea and Galilee.

In order to travel between them, there were two choices:

cross the Jordan and travel north/south, or

travel through SAMARIA

For a first-century Jew Samaria was like no-mans land.

The Samaritans were descendants of the northern tribes of Israel. Many of those tribal folks had been relocated, but many stayed and intermarried with the foreigners who had invaded their land.

As a result Samaritans developed a distinct understanding of the Old Testament.

They considered only the first five books - those authored by Moses - as divinely inspired.

They developed worship practices that set them apart from the Jewish people.

They even built a temple on a mountain to rival the temple of Jerusalem.

(That temple was destroyed by Jewish religious leaders about 100 yrs prior to Jesus’ birth)

Though Samaritans were distant cousins to first century Jews, an observant Jew of Jesus’ day would avoid - at all costs - the entire region of Samaria.

Except Jesus.

John 4:5–9 (HCSB)

so He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the property that Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, worn out from His journey, sat down at the well. It was about six in the evening. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her, for His disciples had gone into town to buy food. “How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

Notice:

“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her,” (John 4:7, HCSB)

The sixth hour - noon - was a strange time to draw water. Usually the women of a community would come early in the morning or right before sundown - when it was cooler - to draw water for their families.

This woman - because of what we will learn about her - was certainly not welcome to join with the others women in her community. She was an outsider.

That Jesus speaks to her violates:

religious protocols - differing over which part of the OT was divinely inspired and worshiping in different locations;

sexual protocols - men just didn’t initiate conversations with single women

ethnic protocols - Jews and Samaritans clearly had nothing to do with one another. Each group regarded the other as aliens and intruders.

Of course the woman quickly replies that what Jesus is asking is unheard of and honestly impossible.

John 4:10 (HCSB)

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.”

Now the woman is completely thrown off balance. Jesus has a way of interfering with our prejudices and our preferences. The woman came because she couldn’t be part of the community, she came when no one else would be around on purpose.

She responds: How will you draw this water with no tools - no water bucket!

Jesus, sensing her confusion goes on to explain:

John 4:13–14 HCSB

Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life.”

Obviously this meets an immediate need!

With this assurance the woman can avoid the others and will have no need to expose herself to the shame and embarrassment her romantic liaisons have caused.

Jesus, continuing going directly into her brokenness.

He asks her to go and bring her husband (John 4:16-17). But He knows...

John 4:18 (HCSB)

“For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

This speaks not just to the woman’s brokenness but the men whom she has had relationships with.

(What kind of men was she surrounding herself with?)

After observing family brokenness for a very long time let me tell you a secret:

It’s never just one person’s fault.

The law may recognize ‘No-Fault Divorce’ but there is no such reality.

There is just brokenness.

Listen how the woman tries to deflect Jesus from probing too deeply:

John 4:19–20 (HCSB)

“Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, yet you Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

Paraphrase:

OK, so you think you know me…but my people (i.e. those among whom I live) worship here…You Jews (i.e. those who are different from us) worship in Jerusalem.

His response has, as we say, hit a nerve.

All of us experience brokenness, but most of us prefer to suffer alone!

Exposing our brokenness creates a vulnerability that most of us would rather avoid.

Jesus replies:

John 4:23 (HCSB)

But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship Him.

Jesus points out that God is not looking for perfect people to worship Him.

“True” worshipers”…are not necessarily the best dressed, the most successful, those who have ‘it’ (whatever ‘it’ is) together.

“True worshipers” are those who simply and honestly respond to God’s presence.

REFLECT AND RESPOND

The very appearance of the woman at noon to draw water speaks to her brokenness.

“To worship in spirit and truth...”

TRUTH/HONESTY

You may think you have covered your brokenness from your family and even your closest friends,

But God knows - The psalmist reminds us :

English Standard Version (Psalm 139)

13  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.14  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.15  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.16  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

13  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.14  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.15  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.16  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; tin your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Are you willing to be honest about your brokenness?

The healing God wants to bring is not just superficial.

A wedding ceremony for the woman at the well would not have really healed her hurt.

Jesus offered here nothing but a clean and refreshing presence of ‘living water.’ (vs 10)

“In the beginning…In Him (the Word) was life....”

The presence of Jesus opens before us radically new life.

This is not your current life, just made better.

What the ‘Living Water’ offers is a new and fresh experience of life - one that has no expiration date.

SPIRIT

We often restrict ‘worship’ to that which we do on Sunday mornings.

We go to ‘church’ and we ‘worship.’

When Jesus (and the NT writers in general) mean, though, is radically different.

Worship is not something we do once or twice a week.

Worship is a way of living, a life in tune with truth - i.e. Jesus.

Spirit worship is not what is sometimes pictured in media as babbling nonsense, people falling to the floor, spectacular healings and so on.

Spirit worship is a pattern of life - open to the presence of God, filled with the presence of God through His Holy Spirit, a life centered on a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

That is what Jesus offers…even to the most broken among us, even to those who are hiding in plain sight -as was the woman at the well.

Jesus is here - as a matter of fact He was here before you even arrived…waiting, willing to patiently hear you and respond to you...