Have you ever avoided a certain place in your community?  Not gone somewhere because people said it wasn’t safe, because people were different, because they weren’t the same race, religion, or socio-economic class? Often in smaller towns, we have a dividing line that differentiates the nice part of town from the bad part of town – often this is the train tracks. 

I spent my high school years in the affluent suburbs of Johnson County bordering Kansas City, MO. As a teenager, I was cautioned against going to certain parts of Kansas City or warned to drive through with my windows up and my doors locked.  See, these parts were deemed “not safe.” And while the statistics probably backed that up to some extent, the message included something else underneath: a message about race, about poverty, and about that which is different.  After high school, I moved into my first apartment in Kansas City, MO near Broadway and 39th and some of my friends said their parents wouldn’t let them come visit me because it was too dangerous. (It really wasn’t.)

Today, we finish up our sermon series, “Do Unto Others: A Campaign for Kindness.” We began the series with the story of Abraham and Sarah stepping out in faith and we were invited to trust God’s call and practice kindness even in the midst of uncertainty. The second week we looked at Israel’s history in the book of Leviticus and we were reminded how God calls us to treat the foreigner and the immigrant. We were invited to actively practice respect with those who are different or unfamiliar. Last week we examined the story in Acts 1 and explored Jesus’ call to love within and beyond our community. We were invited to show love to believers and those who hold different views than us. 

This week, we’re encountering Jesus in the Gospel of John as he goes to a place he’s told to avoid, a place that is unsafe, a place that is different. And in the midst of this encounter, we see Jesus extend compassion to an outcast, the Samaritan woman. He traveled across a cultural boundary to extend compassion and this is what the Good News is all about 

Many of us are pretty familiar with the story of the Samaritan woman. Each time I read the story I encounter something new, something different than when I have read it before.  This time I was struck by the idea that the woman is at the well at noon to draw water by herself.  We later learn that she has had five husbands and now is with a man who is not her husband.  While we don’t know the circumstances of these relationships and whether they all died, or abandoned her, I wonder if she has been pushed aside in her community.  She’s not at the well with other women or friends; she is there alone, in the middle of the day.  One can imagine that she either felt like a nobody or was treated like a nobody by her community.  

I wonder if you’ve ever felt this way, like you don’t belong, like you’ve been set aside, like you aren’t worthy.  Often when we experience feelings and situations like this, we seek out something to quench our thirst to belong.  We try anything and everything to feel worthy and accepted, to feel like a somebody. She went to the well to quench her physical thirst and encountered Jesus, the living water.  Jesus reveals to her who he is saying, “whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life.”

Jesus crosses several cultural boundaries to meet this woman, to reveal himself to her, and to offer her compassion. The Jewish and Samaritan people occupied neighboring lands for centuries and they practiced similar religions but experienced extreme animosity toward one another. 

The scripture says Jesus has to go through Samaria on his way from Judea to Galilee. The disciples would have probably preferred he take the extra time to go around Samaria. This is a place they would avoid.  Jesus also crosses the gender boundary and meets alone with a woman.  And while Jesus is not fully accepted, as a Jewish man, he would belong, where the woman is likely an outcast in her own community.

Jesus crosses all of these boundaries to reveal his messianic identity to this outcast, this nobody. Why would he do this?  Because Jesus continually reveals himself to those on the margins. He heals the sick. He feeds the hungry. He meets and shares his message with the everyday people. And it’s these people who receive the message, not the insiders, not the religious leaders, not the powerful.  

He encounters the Samaritan woman to show that she matters to Jesus, her community matters to Jesus, her welfare matters to Jesus. Jesus doesn’t shame her for her past. He meets with her, listens to her, and shares his love and compassion with her. He knows everything she ever did and loves her anyway.

A primary part of God’s character is compassion.  Compassion means recognizing the suffering of others and then taking action to help.Throughout the Old Testament we see God’s actions motivated by compassion. God instructs Noah to build an ark because God just can’t wipe out everything. God responds in compassion to the Israelites who ask for relief and liberation from Pharoah. God shows compassion to the Ninevites when he allows them to repent and spares them from destruction. And God’s ultimate act of compassion is the gift of Jesus because it’s through Jesus that God chooses to enter and experience the suffering of humanity.

We are called to this same compassion, to be moved by the pain of others, embrace the hurting, and participate in alleviating suffering.  The woman is changed by her encounter with Jesus and she is also changed by the act of sharing her encounter and the Good News with her community. Her eyes are opened and she is transformed into a witness.

The woman moves from unbelief to belief, darkness to light, blindness to sight, ignorance to knowledge, misunderstanding to understanding. And she doesn’t even really begin to grasp who Jesus is until she tells others to come and see.

So what does this mean for how we show compassion to our community, to our families, in addressing poverty or meeting those we avoid?

I think there’s a few things we can take from this story.

Jesus came for us. He came for all of us. He came to offer living water, compassion, and healing. He came to remind and show us that we are somebody. So, our first step in showing compassion to our community is encountering Jesus for ourselves, and receiving his compassion. Allowing ourselves to be transformed by his presence. Jesus knows all we’ve ever done and loves us anyway.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to extend the same compassion we received to others.  Ephesians 4:32 reminds us of this, “Be kind, compassionate, and forgiving to each other, in the same way God forgave you in Christ.”  Our communion liturgy reminds us of the compassion of Jesus:

Your Spirit anointed him

to preach good news to the poor,

to proclaim release to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

and to announce that the time had come

when you would save your people.

He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners.

We are invited to be moved by human suffering, moved by the pain of others, embrace the hurting, and participate in alleviating human suffering. We are invited to extend compassion to the poor, the captives, the oppressed, the sick, and the hungry.

As we think about how we extend compassion and who we extend compassion to, it can be easy to focus on those we are already in relationship with, those at church, at work, in our family, and at school.  And while this is important, I think Jesus’ example in this story calls us to a step further, asking us to think about who the nobodies are in our community. Who do we ignore?  Who is outcast? We do we not even see?  Who doesn’t have the same rights and privileges as us? Are we ready to share God’s compassion across these boundaries? With people who aren’t like us? With people who society looks down on?

I think there are two significant boundaries that still exist in our society and in our communities. They separate us from others and they are often boundaries we aren’t willing to cross.  The first boundary is the continued prevalence of racism. Much of our society is still segregated by race, and people of color continue to suffer from racist systems and structures. Sunday mornings continue to be the most segregated hour of our week.  How are we being called to bridge this boundary, this divide? In what ways can we work for reconciliation and justice in our systems and structures?

Another significant boundary is the socio-economic divide. The boundary between those who experience poverty and those who don’t.  We have entire systems that keep people stuck in the cycle of poverty while the uber-rich continue to get richer.  How are we being called to bridge this boundary, to change these systems? 

And while we do this work, are we engaging in it in the way Jesus would? Are we recognizing the human dignity and gifts of all peoples?

When I read this story, this is what I see, Jesus going where no one else is willing to go, offering acceptance and grace, and sitting with someone just as they are.  He doesn’t offer her forgiveness. And he doesn’t call her to repentance. Instead he offers her living water and she shares that message and compassion with her community.

May we be strengthened and transformed by Jesus’ compassion to do the same: to show kindness, respect, love and compassion across boundaries with all peoples.

Let us pray:  God of compassion, God of living water, transform our hearts and minds that we may respond to your call to share your kindness and compassion with others, and be emboldened to cross boundaries, to work to change unjust systems, and to recognize the dignity of all peoples. Amen.