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NRS John 4:7 A Samaritan woman came
to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8
(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan
woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman
of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is
saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have
given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir,
you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12
Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his
sons and his flocks drank from it?" 13 Jesus said to her,
"Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14
but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.
The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to
eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me
this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw
water." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and
come back." 17 The woman answered him, "I have no
husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no
husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have
now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" 19 The
woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our
ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people
must worship is in Jerusalem." 21 Jesus said to her,
"Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you
do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship
the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship
him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in
spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to him, "I know that
Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will
proclaim all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "I am
he, the one who is speaking to you." 27 Just then his disciples
came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said,
"What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" 28
Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the
people, 29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I have
ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?"
Since the title of my sermon is Amazing Grace I want to share with you the
story of that great hymn. John Newton wrote this hymn in late 1772 for a New
Year’s Eve service. It was lifted up particularly here in America where it was
sung to many different tunes before settling with the more familiar tune we
sing to today. But it is John’s story and the story of the use of the hymn which
I think is so important. John Newton was born in 1725 to a father who was a
shipping merchant. His early life was marked by disinterest and abuse and so at
an early age he joined his father at sea. His early years are marked by
significant strife and disobedience. He became a member of a crew that was
involved in the slave trade where he later became a captain of his own ship.
While a member of the crew he entered into disagreements with several
colleagues that resulted in his being starved almost to death, imprisoned while
at sea and chained like the slaves they carried, then outright enslaved and
forced to work on a plantation in Sierra Leone near the Sherbo River.
After several months he came to think of Sierra Leone as his home, but his
father intervened after Newton sent him a letter describing his circumstances,
and a ship found him by coincidence. He was well known for his
profanity and was considered by many to be the most profane person they had
ever met.
During the voyage of the ship Greyhound in March 1748, the ship encountered
a violent storm and was all but lost. During that storm Newton began to rethink
his relationship with God. He went on from that point to become a slave trader
captain but after three such voyages as Captain, he left the sea. In 1754 John
began to study about Theology and Christianity and was ordained in the Church
of England in 1864. There he began to write Christian poetry and hymns. Amazing
Grace is about his personal experience with God, about being lost and found, about
finding salvation and finding the joy in God.
But that is only the beginning of this story. Amazing Grace has become the
theme song for numerous focuses over the years. It was played on the flute by
the American Cherokee as the American government forced them on the Trail of
Tears from their homes to Oklahoma. Nearly half the nation was lost during that
forced journey. Before that John Newton had become an advocate of the
abolishment of slavery which came to be in England before his death. Amazing
Grace became a theme song for the abolishment of slavery in this country as
well as for the Civil Rights movement in the mid 1900’s.
So what is it about grace that is so amazing that we can only hear a song
and be stirred by the Holy Spirit? Jesus met with the woman at the well. Now to
truly understand this story we have to appreciate how a Samaritan and Jew would
interact. First of all, they typically would not. Samaritans were considered to
be the lowest class of people to the Jews and they would typically disregard
them entirely. Secondly, they feared the Samaritans and would often navigate
their journeys so as to not go through that area. And finally, woman of Jesus
day were typically thought of as property so talking with a woman other than to
command or chastise would be unheard of. And then there is the issue of her
being there in the middle of the day. Most woman would have already gotten
their water for home in the early morning. The middle of the day suggests that
she was a bit of an outcast even among her own people.
So Jesus comes to her and rather than disregarding her, He engages her in
conversation. He talks about the living water that she could have if only she
would ask for it. What of this living water that one would no longer thirst she
asks. Who would not want this water? Would you? Jesus says to her that the hour
is coming when we will worship God not on the mountain of God or in Jerusalem
but in the whole world. That God is spirit and those who worship God worship in
spirit and truth. It is at this point that she realizes that she is in the
presence of the promised Messiah. The scripture tells us that she then goes and
witnesses to others.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found, was
blind but now I see. [i]These
words have written new chapters in the lives of so many across the years since
John Newton wrote them about himself. I wonder at how we may truly have been
inspired if we had been the woman at the well. Here is a man who not only knows
more about me than anyone else even though we have never met, but offers me a
grace beyond measure. Here is a man who comes to talk with those His culture
believes to be the lowest of classes of people, to talk with a woman who His
culture shows complete disregard for and then to offer her grace. What kind of
man is He?
How many of us have walked paths of self-destruction and struggle? How many
of us have done things we can never repay of find enough penitence to bring the
memory of them to be wiped clean? How many of us would love to go back in life
and have a mulligan, a golf term for a do over? I shared with you that many
years ago I had a mom who loved her roses. She would tend to them and have me,
often at times kicking and fighting to do so, help her prune, nurture and care
for them. I learned to love them over the years but that did not come without
the struggles that go with them. When you pick roses to put in a vase or give
to someone else, you must carefully do so because of the thorns that lie
beneath the beautiful flower. And those thorns must be removed to prevent
someone else from being injured as they handle the roses. I often reflect that
roses were mom’s way of teaching me about life. As beautiful and appealing as
the flower might be, there is danger lurking if you are not careful. My life
has often been more about the lurking than the beauty. And mom’s life was more
about the thorns even while she gave the appearance of always being the
beautiful flower.
But when it settles down
to where we are in life one thing matters and all else is simply the grains of
sand that get washed away in a storm. That one thing is the love of God that is
offered to us. No matter where you have been, no matter what you have done, not
matter how you got to this place and this moment, God’s love awaits you. Just
like the woman at the well who had been divorced so many times, all that does
not matter to God, what matters is will you open your heart to God’s love. John
Newton was once the most profane, despicable man who sold others into slavery,
but one day his heart accepted what God offered and he became a man of God to
witness to the power of God to others. What is it about God’s love that can
change a man or woman not matter their background or life story? It truly is
amazing is it not? The Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope
secures...I shall possess within the veil, a life of joy and peace. OOH
NAY THLA NAH, HEE OO WAY GEE[ii]! Amazing
Grace, how sweet the sound!
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