(John 4: 4-27)
When I was the elected District Attorney of San Jacinto County in rural East Texas, I used to get a monthly magazine from the Southern Poverty Law Center. This was back in the 1990s and the magazine was filled with articles about extremist hate groups that they were monitoring. At the time, most of these groups operated under the radar perpetrating their evil in subtle ways and more extremely when necessary. I was surprised to learn that we had a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in our county. It seems everyone else knew about it but didn’t really say much about this secret society. They pretty much kept to themselves blending in with the rest of the white population. Now, prior to being appointed to the position of prosecutor I was in private practice handling pretty much whatever walked in the door. I had one big burly client who was going through a painful divorce, and he was devastated by the prospect that his wife had fallen out of love with him and wanted to move on. I was busy handling a very fluid caseload so this guy would spend quite a bit of time talking to Teresa, who was my legal assistant, as he unburdened himself upon her sympathetic ear. After we reached an amicable divorce agreement, he thanked Teresa for her time and gave her his card telling her that if she needed anything, anything, to just give him a call. After he left, she came into my office in utter disgust showing me his business card prominently displaying his membership in the Ku Klux Klan. She could hardly believe it. It seemed like he was such a nice guy once you got past the obscene message tattooed on the knuckles of his hands. And I’ve often wondered what it was we did that he felt comfortable disclosing to us his membership in this secret society.
And that subtle hatred of people who are not like us has been a part of society’s fabric for thousands of years. We don’t like them because they don’t talk like us, they insist on speaking their foreign language, causing some to say that if you are going to live in America you need to speak American. Some insist on wearing their native dress. Go to Walmart and buy some American clothes made in China or Pakistan. They’re real clannish. They stick together and don’t fit in with the rest of us. They prefer soccer over football and baseball. They’re taking our jobs and ruining our neighborhoods. Why don’t they just go back to where they came from? I know what you’re thinking. I heard all of this while I lived in Texas. Yeah, I heard some, if not all of these comments, but I grew up in upstate New York and was exposed to these irrational statements during my youth and have heard the same in the almost 15 years that I’ve lived in Washington State. It’s a national sickness that has turned into a cancer that, if not treated, will become terminal.
What we’ve seen in recent years, with the help of the dark web, is a radicalization of the disenfranchised white male who believes that the unidentified “they” are trying to shove Critical Race Theory down their throat with an intention of turning their children against them. And the newest theory to come lurking out of the shadows is the Great Replacement Theory, which for your information originated in Europe, where they’re espousing some sort of conspiracy theory where the white race in America is being replaced by minorities and point to the statistic that for the first time there have been more minority baby births than white babies. And now there’s an even newer and scarier theory called the Accelerationist Theory where these extremists share their information and plots with one another. And, according to news reports I’ve read and seen, that is exactly what motivated the 18-year-old white male who drove over two hours to get to a predominantly African American neighborhood in Buffalo New York last Sunday and entered into a TOPS grocery store killing ten and wounding three African Americans for the sole reason that they were black. And, as a white supremacist, I suspect that he probably professes to being a Christian and was doing the Lord’s work, as his “manifesto” spouted anti-Sematic rhetoric.
So, what’s all this got to do with our scripture reading for this morning? Isn’t this just a story about Jesus having a nice conversation with a Samaritan woman while he was taking a break from his journey? Well, yes, it is but there is a subtler story here that unless you do a little research you miss. Our reading starts out by telling us that Jesus had to go through Samaria with the operative phrase being: “had to go” implying that going to Samaria was something most people avoided. To go from the territory of Judea to Galilee meant passing through a central territory called Samaria. And most Jews did everything they could to avoid traveling through Samaria, going the long way around. The reason goes way back into their history. After the northern kingdom, with its capital at Samaria, fell to the Assyrians, many of the resident Jews were deported to Assyria against their will and foreigners were brought in to settle the land and help keep the peace. The intermarriage between those foreigners and the remaining Jews resulted in a mixed race, impure in the opinion of the Jews who lived in the southern kingdom. Thus, the pure Jews hated this mixed race called Samaritans, because they felt that their fellow Jews who had intermarried had betrayed their people and nation. Kind of an Israel first philosophy if you will.
So, while resting from his journey in the heat of the day, Jesus takes a break and sits down near Jacob’s well. About this time a Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw some water and Jesus asks her for some water for him to drink. The Samaritan woman asked, Why do you a Jewish man, ask for something to drink from me, a Samaritan woman? And John notes as an aside that Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other. This is significant because the Samaritan woman was well aware of the fact that the Jews thought of the Samaritan people as inferior. And for the Samaritan woman, this disdain was not her fault or of her making. She was just born a Samaritan, that’s the way it was, and that’s the way it would always be. This caught my attention because Jesus didn’t apologize. He didn’t say anything along the lines of how unfortunate that they, the Samaritans, had been wronged and that they had nothing at all to do with it. But then again, maybe he’s leaving it to us to ponder on the unfairness of this prejudice. At this point Jesus and the woman have this great conversation about living water and eternal life. When Jesus brings up the uncomfortable topic of her many failed relationships, she tries to change the subject by saying: Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you and your people say that it is necessary to worship in Jerusalem. Kind of a separate but not really equal dynamic. You see, the Samaritans had set up an alternative center for worship on Mount Gerizim, as they were obviously not welcome in the temple in Jerusalem, but it had been destroyed around 150 years earlier by Jewish forces under the orders of Hasmonean leader John Hyrcanus. The straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak, a sort of Old Testament church bombing. John then tells us that when the disciples returned, they were shocked to see Jesus talking to the woman. It was if he was breaking some sort of unwritten, long-held social code. Jews did not give Samaritans the time of day let alone talk to them as equals. And again, I thought Jesus missed a great teachable moment where he could explain this unwarranted and unmerited treatment of the Samaritans to his disciples. But he left it to them to talk it out and figure out why the Messiah was treating someone they thought was inferior as an equal. If the Savior has no problem with them then why should we?
So, by now you may be asking yourself: What’s the point you are trying to make Scott? I guess the point is that this sort of hatred must stop. As of last Sunday, the United States experienced 202 mass casualty shootings in the first 135 days of 2022. We’ve become numb to the violence and this routine of mourn, pray, and repeat seems futile. Making statements like the victims and their families are in our “thoughts and prayers” almost seems cliché. So what do we do? What can we do? Well, of course, we do pray. We pray for the victims, their families and friends, and for the impacted communities. We pray that God holds them in his loving arms and brings them comfort and peace. And we pray that those who are charged with doing something actually step forward and do something, anything, that they condemn, in no uncertain terms, the senselessness of these acts, and that they will do all that is in their power to hold those responsible accountable. And, as difficult as it may be, we also pray for the wrongdoer. As United Methodists our Book of Discipline tells us that: The rights and privileges a society bestows upon or withholds from those who comprise it indicate the relative esteem in which that society holds particular persons and groups of persons. We affirm all persons as equally valuable in the sight of God. We therefore work toward societies in which each person’s value is recognized, maintained, and strengthened. We support the basic rights of all persons to equal access to housing, education, communication, employment, medical care, legal redress for grievances, and physical protection. We deplore acts of hate or violence against groups or persons based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, status, economic condition, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religious affiliation. (III. The Social Community, paragraph 162) Seems pretty straight forward but how do we make this statement and all it stands for a reality? Well, the Book of Discipline also give us guidance on that front too. Under the section on Political Responsibility, it says: The strength of a political system depends upon the full and willing participation of its citizens. The church should continually exert a strong ethical influence upon the state, supporting policies and programs deemed to be just and opposing policies and programs that are unjust. (V. The Political Community, paragraph 164, section B)
This epidemic of hate and prejudice is now spreading at an unimaginable rate and appears to be unchecked, hence the Acceleration Theory. With the dark web as a virtually uncontrollable platform the fires these purveyors of hate are given oxygen by those in positions of authority who publicly parrot their talking points by casually throwing in the buzzwords that give them the encouragement they need to come out of the shadows and commit these acts of violence without fear of the consequences. We are entering the 2022 election cycle where we will be electing people to fill local, state, and federal offices. They will be coming for your vote and providing you with literature in an attempt to get your support in the form of your vote and any financial assistance you can render. Our vote is our weapon and best defense if we’re going to break the never-ending cycle of mourn, pray, and repeat. We have to be smart. We have to deny these fear mongers our vote and keep them out of office denying them the opportunities to embolden these disenfranchised extremists. We need to elect men and women to office who have the integrity and fortitude to step up and do what is right and just and not what is politically expedient. We can’t afford not to.
Let us pray.
God of all the ages, in your sight nations rise and fall, and pass through times of peril. Now when our land is troubled, be near to judge and save. May leaders be led by your wisdom; may they search your will and see it clearly. If we have turned from your way, reverse our ways and help us to repent. Give us your light and your truth, let them guide us; through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of this world, and our Savior. Amen.