Fr Harry's sermon 27-02-2005

This morning I feel a bit like that bloke in the gospel whose story Jesus tells of the farmer who sowed good seed and then when the seeds started to grow, lo and behold among the shoots were tares and the farmhands go to him and say, wasn't it good seed you sowed, how come these tares, poisonous weeds are there, shall we pluck them out. The farmer said, no, let them grow together side by side and come the harvest then OK we'll separate them. Well, I've compared myself to all sorts of things from time to time but I think this is the first time I've compared myself to a farmer. Why I say that is that the editor of the mass sheet in the wisdom has given me a shortened version of the gospel and I hate truncated things or censored things. Anyway, I'm sure it wasn't censored but it was certainly truncated and if you have a look at the New Testament in the bible when you go home, read chapter 4 of John's gospel and it's a totally different thing, it really is, from what is written on your sheet. I was rubber necking a bit during the reading of the gospel, I'm not in the habit of looking round and seeing what you're doing but the point was to see whether you were reading the sheet while Father Joe was proclaiming the gospel, and most of you were; now feel free to read it but the point is that had Father Joe done what he wanted and what I wanted, you would have got the full chapter 4 of John's gospel and my sermon, believe it or not, I do prepare them, was worked out over three days, I don't mean all day but on three different days this week based on chapter 4 of John's gospel which has well and truly scuppered me, so what I'm going to do is talk off the cuff about a couple of things, this isn't the sermon you were going to get.

First of all you notice the reading is from John's gospel, well aren't we supposed to be in St Matthew's gospel Year A, yes we are but Year A in particular you notice today, next Sunday and the Sunday after are taken from John's gospel. and I hope you don't mind the extracts on the effort. There's a particular reason I mention this which is that Year A is the sort of model, prototype of Lent and it's lent that is geared to preparation for people to come into full communion with us at Easter. You will notice at the beginning of John's gospel Jesus is at a wedding at Cana in Galilee and you know what happens so there's no need for me to go into detail but John at the end says - and this was the first sign given by Jesus and his disciples learned to believe in him. (It is translated in most versions as His disciples believed in him) but more accurately is "they LEARNED to believe in him" Today the third Sunday of Lent John chapter 4 we have the fantastic story of people coming to faith to believe in Jesus the Messiah the one sent by God, the one who is the instrument of giving, a fountain, as it says in the gospel, springing up into living water leading to eternal life, that's the point of the journey.

Now an aside. At the back of the church is this month's issue of the Voice, do take one and more importantly read it. The editorial is well, well worth reading. It's all about the real presence of God. Not in the blessed sacrament, we are used to that but perhaps we are not as used to the real presence of the word of God in scripture and particularly in this mass as Father Joe brings to us in the gospel the presence, the real presence of Jesus talking to us about faith, in our case reminding us this morning of that fountain of living water swelling up in each one of us to eternal life. Not just the cold we have experienced of the last few days of living here, no, eternal life, eternal life with God.

Now OK another offshoot. We say, you say with me every Sunday in the creed, we believe in the Lord the giver of life, the Holy Spirit we are talking about, the giver of life. The fountain of living water is in fact the Holy Spirit in each of us. Now, how much thought do we give to that, how open are we to the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. I don't know, I can't answer that question, everybody has got to answer it for themselves. You see I'm only scratching the surface of John chapter 4 and the Samaritan woman. We try not to mention the Samaritan woman really, some gal she really was. Now OK this isn't what I was going to say but just stop to think for a minute. We are told that Jesus came to a town called Sychar, well come on, a town is not what you and I understand as a town, it's a small overgrown village maybe but it's no more than that. There in this village Sychar, is one woman who has had not one but five husbands and as Jesus points out the man she is with now is not her husband. OH! - well what do you think her standing was in that village. Now come on ladies present this morning, would you scratch her eyes out, she wasn't very popular in her own village. At the end of the gospel Jesus is prevailed upon to go to the village and spend a couple of days there and many people came to believe in him, other disciples came along and made disciples of them, but they turned on this woman and said Hey it's not because of you, we believe because we have heard him, it's nothing to do with you and what you told us. Now we don't do that do we with one another, or do we. We recognise the talents, God given talents that everyone of us has.

What about Jesus and this woman I think that's gorgeous it really is, He's at his best in the gospel this morning; Jesus, He's after the faith of that woman, he's after her heart. St Augustine has a gorgeous comment on this he says that He entered into her heart to give her this very gift of God that you and I have, faith, acceptance of Jesus as Lord sent by the Father in our lives, our everyday lives, and you will notice in the gospel there's not a single word of criticism from Jesus of the life style of this woman he's far too busy screaming out the love of the Father for us to go into all the well this sort of biological religeon I call it. The love of our Father in Jesus is screaming out after this woman, as he is after us and as so often we are blind and don't see it.

The other two Sunday's next week you've got that incident where there's a man who can't see from birth, he was born blind John says in his gospel. A fantastic incident again, and again it's all about faith, of Jesus getting past the blindness of the man and the opposition and the prejudice and everything else, to the very heart of what He's come for, to bring that man to faith, to belief, to share the life of God. On the Sunday after we've got that tremendous thing again from John's gospel where Jesus is called to his friend who is ill, Lazarus, and he doesn't go he hangs around and then eventually word comes that Lazarus is dead and then he goes. There again, you know what happens. If you don't come back in two weeks time and see what happens.

Anyway I will end there otherwise I will go rambling on but do if you can read chapter 4 of John's gospel. Talk to Jesus about it, it's not about the Samaritan woman in the end, it's about you and your faith and your being a disciple and learning to believe in God, the marvelous God who created us loved us and still loves us.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

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