Advent Carols 2004

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It seems a bit early to be thinking about Christmas, but then since they’ve been selling decorations and cards in the shops since September, perhaps it’s a bit late.

I wonder what your idea of Christmas is - whether it’s broadly positive or negative. If you’re in that golden age of 3 to about 11¾ it’s probably entirely positive. Outwith that narrow band, feelings in my experience tend to be slightly more mixed. I was talking to someone this morning at church who said that they liked this time of year because the anticipation of Christmas was great, but they didn’t like the reality very much at all.

I wonder what other ideas you have around Christmas - what your view, for example, of Santa Claus is. I was reading this theory on the web the other day that Santa is a woman. The person writing said this, “I think Santa Claus is a woman. I hate to be the one to defy sacred myth but I believe he’s a she. Think about it: Christmas is a big, organised, warm, fuzzy, nurturing social deal. I’ve a tough time believing a guy could possibly pull it all off. Another problem for a he-Santa would be getting there. First of all there’d be no reindeer because they’d all be dead, gutted and strapped on the rear bumper of the sleigh amid wide-eyed, desperate claims that hunting season had been extended. Even if the male Santa did have reindeer, he’d still have transportation problems because he would inevitably get lost up there in the snow and clouds and then refuse to stop and ask for directions Other reasons why Santa can’t possibly be a man - men can’t pack a bag; men would rather be dead than get caught wearing red velvet; men would feel their masculinity was threatened having to be seen with all those elves; men don’t answer their mail; men aren’t interested in stockings unless somebody’s wearing them; having to do the ho-ho-ho thing would seriously inhibit their ability to pick up women; finally, being responsible for Christmas would require a commitment.

I wonder what your ideas about Jesus are. I was in Bargain Books on Friday and the woman in front of me at the checkout threw something down on the counter and said to the assistant, “I’ve just one question - why?” I looked at the object and I understood what she was talking about. It was a Jesus action figure with poseable arms and gliding action. Only £3 - a bargain, I think you’ll agree. But she said to the assistant, “What can you do with this?” The assistant looked a bit puzzled. The security guard on the left helpfully piped up, “Well, if it came with a hammer and nails, you could crucify it.” “That’s not very Christmassy,” said the sales assistant. “The whole idea of Jesus isn’t very Christmassy,” said the customer, and they quietly shoved it off to one side, waiting for me to buy it so I could show it to you. “Why?” is a fair enough question, though, when you look at it.

We want to think tonight about the reality of who Jesus is and what Jesus is about. Because while your idea about Christmas or your idea about Santa might be interesting, it’s not as fundamental or as foundational or as important as your idea about Jesus. But if you want to have open in front of you the reading, that’s where we’re going to focus our thoughts, as Jesus meets a real person in a historical situation.

It’s an unexpected meeting. We have someone going about their daily business and this encounter takes place between Jesus and the unnamed Samaritan woman. It’s unexpected because it’s unlikely that a Jew and a Samaritan would meet. It’s improbable in that context that a man and a woman would converse like this. It’s unlikely that a teacher and a woman of dubious repute, coming in the middle of the day when the well is at its quietest because the sun is at its highest, would converse. Jesus’ request for a drink from this woman defies convention. Jews and Samaritans don’t even drink from the same drinking utensils or vessels. It’s quite unexpected - this woman and this man coming together in this place in this way. What is going to happen? What is going on?

I heard the story of a female student going into Starbucks for a coffee, tired, been doing some shopping, wanting to have a break. She bought a latte and a four-fingered Kit Kat, and juggling her bag and her shopping and her latte looked for somewhere to sit down The only spot that was free was at a small table where a guy was already sitting on the other side. So she went and sat down. He was sitting there with his foaming macchiato or whatever it was and a big muffin on a plate in front of him. He was reading a book and just glanced up as she sat down. She managed to gather herself and eventually felt a bit more at home in the situation. She reached out and opened her Kit Kat and took out the first finger. As she was munching it the guy opposite looked at her rather sternly, reached out to her Kit Kat, snapped a finger off, put it in his mouth, looking at her all the time, and ate it. She was rather incensed by this behaviour, reached out, snapped off the third finger, put it into her mouth, feeling a bit uncomfortable at this attention from the stranger at the table. He fixed her with a steely glare, reached out, snapped off the last Kit Kat finger, put it into his mouth, stared at her. Something inside her snapped, she reached out, grabbed his muffin, took a massive bite out of his muffin, put it down and went storming out of Starbucks to the street. When she was in the street, her mobile phone rang and, looking for the phone in her bag, she discovered the four-fingered Kit Kat that she’d previously purchased!

It’s very easy to come to superficial judgement based on what you think is going on in a story. What is going on here isn’t judgement of somebody, it’s Jesus interacting with the woman in order to communicate God’s love and God’s grace and God’s mercy to her.

About the only thing that’s true or useful about this (the Jesus action figure) is that it has a Bible verse on the front: “I did not come to judge the world but to save it.” (John 12:47) That’s absolutely what Jesus is about.

So Jesus introduces himself. He talks to the Samaritan woman about living water, and this offer of living water is tied in with Jesus’ true identity. Notice the way it’s put: “If you knew the gift of God, if you knew who I am ... The gift of God is Jesus.” Probably the best-known Bible verse of all is Jn 3:16 - “God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that whoever believes in him wouldn’t die but would have eternal life.” Jesus is God’s gift. It’s not the offer of water that is as important as that it’s Jesus himself who is speaking to this woman. “If you knew who I was, then you would realise that I have something important to offer you.”

We see the first response from the woman at this point.

She doesn’t think Jesus has anything to offer her. “The well is deep, and you don’t have a bucket.” She’s probably used to men not delivering on their promises. We see at the end of the story that she’s had her fair share. So she’s inclined to dismiss Jesus, to see him as irrelevant, to see him as unable to deliver. “Who do you think you are? Do you think you’re greater than Jacob who built this well? You don’t really have anything to offer me, do you, Jesus?”

It’s very easy when you look at the way Jesus is portrayed, from the plastic figurine to the depiction of the baby with the golden soup plate behind his head on Christmas cards, to see how easy it is for people in our society to pick up this same notion that Jesus doesn’t have anything to offer, that he can’t deliver on his promises. But Jesus goes on to speak to her about this living water. He’s not deflected by this first response of believing that he can’t do it. He explains more about what the living water is about, and how it comes from him and how it’s connected with him.

I travel quite a lot with my job to different parts of the world. One of the things my kids are often interested in is what I’ve brought them back. Sometimes they start poking around in my bag to see what I’ve brought them back. I came back from New Zealand on Wednesday and they said to me, “What have you brought us back from New Zealand?” I said, “I’ve brought you me.” Sadly they weren’t particularly impressed with that. But that was in fact all I had brought them because it’s important to me that me is the important thing sometimes. I’m tempted to wrap up my wife and stick her under the Christmas tree, and when they come down on Christmas morning all excited to discover this massive present and unwrap it to discover it’s ‘only Mummy’ to say but this is fantastic! You know, here’s someone who knows you and loves you and is here all year round. Isn’t that much better than a play station? (Don’t blame me if it doesn’t work out!)

But this living water that Jesus offers is something that means the woman will never grow thirsty again. It’s not like the water from the well. Although the encounter happens at the well, it’s not about the well water. It’s about a different kind of water that will mean the person who drinks of it will never grow thirsty again, and will indeed have within them a spring welling up to eternal life.

Listening to this we see the second response of the woman.

Now she’s interested. “Sir, give me this water, then I won’t have to keep coming to the well.” It probably wasn’t that positive an experience for her - going to get the water in the middle of the day and dragging it back to the house again.

She sounds very positive. She sounds very interested. “Yes, I’ll have a bit of this, Jesus. Now you’re talking.”

But Jesus knows something of the woman’s past; he knows her life. He puts his finger on what is a big issue for this woman by saying, “Go and call your husband.” And she says, “Sir, I don’t have a husband.” And he says, “Too right you don’t! You’ve had five and the man you’re with now you’re not married to.” He puts his finger on a pattern of behaviour which is central to her identity and almost certainly defines her negatively in the community she belongs to. Strange thing for Jesus to do! You see, Jesus isn’t interested in having fans; he’s interested in followers. He’s not interested in papering over the cracks in people’s lives; he’s interested in spirit and truth. He cares for the woman enough to challenge her, to bring to the surface something which is very real and which is probably painful to her.

I remember a guy at Stirling University who started to get interested in Jesus and he started reading his way through one of the gospels. And as he was reading his way through one of the gospels he suddenly found it hard to believe in Jesus, so he put gospel under his bed. He said, “I used to lie awake at night wondering why I was finding it hard to believe in Jesus. I believed in all kinds of things - I believed in intelligent life on other planets, I believed in the Loch Ness monster, I believed that Scotland would win the world cup. And yet I was finding it hard to believe in Jesus. It began to trouble me - why I was finding it hard to believe in Jesus? And then one night I understood that the reason I was finding it hard wasn’t because I had questions about Jesus’ existence, it was that I realised I had met a living person who was asking personal questions of me. The reason I put the gospel under the bed was because I was concerned about the cost of following Jesus, not the reality or the importance of it.” He got out the gospel and started reading it through to the end, and subsequently gave his life to Jesus.

But in response to this putting a finger or a searchlight onto a real issue in the woman’s life, we see the third response in the passage.

All this talk about husbands and men is a bit close to the bone so we’ll throw in a religious theory and a bit of flattery. “I can see you’re a prophet. Where do you stand on the mountain controversy? Because some people believe it’s this mountain and some people believe it’s that mountain. Where are you on mountains, Jesus? Let’s not focus too deeply on the husbands and the men kind of thing. You know, that’s not where we want to go. Let’s take it onto a different level.”

Jesus is not deflected by her question. He is willing to meet her where she is. We have all kinds of different ideas. People believe in crystals and philosophies and religions. But Jesus is concerned that there is a standard against which these things have to be evaluated, that a time is coming and is now here when people everywhere, regardless of where they stand on the mountain theory, regardless of whether they’re Jew or Samaritan, that in this new age to come people will worship the Father, the one true Father, and will worship him in spirit and in truth. And this is something that the different ideas and philosophies we have have to be evaluated against. Jesus, in doing this, begins to reveal more of his identity, finally realised when the woman says, “I know that the Messiah’s coming” and Jesus says, “That’s exactly who you’re talking to.”

And at that point we see the final response - we see a life changed. If you read on in John chapter 4 you will see that not only is her life changed, but her relationships are changed and her community is changed, because Jesus is persuaded to stay on for a couple of days longer with the Samaritans, and as they listen to his word and spend time with him, many of them begin to believe in Jesus.

They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.” (v42)

I really like the Samaritan woman. She’s an ordinary sort of person with issues in her life - busyness, guilt, searching for something which has been elusive for her (true love), looking for satisfaction, and in an unexpected way from this strange man being offered living water, being offered new life, being offered salvation.

I wonder what would happen if you met Jesus while you were doing the Christmas shopping, while you were getting dinner ready one night, or while you were sitting at your desk at work.

I work with students. Students are not always the most communicative of groups of people, or necessarily the most imaginative. In Freshers Week students basically say the same four things to each other: they want to know what their name is, what they are doing there; where they are from; and if they’d like a free gift as the bank or building society or university have got everything from Pot Noodles to sample bars of chocolate to little wallets to keep your bank card in. If you know a student starting university or college you could have a T-shirt printed for them: ‘Joe, Newcastle, English, Yes please’ and it would eliminate the need for conversation altogether. They could just go “grunt - cough – grunt”.


I got to wonder what would happen if someone met Jesus within that kind of framework. What would you say to Jesus - “What’s your name?” “Jesus Christ.” “Where are you from?” “Well, originally I was with the Father in heaven; through me all things that have been made were made. Then I came to earth and I was born as a baby and I grew to be a man and for 3 years I ministered God’s kingdom and then I was put to death on the cross for the sins of the world. Three days later I rose back to life again. From there I ascended to heaven where I am seated now at the Father’s right hand, from where I will come in the future to usher in a glorious new kingdom which will last for all time, for I will judge the living and the dead.” “What are you doing here?” “I’m doing what I’ve always done - reconciling lost men and women to the God who made them, who knows them and loves them, bringing new life, forgiveness and hope.” “Would you like a free gift?” “What have you got?” “Not much.” What would Jesus say to you? “I know your name. I know where you’re from. I know everything about you. I know the hurts and the heartache and the things that are hidden. I know the hopes and the joys. Would you like a free gift? The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.”

I guess that’s our central prayer this Christmas, that you would discover the greatest gift - Jesus himself, the one who brings eternal life and living water, that you will know that this Jesus really is the Saviour of the world. And that offer of life is extended to you. It’s an offer which requires a response. Notice for the Samaritans the thing that convinced them was Jesus’ word. It seems to me there are too many people in the world telling you what to believe and how to behave, and it’s important that you check out the truth for yourself. That’s why something like Christianity Explored is such a great opportunity to have a chance to investigate more carefully who Jesus is and what he’s about. I have with me some copies of one of my books. I say ‘one’ rather grandly because I’ve written two. This has the full text of Mark’s gospel in it and also some introductory things about Jesus that I’ve written to help understand Mark’s gospel. It was originally written for Oxford University mission so you’ll appreciate that a certain amount of dumbing down has had to go into it. But I think you’ll still manage to find it’s not too much beneath your level. If you would like to find out more about Jesus, then you’re very welcome to have one of these.

But maybe you’re further on than that. Maybe God has been speaking to you for a while and you’ve got through the disinterest and you’ve got past the self-interest and you’ve realised that the issues that God deals with are real and his call on your life is substantial and you need to do something about that. Then actually it’s time for you to receive this gift for yourself now. What’s stopping you saying yes to Jesus? What’s stopping you getting to that fourth level of response where God is welcomed into your life, where you ask for forgiveness and begin a new life with God through Jesus?

I’m going to finish by saying a short prayer which is in this book. I’m using a prayer that you can find written down somewhere so that you can see what’s been prayed if you want to pray along with this. If you know it’s time that you said yes to Jesus, as I pray you just pray along with this in your own head. Let’s pray together.

Dear God, thank you for speaking to me from your word. I admit that I’ve been living my life without you. I have fallen short of your perfect standard in thought, word and deed. I realise that I cannot please you by my own efforts. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me. Thank you for your great love and mercy. I surrender control of my life to you. Please forgive my sins. I ask you now to come into my life to be my Saviour, Lord and God from this day forward. Please send the Holy Spirit to cleanse me and help me. I receive him now. Please help me to live as your child, as part of your family. I know I still have a lot to learn, but thank you that right now I know that eternity is secure. Enable me to live for you and with you each day. Amen.
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