February 24, 2008
Rev. Linda Fernandes-Bailey
The Time for Justice is Always Now
My beloved professor of preaching at YDS David Barlett taught me that the way to prepare for preaching was to read the text over and over, stay with it a few days see what comes and then when your ideas are formed you go to the commentaries and see if you are on track. Well, with all due respect to Prof Barlett my thoughts today are a bit different than the commentaries so I am going to take it in a different direction…no surprise there. This is a deep story with many possibilities for interpretation. It is a spiritual story revealing Jesus as the Living Water who quenches our spiritual thirst. It is a story that tells us something about worship affirming the place of worship is not quite so important as the way we worship… in truth and spirit. This is a story that the writer of John tells to reveal Jesus as the messiah. And certainly it is a story about discipleship as the woman runs off to tell the people in her city about this Jesus and came to faith because of her testimony….that’s powerful and I could have preached that. But something else kept nagging at me.
Now, just an aside, the woman in the story is often interpreted as being immoral and unworthy of conversation with Jesus because of her multiple marriages. BUT first of all we don’t really know why she has been married multiple times. Since, women could not divorce it could be that she was victim to the men she married and another possibility is that she was widowed four times. Why she is not married now could also be because the man she is living with refuses to marry her. BUT that is not the point of why Jesus reveals to her what he knows about her. The point the writer makes is that Jesus has the ability to see and know all things. The conversation wants to points to who Jesus is not stand in judgment of an immoral woman.
Anyway, a while back I saw the movie The Great Debaters. A line from one of the debates that stayed with me since is “The time for justice is always right now”. But it was said with passionate conviction…THE TIME FOR JUSTICE IS ALWAYS RIGHT NOW! So, when I was thinking about this text this week I thought, “This is a story about justice!” Is it too much of a stretch? Well, what I saw was that in this conversation with the Samaritan woman several barriers are transcended. First, She is a woman and men are not allowed to talk to women in public in the ancient world and she is a Samaritan. Jews would avoid Samaritans because they considered them outsiders due to a long dispute about where to worship. Basically in this one conversation, which by the way is the longest conversation that Jesus has with anyone in all the gospels including his own disciples, Jesus breaks through the barriers of gender, race, tradition, and nationality. Not only does he talk to this woman, he basically engages in theological discourse! That is pretty big to be talking about such serious things to someone who is an outcast. But as always nobody is an outcast with Jesus. Maybe I’m wrong but that speaks to me of justice! Justice means treating others with fairness and respect and that is certainly covered in this conversation. Jesus stops in the middle of the day on his way to Galilee and engages in theological conversation with someone he is suppose to avoid. AND he asks her for a drink of water, which breaks the ritual purity laws and makes him unclean! Jesus risks a lot for this conversation. In the end, the woman is so EMPOWERED , she immediately goes off to tell the people in her city. Which made that line from the movie ring in my ears….”THE TIME FOR JUSTICE IS ALWAYS RIGHT NOW!” This outcast is the first in John’s gospel to spread the good news… to me, that’s justice!
Justice is one of those words I think that confuses and overwhelms us. The problems in the world are very big: wars, poverty, aids pandemic, global warming, violence, unemployment, genocide, human trafficking…all it takes is watching the news nightly to leave us overwhelmed and depressed. Then, we think, justice? What am I suppose to do? But justice gets done in big and small ways from the way we live our lives to getting out there and protesting, writing letters to our representatives and changing social structures that keep people stuck. When we look at how the dictionary defines justice …Just behavior or treatment, respect for people, and the quality of being fair…it doesn’t seem that hard does it? The reason the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman speaks to me of justice is partly because it seems everything Jesus does has an element of justice in it. It’s part of his daily round. He is always with people others think he shouldn’t be associating with and he is always breaking down barriers. Justice is about breaking down barriers between the “haves” and the “have nots”. As is often the case when one encounters Jesus this woman is EMPOWERED and goes off to testify. Because of her testimony many from her city believed. That’s pretty powerful work from an outcast. Now, that made me realize that we often confuse justice with charity. We want to help others and fix their problems but justice is about EMPOWERMENT. Empowering others to work towards solutions. Empowering others means listening to the stories of those who have no voice and working together. It means being willing to be changed.
I was thinking about the mission trip I lead to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The group I was with often sat around trying to find solutions to the problems of the Native American people, often before they ever had a conversation with someone living there. And many were aggravated at the Titus’ who ran the Re-member program because they felt they didn’t “do enough”. (now mind you this was a normal response and these were caring people who want to help) But what I saw, was that the Titus’ went to the reservation became a presence and slowly developed relationship with the people, earning trust, listening to their stories, being part of their lives and little by little more native Americans became part of the Re-member program and they began to work together. Justice is about Empowerment. It needs to include those we want to help.
When I think of those people who have contributed to justice in our time they are those who the majority tried to keep at the margins but they could not be kept quiet… from some place deep within they were empowered. Again the phase “THE TIME FOR JUSTICE IS ALWAYS RIGHT NOW! rings in my head when I think of Rosa Parks who one day decided she was not going to the back of the bus and became part of a revolution, Sojourner Truth who was born a slave and one day decided she would be a slave no more and became part of the preaching circuit drawing crowds of people to listen to her preach even though she couldn’t even read and had to have someone read scripture to her and Antoinette Brown who decided she would get a theological education even though women were not allowed. Those who were voiceless became a powerful voice for change…for justice…for equality. They were not helped or fixed they were Empowered.
There are always opportunities for justice right in front of us if we just pay attention. I was remembering a phone call I received from a man named David a few months ago and he was asked if I would officiate the civil union of he and his partner. So, I said, “Well, do you want a ceremony in the church?” “Not really” he said. And I said, “Well you know I’m a minister not a justice of the peace I think you need to find a justice of the peace.” I then surveyed my colleagues trying to figure out what to do, all reminded me we are religious leaders…we represent the church if they don’t want a church ceremony what’s the point. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the phone call. So, I continued conversation with David. Well, as our conversations went on it turns out David and his partner of 24 years had moved to Connecticut from California. SO, whatever legal union they had in California was now null and void. They had no legal rights as partners. The more we talked the more I got fired up…this is a justice issue I cried! This is why I believe equal marriage is a right not a moral debate. IF I moved to California I would still be married. I was furious. So I called David back and said “Come on down I’ll sign the paper.” They didn’t need a ceremony their union has long been sacred and holy. In the end I thanked him for calling me and helping me participate in justice. THE
TIME FOR JUSTICE IS ALWAYS RIGHT NOW!
As that phase rang through my mind I started to think of all the ways I see people around me working for justice. I thought of Randy Yale (a lay person from our congregation) and the great courage it took to stand up and represent the Seeds of Hope group by preaching an eco-justice sermon…one many find difficult to listen to because if we hear the message we have to change the way we live. But I was thankful for the reminder of what I could do.
AND If I could just brag about my husband (and his business partner Kevin) for a minute (I’m sure it’s another preaching no no sorry Prof Bartlett) but they are small business owners who despite seven years of increases in the cost of medical benefits continue to provide FULL medical benefits to all their employees. It comes at a huge cost to them but they both feel as business owners it is the right and just thing to do. When we have millions of people in our country with no benefits…their commitment to providing full benefits is a radical act of justice!
Rather than be overwhelmed by the enormity of injustice we see, we need to keep our eyes open for the opportunities that present themselves daily to work for justice. Each of us can do our part. As we experience Jesus we are empowered…to take action, to speak up, to empower others, to live responsibly. It is not easy. We don’t want to change. BUT…THE TIME FOR JUSTICE IS ALWAYS RIGHT NOW! Amen.