Homily - Third Sunday of Lent -
John 4:5-42 - On Sacrifice and Deserving.
The Gospel story that we heard today of the Samaritan woman is quite a long
gospel, it probably took me more than five minutes to read. You will
notice as we read the Gospels during Lent that all of them are quite a bit
longer. Perhaps this is part of the penance that we do during Lent.
And so I will try to keep my remarks a little shorter today. I am
reminded of the story of the preacher who stood up in the pulpit and said to
the congregations, "I have three sermons with me today. One
sermon is a hundred dollar sermon lasts more than 45 minutes. The
second one is a $500 sermon that lasts for 15 minutes. The last one is
a thousand dollar sermon that only lasts for five minutes. We are
going to do something a little different today. We will take up the
collection before the sermon. And then we'll see which sermon you get!
"
The gospel of the woman from Samaria has so much depth to it that it would
be impossible in a short homily in one mass to talk about everything that's
important within it. I would strongly recommend that as part of your
preparation for Lent this week, that you take out the Missalette or your
Bible and read this story again and again, discuss it with your family, and
look at all of the ways that it speaks to us today in our modern world.
Today I would like to talk about one concept shows up throughout the
readings, not just in the gospel but also in a letter from Paul, and that is
the concept of "Deserving". When we talk about religion and
morality, the expression that someone is getting what they deserve, comes
out very often. The trouble is that the only way for us of the to
determine what somebody deserves is to make a judgment. And yet the
Lord, over and over again, has warned us against making judgments about
other people.
What do we deserve? This is certainly the challenge of today's scripture.
The word deserve has gotten a lot of press lately in the newspaper,
especially associated with the Olympics. Did our skaters deserve to
win the gold medal? Did those athletes who were banned from the games
deserve to be sent home?
As people we are often very concerned about who deserves to get what, but
it's a question that we must be very careful about, because the thought of
getting what we deserve can be pretty scary if we look at our own lives.
Jesus promises this Samaritan woman the possibility of the eternal life,
despite the fact it she has had five husbands and is living with a man who
is not her husband, not exactly a deserving lifestyle. Jesus has
brought salvation to many people such as tax collectors, who cheated their
fellow Jews, to the woman caught in adultery who should have been stoned
according to Scripture, and to many others who may not have deserved his
sacrifice
But before we ask whether someone deserves something or not let's look again
at what Paul has to say. He says that the true miracle of Jesus'
sacrifice for us is that he died for us when we were all sinners. He
didn't step forward to sacrifice himself for innocent people, but rather he
stepped forward to sacrifice himself for people who were sinners. He
did not judge before he did what was right. And this is one of the
most important things that he is trying to teach us through his life that we
must do what is right, including making sacrifices for others, whether they
deserve it or not.
It is very easy to look at someone and say they don't deserve something.
But we need to look at ourselves again and ask some questions. Do we
deserve the many blessings we have?
Did we deserve to be born in Canada where life is good and three square
meals a day is the norm, when more than half of the world goes to bed hungry
every night?
Do we deserve to sit down in front of the television at night with our feet
on a soft cushion because we put in a hard eight hour day when there are
literally thousands of single mothers and fathers working double shifts to
just put food on the table?
Do we deserve to spend all the excess money that we've "earned" on
bigger TV's and Cars, or hide it away in RRSP's for thirty years, when
others can't make ends meet today?
Did I deserve to be born a man, so that I get paid more for doing exactly
the same job as the woman in the desk beside me?
How about the other side of deserving, deserving punishment. Before we
look at those in prison for example and say they've gotten what they
deserve, let us ask ourselves these questions.
Did those men and women in prison deserve to be beaten and abused as
children? The statistics show that over 75 percent of the people in prisons
had just such a life as a child.
When we drop a bomb on a terrorist site, killing not only those who would
bring violence to us but their families as well, can we say they got what
they deserved? Did they deserve to be born in a tent in a refugee camp? With
no food and no help from the rest of the rich world as they watched it go by
them everyday? Did they deserve to have their young years filled with poison
and hatred from old and bitter leaders? Do they deserve our retribution when
they never received our help?
Jesus sacrificed his life for our sakes, although we did not deserve it.
Jesus does not offer life to the Samaritan woman because she deserves it,
but because it is the right thing to do. His Father had sent him to
save all humankind, to let all of us have the chance to live in his life,
regardless of whether or not we deserved it
To be a Christian means that we do not have the luxury of deciding whether
the people we help deserve our help or not. That is not the Savior's
way. Just as the Samaritan people realized that they believed in Jesus
because of what they heard from him directly in their own hearts even more
than the reasons that they heard it from the woman, it should prove to us
that we need to give Jesus the time in prayer to speak in our hearts so that
we will all to believe in him and to follow him by sacrificing for others by
helping others even if they don't deserve it.
This approach is very different from our current world values, where
consumerism allows us and grants us the privilege of using up every single
thing we earn even though others are doing without, where our laws allow our
personal convenience to take precedence over the life of an unborn child,
where politicians right now are even proposing that we make being homeless a
crime as if those who sleep on the street somehow deserve that and deserve
to be punished for allowing it to happen.
"De-serve" is an interesting word because it actually is made up
of two parts, the first "de" is the Latin word for "from or
of" and "serve" of course comes from service and so what we
"deserve" is what we get from the service that we give.
During Lent be prepared to make a sacrifice for others, whether it's a
financial sacrifice in the "Share Life" campaign that is coming
up, or a sacrifice of your time and effort in one of the many parish groups
or other communities services you may be belong to. And part of our
sacrifice is giving up that comfort that we like to know that those we help
deserve it, by "our" standards, and simply helping because it is
the right thing to do. If we don't judge others as to what they
deserve, then when our turn comes we may also be granted salvation through
Christ's sacrifice, rather than trying to pretend that we have earned it
ourselves.
The gift of living water is ours to take. The gift of Christ's living
body is ours, here today in the Eucharist. The gift of the sacrifice
that Christ made for us has also been given to us so that we may share it
with others. In this Lenten season, let us reach out to others and
share and sacrifice and forget about the word "Deserve."
- Deacon
Steve
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