Unbinding Our Conversations
John 4:7-10, 16-29
February 23, 24, 2008

If you could set up a website to describe our church family, what would you call it? Most church websites use the name of the church. For instance, ours is Beargrass.org. But you may have heard about a church that uses its mission statement for its website address: www.transformedlives.com. That’s the Internet site for a church in San Diego (Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church). The congregation is growing and baptizing increasing numbers of adults into Christian faith. Their pastor asks for only one report at every meeting. He asks one question at staff meetings, Board meetings, and any other kind of meeting. Are you curious? Here is the question. Whose life has been changed this week because of our ministry? What does that tell you about the priorities of the staff and church family? It would seem that their priority, their purpose, their mission is transformed lives. They believe the main message of our faith is that God can change lives. It’s what they are all about.

WE HAVE HEARD A STORY ABOUT A TRANSFORMED LIFE TODAY. Jesus changes the life of the woman at the well. She comes to the well at the hottest time of day, when no one else would have been there. Some folks have speculated about why she came at such a lonely time? Perhaps she had a bad reputation—after all, she had been divorced 5 times? Of course, some of those husbands had died—maybe it was grief? But something kept her isolated that day. Who knows what? All we know for sure is she was alone that day.

She probably would not have expected to have company at the well at that hour. But Jesus is there when she gets there. And he talks to her. And it is not just a simple “hello” or “wassup.” In fact, this is the longest of any of Jesus’ recorded conversations! Jesus starts out by making small talk. He merely asks the woman for a drink of water. But that one request breaks down barriers that had existed for centuries! Just a few simple words between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman violate ages-old social and religious rules about interactions between men and women and ethnic groups. But once the rules are broken, a fountain of conversation begins to flow! Jesus and the woman talk. They discuss her marriages. They talk politics and religion—who they’re going to vote for—Hilary or John or Obama. They talk about spiritual thirst. And by the time the conversation ends, Jesus tells her he is the Messiah!

The woman is so moved by their conversation, she gets movin’! She runs off to tell her whole village about Jesus. She is so excited she even leaves her water jug at the well! She forgets her original purpose in coming to the well. Jesus changes her life—she leaves with a new purpose—her thirst is quenched by a different kind of Water. This woman once isolated herself from others. Now she is searching for people—she wants to tell everybody.

You’ve heard some of those stories—some of those amazing things Jesus did for people? He healed diseases. He gave people sight. He raised the dead. Actually, this story seems pretty tame by comparison. All he does here is talk to a woman. He reaches out across cultural barriers to have a conversation. But in that conversation, Jesus and the woman reveal something about themselves to each other. And somehow, in the course of the conversation, the woman is deeply transformed. She proclaims to her neighbors: “He knows everything about me!” It is just conversation…just words…just a little talk with Jesus. But it changes her life. God’s power can transform genuine conversation into a life-changing experience.

IN THE BOOK WE ARE READING TOGETHER, UNBINDING YOUR HEART, MARTHA GRACE REESE TALKS ABOUT LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCES. She asked people all across the country to find out what brings people to church and what makes them stay. What do you think brings people to church for the first time? Super sermons, appealing ads, beautiful buildings? Nope. It’s you. Almost 60% of people who join a church do so because someone invited them. People come to church because someone asks them to come.
And what makes them come back? Super sermons, marvelous music ministries, pristine parlors, clean commodes, neat nurseries? Nope. It’s you. The number one reason people say they return to a church is because they received a warm welcome from the people there. Those others things are important, but they are not the main thing. The main thing is whether or not someone said hello to them, or remembered their children’s names, or went out of their way to get them a bulletin. New people can tell if the congregation actually cares about them.

Could it be that this is the miraculous thing Jesus does for the woman at the well? Just conversing…just caring? My guess is YES! YES, God’s power can transform genuine, honest, heart-felt conversations into life-changing experiences!

Last week, I mentioned the IBM commercial that shows a bunch of people in a room who are “ideating” and “innovating” and compared that to prayer. I don’t know who is in charge of commercials lately, but another one popped up from the Kleenex tissue company that supports this week’s scripture lesson. The commercial is just a collection of quick shots—a big, bustling city, people passing, busy, frantic, frenetic. But there is a man on the street who just invites people to sit down and talk with him—there is a chair and sofa on the sidewalk—they just talk. We don’t get to hear any of their conversations—only snippets of the endings. Someone said, “Thanks, I just needed to talk.” Another said, “Wow, I needed to get that off my chest.” Many of the folks end up in tears—hence the need for Kleenex. But I don’t think these scenes were staged—I think they were real. People just needed to talk—they needed someone to listen.

SOME WONDERFUL STORIES ARE BEING TOLD IN OUR CHURCH FAMILY SINCE WE BEGAN THE “UNBINDING” SERIES. At last Monday’s Board meeting, we spent half of the meeting—praying. We prayed, we gave thanks for the leading of God’s Spirit, we discerned, we discussed. We heard some God-inspired ideas about how to encourage our faith community to develop deeper habits of the heart. A couple of women who are on the retreat this weekend sent me emails before they got out of town. One of them mentioned that she started praying with her co-worker, who is also a member of the church. She confessed that a few minutes of silent prayer felt like forever at first. But by the end of the week, time just started to fly. Another woman, a teacher, said that she had joined a small prayer group that meets before school. They pray for the community, the staff, their students. She said, “I love the way prayer helps me become more centered as I start my day.” “It gives me a focus and reminds me of my purpose—to serve as an example and to share God’s love with some children who really need it.”

I also heard a story from a pastor-friend about a woman named Marta. Marta had been someone’s housekeeper for several months. One day, the homeowners struck up a conversation with her. They asked her if she had any family in town. She told them she had moved here to escape an abusive husband. She was raising her two boys on her own. Her own parents had died years ago. Because of one of those God-inspired impulses, the couple invited her to their church. At first, she resisted—she said she didn’t have the proper clothes. They said, “Oh, come casual! We do!” “We’ll meet you at church about 10:30—then we’ll take you and your boys to lunch afterwards.” The following Sunday, Marta and her boys slipped into the last row just as the service started—and the couple went to sit with them. The message on that particular day was the same one we heard today—the story of the woman at the well. Marta sat at attention through the whole service. The couple that had invited her kept her boys busy with crayons and bulletin airplanes. Marta was entranced. When the sermon was over, she turned to the couple and said, “That story was for me!”“That woman at the well is me!” “I have been so alone for so long!” As people greeted Marta after the service, she said to the couple who had invited her, “This is like a family!”

You know someone like Marta. You know someone like the woman at the well. You know people who need God and the church in their lives. You know someone who needs a changed life. We have all kinds of wonderful things happening in our church family between now and Easter. And we’ll send out a mass mailing. And we’ll put articles in the newspapers. And we’ll put messages on the outside signs. And we’ll try to have the place all neat and tidy. But all of those things won’t be nearly as effective as an invitation from you.

I invite you to pray about this—ask God to compel you to start a conversation—to offer and invitation. Ask God to unbind your conversation—practice in front of a mirror if it will help. “Would you like to come to my church with me this week?” Please repeat that phrase after me! See, you are physically capable of saying the words. Now just ask God to make you spiritually capable of offering the invitation. And if you’d like to get extra credit, throw in some extra incentives! “I’ll pick you up.” “And then we can go out to eat together afterwards.”

After Jesus talks with the Samaritan woman, he teaches his disciples. He says, “Look around you! People are so ready for the gospel!” “All you have to do is ask!” Look around you. This week, talk to someone you’ve never talked to before. Or, talk to someone you chat with all the time. But this time… Find a way to talk about your faith. Who knows? By the grace of God, you could begin a conversation that will change someone’s life forever.