Bringing It All Together
A reading for Friday, January 24, 2014: John 4:16-26
Even in the ancient world there were many things that divided. Samaritans worshipped differently from Jews. Both groups were descended from the twelve tribes of Israel but that's where the similarity stopped. Samaritans worshipped on the mountain where Moses had received the commandments. Jews on the other hand, worshipped in Jerusalem where Solomon had the temple constructed. Samaritans were continual inhabitants of the northern kingdom, while Jews were those that had returned from the Babylonian exile to reconstitute faith in God in the south. Jews and Samaritans did not get along.
Jesus is about bringing all of creation together. Samaritans and Jews, Jews and Gentiles, Protestant and Catholic, Presbyterians and Southern Baptists, and even non-believers and believers, sinners and saints. Jesus, as the Messiah, came to bring people together. The message to the Samaritan woman is that all things are now coming together.
Such a message sounds strange to us even still today. For too many, religion is still a way of division. We emphasize the differences rather than what we have in common together. "No, we don't like them because they believe something different from us," is the mantra. Even within most groups that claim to be one there are differences that divide. We still don't get along all too often.
When the Messiah comes, He will proclaim that all of creation is one. Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Jesus Christ has come. The message to us on this day (as it was in the ancient world just as much with the Samaritan woman) is that all things are now coming together. The time has come.
The question for us all is pretty basic... Will we be those that unite or those that divide?
Even in the ancient world there were many things that divided. Samaritans worshipped differently from Jews. Both groups were descended from the twelve tribes of Israel but that's where the similarity stopped. Samaritans worshipped on the mountain where Moses had received the commandments. Jews on the other hand, worshipped in Jerusalem where Solomon had the temple constructed. Samaritans were continual inhabitants of the northern kingdom, while Jews were those that had returned from the Babylonian exile to reconstitute faith in God in the south. Jews and Samaritans did not get along.
Jesus is about bringing all of creation together. Samaritans and Jews, Jews and Gentiles, Protestant and Catholic, Presbyterians and Southern Baptists, and even non-believers and believers, sinners and saints. Jesus, as the Messiah, came to bring people together. The message to the Samaritan woman is that all things are now coming together.
Such a message sounds strange to us even still today. For too many, religion is still a way of division. We emphasize the differences rather than what we have in common together. "No, we don't like them because they believe something different from us," is the mantra. Even within most groups that claim to be one there are differences that divide. We still don't get along all too often.
When the Messiah comes, He will proclaim that all of creation is one. Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Jesus Christ has come. The message to us on this day (as it was in the ancient world just as much with the Samaritan woman) is that all things are now coming together. The time has come.
The question for us all is pretty basic... Will we be those that unite or those that divide?
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