Samaritan woman

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The Art Of Re-GIFTing — Part 4: Tell

This is the fourth and final installment in the series of posts on re-gifting: Jesus style!  Together we’ve looked at the Grace that is needed, the Inventory that is necessary, and the Faith that must grow.  All of these are important and vital components, but the GIFT of  Jesus to others isn’t complete until we Tell!

Much speculation has gone on regarding the friendships, or lack thereof, of the Samaritan woman from John 4.  The fact that she is out at an “odd” time of day and by herself would seem to indicate that no one was willing to be with her.  And yet here she is with amazing news: “This man I’ve been talking to claims to be the Messiah!”

Did you get that?  Jesus sets the example for us in the gifting of Himself to others by not only living out the Grace, Inventory, and Faith components we have looked at — He also lives out the Telling of who He is.  The rest of the story has great insight and meaning, but it is the statement of Jesus, “I who speak to you am He.”, that unlocks the GIFT of Jesus in the life of this woman.  Transformation begins to take place based on Jesus revealing Himself to her.

It doesn’t stop there!  This woman is a quick learner and rushes back to the village to tell everyone who will listen about the true GIFT of Jesus.  She has experienced Grace, Inventory, and Faith through her encounter with Jesus and now she feels compelled to pass it on.  The results are astounding!  The entire village turns out to see Jesus and hear for themselves the message the woman is sharing.  The story ends with people believing in the GIFT of Jesus — some believing because of the “telling” by the woman, and others believing because the “telling” made them curious enough to go see for themselves.

If you have grasped hold of the GIFT of Jesus, how are you doing at telling others about what you have found?  When you experience the Grace of Jesus, it is for you — but it is not for you alone!  You must be busy telling others about the Grace that exists in your life.  When you go through the inventory times of life when you discover just how empty you are and just how much Jesus has to offer, there is an obligation to tell others about the One who has everything you need.  When your Faith grows in your life and calls you to take a stand for your beliefs, you must be ready to tell others just Who it is that you believe in.

I pray that you are growing in your practice of telling others about Jesus.  If you have received and experienced the GIFT of Jesus, then I pray that you complete that GIFT by practicing the Tell part on a regular basis.  To modify the old saying, “Tell at all times, if necessary use words!”  If you don’t know the GIFT of Jesus, then I pray that you will listen openly when someone tells you about the best GIFT of their life.

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The Art Of Re-GIFTing — Part 3: Faith

“I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  John 4:25

This is part three of a four-part series of posts based on a sermon I preached at the Deer Run Church of Christ.  I began with part one, Grace, and then last wrote about part two, Inventory. 

As we continue with the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, part 3 takes an interesting turn.  It is here, in “foreign” territory, that the seeds of faith have taken root and are expressed. 

There are many who look at John 4:19 as the beginning of a distraction — a change of subject by the Samaritan woman designed to avoid further conversation about her personal life.  I’m not convinced that is really what is happening.  I believe that the revelation of Jesus’ knowledge of her personal life ignites a sprouting of the seeds of faith that were within her.  She quickly recognizes that this is no ordinary man.  This “prophet” can see into her life, perhaps he also has a real answer to satisfy her deep longing for a relationship with the living God.  This is exactly what Jesus has already told her to ask Him for — living water so that she might never thirst again.

And so she asks the taboo question with all of the current worship arguments, who is right?  What!  Did she really ask that!  I thought that was a modern question!  But no, look, there it is — “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”  It doesn’t even sound like a question.  Yet the question is there.  Does it sound familiar?  What we claim as genuine worship is different from what you do — who is right? 

The answer that Jesus gives isn’t completely satisfying to her.  He doesn’t seem to pick either side.  He indicates that a new way of doing things is on its way — as a matter of fact, it has already arrived.  Place is no longer even a part of the argument, it is all about the heart of the worshipper.  Real worship isn’t focused on place, style, form, or anything else.  Real worship is worship that is focused on the Father.  Real worship identifies with God being spirit and truth by being worship that is done in spirit and in truth.

But wait.  That doesn’t sound right.  I’ve been around for a long time and no one is talking like that.  We can’t all be wrong, can we?  It’s all so confusing.  Who do I believe?  And then it comes.  This great profession of faith in the one who can give a definitive answer.  “I know that Messiah is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Wow!  My translation of this dialogue?  Sir, you aren’t making any sense.  But that is okay.  God has promised to send the Christ and he will explain everything perfectly when he shows up.  What faith!  This Samaritan woman was convinced that God would keep his promise of a coming Messiah.  Not only would He keep His promise, but the Messiah would come with an explanation not only for the Jews, but for her as a Samaritan as well.

I wish I had been there just to watch.  Can you imagine her reaction when the response of Jesus to her expression of faith is, “I who speak to you am he.”!  Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  Could it be?  That sure would make the previous parts of our conversation make a lot more sense.  I can just imagine the shadows of doubt and disbelief being driven away by the rays of joy and hope that were beginning to flood her life.  Her faith was transforming her very existence as she stood toe to toe with the very one whom she believed could reveal God’s will to her.

How about you and I?  How often do we find ourselves caught up in some meaningless arguments about worship, or anything else?  Do we have the faith that God has promised to reveal Himself to us in a way that is meaningful and relevant?  Is God’s answer to our dilemmas good enough for us? 

I pray that our faith would be a growing and maturing faith that understands our need to worship God in spirit and in truth.  May you and I grow in our trust of God to provide the answers that we need — even when the answer is not the way we expect it to be.

Coming next — Part 4:  Tell!

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The Art Of Re-GIFTing — Part 2: Inventory

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
 
While grace is a foundational element necessary for “re-gifting” Jesus style, this next component is just as critical.  This is part two of a four-part series taken from a sermon I preached entitled, “The Art of Re-Gifting”.   In my previous post, I wrote about the grace that Jesus displayed as He overcame His tiredness and the cultural expectations in order to share the gift of Himself.  The context of this series of writings is the story of Jesus and His encounter with a Samaritan woman, recorded for us in John 4:4-42.  In this encounter, we see the importance of doing Inventory. 

The story begins with a simple request by Jesus for a drink.  While the response that Jesus gets does not appear to be enthusiastic, or even welcoming, He quickly leads the conversation in a direction that reveals that He has already done an inventory of His situation.  When the Samaritan woman questions the entire basis for this conversation, Jesus begins to reveal to her just what it is that He has to offer.  Jesus was confident in who He was and in what His purpose was.  His personal inventory revealed that He had water to offer this woman that would fully satisfy her thirst.  He could supply living water that would provide a relief of her thirst in such a way that she would never thirst again.

As we encounter people that God has called upon us to “re-gift” His indescribable gift to, it is imperative that we have done the inventory and know what it is that we have to offer.  Many times we encounter people and interact with them in a variety of ways, never once recognizing that we had something to offer them.  We must take inventory daily of just what it is that we have in Christ that He has called us to offer to others.  This repetitive inventory serves as a constant reminder of what God has given us.  The more that we keep that in mind, the more likely we are to remember our obligation to share it with others.

There is a second inventory that Jesus initiates in this story.  He gently forces the Samaritan woman to take inventory of her own life.  He does this with a simple, and on the surface, non-threatening request:  “Go and get  your husband”.  It can be easy to miss, but this required an inventory of life to be taken.  A decision was made to tell the truth.  She could have simply said, “Okay”, and gone and gotten the man she was living with.  Instead, she takes a serious inventory and discovers that her need is great.  In the next article, I will look at the response that her inventory brings out of her. 

In our interactions with people, we need to learn how to help them take inventory and discover their great need.  We must find non-threatening, yet direct, ways to challenge people to look deeper into their lives than they ever have before.  We may be confident in our own inventory of what we have to offer, but until the person across from us realizes that they need what we have, we will rarely get very far in our attempt to share with them the indescribable gift of God. 

How are you doing in taking inventory?  How confident are you of what you have in Christ Jesus?  Are you confident enough to know that you have something of great value to share?  How well do you do in helping others take inventory in their life?  Do people recognize that you are trying to help them receive something of great value?  Are you able to ask challenging questions without coming across as condemning? 

I pray that you excel in these two aspects of inventory so that you will be effective in “The Art of Re-Gifting”!

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The Art Of Re-GIFTing — Part 1: Grace

This post is the first of a series I had written on another blog of mine a couple of years ago.  I will periodically be posting those writings here on this blog.

I had the opportunity to preach at the Deer Run Church of Christ on the last Sunday morning of 2008.  My message was entitled, “The Art of Re-Gifting” and looked at the example of Jesus found in John 4:4-42.  In most of my preaching I like to wrap my sermon points around a word that gives people a “handle” to carry the sermon home and remember what God is calling them to do.  In this sermon, I looked at four points from the account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.  These points hung on the word GIFT.  It was all about the gift of Jesus that causes Paul to exclaim, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  Jesus gives us an example of how we can take the gift He has given us and “re-gift” it to others.  This article will look at the first point: re-gifting Jesus style requires grace!

John’s telling of this encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman opens with a comment on the nature of Jesus that is often overlooked and not considered — Jesus was tired!  I can picture Jesus finally arriving here at Jacob’s well, relieved that He can finally be left alone to get some rest.  John lets us know that the disciples had gone into town to buy food and Jesus chose to be alone, or was left alone, to unwind from the journey He had taken.  I can picture it because I have been there — tired from travel, tired from the pressures of the day, tired of people, just wanting to be left alone to rest, relax, and think.  Are you there with me yet?  Are you comfortable?  Are you in that “relaxing zone”?  If so, then perhaps you can imagine the arrival of a stranger to your place of isolation and rest.

What is your reaction?  What is my reaction?  Perhaps, “Go away!”; or “Leave me alone!”; or, “Can’t you see I’m tired?”; or perhaps our initial response would be the same as Jesus, “Will you give me a drink?”  In His tiredness, Jesus initiates a conversation.  Maybe this was simply a reaction to meet His own need for a drink.  We would be okay with that.  Simply fulfilling a need doesn’t have to interrupt the rest we so desperately want — it may even improve it!  But Jesus doesn’t leave it at meeting His needs.  As a matter of fact, it soon becomes quite apparent that this was never really about the needs of Jesus.  Instead, Jesus extends grace by stepping out of His tiredness to interact with an individual that needed to know Him.

But the grace of re-gifting goes even deeper.  This wasn’t just anyone that Jesus was interrupting His rest for.  This was a Samaritan and a woman.  This offering of grace even catches the woman by surprise that this Jewish man would be talking to her.  The idea of a Jewish man to be talking to a woman in public was unthinkable.  And to talk to a Samaritan, asking her to help you, was simply unheard of.  Yet here is Jesus, about to embark on a conversation designed to reveal to this woman the priceless gift that stands before her.

I know, you are thinking, “So what?  Doesn’t apply to me!  I don’t mind talking to women and I have nothing against Samaritans.”  But it does apply, doesn’t it?  You and I know people that we do our best to avoid.  People of different cultures, nationalities, lifestyles, or whatever it may be — we choose not to associate with them.  We excuse it.  We rationalize it.  We even attempt to justify it.  But in the end, we must come face to face with the grace shown by Jesus and ask ourselves, “How are we doing at extending grace — undeserved favor — to all those we encounter?”  You see, that is the first step in re-gifting Jesus style.  We must recognize that the gift we have received from God is so undeserved that we are willing to extend grace to all people we encounter.

I pray that the encounters that you and I have with people will be filled with grace.  May we learn from Jesus how to re-gift what God has given us.

Up next:  The Art Of Re-GIFTing — Part 2:  Inventory