Living Water
SUMMARY
In this co-preached sermon, Tim Talley and his daughter Elizabeth Harrison explore John chapter 4 — the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman — uncovering three defining characteristics of Jesus: intentionality, humility, and radical inclusivity. Together, they challenge the congregation to move beyond surface-level boundary-crossing and allow those boundaries to fully dissolve, just as Jesus modeled. Ultimately, they call the church to share something real and beautiful — not a program or a gimmick, but a living, moving encounter with the Savior of the world.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Okay. Once again, good morning. And whether you are with us here in person or joining us online, it's really good to be with you today. I'm not often here, but I have been a part of this church family my entire life. My name is Elizabeth and I have the joy of getting to be up here with my dad, Tim, this morning.
I was up on this stage a few months ago for different reasons and a different season. And around that time I was telling my dad, I think I was probably being a bit of a bossy firstborn daughter. You need to consider this next year as like a grief sabbatical and you need to say no to everything. People are going to recognize your experience and what you have to offer and are going to be trying to pull you into things, but you need to say no. And then when Jeremy emailed us about co preaching together, I was like, okay, hang on a second.
Let's, let's reconsider. Because who ever has an opportunity to preach with their dad? And my dad tried to convince me to say, well, maybe you and Brian should do that. I don't really want to do this. And I said, you know, marriage counseling is too expensive to co preach with your favorite person in the world more than every few years.
So we are not yet eligible for that. But I am really happy to be here today and grateful to get to be up here with my dad. You know, when there's an opportunity to co preach, I think it's really important. You don't want people to get to the end of something like this and feel like they were in a tennis match where you're just kind of like going back and forth or thinking, well, that was great, but it would have been easier just to have Carl say all of that instead of going back and forth. And I think co preaching, getting to do this together is a beautiful opportunity for something specific.
It becomes kind of a metaphor for, for this. Voices coming together to hear the word of God. That maybe when you have different generations or different genders or different life experiences coming to a text, coming to these stories that mean so much to us, maybe we can hear more fully things that we could never hear on our own. And so today, as we step into this John, chapter four, into the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. John is going to be our guide in this story, but we'll be joining with John and my dad will kind of be taking the look at Jesus, look at the text.
What is it that Jesus is doing in the story? What is he saying? How is he acting. And what does all of that reveal to us about the character of God? What do we see about God in that?
And then I'll be stepping into, out of that. What does that mean for us? If we learn something about the character of God in this story? Does that mean anything to us in this time, in this place, in this season of world history? What do we do with that?
So that's a little bit of how we're going to be approaching this back and forth together. And we welcome you to join with us into this as we step into this story. Amen. Thank you, Elizabeth. You know, as I sat with this text and read it over and over, and this is a long story, a story that we all read, but things that just.
I immediately began to write down things that Jesus was doing, things that really do show the nature and character of God. And I came up with three that I'd just like to share with you in this section. Intentionality, Humility and radical inclusivity. This, this first one, he, he strategically, this intentionality, he strategically, purposely placed in front of this woman. You know, decorum of the day at Wells.
If you read about this historically, the man was supposed to, or anyone was supposed to back off, especially a man, different gender was supposed to back off. Jesus didn't do that. The text says he sat by the well. Some even texts say he sat sitting on the well, maybe this capstone of this, of this ancient well. And he places himself, he creates a divine appointment.
And we see this all through the text in the New Testament, Jesus crossing the lake to heal one man. And then he gets back in the boat and leaves. The demoniac who was full of legion of demons, he did that for one person. We see Jesus in Luke 7, I think at the funeral procession that's coming out of town as his group is going into town and he stands his ground, maybe stops the funeral procession so he can put his hand on a dead body and give this mother her only son back. Divine appointments are created intentionally.
We need to pay attention, I think, to what God is doing with us and for us. The second point is he humbled himself. This humility. You know, we as a, at church, our recent church history, we've not been really good at this. I don't think being really humble.
We've known all, all the answers here. Jesus where many times he's giving mercy here, he's asking for a mercy. He is breaking or willing to break social taboo to drink after this woman. He was willing to break or ignore 500 years of hostility between the Samaritans and the Jews. We see, I think, in this humility of Jesus, this profound theology of incarnational mission that we cannot, we should not ignore.
He elevates her self worth. He's affirming her dignity. Do we do that when we interact with others? Guys, humility could go a long way. And this last one, this radical inclusivity, I can't say this enough.
If you leave with anything today, at least on my words, remember those words. Radio radical inclusivity. The barriers between Jesus and this woman are, are huge. She is living in adultery. Here's incarnate God.
There's this profound moral barrier. She is a woman, he is a man. There's this gender social barrier that was very, very real during this time. She's a Samaritan, he's a Jew. There's this racial bar.
Think Palestinian and Israeli, seriously, that's how bad it was. They hated each other. She's a Samaritan, he's Jewish. There's this racial and religious barrier. I think that Jesus ignores those racial barriers.
He reaches through them and he does it by finding common ground. And it was something as simple as water. Guys, I don't think there's anybody, anybody in Lubbock that is more different than you and me, than the differences between this woman and Jesus. You say that and I think that's true, but there are some very different people in Lubbock and I think a good portion of them live in your neighborhood. That's true.
When, when the girls and I first landed in Lubbock a few weeks ago, before Brian was joining us a bit behind and I was taken out the trash early one morning. And at this point in life, living cross culturally, it takes quite a bit to startle me in terms of someone's appearance and how they kind of show up in the world. But there was a man walking his dog down the sidewalk in very short cut off blue jeans and nothing else. And every inch of his skin of which there was quite a significant amount showing was covered in tattoos and body piercings, face, scalp, back, everything. And we passed on the sidewalk and he stopped and he said, good morning, are you related to Tim Talley?
And I said, yeah, I'm his daughter. And he's like, will you tell him that I've been thinking about him, he is a friend and I've just been worried about him and let him know that I care and if he ever needs someone to talk to that I'm around. And I said, I'll do that. And I Went back inside the house and my dad was at the kitchen sink. He said, hey, I saw that you met my friend Dan.
And I was like, I did meet Dan. And so again, this diversity of people, whether that is. And I think you even said you have invited him to church. So, Broadway, don't say that you have not been warned. Come friend Sunday, who Tim Talley might show up with at church.
But this natural way of just connecting with all manner of people, even in a world in which I feel like there is a lot of people that are alike and yet hidden in plain sight and there's all manner of people all around us.
Being in the Bible translation world, I love this story. And I think the story of the Samaritan's woman is one that we, as Western American, very Biblically literate Christians, are actually at a disadvantage when it comes to listening to the story. You know, we constantly want to make sure when we're translating, we're not just, you know, taking a word from one language and making sure that we can find its exact equivalent in another language. I mean, that's a part of it, but it's. How do we communicate what this means?
Like, what is this story? What are these texts trying to say? What are they trying to do? And I think when we think about Samaritans, we know intellectually well those are enemies of the Jews and Jesus was doing something kind of crazy. But emotionally, we are immune to the sucker punch that this story carries.
And I think to feel some of this, we need to think about, what would it be like to read this story and hear one day Jesus got up and went out of his way and he walked into a gay bar, or he walked into a MAGA convention, or he walked to a Black Lives Matter rally or a support ice rally or any number of things that kind of makes our stomach tense up a little bit. And we all have them. That's where he went. And he walked up to somebody and said, hey, can you help me? If it doesn't make us squirm a little bit in our seats, we're missing what this story is trying to do.
And so what does that mean for us? Again, as we move towards thinking about how do we invite people into the life of the church, what does the story have to say about that? Is this saying we need to walk into the bar or whatever convention and ask someone for a drink? Maybe, I don't know. That's.
That's between you and the Holy Spirit. But I think there's something even, even deeper than that. Kind of radical boundary crossing. I think what we're seeing is not just, not just Jesus crossing boundaries, but Jesus saying that boundaries have no bearing on someone's identity, that these are not how Jesus defines people. And perhaps similarly, our invitation today is not just to cross whatever boundaries exist in our world and in our life, but to let them dissipate completely because they genuinely don't seem to mean a whole lot to Jesus.
And I don't say that lightly. This is hard, hard stuff. And Brian and I often joke that we feel like we kind of coughed out when we decided to move to North Africa 17 years ago. You know, that we made one fairly dramatic decision in order for all these harder day in, day out decisions to fall in place. Like we cared a lot about living the way that Jesus seems to be asking us to live, but my heart did, day in and day out, is not always going to be in the right place.
And we made this big move so that no matter where my heart was on any given morning, we were in community with the poor and we were dependent on refugees and we were in relationship with people of other major world religions. And all of that fell into place because it's hard. This is hard stuff that Jesus is calling us to do, but it is the work. And I think we all recognize that this isn't just a heightened sense of awareness for one Sunday of the year, but rather the cultivation of an entire lifestyle, an entire way of being in the world. So that inviting someone to church or inviting someone in for coffee becomes just a small thing, a small next step in what is already part of an entire way of being in connection with this subversive Jesus.
I just want to add to that story about my friend Dan. He did come over to my house with his dog, Morgan, and Morgan jumped up in Rebecca's lap and Dan said, I really like you people. Anyway, it was a great moment. A couple of more things of this living cross culturally, not just reaching through barriers, but letting go of those barriers. Being these radically inclusive people that we see Jesus modeling.
I think one of the main things is refusing to be drawn into arguments. Not all of us, but a lot of us, we're so good. Planting our flag in the yard, our sign in the yard of who we should vote for, and stating on our Facebook pages what we believe in and what we don't believe in and what's right and what's wrong. And I don't want to bash that too. I've done that.
I've done those things. But we're ostracizing a big part of maybe our neighborhood when we do that, I don't know. But refusing to be drawn into arguments is. Is something that Jesus is modeling here. He's not trying to win an argument.
Even when this woman lies to him, is deceptive to him. He says, you're right. You're. You don't have a husband. He even, you know, acknowledges that in a.
In a. In a gracious way. Why have we lost that ability to be gracious like Jesus? Or at least I have, I think not wanting to win an argument and. And not letting.
When people want to put up barriers or arguments, then we start battling back. I remember in 2014 when Rebecca and I started our international student fellowship down at our campus center, and we began to invite international student organizations to come again, trying to model radical hospitality. This is our house. Use our kitchen, use our building. Bring your music, bring your culture, bring your food, and we'll help a little bit.
And those were so great. I called them our big funnel of bringing people in, and we had those conversations, and we started a little international church on Sunday morning there. We had Egyptian Night in 2014, I remember, and it was the first time they had hosted. And I was like I always did at those nights. I'm standing at the front door and I'm welcoming people in.
And I knew some of these students, but a lot of them I didn't. And one man walks in. He's kind of burly, thick beard. And I said, welcome. And this was when we were Christ in action, and we had all these Muslim student orgs that were there, and they were all walking in, a little confused.
Am I in the right place? Yes, you're in the right place. Your group's hosting a meal. And I said, my name's Tim. And this guy grabs my hand, pulls me uncomfortably close, and he said, my name is Osama.
And I said, my name's Tim. And he said. Pulled me a little bit. We're about this far apart. He said, I don't think you heard me.
My name is Osama. Now, folks, this is like three, four years after Osama was hunted down. This is still pretty fresh in the memory of a lot of us. He said, I don't think you. I don't think you heard me.
My name is Osama. And I said, I don't think you heard me. My name is Tim. And he said, you're not put off by my name. And I said, there's good Osamas, bad Osamas good.
Tim's bad. Tim's I said, it's a great name.
And he said, and his frown and his hostility even changed. And he said, I like you good Tim. And from and Osama al Misri became a friend of mine. And every time he saw me and came in our campus center and we had more than any other of my Muslim friends, we had some good conversations, but he always grabbed me and he said, I like you good Tim. We don't have to win arguments.
You know, the other thing is, is changing our normal conversations into holy ones, into spiritual ones. And this is so hard where the water becomes living water that becomes well that be a well that becomes living water that springs into eternal life, changing those spiritual or those normal conversations into spiritual ones. And guys, I know for me I've learned it's not about knowing the book, chapter and verse.
Jesus said, if you knew the gift of God and who is asking you, we need to become the gift of God, the voice of God. We need to become like Jesus. We need to model the look for that spiritual thirst that everyone has, whether they even know it or not. That God shaped hole in their hearts that we can discover by not trying to win an argument. Jesus is simultaneously deeply truthful with this woman.
Salvation comes from the Jews. But he profoundly honors her in the way that he has this conversation. Maybe when those deep conversations do come with some of your friends who aren't believers, can we model this by not being passive aggressive, by being gracious, not being condemning or judging, being gentle, being authentic? I find it interesting in this story so many times when we talk, when we see Jesus interacting with sinners and at the end he says, go and sin no more. He didn't say that to this lady.
Finding out what people's hearts are thirsty for. He treats this woman in some respect as a serious theologian when she begins to change the subject, when she becomes, I perceive, your prophet. Let's don't talk about who I'm living with anymore and where you say we should do this. Samaritans say we should worship here, here. And Jesus reveals to this unnamed Samaritan woman that was hated by Jewish people.
He reveals to her the most significant teaching in the New Testament on worship.
It brings us to ask, how do we this question of holy places. Where are our holy places? Guys, it can't. This is a holy place to me.
But this cannot be the only holy place that we invite people to because we're only here an hour, a week, maybe two hours over there. We got to create these safe holy places where these holy conversations can happen. And I think if we imitate Jesus, they're going to happen in the most mundane of places. On our sidewalks, with our friend Dan, in our living rooms, at a coffee shop, at the gym, at our school.
Oh God, help us change normal conversations into ones that are holy.
So as we see Jesus refusing to be drawn into an argument, redefining what makes a place or a people holy, as he's painting this image of God roaming the earth looking for people who want to worship in spirit and truth, you know, again, what is this? What does this have to say to us now? What does this mean? And I think some of our even drawing on these fairly dramatic examples of other, of Muslims, of people around the world, I don't know if that's helpful in terms of thinking how significant this is or that's a way of saying that's, you know, something that missionaries do. And it is a way of undermining, I think, this point.
But I invite us all to think about that breadth of scope of who this is that we're talking about. Who might that be in our lives? I can never read the story of the Samaritan's purse, Samaritan's woman, without thinking of a dear mentor in Brian and my life. And a long time ago, before we were preparing to go overseas, he told the story, he was engaged in a lot of inter religious dialogue. He had dear friends who were very educated Muslim clerics.
And he said one of these days he was talking with this dear friend about religion and spirituality and life and how do we live our lives and what does God want? And he said towards the end of this conversation, at one point, I think it was our mentor and not the other guy. He said, you know what, your religion, my religion, neither one of them are really all that great, but Jesus, but Jesus, there's something there. And at the time I didn't have really a box for that. It kind of blew my mind.
But I feel like it's one of those things that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And I feel like it's the very thing that Jesus is doing in this conversation with this woman. And this becomes such an important way of engaging with people, not attacking or poking holes, but pointing all of us towards something even more. You know, I can't help but wonder when Jesus left that Samaritan village after a couple of days of teaching. I doubt, I don't know, but I very much doubt that they got into the nitty gritty of whose priesthood or what texts matter the Most.
And some of these things, I. I can't help but think this was some of the heart of the teachings of Jesus, like on the Sermon on the Mount, what is most important? And when we think about sharing with people, connecting with people in our lives, whether strangers, whether the most dramatic other you can think of, or your neighbor, your good friends, your cousins, I think that can feel scary because we don't always feel like we have all the answers. We don't feel equipped to defend a certain orthodoxy or explain certain theology. I mean, arguably that's, one might say, my job. And I feel that way.
You know, we have. What if people have questions we don't have the answers to? That feels scary.
I don't know about you guys, but I have questions I don't have the answers to. And I think we see in Jesus and the way he goes about this conversation a lot of grace and freedom and recognition of what seems to matter the most is not having all the answers. Not that answers aren't important or truth isn't important, or thinking about things deeply. And Jesus does that in this conversation. But it seems to be relationship, both ourselves with others as well as our self with Jesus.
People want to see that relationship to spirit and truth. And that is what people are drawn to. They're drawn to deeper conversations that we are all invited into that changed all of us.
Vincent Donovan was a priest, a Catholic priest in East Africa. And I recently came across these words of his that I thought were really, really beautiful. He said, do not leave others where they have been, but do not try to bring them to where you are either, as beautiful as that place might be to you. Rather, invite them to go with you to a place neither you nor they have ever been before. And I see that in Jesus as he talks with this woman.
And I think that is all of our invitation. Your religion, my religion. Yall’s mountain, our mountain. This beautiful place, that beautiful place. Instead, let's go together to someplace that none of us have ever been before.
That's so good. I wish I'd had that point.
You know, what Elizabeth said is it's a little daunting because if we do this, right, this friends thing, or inviting or just engaging in conversation, it requires us to go to a different. To a place we've not been before.
It's not just about to repeat what she said. It's just not about bringing them here. It's us going together to a new place. You know, when we're doing something new, we always. It's always easier when somebody goes ahead of us and does it and we can see.
And my last two things I just want to say that jump out of the text is God is seeking and God is revealing. You know, I love verse 23. And the ESV says, When Jesus says to her, she said, God is spirit and he is spirit. And he said, he is seeking such people to worship him. That's our mission.
He's seeking people. God's gone ahead of us. I remember when we went to east Africa in 1985. And I don't. I probably said it, and I know some of us said it over the years.
And I grew to go, oh, that's so God forgive me saying, we're taking God to Africa. That's the most obscene thing you could say. God, it was already there. He's already there wherever you go, across the street, across town, across the world. He's there and he's seeking and he's revealing himself.
We just need to join him in that. Is that a motivation for us? We don't have to initiate anything. We don't have to be first responders. We're just showing up on the scene and helping the mission of God with what he is doing.
And he's doing it in marvelous and incredible ways. Maybe revealing himself to people that you interact with every day. And all they need is a word from you for you to be the gift of God. He's revealing himself. You know, we talk a lot about this story that this is the first person that Jesus openly confesses.
I am the Christ. She said, well, I know these answers are going. You know they're going to be answered when Messiah comes. And he said, I am he who speaks to you. This is the first I Am statement in the book of John, chapter four.
We know that list of seven that we usually. We've heard sermons about and taught classes about. I'm the bread of life. I'm the light of the world. I'm the door, I'm the good shepherd, I'm the resurrection and life.
I'm the way, the truth and the life. I'm the true vine. And in chapter eight, we add that other one when Jesus is arguing with the Jews. And it's interesting, in that text, In John chapter 8, before Jesus says, before Abraham I am, they say, are we not writing, calling you a Samaritan? A demon possessed Samaritan, that's what they called him.
Probably because he spent a couple of days in this village and they heard about it and Jesus, all this argument about Abraham. But the very first I Am statement is to this nameless Samaritan woman.
People need a safe place, Jesus. I got this from my son in law, Brian said yesterday as we were talking about this. This was. She was a safe place for Jesus when he vaguely, not so vaguely when he said I am to these Jews in chapter later they pick up stones to try to kill him and he had to h and slipped away.
This nameless woman was a safe place for him to reveal openly. I am the Christ.
You know this people need a person, not a program.
They need a gift, not a gimmick. If Friends Day is a gimmick, then let's scrap it.
But if we can turn it into a gift, let's do it and let's do it every day.
You know our mission to pursue God and build community and unleash compassion and share Jesus. I love that addition. Jesus gives us a focus on mission in this story. He accepts, he cares for, he takes seriously, he challenges, he recruits and inspires a simple nameless Samaritan woman with a life changing message about himself.
And it leads to the transformation of an entire community.
So if God is the one seeking and revealing and transforming again, what what does that mean for us? God is the actor in this story. What does that say to us today? You know, last Sunday, Jeremy referenced and you did again just now a little bit. Is Friends Sunday gimmicky?
You know, there have been some pushback on that and I have space for that. I think that's a healthy conversation to have. And again, even last Sunday, I thought this was a really helpful insight. That maybe part of the reason that feels off to some of us is because so many of us have moved away from thinking people I care about or strangers. Are they gonna suffer for all eternity if they're not in a place like this on Sunday?
I think most of us aren't there anymore and that's a good thing. I'm glad for this more gracious movement. But I wonder if in that growth it's left us feeling a little bit disoriented, you know, is there a chance that we have this question of what are we inviting people into or what are we doing here on Sunday mornings? Is. Is.
Are we left with something that feels a bit benign, if it's lost that kind of antagonistic edge? And again, I think that's where this story, how we see Jesus, for me, it just offers this breath of fresh air, of being reminded that we have something that we experience and participate with, something strong and something beautiful and something gracious, that it can be both of Those things that in losing fire, so to speak, we don't lose a strength. It can be beautiful and gracious all at once. Because what we experience in places like this together does matter. It does change us.
I think we would all say that this. We're here because this is a good thing, because this is a part of how we experience God's grace in our lives and in this fragmented, lonely, frankly terrifying world. We would be selfish, we would be remiss not to want to share that, not to invite others to participate in that. People need to know that they are deeply and utterly safe in the presence of one who could tell you everything you ever did. That's important to know and that's important to experience.
So what. What. What are we doing here? What is this thing that we want to invite people into? And, I mean, I think as far as, for me, like gatherings on Sunday morning, we come to remind each other of who we are and remind each other of what God has promised us, that we come from love and we're returning to love, and life is hard.
And so we have to ritualize that and practice that and join in that together. And that is something good to share.
And we also need something outside of ourselves. We have something, we participate in something, and we need something. Because God has always, always the Biblical witness. He has always hidden himself in the other, whoever that other may be, the stranger, the neighbor who is my neighbor. What you have done for the least of these, God is always one step ahead of us across whatever line it is that we have made.
And he says, come experience me and encounter me there. And so I think we recognize that as we talk about invitation, as we think about inviting people into this beautiful, strong, gracious thing that we get to be a part of, we also need something beautiful and strong that is outside of us, where God has ventured and invites us to come and join. There's this. There's this beautiful mutuality that Jesus illustrates in this story.
We have something real and ancient and true to share, and we need something real and ancient and true that is beyond this. And here I noticed for the first time this week that I think you alluded to that Jesus changes the language of water in a well to water in a spring in this story, and I think that's significant. He's not talking any longer about good water held in stone in a well built by good ancestors. He said, we're doing something different. I'm talking about a spring, and springs move and change and bubble out and go places.
This is the water of life a continuous transformation that we are all invited to be a part of.
As the story comes to a conclusion, we see maybe the conversation that would have gone on further being interrupted by the disciples walking up and the questions that they wanted to ask, but they didn't. Maybe their judgy looks. Why is Jesus talking to her?
She drops her bucket with no water. She leaves her bucket, the text says, I think significant. She goes back to the village with this living water and becomes the first woman preacher in Christian history.
The story ends with the Samaritans streaming out of the village the message they heard from this ostracized woman.
And it ends with them declaring, now we have heard and we know for ourselves this man is the Savior of the world. This is the truth today. This is the gift that we must pass along and inviting people to come and see. Come and see. Come and see Jesus.
Not our church. That'll come later. Come and see Jesus, who is the Savior of the world. It will never be easy. It will never happen, probably, if we are not changed and transformed ourselves by our interaction with Him.
Him. Let's pray together. Oh, merciful God, we need your help. And we ask forgiveness today for maybe the things we've. The barriers we ourselves create between ourselves and others.
Father, help us this day to discover you more deeply by our interaction with others and by going to new places together. Oh God, we give you our praise and we give you our worship in the name of Jesus, who is the Savior of the world. Amen.