Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

"True worshipers will worship in spirit and truth." John 4:23

The neighbors stood along the side of the street on Sunday mornings holding their protest signs as the congregation gathered each Sunday morning for worship. The meetings at the city planning and zoning commission grew in hostility as neighbors complained that they did not want more traffic in their neighborhood. When the neighborhood successfully shut down the church’s planned campus and parking expansion they celebrated as the church leaders went back to the drawing board. Eventually the church leaders concluded that the only way they could build a new building was to tear down an old structure on their current campus. With no expanded parking, the new facility was approved by the city.

Neighbors-1; Church-0.

Sometimes we as followers of Jesus feel judged, rejected, misunderstood by our neighbors. We wonder what happened? There was a time in the mid-twentieth century when having a church on the corner was considered good for property values. Families buying into a neighborhood wanted to be sure there were good schools, a nearby park, a local church, and a shopping center. Today’s developers no longer reserve a piece of property for a neighborhood church in order to raise the property values. If churches want into a new neighborhood, they must buy land at the same prices that businesses pay.

What changed?

Let me make a radical suggestion. Just as we feel rejected by our society and frustrated that our neighbors no longer want our church on their corner, so many of our neighbors feel equally rejected by us. In some mysterious way we each feel like the Samaritans in Jesus’ day. While Samaritans and Jews historically came from the same cultural background, they had fallen into severe culture wars that lasted over several generations. By Jesus’ day these two groups lived in disharmony and distrust of each other.

Jesus understood this distrustful antagonistic dynamic between the Jews and Samaritans. In fact, his love for the Samaritan neighbors shocked his followers. His approach to the Samaritans might help us consider how to reach out to our neighbors today

He said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here."

The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly."

The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us."

Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." - John 4:16-26

Whenever Dave and Jane hear the reading of this Bible passage from Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well they tell about what happened at their wedding. In their pre-marriage meetings with their pastor they specifically requested that the pastor include their wedding service the reading of the famous love passage from 1 John 4:16-19. "God is love… there is no fear in love… we love because God first loved us." Unfortunately, at the last minute the pastor scheduled to do the wedding had to send in a replacement—a beloved retired pastor, whose mind was not quite all there any more. This loving pastor came to that moment in the wedding service where it was time for the Bible reading. Instead of reading FIRST John, the pastor turned in his Bible to the Gospel of John 4:16-19. "Jesus said, ‘Go call your husband...’ The woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus responded… ‘You have had five husbands and the man you have now is not your husband.’" Fortunately, after many years of marriage Jane, so embarrassed that day, can laugh.

Usually when we read the story of the woman at the well, we focus on the immorality of the woman. Her sins had isolated her from her community so that she had to go get water alone, in the middle of the day, when the other women were busy with their families. We appreciate how Jesus showed her compassion and concern. Rather than judge her, he engaged her in a conversation. She was shocked that a Jewish man would talk to a Samaritan woman.

How did the Jews and Samaritans become so distrustful of each other? Let’s recall that in Jesus’ day the country of Samaria was practically its own nationality. It was comparable to an Indian reservation surrounded by our modern American majority culture. On the north were the Jews of Galilee. On the south were the Jews of Judea. Samaritans were a tiny reservation with their land surrounded by the dominant culture: Jews.

Like Native Americans experiencing the arrival of tourist gamblers onto their reservation, the only time Samaritans ran into Jews was when the Jews from Galilee passed through their Samaritan countryside. Jews passed through regularly on the way to or from holidays at the temple in Jerusalem. When Jews passed through the Samaritan countryside, they did not like to stop unless they absolutely needed to shop or rest. Jews considered the Samaritans religiously impure—unholy. Thus the Samaritans felt judged by the majority culture that surrounded them.

Who are the Samaritans in America today? Sometimes we Christians feel like we ar e treated as Samaritans. Sometimes those outside the church feel they are treated as Samaritans. When we feel like Samaritans, we tend to declare that they the non-religious in our society are in the majority and we are the persecuted minority. On the other hand, when those outside of our churches feel judged, they consider us as the dominant culture controlling American values. Each ends up feeling alienated and judged. Both are looking at the same American political landscape, but seeing very different things.

Have you seen that picture that can be seen as either as an old woman or a young lady. Same picture, but perceived very differently. Once we have one picture locked in our minds, it takes a moment and even help to see the other picture. I suspect most of us can relate to the times we have felt as Christians misunderstood and judged by our neighbors. Let’s take moment to see if we can appreciate how they feel judged by us.

In the new book UNChristian, the authors report their survey results regarding the attitudes of a new generation of Americans toward Christians. This survey agency has been taking regular surveys of attitudes toward religion in America for decades. In fact, their survey results in the 1990’s resulted in their reporting that though church membership was down across our nation, the prevailing attitudes toward Christianity as a religion were still quite good. 85% of survey respondents in 1996 reported that they felt "favorable" toward Christianity in general.

Ten Years later this same surveying agency was hired to focus their surveying on the generation of young adults, ages 16 through 29. They asked similar questions as the past but were astonished at the results. Ready for a shock? Only 16% of the 16-29 year-olds reported favorable impressions of Christianity. In fact, 38% of this new generation reported having a distinctively bad impression of our faith!

How could the attitudes of the next generation have taken such a tumble from previous generations? Quoting the authors directly, "What they react to is our ‘swagger,’ how we go about things and the sense of self-importance we project." A few paragraphs later the authors add this comment, "it is clear that Christians are primarily perceived for what they stand against. We have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for."

They feel like Samaritans. Wait, what about the Christian young people of this generation? Are they shocked at these results? These same surveys showed that one-third of the Christians in this age group admitted that they are embarrassed to be identified as a Christian in twenty-first century America. I have an assignment for baby boomer parents this weekend. Interview your twenty-something adult children and see if they are proud or embarrassed to be called a Christian.

Here is the point. Like it or not, people outside the church feel like Samaritans. So what did Jesus do when it came to Samaritans? He went to them and connected. He listened and cared. He met their needs. He responded differently than they expected so that they were forced into cognitive dissonance. His love confused them.

I am thinking about a recent meeting sponsored by our own church leaders a couple months ago. In February we held a retreat with some local San Diego county missionaries as a step in our process toward creating a new outreach vision to replace our failed second campus plans. These local missionaries described their experiences with people outside the church who feel judged and condemned by Christians. They talked about effective ways they are reaching out and loving those who feel like Samaritans.

In that conversation about outsiders’ perceptions of the church and Christians, one local missionary suggested that a first step to helping people encounter Jesus was to introduce cognitive dissonance into their lives. The more non-religious people believe their own stereotypes about Christians, the more confusing it is when they meet someone who follows Jesus but doesn’t fit in their mold. When they feel confused by our actions being different from what they expected, they have to face their own cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a great step toward a change in attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.

Consider what happened to the Samaritan woman at the well. When she saw Jesus at the well, she thought she already knew his attitudes toward her. We can almost read her thoughts. "This Jew considers himself so righteous. I’m sure he judges me for being impure…. I bet he won’t even talk to me… I’ll just draw my water and move on." No wonder she was shocked that he engaged her in a respectful conversation.

Jesus shows us the first step to creating healthy cognitive dissonance—be respectful and listen. The authors of the book about the next generation’s attitudes toward Christianity confirm this idea: "Young outsiders want to have discussions, but they perceive Christians as unwilling to engage in genuine dialogue. They (Christians) think of conversations as ‘persuasion’ sessions, in which the Christian downloads as many arguments as possible."

Near the end of the book, the authors dedicate a chapter to suggestions of ways to create cognitive dissonance for those who reject our faith. They suggest that churches consider engaging in shocking acts of selfless service. If we want others to consider Jesus’ love, we must be willing to surprise them by doing something that shows we are not just doing what they expect.

This is why our church is dedicating the month of April to understanding those who have doubts about our faith. In three weeks, the weekend of April 27, we close the doors of our sanctuary and send our own congregation into the community to bless our Samaritan neighbors.

Those who feel like Samaritans think they know us. Let’s surprise our community and create some cognitive dissonance.