Sermon: Intrusive Grace

SERMONS

FROM RIVERSIDE

"INTRUSIVE GRACE"

"Jesus said to her, *Give me a drink. m

(John 4:7b)

Dr. Ernest T, Campbell

JULY 11, 1971

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2012 with funding from

Princeton Theological Seminary Library

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"INTRUSIVE GRACE"

"Jesus said to her, TGive me a drink. In

(John 4:7b)

The writer of the Book of Proverbs confesses:
"Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not un-
derstand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a ser-
pent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the
way of a man with a maiden*" (30:18-19)

He might have added yet one more: The ways of
God with men. Grace has been described as God's extend-
ed hando But how God?s grace invades our life is difficult
to say. On Christmas last we gave our son a book entitled:
The Way Things Work. The contents fulfill the promise on
the cover: "an illustrated encyclopedia of technology - from
the ball-point pen to the computer, from the polaroid cam-
era to the atomic clock, with ten thousand seventy-one two-
color drawings and diagrams ."

It is comparatively easy to learn the way things work.
But how grace works cannot so readily be gathered into
words 0 For God is free and sovereign,, And man is blessed
with a will of his own, and blinded by his sin0 Grace is per-
sonal, not mechanical. We are safest, not when we theorize
about grace, but when we watch God's grace in action. And
that's what I propose we do today - watch God's grace "on
location" at a well -side in Samaria.

The incident took place early on in Jesus ' ministry.
The master was thirsty from much walking. His disciples
had gone off to shop for food. Jesus approached the well at
Shechem at high noon and met a woman who had come there
to draw water. In the simplest language possible Jesus
said to her, "Give me a drink." (John 4:7b) Simple though
it was, that request of Jesus serves to illustrate the intru-
sive quality of grace.

The woman, to her credit, was quick to sense the
threatening implications in what Jesus asked. She replied,
"How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of
Samaria?" (John 4:9a) Something was up and she knew it I

This woman stood to lose a lot. Her privacy for one
thing, the right to come and go alone. Some of the water
that she had drawn with her own toil. More importantly,
she stood to lose some of her pride as a woman. In those
pre-womenfs-liberation days women were held to be inferi-
or. And those who held the view claimed to have theological
support. It was an accepted precept among the upright of
that day that a man should not salute a woman in a public
place, not even his own wife.

Still more, she stood to have her patriotism under-
mined. Ever since the exile, to be pro-Samaritan was to
be anti -Jewish. A cold war had been going on for lo those
many years, supported by convictions on both sides that had
hardened into ideologies „

Her stereotype of the Jew was being challenged* It
is always a disturbing experience to have one's prejudices
unsettledc We like our characterizations to stay in neat ar-
ray o This helps us, we think, to manage life. It also saves
much thought. "Welfare recipients are lazy,," "Politicians
are self-serving." "Communists are bad." "Policemen
are brutal." "Liberals hate America." In such generali-
ties we take refuge. But for this woman, as for us when
Jesus comes our way, her pigeon holes began to run to-
gether and her carefully structured categories no longer
held.

Beyond this, her religious loyalty was on the line.
Jews regarded Samaritans as unclean - in particular,
Samaritan women. That line in verse nine of John 4 that
reads: "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans,"
might better, on the basis of the Greek, be rendered: "The
Jews do not use (vessels) together with Samaritans/' A
line would be breached should Jesus take water from her
pail or use her cup.

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But this was still only a beginning. As the conver-
sation went on she would be shaken down to the very soles
of her sandaled feet. The conversation continued: "If you
knew the gift of God," said Jesus, "and who it is that is
saying to you, 'Give me a drink, f you would have asked of
him, and he would have given you living water." (John 4° 10)
"Sir," she replied, "give me this water, that I may not
thirst, . . ." (John 4s 15) But because grace can never be
enjoyed alone, but must always be shared, Jesus turned to
her and said: "Go call your husband, and come here." The
woman replied, "I have no husband," Jesus said, "You
have answered rightly, (that is, in a technical way,) for
you have had five husbands and the one that you now have
is not yours." (John 4; 16-17)

She never thought when she went off for water that
noon that she would get into this 1 It would be kind to be-
lieve that this woman had been widowed five times , but it
would not be realistic Apparently she was attractive
enough to win men but not substantial enough to hold them.
Legalists among the Jews had taught that three marriages
were the limit in the commonwealth,, She was now two over
par. She pre-figuxed in a pathetic way the "serial polygamy"
that has made Hollywood so infamous .

We may be sure that she had built up a rationale to
justify her easy virtue, for we must live with ours elves .
She had marshalled her defenses. She had learned to "live
around" her past. But now her protection was torn away.
The subject she wanted least to talk about had been pried
open. One thinks of a line from a Broadway musical of
several years back, "The Rope Dancer." A young girl in
that production had the misfortune of being born with six
fingers on each hand. Ail through the play she went around
with her hands in her pockets. When someone threatened
to take away her pockets she screamed from the depth of
her being, "Don't take away my pockets ! I can?t live with-
out my pockets I"

Blessed with feminine guile, the Samaritan woman
sought to change the subject immediately. To divert atten-
tion from herself she posed a clearly religious issue: "Sir,

3 -

I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped
on this mountain (Mount Gerizim) and you say that in Jeru-
salem is the place where men ought to worship." (John 4:20)

This is the old trick of trying to postpone the God
question with an urbane, sophisticated question on religion.
"Don't you think there are too many churches ?" "Don't you
think it is better to say trespasses than debts in the Lord's
Prayer?" "Don't you think the King James version is bet-
ter than all those modern translations ?" Meanwhile, God
keeps saying, "Son, give me thine heart."

She shifted from the subject of her husband to the
subject of religion, and Jesus shifted from the place of wor-
ship to the manner of worshipe He answered, "God is a
spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spir-
it and in truth. " (John 4:24)

Almost cornered she resorts to one last refuge,
"I know that Messiah is coming; when he comes he will
show us ail things c" (John 4:25b) She was exercising the
instinct for postponement. You are a prophet, but I am not
altogether sure of your credentials, and prophets differ on
these subjects anyway. Why canct we just leave well enough
alone until he is come who will show us all things !

Men can live more easily with a Messiah who is
coming than with one who is here. But Jesus seals off this
last escape by responding solemnly, "I who speak to you
am he." (John 4:26b)

Intrusive grace - is there a better term for it?
The grace of God that we sing about so easily and talk about
so glibly is initially for everyone who knows it a disturbing
and provocative experience. God does not come into our
lives to be a mere additive , He comes to present us with
a grand alternative to our weak and futile ways.

Frankly, I don't see how God can break through to
any of us with salvation or deliverance until first our myths

fall and our idols topple and our illusions are stripped away.
The false peace that we have entered into must first be bro-
ken before we can know the peace that passes all human un-
derstanding.

There is no way that an experience of grace can be
anything but painful. I should like to have been there that
day last month in Hanover9 New Hampshire when Dartmouth
College held its commencement exercises „ I should like
to have been there not only because the environs of that
picturesque campus are so impressive^ but because a young
man by the name of David Levy said something that had the
ring of intrusive grace to me,

David Levy had the highest academic record of any
of the 940 graduating seniors. On those credentials he was
accorded speaking time on the commencement program.
Imagine the shock on the faces of the old alums gathered
there., the mothers and fathers , the faculty , the dignitaries ,
and some of his own classmates when David Levy of this
city said;

"I have rejected graduate school offers because I
could not worship black ink on white paper, I have made
no plans because I have found no plans worth making*

"Take pity on me, those of you who can justify the
air you breathe. Send me letters and teii me why life is
worth living. Rich parents e, write and teii me how money
makes your life worthwhile. Dartmouth alumni , teii me
how the Dartmouth experience has given value to your ex-
istence,

"And fellow graduates, fellow members of the Class
of 1971, take pity on a student who did not think5 but only
studied. Tell me how you have Justified your existence to
yourself, or perhaps why you have not felt the need to do
so. And if some one of you out there is also made like me,
write me a letter and tell me how you came to appreciate
the absurdity of your life, " 1

It is reasonably certain that that speech rankled

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the majority of those who heard it. But from within the
stand-point of Scripture it might very well be that grace
was moving from that platform, overturing the hearts of
many in that place.

How can God get through to us while we hang on to
our inordinate obsession with money, to name one myth?
We know few people, if any, who are happy because of the
money they have. But the myth persists. If only they had
more their happiness would be complete.

I like the story (shared with me by one of our mem-
bers) of the minister who was riding a train in Ceylon. As
custom had it he put his small, rather beat-up satchel of
possessions on the luggage rack above his head. Then, al-
so according to custom, he settled down to snooze. But
it wasn't a sound sleep. Every little while he had to wake
himself to check whether his satchel was still there on the
rack. Finally, when he opened his eyes about 4:00 a.m. ,
he discovered that the satchel was gone. "From then on,"
he says, " I slept absolutely peacefully."

How can the grace of God get through to us if we
maintain our obsession with pleasure - in which, howeven,
we come at, self is still king, and people and objects are
there to serve us ?

One of New Yorkfs up and coming professional
athletes who, before he retires, if he stays healthy, will
bank six or seven hundred thousand dollars, was recently
interviewed on television. When asked what he liked to do
with his money - he said, "I like to spend it." The ques-
tioner continued: "What do you like to spend it on?" With
a straight face and without embarrassment he said, "On me.

"No man," said James Smart "is truly himself, the
man whom God created him to be, until his whole existence
has its center beyond himself in God." 2^

How can the grace of God get through to us while we
continue to cling to our obsession with race — trying to turn
the accident of color into the heart -beat of life?

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How can the grace of God get through to us so long
as we continue our obsession with security? Bonhoeffer
was on the mark in noting that: "When we seek for security
in possession we are trying to drive out care with care,
and the net result is the precise opposite of our anticipations „
The fetters which bind us to our possessions prove to be
cares thems elves „" 3^

My friend Kenneth Wilson, editor of "The Christian
Herald" tells of a conversation he once had with a mission-
ary,, They were talking about security. The missionary
acknowledged that he had not put a great deal of money into
life insurance* When asked why, he responded, "I am
putting my money into mission projects „ I think that it is
better insurance for the future of the world and therefore of
my children*" 4

"Give me a drink*" With that request intrusive
grace proceeded to "move in" on the woman at Samaria0
You ask9 is the intrusiveness of grace worth putting up
with? Is life worth having? See yonder the woman as she
rushes to her village with a joy that she has never known
before, shouting ecstatically to one and ail, "Come, see a
man who told me all that ever I did* Can this be the Christ?"
(John 4; 29) And John adds- "Many Samaritans from that
city believed in him because of the woman's testimony*"
(John 4; 39a)

Next time something gets under your skin -- at a
Dartmouth commencement, in a book, in an argument with
a hippie, in a sermon, in a documentary on Vietnams in a
conversation with a missionary, be careful how you answer*
It might just be GodTs intrusive grace trying to save your
eternal soul from death!

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CLOSING PRAYER

Forgive us, Lord, if we have made of Thee an

easy mark, and assumed that grace was

cheap.
Forgive us if we have sought to have Thee

biess our blind and wilful ways-
Strive with us, O God, for that striving is

our hope; and we have no rest until

we rest in Thee.

Amen.

FOOTNOTES:

1. The New York Times, June 14, 1971

2. Smart, James D. , The Quiet Revolution, p„ 124
The Westminster Press, Philadelphia 1952

30 Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, "The Sermon on the Mount,"
The Cost of Discipleship, p0 197, Macmiilan,
New York 1963

4. Wilson, Kenneth L. , Have Faith Without Fear,
p. 69, Harper & Row, New York 1970

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