The Rev'd Jane Bearden
There is a story that comes out of Haitian tradition that has been passed down through the years. It goes like this…
(The Chief of the Well a story taken from a collection of stories on justice compiled by the Mississippi Center for Justice.)
There was a drought in the country. The streams had dried up and all of the animals were thirsty. So the animals got together to talk about the drought and what might be done. They decided to ask God for help. Together they went to God to tell him how bad things had gotten to be.
God listened to their story and said “don’t worry, I am God, I will help you. I will give you one well for all to use and to be satisfied.
The animals were grateful and thanked God. But God cautioned them that they would need to take very good care of the well. He said that someone would need to be appointed the caretaker and stay by the well at all times to see that no one took more than necessary or that he needed and no one trashed it with garbage or the like. Mabouya the ground lizard spoke up and said, “I will be the caretaker.” God thought a minute and looked carefully over all the animals, but eventually agreed and sent Mabouya to the mango grove where the well was placed.
All the animals went about their business, but Mabouya went directly to the well and took his place to guard it. Soon the animals began to come to the well for water. Mabouya met each one and challenged them. First the cow came… Mabouya called out.. “Qui est la? Who is it? Who is walking in my mango grove? Expecting to be welcomed the cow called out “C’est moi! It is I, the cow – I am coming for water!” J’ai soif I am thirsty!” But Mabouya replied “Go away this is God’s grove and the well is dry!” So the cow went away and suffered from thirst.
Later the horse came and the lizard challenged him also saying “Qui est la?” Who is it? Who is walking in my grove?” The horse answered” C’est moi! Le cheval – It is I , the horse! I am coming for water. J’ai soif! I am thirsty!” But the lizard responded likewise to the horse. Go away! This is God’s grove and the well is dry.” So the horse went away and suffered from thirst.
Each animal came to the well in turn, but Mabouya challenged all of them saying “go away, this is God’s grove and the well is dry!” all the animals suffered much because they had no water to drink.
Now God came by one afternoon and noticed how the animals were suffering. God could not understand why they were still suffering after he had provided them with the well. So God went to the mango grove to find out. When Mabouya heard the footsteps he called out “Qui est la? Who is it? Who is walking in my grove?” God answered “C’est moi! It is I Papa God I am coming for water, J’ai soif I am thirsty!” But Mabouya called out “go away! Papa Dieu Go away Papa god the well is dry!” Now God began to grow angry and he called out again. C’est moi Papa dieu. J’ai soif! It is I Papa God – I am thirsty! I am coming for water!” But Mabouya called out louder – “go away the well is dry”
God stopped. She did not say another word. She sent for all the animals to come to the well. Then God spoke, “You came to me because you were thirstry and I gave you the well. I made Mabouya the caretaker. But Mabouya gave no thought to the suffering of all the creatures around him. If a man has a banana tree in his garden it is his, but if a man has a well in his garden, only the hole belongs to him. The water is God’s and it belongs to all creatures. Because Mabouya became conceited and kept the water for himself he is no longer the caretaker. From now on he will drink only from the puddles made by the rainwater. From now on the frog will be the caretaker and he will not say “Go away the well is dry” Instead he will say “this is God’s well – this is God’s well.”
Now the animals drink from the well whenever they are thirsty and all night long the frog calls out:
“Venez boire – venez boire! Come! Drink away! This is God’s well. And it is a saying among the people of Haiti: “the hole in the ground is yours, the water belongs to God”
This week’s gospel lesson is so closely tied to last week’s lesson that it would be virtually impossible to preach on one without the other. Strange tales had begun to emerge from the backwaters of Galilee. There was a local man who was a wonderful and dynamic preacher and his powers of healing were amazing. One day this preacher came to the synagogue in Nazareth, his home town. He took his turn to read and chose a passage from Isaiah.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Jesus then handed the scroll back to the attendant and sat down to teach. He began with "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.". At first there was most likely a pregnant pause. “What did he say? The prophecy has been fulfilled? What’s that all about” “But” they exclaim “what he says is wonderful! And he is one of us! Just one of the home town boys! This is good news!” Can’t you just see the merchants eyes light up at the prospect of all those tourists coming to Nazareth to see Jesus in action as God’s prophet – and they will be part of the miracle. But Jesus’ next words are like ice water on a warm back. The people of Nazareth heard Jesus’ declaration of the fulfillment of God’s purpose as a guaranteed blessing for them, because of their own piety, because of who they were, but Jesus tells them that God shows no such favoritism. God’s blessings cannot be confined. God’ blessing is for all – including those who the good people of Nazareth would exclude. And Jesus goes one step further; he takes their very tradition the stories of Elijah and Elisha and proves that God’s blessing has always been inclusive. God has always sought out the marginalized, the oppressed and those who were cast out by mainstream society. Jesus announces that the tradition of a Jubilee year, when debts were forgiven and wealth was shared, was not to be confined to your closest family and friends. The year of God’s favor was meant for the benefit of all of God’s children. The hole belongs to the caretaker, but the water belongs to God and is meant for the benefit of all.
In actuality this should have been good news for those who listened to Jesus that day, because in many ways they were the marginalized ones. As Galileans they would have been snubbed by the haughtier more well to do Judeans of the south. Galilee was a place rich with diversity of cultures and languages. But in the social order of the day the people of the northern regions were not on the top of the fiid chain. But gauging from the reaction on this day, unlike Jesus, these Galileans saw themselves more in line with the pious Judeans than with their marginalized Gentile neighbors. They were not interested in the equitable distribution of God’s blessing, they wanted it for themselves and to insinuate that all would be welcome at God’s Table was insulting and demoralizing. Once Jesus had used their own religious stories to demonstrate his point - the only response they had left was anger and mob violence and so we hear from Luke that they ran Jesus out of town on the proverbial rail and tried to end his life and his ministry of inclusion once and for all. I’ll bet Jesus went away from Nazareth with another of Isaiah’s poems on his lips. God tell Isaiah:
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Is 55:11
Luke tells us that “Jesus passed through the midst of them and went on his way”. God’s purpose, God’s hospitality, God’s compassion for the least and the lost, God’s love as known in the life and light of Jesus will not be manipulated or obstructed by the willfulness of self-focused human beings.
You know we have more in common than we think we do - we human beings. Black/white, gay/straight, men women, Anglo/Hispanic, fat/thin, dumb/smart – it makes no difference. We all have a propensity to draw boundaries around ourselves, to compare ourselves to others, to rank order ourselves. With each person we meet we begin to draw lines of comparison, to compare our relative worth. We don’t want to believe that those other folks – the ones that are different, are really as worthy as we are. That’s what upset the folks in the synagogue and that is what upsets us too. Barbara Brown Taylor says that we don't like "being told that our enemies are God's friends," she writes; "No matter how hard we try, we cannot seem to get God to respect our boundaries. God keeps plowing right through them, inviting us to follow or get out of the way"
("The Company of Strangers" in Home by Another Way).
And yet we know that we are all precious, irreplaceable children of God, unique in our own way and known to God in our individual particularity. Daughter Barbra says that “We are as perfect as we can be and we have endless opportunities to grow into newer versions of our perfect selves; fitting in at each juncture with the people who love us as an irreplaceable piece of their puzzle.” I think Jesus would have said “you go girl!” Jesus’ overwhelming message is that this Jubilee time, this time of God’s favor is not some distant planet or time but right now, right here and favoritism for the rich and famous is not on the menu. God is not interested in who we believe or want ourselves to be. God is seeking those whose heart is open and vulnerable, ready to receive and to return God’s love. And who, once transformed by that experience, will extend in word and deed that same love to all.
This is tough stuff – this Jubilee. But you have got to wonder if things in Haiti or India or the Middle East or in New Orleans might have been different if the rest of the world had said “Venez boire! This is God’s well Come drink of it.” Funny how these things go full circle. Amen
|