John 4:27-42 -- The Blossom on a Broken Stem
Intro:
Last year I used the story of Jesus with the Samaritan Woman as an example of how chaplains should approach those in crisis who represent a different culture or faith position than we hold. (Flip side of Nicodemus in ch. 3)
-He deliberately went to where she would be
-He humbled himself below her by asking for water before offering help
-He respected her while breaking cultural norms for stratified human values
-He allowed her to guide the course of the conversation, while gently re-directing it to her
point of pain
-He built a relationship more than offering his answers
[Read Jn. 4:27 - 30; 30 - 42]
Now I want to look at the next half of the story. I have used the title of “Blossom on a Broken Stem” because that is the first analogy that comes to mind when I read the conclusion to this lengthy narrative.
-She leaves hastily when the disciples return (forgetting her water pot).
-She returns to the city square in Samaria
-She immediately begins to bend everyone’s ear with her “testimony” and her question
-We assume that this was very uncharacteristic behavior
-She didn’t yet fully believe, and did not repeat Jesus’ claim;
-She claimed only, “He told me everything I ever did.” (vs. 29 and 39)
-Followed by a question, “Could this be the Messiah?”
-What accounts for the amazing transformation of behavior?
-She went from a recluse to a town cryer
-From an outcast to to a community organizer
-What happened here to cause such a change?
-I submit that she is celebrating the fact that someone knew her past and yet did not reject her
-That someone finally showed her real love and respect
-That her emotional and social “itch” had finally been scratched
-That her sense of brokenness had found at least the hope of healing
That in itself should be a lesson for us.
-What drew my mind back to this passage was actually a quote from Robert Bly used by LandySparr and John Fergueson in a chapter entitled “Moral and Spiritual Issues Following Traumatization” in Psychiatry and Religion (2000; which I reviewed in a recent newsletter):
-“...where a man’s wound is, that is where his genius will be. Wherever the wound appears in our psyches, whether from an alcoholic father, shaming mother, shaming father, abusing mother, whether it stems from isolation, disability or disease, that is precisely the place from which we will give our major gift to the community.” (p.120)
-These authors go on to say in their concluding paragraph:
-“To complete the journey, to heal both self and community, the traumatized person must return to society as a witness… Ultimately, the process is a redemptive one. The challenge to our humanity is there, yet so is the opportunity to understand our dark side, to overcome and be true to ourselves. To make use of this opportunity may be to embrace grace.”
-(Sounds like the title of a report some of you worked on: “A Place of Grace.”)
-Think about that for a moment…
-I immediately thought of this Samaritan Woman
-Was she acting as a first generation evangelist? or something more related to the work of a chaplain?
-She didn’t claim or offer salvation or conversion or regeneration.
-She wasn’t sure that she had found the Messiah
-She claimed to have found someone who had connected with her deepest personal narrative and still exhibited and communicated grace!
-Her arena of greatest woundedness became her arena of of greatest ability to assist others in their journey from trauma to triumph, hiding to wholeness.
Here is the relevant question: Are we chaplains because we have all the answers?
-Are we spiritual gurus with magic cures for what ails the soul?
-Are we just psychologists or social workers with a spiritual twist?
-Are we just a friendly hand-holder with some spiritual advice throne in?
-Are we evangelists in subversive camouflage?
Or, are we chaplains because we have found our bleakest and most bruised selves exposed and touched by something (or Someone) who offered grace, and thus healing, to our own broken soul;
-and now we have the courage to offer this same wholeness to all the broken and traumatized people around us?
Chaplaincy today seems to be trying to define itself as a spiritual resource without too quickly claiming a specific source of spiritual information (a specific faith group or “god” or denomination).
Maybe the Samaritan woman can help us.
Maybe we just have to be fellow Samaritans -- those who have come to know and now want to share the fact that our area of deepest wound can be exposed in a context of love and grace, and thereby become our area of greatest healing and joy!
We just have to be what Nouwencalls, “wounded healers” or what I would rather call “wounded tellers” or “wounded fellow travelers”
-- with maybe some special training how to do that in a clinical or institutional environment.
If that leads others to check out Christ as the source, we can rejoice.
-And our entire village may be healed by coming to that same “place of grace.”