Catalytic Conversations

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
October 25th 2009

Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Catalytic Conversations”
John 4:7-10, 16-29

As some of you may have heard we are making changes to the churches website. We are not intending to change the website address but I did come across a unique name of another churches address: www.transformedlives.com. It is a site for a church that is growing and baptizing more and more adults into the faith. At every meeting they only address one priority. At staff meetings, session meetings, committee meetings and any other kind of meeting the one question is: tell me one life that has been changed this week because of our ministry. They believe the main message of the gospel is that Jesus Christ changes lives. It's what they are all about and they are willing to place everything else in their ministry under that priority. And clearly it works for them.
Transformed and changed lives are at the heart of Jesus’ ministry. The woman at the well is a prime example. She was a woman at the margins of the community. The fact she came to the well hottest time of day, when no one else was around lets us know something is not right. Why was she there alone? Did it have something to do with the multiple marriages? Was she dealing with grief or shame, or what? We do not know for sure. But we do know that she was alone that day at a time when she could have gotten water without running into anyone. But on this day she ran into someone who would change hear life.
Jesus was waiting by the well she arrived. And when she got there Jesus spoke to her. Not just a simple "hello" as he passed by. This conversation between Jesus and the woman was the longest of any of Jesus’ conversations recorded in the gospels. And the longest recorded conversation begins because Jesus just asked for a drink of water. But that simple request broke down barriers that had existed for centuries.
These few words between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman violated social and religious rules about interactions between men and women and ethnic groups. But once the barriers were down, the floodwaters of conversation flowed. Jesus and the woman talked. They talked about spiritual thirst. They discussed her marriages. They talked politics and religion. (All things I was taught that we do not discuss in polite society.) By the time the conversation ended the woman was so moved by their conversation, she ran off. She went to tell her whole village about Jesus. She even left her water jug! She forgot her original purpose in coming to the well. She left with a new purpose. Jesus changed her life. This woman once isolated herself from others. Now she went searching for people. She wanted to tell the world about what Jesus had done for her.
What had Jesus done for her? In other gospel stories, Jesus transformed many lives. He healed diseases. He gave people sight. He raised the dead. He called the powerful to account. But here at the well all he did was talk to a woman. But because of this conversation cultural barriers were brought down. In that conversation, both Jesus and the woman revealed something about themselves to each other. The cultural script which dictated interracial interactions were blown apart. In this, somehow, the woman was deeply transformed. "He knows everything about me!" she exclaimed to her neighbors. A conversation changed a life.
The story goes that a self-proclaimed liberal church held a class on World Religions. Their goal was to study the major religions of the world and compare them to Christianity. Someone in the class had a co-worker who was a Muslim man. She asked if the class would like her co-worker to come when they talked about Islam. Everyone enthusiastically agreed. They thought it would be very helpful to have a firsthand expression of that faith. One class member summed up the class' feelings by saying, "Please invite him. Tell him we don't want to convert him; we want to learn from him." Kamal, the Muslim man, did come to the class. He spoke for a while about his faith.
Then class members asked him questions. Soon, he was asking class members questions about faith. They hadn't planned on that! By the time class was over, they had discussed many things. They talked about traditional Muslim dress. They talked about arranged marriages. They talked about why Christians pray "in Jesus' name." They talked about how Kamal felt when people treated him with suspicion. No one seemed to want the time to end. Then a class member said, "Could we have a prayer together?" They all agreed. The class circled, held hands, and prayed. When the prayer was finished, Kamal had tears in his eyes. He told the class: "I have never felt God's love this strongly before. I cannot wait to tell my friends about this. We didn't know there were Christians like you." It was just conversation. But it changed his life. It changed the lives of everyone in that classroom. Just conversation! God's power can make genuine conversation into a life-changing experience.
In the book we are reading together, Unbinding your Heart, the author's research shows what brings people to church and what makes them stay. What do you think brings people to church for the first time? Great sermons, good ads, beautiful buildings? Nope. It's you. Almost 60% of people who join a church came because someone invited them. 60 percent! People come to church because someone asks them to come. And what makes them come back? What makes them want to come again? Surely it's the pastor's fabulous sermons or the music program
or the updated children's room. No. It's you. The number one reason people say they return to a church is because they received a warm welcome from the people there. Those others things are important, but they are not the main thing. The main thing is whether or not someone said hello to them, or remembered their children’s names, or went out of their way to get them a bulletin. New people have a fine tuned sense of authenticity and can tell if the congregation actually cares about them and doesn’t simply see them as potential new members.
Marta came to church because a couple she knew invited her. After knowing hear for a year they finally moved beyond superficial interaction and asked her about her family. She told the couple that she had moved here to escape an abusive husband. She was raising her two boys on her own. Her own parents had died years ago. On impulse, the couple invited her to their church. At first, she demurred. She said she didn't have the proper clothes. "Oh, come casual!" the couple said, "We do! We’ll meet you at church about 10:30. Then we’ll take you and your boys to lunch afterwards."
The following Sunday Marta did come to church and she had her boys in tow. The couple left their normal seats and joined her on the back row. The sermon that Sunday was on the woman at the well. Marta sat at attention through the whole service. The couple that had invited her kept her boys busy with crayons and bulletin airplanes. Marta was entranced. When the sermon was over, she turned to the couple and said, "That story was for me. That woman at the well is me! I have been so alone!" As people greeted Marta warmly after the service, she beamed at the attention. Afterward, she commented to the couple who had invited her, "This is like a family!"
I am convinced that we all know someone like Marta. We know people who need Jesus and this church in their lives. We all know someone who needs a changed life. But I am not going to ask you to invite them though. No, instead I want to pray, for now. Yes, pray for two minutes right now for God to bring to mind a person in your life who needs you to be in conversation with them. (Prayer for two minutes) This conversation may just be the thing that changes someone's life in unexpected and healing ways.
After Jesus talked with the Samaritan woman, he preached to his disciples. He said to them, "Look around you! People are so ready for the gospel! All you have to do is bring them in." Look around you. Who are you going to talk to and even invite to church next Sunday? Will you go and pick them up? Take them to lunch afterwards? Introduce them to a group of friends? This week, talk to someone you’ve never talked to before. Or, talk to someone you chat with all the time, but this time don’t be afraid to talk about your faith. You could start a conversation that will change someone’s life. Amen? Amen!