Earlier this
spring, I was riding with a colleague named Wendy to a business meeting. Our
route took us a past a group of motorcycle riders who had gathered along the
curb in front storefront building facing Main street. The riders were a
stereotypical bunch sporting leathers with all manner of patches, and scary
looking helmets and leather hats. Most of the men were bearded and were either
shaved-head bald or wearing long hair. The women in their company were also a
predictably appearing bunch. All in all they were a pretty intimidating bunch.
As we drove by, I
could feel my passenger literally tighten up in anxiety because some of the
group were less than an arm’s length away. Her concern became even more
palpable when the light turned red causing us to stop immediately beside the
riders and their friends. There we were, stopped in the middle of the street,
hemmed in by cars in front, behind and beside us with a motorcycle gang right
there. I mean RIGHT there. If one of the bunch decided to bust out a window of
the car and grab her, there would have been nothing we could do. Wendy, my
passenger, was obviously very much aware of that fact.
After a few moment’s
silence, during which she nervously tried to avoid looking toward the crowd she
finally spoke, “Interesting looking folks.”
“They are a
pretty scary bunch,” I agreed. “Funny thing though,” I continued, after a moment’s
pause, “I would trust any one of them with every dollar I own and a new born child
if had one.”
She turned to
look me in eyes to see if I was serious. “I am not kidding,” I added in answer
to her unasked question. “What you don’t know is every one of those people is a
devout Christian and despite what they look like, they live out the gospel as
well as anyone I know.”
I then explained
we had stopped in front of their church building, a converted insurance office
and the group, members of the Set Free ministry, had gathered for a memorial
service for the one of the members of the church. Just then one of the guys
recognized me, waving and calling out my name with a big smile. He and several
of the others whom I proudly call “brother” or “sister” came over to the car. I
rolled down the passenger side window so I could visit with them. Wendy
remained rigid and smiled nervously while we chatted. In a minute or two, the
light changed to green so we had to pull away while exchanging farewells and
prayer promises. Wendy finally started breathe but remained a little ashen.
My friend and
colleague did what many of us would do in the same circumstance if we did not
know the whole story. Instead of seeing the face of God and recognizing all of
the Christian symbols on their clothing, she only saw what she was conditioned
to see and was afraid.
In the gospel of
the Samaritan Woman at the Well, Jesus could very well have seen the Samaritan
woman as a defiled foreigner, someone to ignore or avoid, or, perhaps, even be
frightened of. Jesus did something very much unexpected by the woman by
revealing himself to her. With his revelation and her acceptance of his
teaching, her purpose in life metamorphosed from being a worn out survivor of a
miserable existence to becoming his first missionary to her people. It was she
who was to carry the message and she did just that. She was certain he was
about to put her down through derision and insult but instead he lifted her up
to an extraordinary future with a supernatural push.
My friends from
the Set Free ministry are more like us than they are different. Someone
unexpected carried the message to them. They believed it and their new beliefs
changed them. We sit in different churches but we hear the same gospel from the
same God and we have same challenge to spread the gospel to those who need to
hear it.
After she was
able to think about what she experienced, Wendy said she had heard about
“people like that” but had never met a “Christian motorcycle gang” before and
she seemed genuinely impressed by them but also expressed surprise that a supposedly
squeaky clean Catholic guy like me was so well known to them. If she only
knew…. I have much, much more in common with many of them than a shared faith.
As Christians, we
each meet someone like the Samaritan woman at the well almost every day. The
challenge is to see what we have in common and not turn away or be frightened because
of the differences we perceive separate us. Jesus revealed himself as “I am” to
the Samaritans, a people completely alien and foreign to himself and the lesson
we should learn from him is to worship God with everyone, not just those who
are like us.
In the eyes of
God, there was no difference between Jews and Samaritans. Both were called to
worship him through the saving mission of Jesus. This lesson is still our
challenge –we are to be watchful for the Samaritan Woman we might encounter
today so we will have an opportunity to honor God by living out his gospel of
love and service to others.
