JOHN 4:16-26 "MISSIO DEI"

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

26 Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”

When it comes to worship, the important question is how rather than where. The object of true worship is not up for debate; he is the God of Israel. However, if he is to be more than a national deity, his worship cannot require all the world to descend upon the Temple in Jerusalem. God had established his witness in the world through one man, his family, the resulting people, that grew into a nation, that was given a land, in which he provided a focal point for the experience of his presence. What Jesus is announcing to the woman is a new age, the age when the blessing given the Jews would be offered through them to the whole world. The truth that is revealed is that God is not part of creation but over all creation. While a physical idol needs a geographic location to reside, the God who is spirit makes himself accessible to anyone, anywhere who seeks after him.

The other side of the worship equation is that the worshipers must worship God as he has revealed himself and not according to our images of him. If the essence of worship is to ascribe worth to, in this context, God, how can we truly worship what we do not truly know? Since we are incapable of knowing God on our own, we must rely on his self-revelation which comes through the Word and the Spirit. And since he has revealed himself to be a “missionary” God, our worship must include our lives in the world and not just our service in the church building. The ultimate “ascribing worth” to God is demonstrating his dominion over us by living lives of obedience to his will. It is his will that we gather regularly with his people to be encouraged, equipped, corrected and commissioned for ministry. We may encounter God in a different way at church, but that is not because that is where he resides. Rather as pilgrims on a mission we are meant to be in community with other believers. In the new age, the world no longer has to come to the people of God in order to meet God, the people of God are charged with going out into the world to introduce others to God.

Father, thank you for revealing yourself to your people as a missionary God. As I attempt to live my life in loving obedience to your will, help me to avoid confining my intentional worship to one hour on Sunday morning, while at the same time not neglecting to meet regularly with fellow believers. Pour out your Spirit upon me so that I might know you better and worship you more fully. Make me an instrument of your truth. Amen.