A Story of Two Towns
Though we are not together, we are gathered together. Because as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, those who worship God worship in spirit and truth. So we worship in spirit and truth. Truth is in our worship. And we are in the Spirit of God. We are present to God in and through the Spirit, and we are present to each other, regardless of physical separation. Our communion is not broken. And that is the work of the Spirit.
Contrast between the Samaritan town in today’s Gospel reading and the town of the Gadarenes in a Gospel reading we usually hear in October! Jesus left the Gadarene town, he left. They told him to leave, to get out of town He didn’t punish them or take back the healing. Just like the nine lepers who didn’t come back. Jesus does not force himself on any town, on any person. But those Gadarenes nevertheless missed out on the greater blessing, the blessing that the Samaritan town received: The love and compassion and fellowship with God that the presence of Jesus brought to them.
Stay with us, abide with us. That’s the miracle that Jesus looks for. So he would live in us and we in him!
Stay with us so we can hear from your mouth – you who are the Word of God – not from the mouth of someone else, not secondhand hearing. But from you. Show us God’s love, God’s mercy. Be with us, stay with us. That’s the longing of the heart. That’s the longing the Samaritans felt.
But he is not here in the body, we can’t hear the words from his mouth. The Spirit is upon us, doing the work of Christ, the teaching of Christ, showing us the love and mercy of God in Christ. Especially during this pandemic the Holy Spirit is hovering over us, over all the world and all creation, just as the Holy Spirit hovered over the creation at the very beginning. The Spirit of God the breath of God, hovered over the original chaos of the Big Bang to bring order. That’s always the work of the Spirit, to bring order out of chaos. To bring meaning into all the events of our lives. There is confusion today, and even a little chaos in our world, but the Holy Spirit hovers over it all.
God is spirit, and we worship in spirit and truth. During this pandemic and after this pandemic, we desire the fellowship of Jesus. We desire to worship God in spirit and truth.
The Samaritans were not like the Gadarenes. We are not like the Gadarenes. We want Jesus to abide with us. We want that living water that he offered to the woman of Samaria. We are thirsty for God. We want to know that God is in the midst of what is happening to our lives. We want the Holy Spirit to continue hovering over the world.
Will God bring new life into this world? Out of the confusion and sickness that now prevail? I believe so. I can only pray that we will be ready for what God will bring about.
Although our Liturgy was livestreamed today on our Facebook and YouTube pages, the sound on the live streams continues to be problematic. The audio file included with this post has clearer sound than what was provided by the live streams.