Message for worship at West Richmond Friends Meeting, 16th of Second Month, 2025.
Speaker: Erik Miller
It is so good to be here with you all at West Richmond Friends. I’ll introduce my message on borders and boundaries with some lines from a 60’s song by the Youngbloods.
Come on people now;
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together,
Try to love one another
Right now
If you don’t remember anything else I say, today Remember these words.
Sermon on Borders and Boundaries
In the summer when I was a kid my family would pack us up in the car to go to visit Aunt Pearl and Uncle Henry’s farm. They lived on a farm just outside of Wilshire, Ohio, a tiny town in extreme western Ohio. It was about a 90-minute drive north from our house with fields of corn, corn and more corn and a few fields of soy beans and maybe some wheat encompassing the way.
The town of Wilshire consisted of a gas station, a couple stores and a diner.
Once in town we turned on a gravel road and arrived at Pearl and Henry’s farm. The trip was made a little easier in that my cousin Tommy lived just down the road from Aunt Pearl and Uncle Henry.
Uncle Henry looked like a typical midwestern farmer tanned and wrinkled by working in the sun over many years. He wore stained overalls and had a smile showing several missing teeth. He also had a twinkle in his eye that made me think this was going to be a great visit. His son Charlie and his wife Velma along with my cousin Tommy (who I shared many youthful adventures with) and his sisters lived on a farm just a couple of miles down the road.
We got out of the car and I was surprised that Tommy was there as well. We were going to eat dinner at Charlie and Velma’s a little later. Uncle Henry flashed a smile at Tommy and me and said, “how bout you boys jump on the tractor with me and we’ll drive to Charlie’s place.”
I looked around and there was that beautiful Allis Chalmers tractor we would get to ride on. Tommy and I sat on the big fenders next to Uncle Henry and we headed down the gravel road west toward Tommy’s family’s farm. We bounced pretty slowly down the road for a while.
Then Uncle Henry stopped and pointed to something along the road and said,” okay boys we just crossed the border into Indiana.” I looked around and nothing had changed. We didn’t cross a river or even a creek there wasn’t even a bump or line in the gravel road. I was astounded everything looked the same the border changed nothing we saw. How disappointing.
I said, “Everything looks the same.” Uncle Henry gazed at us and said “Yep.” Then he said matter of factly, “Think about it.” And I have since that day periodically thought about the those words of Uncle Henry.
Uncle Henry had taught me a lesson that I would eventually find to be important. Borders and boundaries tend to change very little of the world around us if we think about it. There I was with Uncle Henry and Cousin Tommy on a tractor and we were in a different state but everything looked and felt the same.
One thing I have come to believe, it is not just Midwestern cornfields that are alike. I believe that as people we are very much alike at the deepest level. Most people want a life in which there is enough food, shelter and a feeling of being safe and a life in which we have a family, neighbors, and friends whom we can laugh, talk, and cry with. We all desire a world in which we have a sense of belonging no matter who we are. We wish for a world without violence.
But it seems that at the same time we as human beings like to draw borders and boundaries both geographically and borders based on fear, hatred, and ignorance. I might call these borders of the heart and mind. Boundaries of the heart and mind are ones we or society draws between people who we judge to be lesser or very different than us in some way. We sometimes end up considering them as evil while we consider ourselves good.
It seems it has always been so, in Jesus’ time and even before. I wonder why that is? Is that something the writers of the Genesis story about eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil had in mind?
By eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the Genisis story implies that humankind gains knowledge but maybe not God’s wisdom and the compassion that goes along with that knowledge. This knowledge may have been more than we could handle.
As a result, we set up boundaries separating the good people (us, whoever that maybe) from all the others (in a sense the evil people).
In essence the two scriptures Linda read this morning indicate how Jesus the Son of God and our model or Shepherd easily and boldly steps across these human established boundaries and brings blessings to those on the other side of them.
In the case of the story in the Gospel of John, the woman at the well as this story is often called, we see Jesus walking with His disciples into Samaria. The Jews, or in this case Judeans regarded the Samaritans as enemies because they worshipped differently than the Judean Jews. I might point out that both the Judeans and the Samaritans considered themselves Jews.
Their difference stemmed from the fact that the people of Samaria were part of the Northern Kingdom when Israel was divided. Those in the Northern Kingdom had intermarried with other middle eastern people. Because of this the Jews from the south of Israel or Judea considered them to be impure Jews.
In addition, the Samaritans had incorporated ideas from the religions of these other Middle Eastern people into the Jewish religion of Samaria.
Samaritans were not strict upholders of the Mosaic Laws and did not hold the same holy places as the Jews. The Samaritans held Mt. Gerizim as their holy site while the Israelites held the temple Mount in Jerusalem as their holy site. These differences were the boundaries of the heart and the mind. Jews would cross the Jordan River rather than travel through Samaria. The differences were considered so great that the Jews considered the Samaritans as impure and irredeemable by God.
Into this landscape walks Jesus along with His disciples. Then Jesus, a Judean Jew boldly, in this story steps across this boundary of the heart and mind of the Jews to get a drink of water in this Samaritan village. It is an enormous step according to Jews of the time to even go to this village.
When Jesus reaches the village, it is the middle of the day and it is extremely hot in that part of the world. No body goes out this time of day. Yet a woman approaches Jesus at the well carrying a water jug. Most women of the day gather at the well in the cool of the morning. It is a social time for these village women. A time to share about families and happenings in the village.
So why is this woman out by herself getting water in the heat of the day? Scholars have supposed that it is because this Samaritan woman was considered to be of ill repute. She was there because she has been shamed by the others in the village.
Women of the time were expected to be married. If they were not because of a husband’s death or a divorce they were expected to find a new husband or live with their husband’s family. If this did not happen, they had few options. Prostitution or begging were the main ones usually. If these were the means for making a living or they lived with a man not their husband as a single woman they were shamed and reviled. So, in order to avoid shame and ridicule the Samaritan woman goes to the well for water when no one else is there to shame her.
This woman whose name we don’t know is surprised to find anyone out this time of day, let alone a Jewish man. Jesus has stepped boldly across significant boundaries in the mind and heart of the Jewish culture of the time. These boundaries are true of both Jew and Samaritan.
Jesus goes ahead and talks to a woman considered to be of ill-repute. In addition, to a woman that is an impure Samaritan. His disciples must have gasped. Perhaps as some scholars have suggested that that is why he sent his disciples away to get groceries. They were not yet ready to deal with this bold venture of Jesus.
As Jesus asks the woman for a drink of water, she is astounded. She asks “Why would you a Jew speak to me a Samaritan?” He does not answer but offers her living water, water that will fill her thirst for the rest of her life. He blesses this Samaritan woman.
I believe along with other scholars that this Living water is the Spirit of God that makes her whole and assures her she is one of God’s children. She is part of the Creation God labeled as Good in the creation story in Genesis on the 6th day.
In this way Jesus is proclaiming the Gospel or God’s Good News to this woman considered wretched and impure by the Jewish and Samaritan communities. These communities have drawn boundaries declaring who is bad and who is good, but Jesus boldly steps over the boundaries and sees the good., The good that is pretty much the same as good of others on the other side of the boundary.
Let’s look briefly at the other scripture reading about Zacchaeus the tax collector in the Gospel of Luke. Rome contracted local people to collect taxes for them. They would make deals with them. They might say to Zacchaeus, “Look we need 1000 pieces of silver from the people in this region. As long as we get our 1000 pieces of silver, we’re happy. If you get more than that, the excess is all yours, we don’t care.” A pretty good deal and many tax collectors got rich. Zacchaeus likely was no exception. As a result, the people hated him.
Zacchaeus as the scripture says hears that Jesus is coming so he climbs into a tree, since he is short, to see him. As Jesus walks by, He sees this short man in the tree and says to him come down out of the tree. I am coming to your house for dinner. I’m sure the disciples gasped again. “This guy is a scoundrel, a sinner”, they may have said to each other.
Once again Jesus boldly steps over the boundary between those who are considered “acceptable” and those who are not. He eats dinner with Zacchaeus and this tax collector becomes a new person the good person God created him to be. Zacchaeus gives his ill-gotten gains to the poor, I think because he has found acceptance because of Jesus’s willingness to boldly cross the human set boundaries of both mind and heart.
These are only two examples where Jesus bravely crosses these boundaries of the human mind and heart and sees God's created beings. There are many more throughout the gospels.
We as Quakers have always talked about the adage that there is that of God in every person. There is a quote attributed to George Fox that goes something like this “walk cheerfully across the earth addressing that of God in every person.” Fox does not say “walk cheerfully across England, walk cheerfully across Scotland, across North America.” He says walk cheerfully across the earth, pay no attention to these human-made boundaries.” I suspect that he likely picked this up by reading and centering on scripture stories like those we read today.
Society and culture seem to want to set up boundaries between people, particularly in this day and age. We as human beings also seem to want to set up boundaries in our mind and hearts between ourselves and others. Sometimes these are boundaries we set up because of our own fear of “the other”. Other times they are boundaries of the mind that society or the particular culture we live in sets up for us.
Between 1801 and 1803 somebody decided to draw a north-south line in what was called the northwest Territory (Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota). Someone possibly in Washington laid down a straight edge beginning somewhere east of Lake Michigan and ending somewhere on the Ohio River. East of that line in this wilderness was the Boundary of the State of Ohio. 150 years or so later my Uncle Henry drove two boys, my cousin Tommy and me across that boundary in an Allis Chalmers tractor and said we have crossed the line between Ohio and Indiana. We said to him “Looks the same.” Uncle Henry said “Yep. Think about it””.
The boundaries that we tend to create in our minds and hearts between ourselves and some other people are not much different. If we have the boldness that Jesus had to cross those boundaries, we may find that we can see these persons as the same. All with that of God within them.
What I want to challenge each of us to be about doing today, is this. We set up boundaries in our mind and hearts, society sometimes sets up mind and heart boundaries for us.
I would ask you to think, pray and meditate on the boundaries you have between you and others. There are lots of choices: people of color and white people, men and women, young people and older people, straight and LGBTQ people, religious differences, political differences, differences in countries of origin. We have no limit to the boundaries we can create.
Are we like the disciples in Samaria, content with getting groceries or are we willing to follow Jesus into the world of the “other?”
Ask yourself what boundaries do I set up? And why?
Secondly, ask yourself that just like Jesus am I bold and brave enough to cross some of these boundaries like Jesus did and calls us to do? Am I bold and brave enough to cross at least one of these boundaries and meet the person on the other side and bring them a blessing or be blessed? The crossing and blessing doesn’t have to be much. It may just be a smile or a hello. These small blessings can make a difference in another’s life.
In this time of strife in our country and the world we may think these little blessings will not change things. But if we would all be doing these things the world would be a better place over time.
George Fox talked about there being an ocean of darkness and an ocean of Light that overflows the ocean of darkness. But we have the option to choose between letting our actions add to the ocean of light or deepening the ocean of darkness.
I’ll quote Carrie Newcomer our Indiana Quaker singer, song writer with a line from one of her songs, “It will take a change of heart for this to mend. But Miracles do happen every shining now and then. If not now tell me when.”
Jesus leads the way. George Fox tells us how. When you do make this boundary crossing you may find that it is no bigger deal than crossing the line from an Ohio cornfield to an Indiana cornfield. What we may find is a person on the other side who is someone pretty much like us. Bless them with your presence and kindness. Also be willing to accept their kindness.
Or as my Uncle Henry said, on the seat of his tractor “Yep. Think about it.”
John 4: 4-15
4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus and Zacchaeus
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
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