Bridges

I've been mulling over a sermon given by a visitor to my church, his text was Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4:7-42). What he shared and what I received was simular and different. I have been thinking a great deal about Love and how Love is always actively building relationship. In the story of Jesus at the well I finally saw how Jesus' singlemindedly developed a relationship with the woman. Jesu did not let her sidetrack or blockade the relationship with barriers of culture, religion or her current and apparent character issues (sin). With patient endurance and grace, he overcame those obsticles and built a relationship with her and a great many of her townspeople. Every time the woman tried to seperate herself from Jesus, Jesus countered with building an "US." Love builds "US", love builds relationship bridges. Be patient, love/grace gives people time and space to grow in truth.

Sometimes Jesus burn't a bridge or two. He wasn't very fond of the religeous hiarchy at the time. They didn't like him either. Jesus burn't those bridges for a purpose. Only relationship founded in truth/love survives eternity. In Mathew 5:20 (and elsewhere), Jesus made it clear that the righteousness of the then religeous hiarchy fell far short of what God desired. So Jesus torched the bridge that they (the religeous) were making (not God) and Jesus became the eternal bridge to real relationship.

Go ahead, love the people, and build bridges. Jesus does.