Tabernacle Church Penarth

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost."  Isaiah 55:1

One of the striking things if ever you have flown over Britain is the patchwork quilt which is our countryside.  The countryside is broken up into hundreds of small fields and enclosures with fences and hedges and walls.  The fences separate what is the farmer’s land from the land that belongs to other people.  Everything on this side of the fence belongs to me, and everything on that side belongs to you.  The fences also keeps my livestock and animals IN where I can keep an eye on them and keep them safe, but also they keep other people’s animals and maybe even wild animals OUT.  The fences very much define what belongs to the farm and what doesn’t.

However, in some places where the scale of the landscape is much bigger – in the western United States of America for example, or in the outback of Australia, fences just aren’t practical.  The distances to be covered are just too big and the ranches just too vast.  So how do farmer and ranchers in those conditions keep their livestock close and safe?   What they do is they sink a bore-hole deep underground and they create a well.  Then they build a windmill on top and they pump up precious, life giving water to the surface.  On the deserts and the plains of Australia and America water is a precious commodity and the farmers and ranchers know that whilst their animals may stray a little way, they will never roam too far lest they die.  What keeps the farmers animals close by isn’t a fence which keeps them in, but rather the life giving water which keeps them close by.

Most churches are groups which rely heavily on fences to define who is ‘IN’ and who is ‘OUT.’  Our fences are ‘believing’ and ‘behaving’.  If you believe the right things, if you can say the right things and if you behave in the right way then you are one of us and we will let you in.  But if you don’t do those things and don’t believe the right things and behave in the right way, which by the way we’ll define by the way we interpret the Bible and not the way you or anyone else does, then you don’t belong and you are definitely ‘OUT.’

Often our gateway in is sound doctrine: do you believe the right thing?  We all have those gateways to deciding if someone is a ‘real’ Christian or not: what do you believe about creation and evolution and science? Proper Christians only believe one thing. Do you speak in tongues? No? Then you are a second class Christian.  What do you think about Israel? Doesn’t Biblical Christianity support Israel without question and without thinking too much about Palestinians?  Do you prefer hymns or modern songs? Which version of the Bible do you read?  Were you baptised and if so were you baptised in the right way with the right amount of water? In some Baptist churches for example, and certainly in Tabs until 20 years ago or so, unless you have been baptised as a believer by full immersion, you couldn’t become a member.  You can be born again, with a clear conversion experience that has made a massive difference in your life; you can be an orthodox, Bible believing, spirit filled believer but if you haven’t been baptised ‘properly’ then you are ‘out’ and on the wrong side of the fence.

Fences, boundaries, walls: you are in or you are out.  You might be close, but if you haven’t crossed the line yet, then you are still out.

Then there are the informal fences and barriers – nothing gets said, but people are aware that they are hitting the fences and they are not really welcome.  What if an openly gay person or a gay couple asked for membership of Tabs based solely on their profession of faith and belief in Jesus, would we admit them?  Would we even think they are ‘real’ Christians?  What about if an unmarried couple who are living together start coming along how welcome are they?  What about if someone who is very liberal in their theology comes along? Or an alcoholic who is still drinking? Or a publican? Or a stripper? Or a universalist?  Or a bookie?

What are our fences which make people aware that they either belong or don’t?  What is it that makes people think, ‘yes, I could go back there and be made welcome’ or ‘no, I’m not one of them?’

For Jesus, those fences didn’t exist. When he looked at people, whether they were righteous, holy, good people or not he saw just one thing – people in need of God’s love and compassion.  Jesus’ attitude of ‘there are no boundaries’ often got him into a lot of trouble. When he was having dinner with Levi the tax collector the teachers of the law and the Pharisees asked, ‘why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? Doesn’t Jesus know that these people don’t belong? They are on the wrong side of the fence.  They belong in another field.’  Another time when Jesus was teaching we are told that the publicans and the sinners gathered around to hear him, and the religious people grumbled and muttered.

Even his own disciples didn’t get it sometimes. In the story of the woman at the well in John 4 we read that when the disciples returned to the well they were surprised to find Jesus talking to a woman.  Doesn’t Jesus know that men and women don’t mix?  They belong to different fields. And this woman is a Samaritan, and it turns out she is a sinner.  But Jesus doesn’t see the fences – he just sees a woman in need of salvation.

To a spiritually thirsty woman Jesus says, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  You may not fit in properly; you may not be one of us; you might not be the religious people’s idea of a believer, you might not even be the right gender, but in me, in drawing close to me you will find salvation.

Jesus always intended the church to be what is called a ‘centred set’ community.  Instead of fences that keep people in or out, you dig a deep, deep well and you bring up fresh, life-giving water.  We are meant to drink that water, and grow on it and thrive on it and all those other people who are around who are thirsty and looking for something spiritual to drink will start to draw close.  When the church says, ‘there are no fences to coming to Jesus: come as you are. Come with your questions and your doubts, your problems and your rejoicing. Come whatever your lifestyles or your sin. Come dressed as you are; come and join in or just come and observe. Come to the water; come and drink; come and find life.  You are welcome here whoever you are and whatever you have done and whatever your background… we just want to show you Jesus. Can we, as a church, dig a well so deep into Jesus and bring up life giving water that is so fresh in our life together that all people will know that we are his disciples?