I admit that there are scriptures, particularly in the gospels, that I have read many times and they become almost overly familiar to me—the story of Jesus’ encounter with the woman of Samaria at Jacob’s well is one of those biblical passages.  I won’t go so far as to say I wasn’t paying much attention to our pastor last Sunday as he recounted the story (having a special service in the park carries along with it an interesting set of distractions!); however, my senses were alerted by one phrase that he read.  “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship” (John 4:20).

Interestingly, the Samaritans had a very good Moses-based logic for their worship mountain (Mount Gerizim, the ancient mount of blessing), yet they were a mixed race—Jewish and Assyrian—rejected by the Israelites because of their heritage.  While the Jews had the God-Moses instituted laws and temple, in the midst of their traditions, they also rejected the perfect Lamb of God.  What seems so very significant to me is that nowadays many people hold to opinions or doctrine based on a religious tradition or a point of history that has biblical basis yet they are not open to the possibility that God is alive and well all over the earth and in places where those closely held doctrines are not observed.

Jesus goes on to tell this dear woman during their encounter, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:22-24).

We miss focus when, for even a moment, we think that God is seeking any characteristic in His people other than worship.  Truly, doctrines come and go but God’s Spirit and His Truth will continue to exist; and when our spirits are transformed by the Spirit of God, we will become worshippers of our Father in heaven.  At those times when we equate truth as doctrine, we can easily overlook the essence of Truth, which exists only in the identity and mission of Jesus Christ—“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6).

When our focus is on the doctrines unique to particular denominations or teachers, and teachings that are popular for a time, divisions often result—and frequently, condemnation and fear surface.  However, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1); and, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Instead of creating uniqueness based on doctrinal division, Jesus calls teachers and leaders to equip all believers for ministry and create unity within His body, the church:  “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature [adulthood], to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:11-16).

As with the Jews and Samaritans, every one of us has a unique heritage and journey of faith as we have grown up into Jesus.  There are unique expressions of the body of Christ that fit who we are and where our lives have taken us.  It is important, though, to remember that God is seeking worshippers, ones who will worship Him in spirit and truth; and when the body of Christ is working properly, we will be growing, built up in love, and supporting one another.