By Rev. Eric Folkerth

The point of Lent is also to tear away the false and fake facades that we walk around with most days.

We remember that “we are dust” and that our time is short. Lent is a time to remember that there’s no time for hiding. And, there’s also no time for shame either.

Far too many people associate shame with God and religion. But what if God is the one who wants to take AWAY our shame, instead?

I think that’s the real truth, and I think its the truth of this week’s Gospel story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well.

Jesus asked a Samaritan Woman to go get her husband, to which she responded that she didn’t have one.

But, somehow, Jesus already knows this. In fact, Jesus says she’s had FIVE husbands, and the one she’s living with now is not one of them.

At this point, there is a lot that this woman could have felt a sudden shame about.

She’s been married five times.
She’s a Samaritan…somebody the story notes Jews don’t associate with.
And, she’s a woman…and men and women in that day didn’t relate to one another as equals. (Some things never change in the minds of some...)

All three of these things could have inspired shame in the Samaritan Woman or those around her.

But note that she has NO shame. Further, note that Jesus does not shame her either.

When she later says that she’s met a man who “told me everything I ever did…” It doesn’t seem like she’s saying this in deep remorse and shame.

Quite the opposite.

It sounds like she’s finally found somebody who accepts her for who she is, and is NOT shunning or shaming toward her.

My faith tells me that this is the real Jesus. This is the true God.

Jesus is the one who sees whatever our secret shames and secrets are. Whatever the things we try to hide are. And far from rejecting us, God loves, accepts, and liberates us from our shame. Instead of judgment and damnation, God sees our secret shames and accepts us anyway.

I know that that last line sounds like a platitude. It sounds like a throwaway preacher’s line.

But what if it really is a deep truth about the true nature of God?

What if God loves and accepts Samaritans and Jews?
Gay and Straight?
Women and Men?
People of all orientations and races?

What if God knows not only the five marriages of *that* woman, but also every other thing that you carry as secret shame?

And what if God loves and embraces us all anyway?

God knows “everything we’ve ever done.” But God loves us anyway. Yes, even that thing that just flashed into your mind...even that shame YOU carry.

There’s no more need to hide behind endless distraction.

So, let Lent be a time that strips away the distractions and reveals the real and true: YOU.

If your religion has always been about feeling shame for simply being yourself, the way God created you, then I’m sorry. That’s not the message God intended you to ever hear That’s a message other *people* distorted about God. That’s religion’s fault, not God’s.

There is a place of spiritual peace, available to you still, where you realize that God sees ALL of you….knows “everything you’ve ever done,” loves you anyway.

This Lent, consider letting that truth dwell deep within you. You are God’s good child, and God sees and loves you for who you are.

But you don’t ever ever have to hide, or forget your true self, just to try and please God.