July 15 2007 sermon notes

At least a couple people said they appreciated the sermon notes and encouraged me to do it again. The versions differed slightly between the two services and I have a missing paragraph that must be in my notes back at church. I might add them later. Again, you will have to creatively read through my typos and irregular spacing and punctuation. The transfer into the blog format makes some irregular spacing too!

PUMC July 15 2007 Another look at the Good Samaritan

I’m sure that when I say “Good Samaritan”- right away you think of being a good neighbor and helping people when they are in trouble.

Be a "good Samaritan" That phrase has just taken on it s own meaning in our language;
being a nice person when people are in trouble...generosity and compassion . I could make that the whole point of this sermon. It’s a good point.

The world has a lot of people beaten up and robbed and left behind. People need help: refugees,,,natural disasters... The AIDs pandemic.. Accidents...sickness..poverty ..abuse..loneliness...addictions..the list goes on.

( a lot of ways of getting beaten up in life)
We need a whole lot more of these good Samaritans ; who are willing to stop and get involved and even, as you hear in the gospel lesson ,be willing to pick up the bill ....make the offering..Personally pay the price.

Be a good Samaritan.

Here in Minnesota..we know how to do that, we do that pretty well .
Maybe its part of the Minnesota nice. I noticed something on the news last week
in a recent study the Midwest,and especially Minneapolis S/t Paul area
compared to other major cities came in first place for the level of volunteerism.
And I’m thinking that most of Minnesota would rank up at the top
for the number of volunteer hours and participation, it seems to run pretty high around here in the Brainerd/ Baxter area too.

I bet if I wanted a show of hands for everyone who does some kind of volunteering..
I would see a lot hands up this morning.

We know about being good Samaritans. And for us a lot of that is because of our faith: love and healing and helping..serving, those are core values for us as followers of Christ. . And anything I can do or say to help us live out those values..well that ‘s what I want to say : Go do it..

As a church, that’s why we support mission project...and take special offering
.and things like soup kitchen, habitat for humanity ,food shelf, Fare for all..
Nothing but Nets, Interfaith Hospitality network,, ...local volunteering....as I mentioned.

Again,the list goes on. I don’t really have to preach that sermon. (so if you want to....you can go home now!)

.We know how to be good Samaritans.
But////
That’s not really what this gospel lesson is about; its not quite the point of this gospel lesson.
The gospel lesson of the good Samaritan is an answer
to a different question..

Remember the question.?
This lawyer....this young religion scholar, is talking to Jesus.

He has has summarized the law: to love the lord your God with all your heart soul, mind, and strength; and to love your neighbor as you love yourself.
And Jesus says that yes, that is the right answer; that is what real life is all about!

And then he wants to know “who is my neighbor.?

It says he was looking for loop hole or a way to justify himself.
He wants to know how far this neighbor thing has to go?. Do I have to love everybody? Who is my neighbor? That is a good question!

That’s when Jesus tells the parable. So this parable is going to answer that question.
Who is my neighbor?
And maybe you already know this but the key part of this story
is that a Samaritan is going to be that neighbor.
But what is a Samaritan?It is not just some nice guy as we use it today . we need to get the background and setting back in these Bible days

Samaritans were a group of people..and a religion;.a nation..or an ethnic and cultural group,.that lived right next to the Jewish people.

And the two groups.....
Jews and Samaritans
both claimed to be descendants of Moses.
and they both claimed to be the chosen peopel
they both claimed to be the true followers of the Law.
.they both had different temples..
They were in competition so to speak

and they both claimed that the other group
had corrupted the true faith and worship of God

so when Jesus talks about a Samaritan to this Jewish scholar

a Samaritan...was almost a dirty word.
This was was a despised person ..and a heretic
in the common Jewish thinking of the day...

They were considered to be religiously corrupt and impure ..

Sometimes fights and riots broke out between Jews and Samaritans.

It was dangerous for them to be in each others territories and you can see reference in the New Testament about whether or not Jesus traveled through Samaria or went around Samaria, as most Jews did back then

(Maybe this is something like Sunnies and Shiites
being in each others territories in Iraq;...but I might be misunderstanding that situation..so don’t push it too far)

To put it very simply if you were a jew in that age
you didn't expect much that was good from a Samaritan or you didn’t feel much of an obligation toward them.You didn’t consider a Samaritan to be the neighbor that you had to really care about
...you were in your rights to exclude the Samaritan..
You just don’t want them around,you wouldn’t trust them and so on

You get the point

so
Who is my neighbor
becomes a question of inclusion and acceptance and responsibility

how far does it go.
.do I have to love everybody?

and Jesus used the example of someone who just would not be normally included in the neighborhood.

Do you see what he is doing ?

Jesus is pushing ....
pushing down the mental and spiritual walls of exclusiveness

he is opening up the sense of neighbor and community

Neighborhood as Jesus does it;is not about what country you are from

what temple you worship in.
.what political group you follow
what you eat and drink or wear
.what language you speak

And maybe it is not even about your religious beliefs..

Neighborhood is about overcoming the barriers that we put up in our societies and in churches and our personal altitudes


Neighborhood and community is described in the example of this Samaritan
who went to his enemy and overcame his own reluctance
his own religious prejudice..
his own cultural traditions;overcame his own stereotypes ;and his own traditions of discrimination; overcame his own hatred perhaps
maybe even overcame his own previous bad experience;

Overcame his fear... overcame anything that that would keep him
from seeing a fellow human being and helping this person left along the road..

And Jesus said that’s the example to follow
Do what this Samaritan did; verse 37 clearly says Go and do likewise.
(Easier said than done!)
The Samaritan enlarged his neighborhood!

The parable of the good Samaritan is also a picture of the way Jesus lived his life
Jesus didn’t just talk like that..he lived like that..

Jesus had an inclusiveness that was just plain upsetting to a lot of people in his day..

You gotta know this; .Im sure you do
Do you know what the biggest the biggest complaint about Jesus
was?
H ate with with tax collectors and sinners.

He ate with the wrong kind of people
he accepted the unacceptable

Jesus treated the outsiders like they were insiders..

Hospitality invitation... welcoming ..these were practices of Jesus:
we see him healing the Canaanite women.. The roman centurions son...and the lepers .....all of them were outsiders..

That was the style of Jesus ..as the embodied spirit of God.
Now a days we call it inclusiveness.
This is a major value for me...you probably figured that out...

..for me that is the spirit of Jesus ,,it’s an act of grace..
And it is how we are faithful to the Gospel...

I like to think that it’s the the same core value and spirit behind our United Methodist slogan of open hearts ..Open Minds ..Open doors.
I hope you hear that from me. You are welcome here..

Who ever you are. And that means that diversity has to be a sign and a result of our community

Neighbor becomes a wide open word..//it is you, plural!

Think about what that means.
we don’t agree on everything..

We have liberal and conservative; democrat ,,,republican,, green party ,,and so on.
On just about any social issue we have different opinions among us..

That is a sign of true community for me...as I understand the ministry of Jesus Christ. And what it means to be the church..
Thats the kind of church that I want to be a part of..

But you know what ?not everybody agrees with me
Imagine that.!
For some voices in the church diversity and pluralism and tolerance
are not acceptable values....
.in fact those are bad things..the way they see it..

They are threatened by those values..that somehow it undermines the purity of the Gospel...
Well as much as I value inclusiveness; as much as I say everyone is welcome.maybe there is a sene of exclusiveness that we should have

Maybe I am overstating the principle of inclusiveness
and maybe we should have some boundaries and borders in the neighborhood

I’m on slippery ground here.But I got sparked by Brian Maclaren's latest book The Secret Message of Jesus . He has a chapter about the borders of the kingdom
and he says we cant just be naively inclusive.
So he talks about something called “purposeful inclusion”and he says some exclusiveness is necessary.
In other way we really should not just let everybody in..


He gives three examples. He says:
If the kingdom of God were a soccer club it could welcome children and adults; males and females;beginners and stars...- but it could not welcome people who hated soccer and wanted to replace it with kick boxing for example
If the kingdom of God were a hospital it could accept sick people needing help; it could accept doctors and nurses who wanted to serve and cure sick people; it could welcome guests who wanted to visit the sick
but it could not welcome people coming in to kidnap babies from the nursery nor could it welcome phony doctors who presented to care just so they could cause pain ; nor could it welcome people whose purpose is to unplug the equipment in the ICU.

"If the kingdom of God were a symphony,
Mclaren says..
it would welcome anyone who had a desire to learn to play music
--from tuba player to piccolo players, from violinists to percussionists.
It would accept beginners and master musicians, probably by pairing up the novices with mentors who could help them to learn.
But it could not welcome people who hated music or who wanted to shout and scream and disrupt rehearsals and concerts; that would ruin the music for everyone and destroy the symphony. True, it would try to influence music haters to become music lovers, but it couldn't accept them into the symphony until they wanted to be there
because of a love of music."

So where does that put us? What do you think of the Mclarens examples?
Is there a church version of that?

Maybe we should say:
If you want to love Jesus ;if you want to love God with all your heart soul mind and strength; if you want to love your neighbor
as you love yourselves
if you want to help anybody who needs help no matter who they are if
then join us or more precisely;come and follow Jesus .

Follow this Jesus who eats with tax collectors and sinners.
Follow Jesus who is out pulling people from the ditch
no matter who they are..
Follow Jesus who goes to help those people that have been left out
Follow Jesus who said love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
follow this Jesus who says his neighborhood includes anybody who practices compassion...anybody who wants to learn the true life of love.
It’s the neighborhood of love/
that is the purpose -ful inclusion
but as Mclaren puts it..and I quote
“the kingdom of God has a purpose, and the purpose is not every ones cup of tea”

but
If that’s your desire..
We may not be there yet..but if it is your desire..
If you want to join Jesus in that purpose..of gathering and welcoming
if you want to move away form the neighborhood of judgment and division and
if you to a t least try and find ways of talking better together
if you want to live with a change of heart and mind.
If you are willing to live in the neighborhood of .repentance and forgiveness conversion,,and renewal

then..You are already living in the neighborhood..

Who is your neighbor?

Now the question, do you still want to be a Good Samaritan?