Neighboring 101

A Sermon based on Luke 10:27-35

Delivered to St. Timothy Lutheran Church

July 14, 2013 

Author Robert Lupton tells of being invited to speak at the ‘urban emphasis’ week at a well-known Christian College. He posed the question to a group of upperclassmen, “What is the number-one mandate for the followers of Christ?”

“Evangelize!”, was one student’s immediate response, citing the Great Commission from Matthew 28. When Lupton pushed the students harder to think about what Jesus actually thought was the most important mandate, one of the students tentatively answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thine heart, mind, soul and strength and they neighbor as thyself?”

Agreeing with the student, Lupton went on to ask the question, “Given that Scripture declares this to be our number-one mandate, then, what courses do you have here on Neighboring?...Who teaches Neighboring 101?” (From Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, pp 15, 16.)

From our Gospel reading today, it's perfectly clear who the Instructor is for Neighboring 101 – Jesus of Nazareth. It's also perfectly clear that all of us as Christians are enrolled in this course, even though we weren't in class on the day Jesus taught his lesson It's also very important that we do well in this course. Incidentally, the text Jesus used was what we now call the “Old Testament”. The latest edition includes greatly expanded materials that we now refer to as the “New Testament”.

At any rate, Jesus had a very informal teaching style. His lessons were often geared to questions asked by his students or other curious persons – some of whom definitely had mixed motives. In this case, Jesus taught an important lesson in response to a lawyer's question, “Who Is My Neighbor?”

He told a parable that faithful Jews of that time would have found jarring: While others pass on by, a Samaritan – A Samaritan for Pete's sake! - stops to rescue a badly beaten Jewish man, cares for him personally and then pays the tab to have the man stay at the closest thing they had to a hospital at the time – an Inn!

To get a sense of the impact of this parable had on Jesus' listeners, let's try to translate this into today's terms. Here's a story from the Internet that purports to be true:

Apparently there was two rival gangs in Los Angles, one African American the other Latino. One night three Latino Gang members were hanging out behind their homes in the alley. They noticed a police unit drive up and park at the end of the next alley across the street. And then they noticed the officers pull a cuffed black man out of the back of the unit. Un-cuffing him, the police left the man lying next to the curb motionless. (Supposedly, the police deliberately left this guy in rival gang territory to finish him off.)

After the cruiser left, the three Latino gang members grew concerned when the man left in the street wasn't moving. Thinking he was dead, they went and got into their car and drove around to where he was. They discovered not only was this black male beaten severely he was also a member of their rival gang.

After thinking about the situation a moment, they decided to put him into their car and drive him to the emergency clinic!

...No word on who paid the tab.

Whether or not this is true, it does give a bit of a flavor of what Jesus was trying to teach.

The Samaritan was an “Other' type person to the Jewish audience Jesus was addressing; he wasn't a faithful, religiously observant Jew. The two groups despised each other. Samaritans didn't worship at the temple in Jerusalem, but had their own forms of worship in Samaria. The Good Samaritan was not a “Good Jew” - practising his faith correctly.

But while the Samaritan's motivation was not based on following the Torah correctly, he was a person who lived out the value of being a Good Neighbor. Since he lived before Smartphones, he didn't have a 'Neighbor Recognition app – he just knew the characteristics of a Neighbor within his own heart - and then had the compassion and the will to help. The Good Samaritan had a Good understanding of Anthropology – the study of or recognition of other people, especially Neighbors. He knew that we're all in this together because we're all related - all 'cousins', if you will, in the one great human family.

Jesus' Jewish questioner on the other hand, was not a Good Student. He asked to know, “Who is my Neighbor?, not in order to fulfil his duty, but to get out of it! He was prideful in his fulfilment of the Law, but negligent in love. He didn't get off to a good start in Neighboring 101. In response to the question, however, Jesus told a story. Within that story are several points about the characteristics of a Neighbor:

1. A Neighbor is someone who doesn't always make the best decisions.

The Beaten Man was travelling alone from Jerusalem to Jericho. This is a really dangerous, steep road full of physical challenges. It's also an ideal placed to get mugged. That's why people of the day travelled in groups. They made an early start and tried to get off the road before dark, so they had light to see the dangers of the road and avoid the brigands who come out at night. For whatever reason, the Beaten man ignored these basic precautions. Someone could even say, “Well, he deserved it because he was stupid enough to put himself in that situation.” 

 

The Good Samaritan apparently didn't think that way. He stopped, regardless of what he may have thought. Very likely he did not judge the needy man; there was too much to do to take care of him to spend time on judging.

2.A neighbor is someone you may not know who needs help. This past week, our young people have been off helping to fix the houses of people they never even heard of before. They did it because they like sweating in the heat, sleeping on hard gymnasium floors and, undoubtedly, flirting with the opposite sex. ...But seriously, they did it because they desire to help an unknown neighbor in need, despite the fact, and maybe even because of the fact that they didn't know those they were helping.

3. A Neighbor is someone who may or may not have the means to repay you for your kindness. In the story Jesus told, we know that the man had been mugged and had no money with him. Now it's possible that he might have had some other resources at home... But that's not at all certain. The Good Samaritan didn't say, “how will you be paying for this today, sir?” before extending ministry to him!

4.A Neighbor is someone who comes to us by Divine Appointment.

I'm sure the Samaritan had other plans for his day. He may have missed appointments in Jerusalem, maybe even have lost business because of it. He could easily have brushed off the divine appointment, just as his predecessors did. But his internal Divine Appointment Recognition app went off and he accepted the appointment to his eternal credit. Recognizing God's divine appointment also applies to the people who live next to and around us – our neighbors by way of physical proximity. And here's where it perhaps gets harder.

GK Chesterton once quipped, “You can make your friends, and you can make your enemies, but God makes your neighbors.”

5.Neighbors are sometimes pleasant, but frequently strange, annoying and difficult. They demand our patience and tolerance when we really would rather not be patient or tolerant! Successful neighboring requires that we draw on the Love we receive from God the Father, the power of God the Holy Spirit, and the knowledge of God the Son's Great Sacrifice made on our behalf so that we may extend that same love and sacrifice to others. This is how we fulfill the righteous requirements of God's Law., just as it says in Romans 13:8-10:

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

And here is where we come to a bit of a rub in our Christian life.

Robert Lupton again: 

 

“Too often,” he says, “we have viewed our primary task as ‘saving souls’. The problem is that people are not disembodied souls, they are a complete package of body, soul and spirit. “When we skip over the Great Commandment on the way to fulfilling the Great Commission, we do great harm to the authenticity of the faith,’ . A …Church that skips over these basics on the way to ‘deeper’ theological pursuits can hardly be considered biblically faithful” (!) (Lupton, pg 16).

To be faithful as the Church, we must love our difficult neighbors! Love is the concrete proof of the existence of the Unseen Real. It is an argument for the existence of God that catches people off-guard. A friend of mine is fond of saying, “There is no defense against love.” If you want to fulfill the Great Commission, you may need to Love that grouchy neighbor into the Kingdom.

6. Our sixth and final Neighbor Recognition tip is that a Neighbor is Jesus in Disguise!

Christ became Incarnate in this world as a little baby, a neighbor who could find no room in the inn, no one to welcome him and his family.Christ comes to us in the form of our neighbors. Our challenge is to find room in our hearts for Jesus disguised as neighbors.

One of my heroes of the faith, St. Benedict, put it this way: “Every visitor (read 'Neighbor') shall be welcomed as if they were Christ.”

Just as Christ came into the world in flesh to Incarnate God’s love to us, so too we are to incarnate God’s love to the world – really to Him, for inasmuch as we do unto one of the least of these, we do unto Christ himself (Mt. 25:40).

We tend to get caught up in this spirit around Christmas when the local papers run features about helping the neediest families. But as the Church, caring about our neighbors is to be our constant emphasis; something we do year-round.

Neighbor Love and the Second Coming
Speaking of Christmas, one of the themes of Advent is the coming of the Kingdom of God into our world, and looking for the return of Christ.

While we do indeed look for the bodily return of our Lord, loving one’s neighbor brings the Christ's Kingdom into this world; it Realizes the unseen kingdom, bringing the “Eschaton” or “last things” into today, right now. Therefore, by loving your neighbors, you are helping God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Succeeding at Neighboring 101:

Jesus told a story in response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” 

 

If you Google 'Good Samaritan Stories' you can find many more ways that people engage in altruistic and sometimes heroic actions. They save others from dangerous and life threatening accidents, provide money or lodging to stranded travellers, drop off food to families hit by unexpected financial problems and even hold trains from leaving the station for ten minutes so that a distressed son can make a connection from another train and get to his dying father's side. The common thread is that Good Samaritans pay attention to the needs of others around them.

To succeed in Neighboring 101, all you have to do is open your eyes, ears and heart to those around you. If you are also willing to open your time and your wallet to the needs of those around you, there will surely be many Good Samaritan opportunities throughout your life. And be advised...

Final Announcements:

There will be a Final test on this material. It is Open-Book. Knowledge of the Text will help you pass the test, which is pass-fail, but won't guarantee a passing grade. Class participation is crucial and skipping lessons will count against you at the end. Group projects are definitely encouraged, but each student is responsible for his or her own efforts.

Your instructor does not grade on a curve. He is an extremely thorough grader – but very fair and merciful. It's certain that you will not do as well as you think you will, but no one gets what they deserve. 

 

Help is available! All who call upon the Name of the Lord will be saved in the end. Office hours are 24/7.

For assistance completing lessons, please call upon Pastor Allison or myself. We've been briefed that that your Instructor desires you to do well, and knows each one of you personally – in more detail than you can even imagine.

The course is designed to be tough, but also inspirational and even fun at times. As a special encouragement, those passing the final will meet for an after-class party, which promises to be out-of this world! Godspeed to all! Amen, and Amen again!