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!

Death Into Life

A Sermon based on I Kings 17:17-24 and  Luke 7:11-17.

Given on June 9, 2013 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church, Charleston, WV

 

Is it just me, or are people today preoccupied with the dead and the undead?

We've had a recent rash of Vampire books and movies, tons of Zombie stories, not to mention a TV series called Pushing Daisies and another called Ghost Whisperers. That one kind of interests me as a counselor. Jennifer Love Hewitt plays a perky little Marlo Thomas '”That Girl” double who has been newly married, has just opened up an antique store and who has a side line of helping earth-bound spirits pass over to the other side. She's a kind of therapist/social worker for spirits who have unresolved issues with the living. 

 

When she connects the dots for her unhappy clients, then the spirits can 'go to the light' and leave the living alone. - No mention of Heaven or Hell in these cases – I suppose we'd have to have another series for that...

Now most of these stories involve people going from living to dead or from dead to undead. Generally, they're not about going from death to life – although there are a couple of exceptions. In Pushing Daisies, the dead come back for 60 seconds or less, just enough time to give vital information about how they died - And in the recent movie “Warm Bodies' – a sensitive young Zombie comes back to life through the power of human love.

But this is probably the closest this genre gets to the kind of narratives we have in today's reading - two stories of the dead being brought back to life.

In the first case, we have Elijah raising a widow's son – and in the second case also the raising of a widow's son, this time by Jesus. 

 

In the first case, Elijah had a prior acquaintance with the widow. He had asked her to make him a pita bread with her last bit of flour and oil, and then provided her an inexhaustible supply of both that lasted her 'many days'.

In the case of the widow of Nain, Jesus had no prior acquaintance with the family, but was moved by compassion for the widow's loss.

In both cases, a widow gets her son back – no little thing considering that in those days a widow's son would have been the sum total of any Social Security she could expect to ever have.

In both cases the sons are brought back immediately to their mothers, and in both cases, there is an immediate recognition of the office of Prophet – even the language of recognition is similar:

“Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word in your mouth is truth.” (I Kings 17:24) “A great prophet has arisen among us! God has visited his people!” (Luke 7:16 )

Now just after this incident in our Lucan passage, Jesus sends word to John the Baptist in prison, confirming the nature of his identity, citing his works as proof: “the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the poor have the good news preached to them, and the dead are raised! (Luke 7:22)

Raising the dead then, is one of those signature activities that confirm one's prophetic status – and also seems to increase people's discernment of prophets considerably!

Both of these stories are engaging to be sure, but I believe that what we have here is more than just cool stories about prophets establishing their Bona Fides. Rather, these are prophetic actions that point to the 'Big Holy Audacious Goal” of our faith: Resurrection Life!

In John 10:10, Jesus is quoted as saying, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 1:4 states, “In him was life and the life was the light of men.”

In John chapter 6:35, the day after feeding the 5,000, the people come back to Jesus asking for bread from heaven – manna, just like their forefathers ate. Jesus replies, “I am the bread of life” - causing the Jews to take offense and grumble. 

 

But Jesus goes on to explain that whoever believes in him has eternal life, will be raised up on the last day, and that whosoever eats of Jesus, the bread of life, will live forever; the bread that he gives is 'for the life of the world'. (Jn. 6:47-51)

Notice what Jesus does not claim for himself: He's not “Jesus of Nazareth, Vampire Slayer”, “Jesus, son of Zombie Killer”, or Jesus Christ (Holy) Ghost Whisperer!”

No!, He claims to be something far greater – 'the Way, the Truth and the Life”, the exclusive means of salvation: “no one comes to the Father but through me,” (John 14:6) says Jesus. A pretty remarkable claim for anyone who does NOT happen to be the Lord of Life!

What we have on offer, then, is Life – Resurrection Life. But before we can understand Life, we must first look at death, the enemy of Life.

Remember that when God created man, he placed him in the Garden and said to him, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:16,17)

You know the rest of the story – how Eve was tempted to eat by the serpent, how she gave Adam to eat of the fruit, and he willingly went along ... how God subsequently caused the ground to be cursed on account of Adam's sin, and then made him to live by the sweat of his brow until such time as he physically died and returned to the earth - ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Perhaps the most painful thing however, was being driven out of the Garden – out of the intimate Presence of God. This loss of Communion with God, this excommunication, was and is, the essence of Death. The separation of Death also invaded the physical world, as God spilled the blood animals in order to get their skins to clothe the nakedness of the first couple.

Not only do we suffer separation from God and the Environment, but because of the guilt of sin, there is now psychological separation from oneself, and ultimate distrust and separation between the man and the woman. These are all effects of of the Original Sin, all aspects of the Separation of Death.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5:12 that as sin and death entered the world through one man, Adam, so the free gift of god also came to us through one man, Jesus. But whereas Adam's sin brought death to all, Christ's free gift of Grace brings 'life to many'.

And just as the essence of death is Separation, the essence of life is Communion – living in the Presence of God, experiencing the restoration of fellowship with Him, and healing in all our relationships, starting with ourselves, then with others and even into the Environment around us.

This last point brings us to the nature of Resurrection Life. When Jesus said that the Bread that he gave would be for the Life of the World, what was he talking about? I suggest that it was tied to the Resurrection in that the physical world was intended by God to be a means of our communion with Him.

You know, he could have created us as disembodied spirits, living a life of Pure Being without bodies and without physical reality at all. In fact, there are some who think that the reason Satan and his legions rebelled against God in the first place was because they were offended by God's intention to put a being made in his own image into a crass physical body – and then to send his own son, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world – into the world in physical form was too much for the high and mighty Lucifer to swallow. At any rate, physical stuff was created by God to be a vehicle for, and a means of Communion with God.

And remember, Communion IS life. The Life of the World is what God wants for us – Resurrection Life that heals this 4-fold separation, this 4-fold death. 

 

What then is the relationship between the Resurrection Life and Death?

In a word, they are Enemies.

Several weeks ago, during Senate hearings on the death of four Americans in Benghazi, Senator Elijah Cummings, referring to a eulogy he gave at a relative's funeral, said, ...'that death is a part of life...we have to find a way to make life a part of death.”

Based on our texts today, I would suggest to you that neither Jesus nor Mr. Cummings namesake would agree with that statement. Neither one of them would agree that the main purpose of our faith is to find a way to make better funerals! In fact, they were both more apt to wreck funerals than to assist them!

Theologian Alexander Schmemann says it this way: “Christianity is not reconciliation with death. It is the revelation of death and it reveals death because it is the revelation of life. Christ IS this life. And only if Christ is life is death what Christianity proclaims it to be – namely the enemy to be destroyed.” (For the Life of the world, pg. 99,100) Revelation 20:14 says as much. Death and Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire at the Great Judgment of all things.

It's for this reason that the text of one of the great Easter Hymns of the Orthodox church proclaims, “Christ is risen from the Death, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” The icon of the Harrowing of Hell graphically depicts what the hymns sings – that Christ came to destroy death, not to offer help for better funerals!

Although suffering and death have entered this world through the sin of Adam their very existence in the world is abnormal. Christ triumphs over our archenemy Death, and transforms death into Victory by his own death on the Cross.

So how does this Resurrection Life manifest itself? How do we enter into it, Participate in it? In a word, through the Church.

Alexander Schmemann again:

“The church is the entrance into the risen life of Christ. It is communion in life eternal” (Schmemann, pg. 106) (repeat for emphasis)

Think of that! The church is our Participation – right now – into the Resurrection Life! The Church, as flawed and fallible as it is!

But it only makes sense. What is the church by Nature? The Body of Christ. And how specifically do we become the body of Christ? 

 

By virtue of God adopting us – by Grace – into his family and then filling us with his own Self in the person of the Holy Spirit. The church is, by Nature a Communion, not an organization. It is the Union of all the faithful who have ever lived or ever will live. That's why we talk about “The communion of the saints.” It's all of us who enter into the Resurrection Life of Christ.

And this leads us into the clearest, most direct participation in the Risen Life...That Table (pointing). What do we do there? We Commune! The Body of Christ comes together in its local expression and 'lifts up our hearts' to the lord. We go up to heaven and heaven reveals itself to us as we eat the food and drink of new and unending life in Christ.

Just as the Jewish people eat a Seder meal every Passover, and so renew their participation in their Covenant with God, so too the church eats the New Passover Meal at the communion table, participating in the New Covenant of His Blood poured out for us.

Just as the Jewish people had to eat the Passover lamb in order for the Angel of death to pass over them, so too we must eat the Lamb of God in order for death to passover us and for us to enter into the fullness of His resurrected life. Communion then is not simply a ceremonial taste of bread and wine but life itself. Communion IS life! It is by definition the opposite of separation, which is, by definition, Death. 

 

So if if this is so important, can a Christian still be a Christian and not participate in the life of the Church or in Communion? To answer that, let's think about the nature of family life.

During my teen years, I lived near St. Paul Minnesota – 1,000 miles away from my extended family here in WV. My dad had siblings in Houston, TX, Lexington, Ky, Atlanta, GA, and Miami, Fl. I don't ever remember a Counts family reunion. My wife, on the other hand, used to go with her family almost every Sunday to Grandma's house for fried chicken dinner, and extended family gatherings were frequent. That doesn't mean that she liked or got along with every one of her relatives, but she did know them and did participate in their lives to a greater extent than I could with my extended family.

Can you be a Christian without going the Church? Yes, by God's grace, you can. But what you don't get is Participation in the LIFE of the church through regular Communion with the very Risen Christ! This is what God offers us – and what we in turn have to offer the world.

Let's go back and think about the sons and widows from our readings. Imagine yourself in the place of the mother. In a moment your sadness and loss turns into incredible astonishment and joy. Your only son, your hope for the future and your very heart has come back to you from the place where no one ever returns. It is a day like no other, a day you will never forget and never tire of telling.

Imagine yourself as the son. You pass from life into death and then into life after death - and you're just getting settled in when you suddenly awake to your family and a funeral procession! Imagine your confusion, and the look of astonishment on the faces of the people who surround you – laughing and crying all at once. Imagine what it might feel like to live out your natural life knowing that it's all 'granted time' – that you are here in this world because God took pity on your mother and gave you back to her for her comfort. And demonstrate his glory. Imagine your life as a continual demonstration of the reality of God in this world.

If you can do this, you can catch a vision for how we as Christians ought to be living out our Resurrection Life in this world – full of astonishment, hope and abandon. Let me also suggest three key things as practical aids for our daily walk through Resurrection Life: 

1)  Commune Regularly – both at church at home in private. It's a great privilege we have been given – to have intimate fellowship with the Lord God almighty – to actually become a friend of God and to realize his friendship is constant and will never leave us! Take advantage of it daily!

2)  Live Gratefully – Find ways of expressing your thanks to God by receiving the good things of this world as a vehicle to Commune with Him – and then offer these things back to him as an offering. This is the nature of being a believer/priest. 

3) Tell somebody! This is great stuff – the greatest stuff in the world. Don't keep it to yourself. Tell your story and invite others to come to church with you to experience this Communion, this Resurrection Life we offer in Jesus' name.

Three simple things. May God grant us the Grace, the Power and the Love to do them. AMEN.