I heard Reverend Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, preach the guest sermon yesterday at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. I was in Alabama, the church is in Kansas City, and he was speaking from his home via Zoom. Technology rocks! Sermon by Bishop Michael Curry.
Bishop Curry’s text was Luke 10:25-37. It includes a discussion between Jesus and a religious legal scholar about the way to salvation and abundant life that leads to Jesus sharing the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is such a well-known scripture passage that people both inside and outside the church are familiar with at least the general concept of the story. Grab a Bible and read the tenth chapter of Luke if you want to refresh your memory.
Jesus asks the religious expert to summarize his view of scripture and he replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27 NIV) Jesus commends him for this answer. I can’t stop thinking about verse 29. The religious guy wants to prove that he’s always right in all his attitudes and actions so he asks Jesus a loaded question, “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus asks the religious expert to summarize his view of scripture and he replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27 NIV) Jesus commends him for this answer. I can’t stop thinking about verse 29. The religious guy wants to prove that he’s always right in all his attitudes and actions so he asks Jesus a loaded question, “Who is my neighbor?”
What did he really want to know? I think he wanted a list of all the people he was required by his religion to care about and all the people he was permitted by religious law and social custom to ignore. But Jesus doesn’t give him an easy out through a simple list. He tells him a story, a story with a twist and a surprise ending. A Jewish traveler was robbed, beaten, and left bleeding on the side of the road. He needed help but none of the people most well-positioned to offer assistance gave him the time of day. Two respected churchy guys, a priest and a Levite, saw the injured man and walked right on by. It was a Samaritan who assessed the situation and stopped to offer the man extravagant care. The Samaritans and the Jews were bitter enemies who avoided all contact with one another. Yet, it was the Samaritan who bandaged the Jewish man’s wounds and carried him to an inn where he stayed with him overnight tending to his needs. When the Samaritan had to continue his journey the next morning, he left money with the innkeeper to care for the injured man until he recovered.
Here we are two thousand years later in 2020, a year filled with discord, upheaval, division, strife, religious argument, hateful rhetoric, a politicized pandemic, and a world full of hurting people. We refuse to even ask the question, “Who is my neighbor?” because we know we won’t like the story Jesus tells us.
There is a huge and complicated cast of characters in this story:
There is a huge and complicated cast of characters in this story:
- Republicans demonizing Democrats
- Democrats denouncing Republicans
- People of color brutally murdered by rogue policemen
- Mask wearers and social distancers
- Mask avoiders and party on as usual dudes
- Immigrant families separated and locked in cages at our border
- LBGTQ citizens mocked and marginalized
- Moslem American citizens labeled as the fearful enemy
- Peaceful protestors tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets
- Violent rioters burning cars and buildings
- A train wreck of lies and misleading memes on social media
- People who look, think, and act differently than me
- Me
Offering extravagant care, bandaging wounds, staying alongside the injured, contributing financially to someone else’s care, loving people different than me, caring for those outside my personal comfort zone, and valuing all my neighbors isn't easy; but it's necessary if I want to live like Jesus who said, “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV)
Asking the question, “Who is my neighbor?” is a risky proposition. I know Jesus will tell me that anyone in need is my neighbor, no exceptions. I’m not sure I want to hear that reply. I don’t know if I possess the courage to act on that answer. Learning to love all my neighbors well is not easy. But it is a good way to intentionally bloom where I am planted living a faith of hope and joy.
Asking the question, “Who is my neighbor?” is a risky proposition. I know Jesus will tell me that anyone in need is my neighbor, no exceptions. I’m not sure I want to hear that reply. I don’t know if I possess the courage to act on that answer. Learning to love all my neighbors well is not easy. But it is a good way to intentionally bloom where I am planted living a faith of hope and joy.
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