Sermon Aug 1, 2010

Micah 6:6-8
6“With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Luke 10:25-37
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 28And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."
29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."




A parable, we are told, is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. You heard me tell the children that a parable is like a gift. It is something that God gives us. And, like a gift box, the story has a lid on it. It’s only when we open the lid that we can begin to see what’s inside.
In the Middle East, stories are told—long stories. It is no surprise that the stories of 1001 Arabian Nights came out of that culture. Ken Bailey, who was the son of missionaries, and grew up in the Middle East, says that rather than direct answers, which our culture favors, a Middle Easterner will tell a story. In Luke, we have many parables, many stories- Ken Bailey has written a book about these stories, about the “losts”- the lost coin, the lost, or prodigal son, the “lost” sheep- I would add this parable to his list. For the lawyer, in asking his question, is really lost, and looking for directions- directions for his life. And Jesus, good teacher that he is, answers the lawyer’s question with a question-
The man, the lawyer, was a learned man, a scholar of Scripture. And as so many learned people do, he just had to show off- just a little bit-The word used in the text for justify means “make righteous”- but wanting to righteous himself, we might translate. But he gets that wrong. We can’t “righteous” ourselves. That is the work of God. Even in Micah, when the question is asked “What does the LORD require of you?” the requirement is not what makes us righteous—it is what the kingdom of God, lived out, looks like.

In the same way, the lawyer’s premise that he begins his argument with is wrong- “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” the lawyer asks- well, you can’t do anything to inherit eternal life- or to inherit anything else, for that matter- You can’t make your Uncle Fred leave you any money, and you can’t make Grandma leave you the family silver- an inheritance is a gift- a bequest- so the lawyer is wrong from the git-go- but bless his heart, he does know the law- he quotes a passage from Deuteronomy (6:5) , and a passage from Leviticus- (19:18b)-
John Calvin talked about the 3rd use of the Law- law as a guide for grateful behavior- law as a guide for how to live a life of gratitude for all that God has done for us. This is what the Micah passage is about.

You know, when we hear this story, we immediately think “Where am I in this parable? The priest? The Levite? Would I be the Good Samaritan? That’s just human nature- we place ourselves in the story. For the Jews of Jesus’ day, it would have been shocking for the Jews to think of being in a ditch, beaten, left to die- and being rescued by a Samaritan. The Samaritans were hated, thought not to worship God rightly, thought to be a kind of half-breed, to use a derogatory term, in some ways to be colluders with the enemies of Israel- and so it would have been outrageous for a Samaritan to be the hero of the story. In fact, it was so outrageous, that the lawyer, at the end, can’t even bring himself to say the word “Samaritan” – when Jesus asks “which one of these was a neighbor…” the man can only mumble “the one who showed him mercy…”

But we need to see this story as about God. God is the one who shows mercy. God is the one who rescues us from the ditch. Just as God is described in the other “lost” stories (God searches for us as diligently as a woman searches for a lost coin, God will go after the lost, just as a shepherd will search for a lost lamb,) This story tells us what God is like- God is the one who rescues us, and binds up our wounds, it is God in Jesus Christ who pays for us- it is God who shows us mercy when no one else will….
God is like the Samaritan

This really hit home for me when I was sitting next to a dying man. He was 30 yrs old, in end stage kidney disease. I didn’t know him very well, having only met him during the last stages of his disease, when he was almost speechless- so lethargic that speech was difficult for him- so we spoke only a little. I knew that he had not gone to church as a child, that his friends, who were all church goers, tried to get him to come with them, with little success.
And, at a loss for words, sitting at his bedside, I began to tell him the story of the Good Samaritan-in much the way I might tell a bedtime story to a child…. this man had, essentially, been left in the road to die. His family had abandoned him because he was HIV positive. The medical group had walked past him, because they couldn’t offer him anything, the chaplain assigned to his floor was very uncomfortable with him, and the church certainly hadn’t visited him. So, I was the chaplain who got him- and, at a loss, not knowing what to say, I began to tell him this story. And that’s when I got it- God is the good Samaritan- God is the one who picks us up, and takes us to a safe place, who binds up our wounds- The prophet Jeremiah asks: is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? (Jer 8:22) Well, yes, there is- God in Jesus Christ rescues and heals us- and others, who are rejected --
and as hard as it might be for us to hear it, God does this out of great mercy, not out of anything we do. We cannot earn it- it is a free gift- an inheritance of grace-

Listen again to the end of the story-Jesus asks the lawyer-

36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
Go and do likewise. Now I’d like us to look for a moment at the behavior of the Samaritan- he bandaged the man’s wounds, and put him on his donkey, and took him to an inn. The Samaritan paid 2 days wages- that’s what 2 denarii was worth. The Samaritan did small things- bandaged him, put oil and wine on his wounds, paid for his hotel stay—but at great risk to himself. Ken Bailey, to help us understand this, tells the story this way: what if, in the Wild West, a Native American were to bring into town a cowboy draped over his horse, a cowboy, with 2 arrows, sticking out of his back. And what if the Native American were to bring him to a hotel, and spend money, and take care of him. What would the townspeople have thought? Amy-Jill Levine asks “who is there, if you were lying in a ditch, what group is there that you would rather die than be rescued by?” That is how shocking this story is—that is how risky the Samaritans actions are.

The Samaritan did small things- at great risk, with great love--
You know, there’s a culture in American, of BIG- we need to do big things. And this is true even for churches- we read about BIG churches, we hear about BIG mega-churches, maybe we see them on tv- what can we do, we might ask ourselves? What can we accomplish? We’re a little church- we’re just one church, I’m just one person-

In his book Messy Spirituality. Michael Yaconelli relates this story:
During WW II, a British Air force bomber plane was flying back to England after a night’s duty. While in flight, they received 5 bullets from a German plane in the fuselage of the bomber. The crew braced for the explosion, but nothing happened. They could see the fuel pouring out of the bullet holes, but there was no explosion. Miraculously, they were able to make it back to England and land safely at their home base.
A few hours after they landed, the mechanic came and found the crew. He had found the 5 bullets inside the fuel tanks, crumpled but not exploded. He handed them to the pilot. The pilot carefully opened them, and found, not gunpowder, but a tightly wrapped piece of paper. When he unfolded it, he found a note which read: “We are Polish POW. We are forced to make bullets in the factory. When the guards are not looking, we do not fill with powder. Is not much, but best we can do. Please tell our families we are alive. And it was signed by 4 Polish prisoners of war. “

Michael Yaconelli goes on to write: “The power of goodness is found in the tiny. Since the beginning, God has chosen the small over the large…David over Goliath, Elijah over the prophets of Baal, one sheep over the ninety nine.”

Go and do likewise. Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God. That’s what the kingdom of God looks like.
In a few minutes, we will be fed at the Table. We will be fed with what might seem like small things- a small portion of bread, a little cup of juice—but they are the gifts of God offered out of the compassion of God. We are called to do likewise along our journey. To do small things, risky things, with great love. Amen.