Luke 10:25-42
25A 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.”
38Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village,
where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39She had a sister named
Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40But Martha was distracted
by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my
sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” 41But the Lord answered
her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42there is need of only one
thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
This
is the word of the Lord ….thanks be to
God
We
start this mornings’ gospel lesson with
a parable- a story about earthly things that has heavenly meaning, as some
describe it . It is followed by the
story of Jesus as a guest in the house of Martha. We often hear or read these two stories separately-
but it is enlightening to hear them together, to let them speak to and inform
each other.
A lawyer- not a lawyer as we know it , but a
scribe, a biblical scholar, stands up to test Jesus. The son of God. About the
bible. And Mary, cooking and preparing
for the big crowd of freeloaders that hangs out with Jesus, also comes, out of
the kitchen, to test Jesus.
Both
of them- the lawyer and Martha- want something more from Jesus. Want him to clarify and enforce the
rules. THE RULES, Jesus. We just want some clear, definitive ruling
here- what must I do to get eternal life, which sister is doing the most important
work. Both want to justify themselves-the scribe, with his learning and
behavior, and Martha, wanting acknowledgement for and help in her work.
And
neither one gets the answer they were hoping for.
For
in the kingdom of God, the old rules don’t apply. Remember, back even before Jesus was born, and his mother
sang that song about the poor being made full, and the powerful being knocked
off their thrones, remember, that first sermon Jesus preached about how God’s love is not restricted to a
certain tribe or race….remember?
This Ash Wednesday reading was about Jesus setting
his face toward Jerusalem, to go to the cross and death and the future God had
prepared for him. And he told those who
wanted to follow him that the things that got in the way of being in the
Kingdom of God were….useless. Not
priorities. The things that society, and
culture, and propriety told them were right and important are wrong and
useless. Burying the dead, saying
goodbye to your family, patriotism, taking care of business…all beside the
point.
As
Presbyterians, we have in our communal memory and tradition the Westminster
Catechism. Written in the 1640s, it is
in question and answer form. And the
first question it asks is this: “What is
the chief end of humanity?” That is,
what is our purpose? What are we made
for? Why do we exist, what is the
highest form of our being?
What
is the chief end of humanity? And the
answer is this: “To love God and enjoy
God forever”.
The
elders recently watched a series of short videos, part of a lecture, given by
Rodger Nishioka, a professor of Christian Education, and a ruling elder in the
PC(USA). His area is primarily youth and
young adults . And he says that youth
and young adults—but he says it applies to all of us as well—want 2 things-
purpose, and community. Purpose- what am
I here for? And community- Where do I
belong?
The
scribe in the gospel story is forced to deal with community—who IS my
neighbor? Not only that, but who is
neighbor to me. Because we need to think
of ourselves not as the Good Samaritan—of course, we were brought up to help, we
were boy scouts or girl scouts, but when we come to this story, we need to ask
the question as if we were the one lying in the ditch—if I were half dead, if I
were naked and beaten and thrown out to the side of the road, who would I rather die than be rescued
by?
At
the end of the parable, the scribe, the lawyer, the expert in biblical law
cannot even bring himself to say the word “Samaritan”. He mumbles out…”the one who showed him
mercy.” “Go and do likewise” Jesus tells the expert. Go and do likewise- break out of your tribe,
be involved, even at your own cost and own risk, do mercy to others who are not
like you, and more importantly, receive mercy from others who are not like
you. Experience what it is to be needy,
to receive instead of always being the giver.
Martha
wants Mary to do likewise—at least likewise like her, in the kitchen, cooking
and scrubbing pots and pans and waiting tables.
What is Martha’s purpose? It is
to serve—to serve the guests in the
household, it is to show hospitality. Hospitality
is lifted up, celebrated in the gospel of Luke- there are lots of stories about
banquets- in fact, Jesus gets called a glutton and a party hound for eating and
drinking so much. Martha feels like Mary needs to be part of this hospitality
thing, too, but on the serving side, not the sitting at Jesus feet side. Mary has got the “enjoy God forever” part
down. It must have seemed like forever
to Martha, anyway, slaving alone in the kitchen.
So
when Martha tried to justify herself, she also gets a surprise—Jesus doesn’t
reprimand Mary, but says instead “she has chosen the better portion”. Mary has chosen to not follow the laws of
hospitality, which are deeply ingrained in Middle Eastern culture, but instead
chooses to listen to Jesus. Last week we
heard the Transfiguration story, about the voice that came out of the cloud,
and said “This is my Son. Listen to
him.” Well, Mary certainly got that
message, even if she wasn’t there on the mountaintop. So. Go and do likewise. Sit still and listen.
The
rules Jesus. We want the rules- which is
it? Go and do? Sit and listen? Love God or love neighbor? just tell us, and
we will follow your rule.
That’s
the problem with discernment. That’s the
problem with the life of faith. While we
would like big flashing road signs, or neon lights, or big arrows telling us
which way to go, we know that reality is less definitive, less clear.
But
that doesn’t mean it is not possible. It
does mean that the goo d news is always good, but also often hard. Because in a world—and a gospel—in which the
whole world is turned upside down, we often don’t know what to do or who to
listen to. In the kingdom of God, love
of God and love of neighbor are not so easily sorted out. They are so
intertwined that they are not easily divided into two piles, two choices, two
worlds. So I ask us again- what is our purpose?
What are we created for? Who is
our community?
In
each of these stories, the boundaries are stretched and the priorities are
upended. Because the kingdom of God has come near in Jesus Christ.
Rodger
Nishioka, mentioned earlier, tells another story. A story about the time he and some youth were
in New York City, and some of the youth wanted to go shopping at Bloomingdales,
and some did not, so the shoppers got half an hour, while the non-shoppers
waited outside and people watched. And
as they are watching and waiting, they see, on the other side of Lexington Ave,
5 lanes of traffic and a stream of yellow cabs, a little old woman, with her
walker, attempting to cross the street.
And Rodger and the youth are just watching, almost horrified, because
this woman is not moving quickly, and there’s no way, they think, that she’ll
be able to get across 5 lanes of traffic.
And this is New York City. Those taxi cabs are not going to patiently
wait for her to cross. Before they can
get to her, they see a city sanitation worker, also over on the other side of the
street, emptying trash cans into the truck.
And he sees what is going on. And
he is a big, big African American guy in an orange jumpsuit and fluorescent
safety vest. And he walks out into
traffic- all 5 lanes of it- and holds up his hands….and traffic stops. Even when the light changes, they stop. He
escorts her to the curcb. And the woman safely crosses the street. Well, the youth on the sidewalk just
spontaneously burst into applause and cheering.
Yay! Good for you! You rock, man! And the man, does a double-take- and points
to himself- me? And the youth are still
cheering- Yay! Yeah, good on you
man! And the man takes a little bow, and
then turns, and goes back to his truck and his life.
In
devotions that evening, one of the kids, all the way from Missoula, Montana
says “I saw God today”. And one of the
other youth says – “Where did you see God?”
“ I never would have believed it.
God is a huge, handsome black man in an orange jumpsuit and yellow
reflective vest. And God helped this woman across the street. I am going back home to Montana and telling
people that God lives in New York City”. (Rodger Nishioka, Columbia Theological Seminary, 2012)
In
this Christian life we are called—sometimes to act, sometimes to listen. But always, always, we are called to be aware
of the action of God in the world- and we are always, always to testify- to the
love of God given to us in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
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