July 14, 2013 8th Sunday After Pentecost

Luke 10:25-37

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
    26 “What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
    27 He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[a]; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b]"
    28 “You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
    29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
    30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
    36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
    37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
      Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

 “Dare We Ask Both Questions?”
This text is held together by two questions.

Spiritual question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

A necessary question if we are to become who we were created to be.

Dr.  Rogness, President of Luther Seminary once wrote:

  “Man’s profoundest need is for God.  Without God, whatever other inter relations he may achieve, man will eventually be a lonely, uprooted wanderer upon the earth.  The briefest and soundest biography of a man should be, ‘He came from God; he returns to God.’  Between these two points he does not live in a vacuum, of course.  He lives with his brothers.  But the key to how he will live with his brothers is how he lives with God.”

Relational question:  “Who is my neighbor?”

Without asking this question our religion becomes a part of our lostness.  For when we say God loves us someone else is going to be better off.

There are no religious questions without human entanglement.

Franz Kafka: “The only reality is the concretely real human being, our neighbor, whom God puts in our path.”

Answer to this question cuts to the quick- gets to the issue fast.
And then it becomes difficult - for our neighbor is whomever God puts in our path and there are no guidelines as to how we are to meet their needs - just do what we can to raise life up for them.  The focus is not on who is my neighbor as much as what is required of me?

And God’s answer to that is always compassion.  As difficult as it can be, as uncertain as it can be, be are to be servants of God’s love.  Period.  The rest is not ours to worry about.

These two questions go together;  you can’t ask the one without the other.

“Love Your Neighbor As Yourself”

We can love only as we have been loved.

The command to love our neighbor as ourselves begins with the awesome truth that God first loved us and loves us still, with a love we cannot destroy no matter how bad we become.

I cannot be good enough to make God love me and I cannot be bad enough to stop God from loving me.  This is the awesome grace we live in!  We are free to love as we have been loved!

Free to open our eyes to the misery all around us - something the priest and Levite didn’t do.  We dare not pass by on the other side - we must dare to see how it is with our neighbor.

We need eye control to keep this commandment.
We also must dare become involved ourselves - not from a distance, but personally.

Our neighbor is whoever is laid at our door; whoever needs my love and attention.  To practice brotherly love we need to be "flexible, adaptable, maneuverable, and ready to improvise!"  (Dr. Thielkle)

And remember where we started.
We are doing this because we have first been loved more then we will ever be able to love.  We do what we do because we have first been loved.

We do it for Jesus as Mother Teresa reminds us!

"The work we do is only our love for Jesus in action."
"Words To Love By…"  p. 22