Homily for seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Tommy Thompson
7th Sunday after Pentecost
11 July 2010
Luke 10:25-37

“How Far Should Love Reach?”

Today we get THE question. So let’s cut the small talk and get right to business...what must I do to inherit everlasting life? That’s the question that so many of us want to ask and that’s the question that so many of us want a straight answer to...right?

What must I do to inherit everlasting life? Anyone here ever asked that question? When you ask the question, do you really want the truth? Have you ever asked the question with an open mind? Or do you ask the question so that you may have the opportunity to comfort yourself with your favorite preconceived answer.

We 21st century Western, American people want the answer to be simple...we do not want it to require much of our time, much of our lives. Please, little to no commitment...we have grown accustomed to this request. We prefer to get the bargain without the 2 year contract being signed, thank you very much! We prefer to be able to cancel the subscription at any time without any penalty being paid...commitments...contracts...covenants...we sophisticated 21st century Western people have outgrown those outdated words, you know.

This is why I must warn you. Jesus is going to address one of the deepest and most pressing questions human beings have ever asked. But I am afraid that we may not hear him. Jesus is not a 21st century spoiled rotten caucasian male. He is not one who runs away form the c words...commitments, contracts...covenants...Are we sure, really sure...that we want to join the lawyer of Luke 10 and ask this committed servant named Jesus what we must do to inherit everlasting life? Do you have an open mind? Can you retire your own age-old response at the expense of you being made uncomfortable with what Jesus has to say?

Because today the Gospel won’t settle for anything less. We must have an open mind if we truly dare to ask this question. We can comfort ourselves with our favorite and most pleasing answers all we want, but today we are given the opportunity to hear and respond to the real answer to our question. What must I do to have everlasting life?

This is the question the lawyer asks Jesus in Luke 10:25. Let us join the lawyer and ask the question in unison: “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus‘ immediate response to us is a question...he puts the ball back in our playing field. You tell me...what is written in the law? I’m pretty sure we are sophisticated enough to join the lawyer and give the appropriate response: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

I’m feeling pretty good about myself now. I have impressed the 2nd person of the Trinity...the Son of the Father...the One who all things have been handed over to...surely now i will inherit everlasting life.

But Jesus does not let us off the hook with a simple Sunday school response, does he? Instead he turns our answer into a challenge. Don’t simply say it, but do it; not only with your lips, but with your lives.

Uh oh...he did it. Here he goes expecting something of our lives...our time...our commitment...so we join the lawyer and we ask question. “yeah; okay...but how far should love reach?” What is the minimum requirement? We simply want in, Jesus...we wanna know we have everlasting life. So tell us...how far should love reach?

Isn’t that really the question the lawyer asked in response to Jesus? He wanted to know where the boundaries stopped. Certainly Jesus won’t expect us to get our hands messy in someone else's affairs. Surely Jesus understands that some people are unloveable...some people are less than human...some people are to be despised...So the lawyer asks the question and we join him.

I imagine me asking this sarcastically and maybe even defiantly: and just who is my neighbor?

In response to our attempt to justify ourselves...to put ourselves in the clear for our failure to love ... to make excuse for our exclusiveness, Jesus gives one of the most familiar parables in all of Scripture. Unfortunately when they become this familiar, usually they get twisted all out of shape. So with an open mind, let us here afresh the story Jesus shares with us in response to our desire to justify our drawing the boundary lines short of certain people groups, etc. etc.

A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him; they beat him; and the went away leaving him half dead. Now suppose a priest was going down that same road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side of the road. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side of the road.

But a Samaritan, while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He even put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and took care of him. If that’s not enough...the next day he took out two days wages, and gave it to the innkeeper and said, take care of him and when i come back, i will repay you whatever more you spend.

Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

Before we answer this question. We must realize all that is going on in this story...how it would have been heard by a first century Jewish person who was familiar with the social issues and geographical locations of the day.

Jerusalem is located at about 2,500 feet above sea level. Jericho, in the Jordan rift valley, is about 800 feet below sea level. This road that a certain man traveled upon descended nearly 3,300 feet in 17 miles. Besides being a dangerous journey due to climate and terrain, this road was also known as a very violent road, where robbers would wait for someone like this man from Jerusalem, likely a merchant, to travel down. This was because the terrain offered easy hiding for the bandits who terrorized travelers.

What is so intriguing about this story is that this Samaritan stops on the dangerous Jericho road to assist someone that he does not know in spite of the self-evident peril of doing so; he gives of his own goods and money, freely, making no arrangements for reciprocation; in order to obtain care for this stranger, he enters an inn, itself a place of potential danger; and he even enters into an open-ended monetary relationship with the innkeeper, a relationship in which the chance of extortion is high! I believe what Jesus is trying to tell us is that the great commandment to love God and neighbor is a love that makes us vulnerable, and that the only way to inherit eternal life is by living this life of vulnerability now!

Imagine how you would feel if you were in a similar situation in the most notoriously violent section of Norfolk, VA. Imagine you were just robbed and beat up and left half dead there. You’d probably be imagining that someone will be coming soon not to help you but to finish you off! And then it happens....he approaches...you breath a sigh of relief....you see someone that looks like someone you normally would associate with...but today your shoes are not quite as shiny...your shirt is covered in blood...they cannot recognize that you are wearing designer apparel because it has all been stolen. So they quickly pass you by...trying their best to get out of that section of town before the same thing happens to them.

Now, imagine a person that you normally classify as scum...one who you believe would never be described by Jesus as a neighbor. You see, Jewish and Samaritan relationships in the first century were the equivalent of the worst of racial prejudices of our own time. So imagine you see this person approaching you....he doesn’t dodge you like the white collar guy just did...your worst nightmare! In your mind, this person is the equivalent of a first century Samaritan in the eyes of many Jewish persons...who are you thinking of? Is he black, is he wearing those “gangster clothes”? Is he Islamic? Latino? Hindu? Is she poor? Is he gay? ... this person who you have always regarded as scum...less than human...a person you’d never be seen with in public...doesn’t dodge you...but then to your surprise he doesn’t finish you off either...but instead, you see tears rolling down her cheeks...she is broken out of compassion for you. He goes out of his way. She scoots over her briefcase, and makes room for you to sit in the seat of her car, knowing that you are a bloody mess...he makes sure that you get medical attention...she knows you’ve been robbed so she pays for you to stay in a motel until you are able to get things sorted out...he sees to it that you have clothes and shoes and food for days to come. Someone we never considered being our neighbor...someone we thought we didn’t have to love to inherit eternal life....someone we scratched off our list a long time ago just showed us what a neighbor truly is.

It is interesting the way Jesus turns the question around—he didn’t ask in response to the lawyer’s question, “now who is your neighbor based on this story,” but “which one acted as a neighbor?” By Jesus’ rephrasing of the question, he dismisses the idea that some are neighbors and some are not; By asking the question this way, Jesus proclaims to us that anyone and everyone is our neighbor and that such an identification opens wide the door to loving action.
The point is that I am called to be everyone’s neighbor, regardless of socio-economic status, the color of their skin, the way they wear their clothes, and yes, even the way they live their lives...even while I accept that anyone can be a neighbor to me, regardless of the walls of prejudice I have built to keep certain persons out...

Want to inherit everlasting life? Then cease trying to figure out “who is my neighbor” and live like your baptized. Live in Christ. Live in the one who humbled himself, took upon the flesh of us whose sin made us enemies. He walked the dangerous road. He was stripped and beat, but he was left completely dead. Jesus life, death and resurrection demonstrates to us that love and vulnerability go hand and hand and only vulnerable love overcomes the evil of sin and the sting of death! For Jesus has risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those who were in the tombs, bestowed life!

How far does love reach? When we look at the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we find that love has no boundaries....for the love of God has reconciled the entire universe!

Jesus really challenges us here, leaving no room for exclusion, but only room for embrace!

In the end, none of us know what the response of the lawyer actually was. All we know is that he demonstrates that he understands Jesus. Jesus gives him the imperative based on this understanding to “go and do likewise.” The lawyer has heard the good news—now the question is , Will he do it? And I believe the same question remains for us—will we do the good news or simply agree with it? Amen.

Homily for 6th Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Tommy A. Thompson

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 10:1-20

4 July 2010

“Harvesting: Hard, Dangerous, Urgent; Yet Fulfilling”

Harvest. What do you think of when you hear that word? Harvest. Do you think of a large table, spread with all your favorite foods? Of family and friends around the table with you, enjoying what God has given through the earth?

Some of us think of our gardens at home. We imagine walking outside to our tomato plant, plucking a beautiful and ripe tomato, taking it inside, washing it, slicing it and making a nice tomato sandwich.

But some of us don’t have such pleasant thoughts immediately. Some of us have known what it is like to put in the hard labor so that others might enjoy that large table spread with all their favorite foods. Some of us hear the word harvest and the image of sweat rolling off the forehead and down one’s brow comes to mind.

That is the image that comes to my mind.

I was raised in Robertson County, Tennessee, in a small town called Cross Plains, about 25 miles north of Nashville. If you lived in Robertson County and did not do at least a little bit of farming, there was something wrong with ya. As a matter of fact, that’s what made you “cool” at school. Did you have you own crop yet? In the fall, were your hands stained with tobacco oils? Did you have a nice tan from being out in the hay fields day in and day out? When we were old enough to drive, no one really cared about the sports cars...we wanted the big four wheel drives. That’s where I come from.

I remember that first summer I worked in the tobacco fields. A friend of mine had told me about the “BIG” money he was making so i thought i’d give it a whirl. Being fourteen yrs. old and hearing you can make 8.00 per hour was just about the equivalent of winning the lottery for me!

At that time I had done some farming...livestock and a little bit of hay. But boy, i had never experienced anything like this. Harvesting tobacco plants was hard work and an exact science; there was a method to it’s madness.

I don’t remember the entire science of it all...but I do remember enough.

First of all, we had to go out in the heat of summer to begin the process by bending over and chopping down each plant with a tobacco knife, and turning them upside down; The whole day our backs were bent over; we were sweating, back’s were aching, and blisters were opening...it was, in my opinion, the worst part of the job. This was hard work.

But after the cutting was over, we were far from finished. Next we had to walk back through the rows, picking up the plants that had been cut, using a tobacco stick with a spike on the end, we had to spike the plants onto the tobacco sticks. It seemed that just about every day someone was sticking the spike through their hands rather than through the plants! This was hard work and dangerous work.

When we were finished spiking the plants onto the sticks, we’d then pick up the sticks full of tobacco plants and place them on the tobacco trailer as it drove through the rows. But the job still wasn’t finished. Next we’d have to take the tobacco to the barn to house it. There were usually at least three tiers to the tobacco barn. Each tier had to be manned...We’d hand the plants up toward the top, with sweat and tobacco pieces falling into our eyes...it was hot in that barn...and it was no fun.

I remember one particular summer where we did not have enough laborers and as a result we couldn’t get the tobacco in the barn in time before it was wasted. I remember how upset my boss was even today. It was not only hard work, and dangerous work, but it carried with it a sense of urgency.

After we’d get the plants housed, we’d get a bit of a break until we had to fire cure them. This was my favorite part of harvesting tobacco...that smell...it filled the robertson county air every year just in time for football season. There is nothing like a cool friday night football game in Robertson County with the wonderful fragrance of smoked tobacco in the air.

Then came my 2nd favorite part of the process...stripping the tobacco of its leaves. After it had been fire cured, it was very messy...its juices would stain your hands and there was no cleaning it off for weeks. But this was our trophy as teenagers....we’d take those stained hands back to school showing everyone that we were big stuff.

It was only after the tobacco had been stripped that it could then be taken to the tobacco house for selling.

Harvesting tobacco was a very hard, dangerous, and time-sensitive job. Harvesting most every crop is this way. But we did it anyway. We did it because the 8.00 an hour, the reward of smells half-way through, and the trophy of stained hands made the work worthwhile.

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In Luke 10, Jesus looks at his 72 newly commissioned disciples and says “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

What comes to your mind when you hear the word harvest?

I know what came to mind when Jesus used the word with his newly commissioned group of disciples. The first century world did not have combines; they did not own tractors. They had hard work and determination. I don’t think anyone there that day would have heard the word harvest and immediately thought, “air conditioning, friends, family, a full spread of our favorite foods before us....good times.” No, they had their own images of sweat rolling from their foreheads. Harvest was hard work; especially in the first century world.

And Jesus has announced that a plentiful harvest was ahead of them...but the laborers are few. That’s never good news. You don’t have to beg over-worked harvesters to plead with the master of the harvest for more laborers...trust me, they will beat down the doors asking for relief...for help.

If that’s not enough to make clear to these disciples that this harvest is going to be very difficult, Jesus adds, “I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” If anyone was thinking of only the results of the hard work of harvesting and not the act of harvesting itself, i think their mind is where it needs to be now. This is hard work and this is dangerous work! Lambs just don’t go out on a journey to wolf-town. That’s a death sentence!

Not only is this job arduous and dangerous, but it is time sensitive. This harvest is not like the harvest of pumpkins that we can harvest at a slower pace but more like peas...when they’re ready, you better get them or they will shrivel up in the heat. Jesus expresses the urgency of the matter: “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.” In other words, don’t go home and pack...don’t get caught up in distractions...just go and get busy...this is important work...don’t let one plant shrivel up in the heat!

Brothers and sisters, this is the harvest of the Kingdom of God. The world that God has made has been diseased by sin and the smell of death is all around. But God offered the best medicine possible to cure the disease and save the crop. He sent His only Son, Jesus, to take upon Himself our nature. He lived as one of us, stained hands and all, yet did not sin. The world of the sin-diseased and dying did not now how to respond to such a holy, loving, and righteous human being, so we rolled up our sleeves and let him have it...we threw everything we had at him...and he took it...in his great love for us he took it...understanding the nature of our disease even while we spat in His face, and having compassion for us, he died for us, spiked hands and all. But the power of His love was more powerful than the sting of our disease! On the third day Jesus sprung forth from the tomb! Love has overcome sin and death and a new era has been ushered into existence...the new creation.

This is what we are harvesting brothers and sisters: new creation!

Too many of us have been sitting on the sidelines. We enjoy only the table that is spread before us...but we don’t realize the hard work that went into making that table possible. We see the newly baptized coming forth from the font and we celebrate. We watch new faces line up in procession to the meet the Lord at His table in Holy Communion. We experience goodness of Christian fellowship...and some of us have put on a few pounds to demonstrate it...but we do it all from the sidelines.

Those of us who see the fruit but are not part of the labor don’t comprehend why Jesus would ask us to pray for more laborers to be added to the ACTIVITY of harvesting. But those of us here today who have rolled up our sleeves for Jesus don’t need to be told twice! We who go out into to a world stained by death and sin know how arduous, difficult and urgent the work is...Yet we still do the work. Like me and my teenage friends, we are convinced that the fruit of our labor is well worth putting our lives on the line for the harvest! We have been told that we are being sent as Lambs into the midst of wolves...but we go anyway! Why? Because we have faith that the Lamb of God who overcame the wolves goes before us...Because we have experienced a foretaste of the kingdom of God where the slaughtered Lamb is the powerful Lion of Judah whose reign knows no end. Disciples are willing to be lambs sent out into the midst of wolves because we have received a foretaste of the fullness of God's kingdom where wolves and lambs experience transformation and learn to lie down together.

Workers in the harvest of new creation, will you join me in begging the master of the harvest to persuade more workers to roll up their sleeves in the world alongside of us that we might harvest the new creation in our community and beyond? Will you testify to them, sharing stories of how God’s grace has overcome in the fields so that they might have the courage to trust in that same grace?

Brothers and sisters, the harvest is here; the work is hard; the work is dangerous; and the mission is urgent. Will you join in the work so that you can truly appreciate the fruit of sharing in the joy of people springing forth from the baptismal font as resurrected new creation? Will you join in the harvest of God’s kingdom so that you can bask in the glory of watching a new disciple share in the foretaste of our future at God’s holy table? Will you join in the the harvest of God’s kingdom to watch God’s grace heal broken relationship, mend broken hearts and restore human lives?

The seventy-two returned with joy, astounded at the power of grace. It is grace that calls us, it is grace that leads us, and grace is the power by which the harvest is made reality. By God’s grace, I look forward to more and more of God’s people here at Grace church, returning to report back of the astounding nature of saving grace.

The report back of the seventy-two is a great big “It was worth every bit of it” sign. Brothers and sisters, believe me when I say, nothing you do for the kingdom of God will be wasted and its fruit immediate and future is worth every drop of sweat and blood that goes into it.

Lord of the Harvest, send more laborers into the fields so that Parksley and beyond might know the abundance of the new creation opened through your Son.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever! Amen.