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being paid...commitments...contracts...covenants...we sophisticated 21st century Western people have outgrown those outdated words, you know.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.