Who Will Be Your Neighbor? – sermon on July 10, 2016
Luke 10: 25-37 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?” The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
Sermon: Who Will Be Your Neighbor? By Rev. Doreen Oughton
My brothers have a friend who considers himself a devout Catholic, and he will not be attending the memorial service we have planned for my dad. It is not in a Catholic Church you see, not in a church at all. My father was baptized into the Catholic faith, and attended church for many years, but fell away from it, questioned some of the doctrines, and just didn’t believe he could find God there. My father wasn’t even sure God could be found anywhere. My brothers’ friend, believes my father’s soul is lost, at least for now, and he wants to protect his own soul for eternal life, so will avoid these pagan rituals we have planned.
The expert in religious law from this morning’s scripture passage is also concerned about eternal life for his own soul, as are so many other people of faith, all faiths. What must we do to earn a spot in heaven? Learn the religious laws, like the expert did? Follow the laws, observe the rituals, fast, meditate, give money, avoid contact with lost souls, with the unclean, with bad influences? Jesus turns the question back to him – “what does the law say?” And the man knows the law, sums it up perfectly for Jesus, the same law Jesus gives as the greatest commandment – Love God with everything you’ve got, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus is pleased – “Yes, do that and you will live.”
Ah, but even this law expert understands that knowing the law and following the law, especially this law about loving the neighbor are different things. Gospel-writer Luke tells us the man wanted to justify himself, so asks just who is it that is his neighbor. What does that phrase make you think – that he wanted to justify himself?
What is eternal life? Is there a way to not have eternal life? Now some may agree that everyone gets eternal life, and the only question is, what kind of eternal life will you get. Up or down; glory or hellfire. I don’t think it is about earning the glory, but more about choosing it. I think all of us are part of one soul, which is eternal, and which is pure love, pure glory. And each of these parts, all of you good souls, have put on a cloak of mortality, have climbed into a body that will die, and will be able to have all kinds of experiences of that which is not love, not glory. I believe that every soul is, or may be, returned to the eternal love and glory once the mortal body has died. You no more have to earn your way to it than you have to earn your right to blink or to breathe when you are in your body. It is natural, inevitable. And I believe it is also true that even while we are in these bodies, we can catch a glimpse of eternity, be momentarily in the glory, in the love. And Jesus tells us how – love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
The expert in Jewish law would know the ten commandments well, as well as the other 600+ mitzvot from the Torah. He believes that his obedience of them may earn him that spot in heaven. But I appreciate the insight that they may not be commandments so much as commitments. They are not rules God has dictated so that we may earn a spot, but promises God has made that if we live in love, we will see the glory, we will be part of the glory. And we’ll know that we are there because the commitments will be fulfilled. When we are part of that eternal life of love, we will not steal or kill or lie, we will not covet, we will instead honor God, honor our parents. We will love our neighbor as ourselves. Acting with compassion, refusing to cross the street to avoid the person in need is not what we do to get to the kindom, it is what we do to see it, to be there already.
I love how the parable Jesus tells in response to the law expert’s question really makes it clear that the choice is ours to make about the neighbor. Jesus didn’t say that the beaten man really was the priest’s neighbor, or the Temple assistant’s, and that they were bad neighbors. They chose not to be neighbors, not to see a neighbor. And they are free to do that. And, this time at least, they missed out on the glory of eternal life. And the Samaritan – the supposed enemy of the Jewish people – was there, right there in eternal love. The expert seeking to justify himself also has a choice. Jesus asked him through this parable, who do YOU say that your neighbor is? Who will you have compassion for, who will you put yourself out for? Was he is looking to be pardoned or excused for having lacked compassion in the past? Did he want to make sure his mistreatment of someone wouldn’t keep him from eternal life?
Well Jesus changed everything when it comes to justification. We are not let off the hook by our own thinking, by our own determination of who is worthy of our compassion and kindness and who is not. We are let off the hook by following Jesus in the way of love. We don’t need to get caught up in what happened in the past. How do we enter into the glory now – that’s the question! It is never too late to open our hearts, to come to see more and more people as our neighbor, to respond with compassion and kindness, to put ourselves out for others. We will all enter into eternal life eventually, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to let God’s commitments be seen in your life right now? Wouldn’t you want to be part of the evidence that indeed the kindom has come and is coming? Go, and show mercy. May it be so.
