Lawyers are always getting a
bad rap. Lawyer jokes abound and they are usually not complimentary.
I am told that lawyers are taught not to ask questions where
they get unexpected answers. If that happens they might lose
control of the situation.
The lawyer in our story today asks an important question, "What
must I do to receive eternal life?" He knew the Law so when
Jesus responded by directing him to answer his own question the
lawyer properly responded, "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."
On a few occasions when I have preached sermons suggesting
we do what is loving and right, some people have properly said
to me, "But you didn't tell us what was loving or what was
right!" Somewhat jokingly I have responded, "The nice
thing about being Presbyterian is that you get to figure that
out for yourself." Jesus doesn't give that much latitude
to us. When the lawyer pressed Him for specific information about
who really is one's neighbor Jesus told him a story that made
it very clear that our neighbor is anyone and everyone. And,
Jesus also made it clear about what is involved in loving them.
First of all we must notice them. Secondly we must have compassion
for them. Thirdly we must be willing to provide whatever is necessary
in order to meet their needs. Loving God and loving neighbor
involves giving them all that we have to help meet all of their
needs. All of us, like the lawyer, know this to be true. It is
clearly stated in both the Old and New Testaments. Jesus' answer
to the lawyer's question about eternal life is quite direct, "When
you love God and neighbor with all that you are and with all
that you have you will receive eternal life."
To do this we first must allow God and neighbor to be in our
life. We must acknowledge that they exist and that we are to
love them. The Bible says you cannot love one and not the other.
We first must recognize our neighbor. We cannot pass by on the
other side of the road; we cannot continue to not go to their
part of town or change channels when their starving figures appear
on television. We cannot continue to allow them to just be locked
away where we do not see them so that we can pretend they don't
exist.
We have come to a place where we hide behind locked doors,
behind computers and even within our SUV's only coming to drive-up
windows. We move so rapidly that we no longer take time to just
drop in to say "hello" or to sit on the porch with
someone while sharing a cup of coffee and having real conversation.
The following story illustrates the lost art of being neighborly.
A farm boy accidentally overturned a wagon full of grain. A
farmer who lived nearby came to investigate. He said to the lad, "Forget
your troubles. Come and have dinner. Then I will help you get
your wagon upright."
"That's nice," the boy
answered, "but
I don't think Dad would like me to."
"Come on," said
the farmer. The boy finally agreed but said again that his dad
would be real upset.
After dinner the boy shared that he felt much better but was
worried about his father. "Don't be silly!" said his
neighbor. "By the way, where is he?"
"Under the
wagon," said the boy. (Homiletics, July 2004, p.
26)
Often that is where our neighbors are while we are enjoying
life. They are under loads too large to manage by themselves
and they need us to notice and respond with compassion. This
word has its origins in the practice of sacrifice and described
the life-giving gift that was made on behalf of others.
According to the July 2004 issues of Synthesis,
the word is used only twelve times in Scripture. Nine of the
uses describe Jesus just before He did something to help others.
Jesus uses the word three times to describe the master who forgives
the servant's debt, the father who welcomes home the prodigal
son and the Good Samaritan.
Albert Nolan writes in Jesus Before Christianity, "Compassion
is the basis of truth. The experience of compassion is the experience
of suffering or feeling with someone. To suffer or feel with
humanity, nature and God is to be in tune with the rhythms and
impulses of life. This is also the experience of solidarity,
solidarity with humanity, nature and God. It makes a person at
one with reality and therefore true and authentic in himself.
The secret of Jesus' infallible insight and unshakable convictions
was his unfailing experience of solidarity with God, which revealed
itself as an experience of solidarity with humanity and nature.
This made him a uniquely liberated man, uniquely courageous,
fearless, independent hopeful and truthful."
What will it take for us to establish such solidarity with
those who cannot earn a living wage, with those who sleep outside
in our town or in a hopelessly overcrowded facility that was
never designed for its present purpose, with those who get out
of prison with no place to stay, no job and no group of friends
other than their prison buddies, with those who are shut-in,
with those with disabilities and with those whose faith differs
from our own? The Samaritan in Jesus' story was in enemy territory.
Whatever his reason for traveling that particular road he was
not playing it safe. When he saw someone in need he responded
to meet that need without regard for his own safety and without
concern for what time and money it would cost him.
This story comes from the July/August 2004 issue of Emphasis,
page 60. It is about a 30 year old man who lived in a boarding
home for the mentally ill. It could have been the story of any
untouchable. This man had borrowed something from a pastor and
came to the pastor's home to return it. The pastor's wife answered
the door and invited the man into the front room while she went
to find her husband.
The pastor came to the room and quickly received the returned
object. The young man turned to leave and then stopped and said
something that touched the pastor's heart. "Tell your wife
she paid me a great compliment," he said with a smile of
genuine gratitude.
"Really," said the pastor, "what did she do?"
"I've lived in this town most of my life," the man
said, "and today is the first time I have ever been invited
into someone's home."
Who is our neighbor and what is involved in inviting them into
our space? What is involved in our entering their space? The
question that started all of this was, "What do I have to
do to receive eternal life?" We know the answer. As Jesus
once told a lawyer all that is left is our doing it. |
