Sinner and Saint

Won't you be my neighbor?

Pentecost 8, 2010

Luke 10:25-37

“Won’t you be my neighbor?”

 

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

    “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" 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'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-29)

    All you have to do is love God and love your neighbor. Sounds easy doesn’t it? But of course you can’t do these things without faith…and even by faith we don’t love God or our neighbors as we should. Even though this “expert” of the law knew the proper answer…didn’t mean he understood it or believed it. Instead the expert tries to justify his own understanding by asking “and who is my neighbor?”

    A farmer was coming out of his field along the back roads of a remote area.  Just as he pulled out on the road, a city slicker came speeding over the hilltop and hit his rig.  The farmer is lying there pinned under his wagon...his dog not far away...and his mule across the road on the other ditch. About that time a car pulled up and the farmer thought, “Thank God, someone is going to help me.”  When he saw that it was the sheriff, he was even more relieved.  The sheriff looked over the situation at a glance.  Seeing the mule had a broken leg and suffering, he pulled out his revolver and shot it to end its misery.  He walked across the road and saw the dog was just as bad off, so he shot him to end his misery. Then he walked back over to the farmer and asked if he was in pain.  “Never felt better in my life!” the farmer said. Thankfully that’s not what took place in the story our Lord tells us in the Gospel.

    Who is my neighbor? Jesus answers this question with the story of the Good Samaritan. What you need to understand is that Samaritans were the most despised and hated people by the Jews. I’m sure you can think of people that you really don’t like. This was a hatred that would make a Cubs and Cards rivalry seem like they were best friends. These people wouldn’t lift a finger to help the other. They hated each other, wouldn’t help each other, and segregated themselves from each other.

    Jesus tells us of a man that was walking on the road and was assaulted by robbers. The man was mugged. They left this man half dead on the side of the road. A Jewish priest came by and went to the other side of the road and did not stop to help. A Levite, a member of the priestly tribe, also came by and passed on the other side. But then a Samaritan came and stopped. He helped this person even through hatred. He bandaged him, put him on his own donkey and walked, took him to a fancy hotel and cared for him.

    So who is your neighbor? Are your neighbors the people that live next door to you or down the road from you? Are they the people that live in the same town as you? Are they your friends or your family?

    Fred McFeely Rogers was born March 20, 1928 and died February 27, 2003. Many of you, as I do, remember him as Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister, “went into television because [he] hated it so, and [he] thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen." How many of you remember the lessons taught by that wonderful show Mr. Rogers neighborhood? I’m sure that Mr. Rogers could indeed tell you who was his neighbor…and the answer would have been all people he came in contact with.

    All too often we don’t treat others as our neighbors; we don’t love them as our Lord would have us love them. Instead we ignore them, treat them as outsiders, or worse treat them with contempt and hatred. We seem to act more like the teacher of the law in our text than the Good Samaritan.

    How often do we come to church like the man in our Gospel text asking how to get to heaven? How do we get more people in the church? How do we get the youth more involved? These questions are asked in many churches. Many times we have the right answer and ignore it. Other times we think we know the answer but don’t. We ask how to get to heaven even though we know it is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We ask how to get more people in church and the youth more involved but so often ignore them when we aren’t in this place.

    The harsh reality is that Christians are some of the biggest stumbling blocks for others to come to church and faith. People on the outside look at us… They look to see what we do, how we handle situations, how we lead our lives. They see us come to church praising our Lord just to go out the doors and return to “normal sinful lives.” They hear us speak about helping others and see us pass them by when they need help. They see us show love to each other in church and go home and fight or walk out when issues need to be resolved. What they need…what we need is the same love and forgiveness.

    And that is exactly what we have. We have Christ Jesus the true Good Samaritan. It was not for good people that Christ died. It was for you and me… it was for all our friends and family… it was for ALL people in this world…Jesus died for sinners, for the ungodly, for His enemies, for those hostile toward God. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1John 4:10)

    Let us not ask “who is my neighbor” but instead live out our Christian faith in the world and ask, as Mr. Rogers did, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” Share your faith. Share God’s love. Share the wonderful news of forgiveness and salvation. Share Christ with your neighbor. Amen.

 

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.

What do you boast about?

Pentecost 7, 2010

Galatians 6:1-10, 11-16

“What do you boast about?”

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

    “A Texan drove into a gas station in the hills of Tennessee. He was wearing a ten-gallon hat and fancy cowboy boots, he had diamond rings on both hands, and he was puffing a king-sized cigar. ‘Fill ‘er up!’ he yelled at the attendant as he strolled inside.

    Sitting over to one side of the room on a keg was a Tennessee farmer. ‘Live around here?’ asked the Texan. ‘Yep,’ the farmer answered, ‘that’s my place across the road.’ ‘Oh, it is?’ said the Texan condescendingly. ‘Well, tell me, how many acres have you got?” ‘Oh, about eighty acres, more or less.’ ‘Only eighty acres?’ scoffed the Texan.

‘Well, let me tell you about my place. Why, I get in my car early in the morning and start driving in a straight line, and by noon I haven’t even reached the other side! Now what about that?’ ‘Yep, I know what you mean,’ the Tennessee farmer replied. ‘I used to have a car like that myself.’”

There’s just something about pride and boasting that gets people into trouble. It’s easy to laugh at this story…and find that poor Texan in the wrong. But the dangers of boasting are brought to light in our Epistle text.

“See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand! Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh." (Galatians 6:11-13)

False brothers had gone to Galatia and proclaimed that on top of Christ you needed to be circumcised in order to be saved. Usually a scribe would record the letter for Paul…but not now. This was too important…this wasn’t just a group of people being arrogant, prideful, or boastful…this was the Gospel and Salvation on the line. Paul wrote these words with his own hands…and proclaimed the truth to the church of Galatia. These false brothers truly didn’t care about the Gospel. Instead they were afraid of persecution by the Jews but by compelling circumcision, they deleted “Christ alone” from their message and appeased the hard line Jewish persecutors.

Not only did they corrupt the Gospel…and destroy the true faith…but they boasted about doing this. “Yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh.” They enhanced their own standing in Jewish eyes as these false prophets boasted about their success in getting Gentile converts to accept circumcision. How sad; how despicable an act. They didn’t rejoice in the salvation of others…but in their own glory.

What do you boast about in your own life? Do you boast about your accomplishments…at work, at sports, in your lives? Do you boast about your possessions… your car, your home, your boat? Do you boast about your wealth or your talents? I pray that we, as a Church don’t boast about being better, more worthy, or more loved than others as the Pharisees and the false brothers in our text have. I pray that we as a Church body do not give in to the world this week at Convention by giving up the Pure Gospel…as to look more appealing to the world.

Circumcision doesn’t save. Obeying the law doesn’t save. Christ alone saves us and this is a gift from God. Paul doesn’t want to boast in his accomplishments…or how good a life he has led. Paul wants to boast in the only thing truly worth boasting about: Christ!

“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.” (Galatians 6:14-16)

Paul boasts in the saving work of Christ dying on the cross. Paul does not worry about enduring persecution in the flesh but knows that the Gospel must be proclaimed regardless. Paul says 'I curse all the righteousness, the doctrine, and the works of the world as the venom of the devil. The world, in turn, curses my doctrine and my deeds and judges me to be a dangerous man, a heretic, a seditionist.

Paul is neither condemning nor advising either circumcision or its lack. He is saying that justification before God and sanctification before men is based on neither circumcision nor its lack. Anything that stands in the way of the Gospel is dangerous.

Laws, both divine and human, are good and necessary but do not produce a new creature, a new creation, a new birth, a new life. The Christian is still the same person after conversion but there has been a change in relationship to God, man, and self. A new creation is a work of the Holy Spirit, who implants a new intellect and will and confers the power to curb the flesh and to flee the righteousness and wisdom of the world. This is not a sham or merely a new outward appearance, but something really happens. A new attitude and a new judgment, namely, a spiritual one, actually come into being, and they now detest what they once admired.

My brothers and sisters in Christ…You…are a new creation. In Baptism God found you dead and raised you to new life in the holy Waters of Baptism. Your sins were washed away and you were given His Holy Spirit. By faith you may overcome all that this world throws at you. Of all of this you may be assured…for Christ died on the cross and was raised again.

As we so beautifully proclaimed in the sermon hymn: “In the Cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time. All the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime. When the woes of life o’er-take me, hopes deceive, and fears annoy, never shall the Cross forsake me; Lo, it glows with peace and joy. When the sun of bliss is beaming light and love upon my way, from the Cross the radiance streaming adds more luster to the day. Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, by the Cross are sanctified; peace is there that knows no measure, joys that thro’ all time abide.” In the cross of Christ I glory…for in the cross of Christ our victory has been won. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.