Community Church Sermons

Year C

July 14, 2013

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

There Goes the Neighborhood

Luke 10:25-37

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

A friend of mine likes to say the Bible is “The Answer Book.” Capital “T”, capital “A”, and capital “B.” The Answer Book.

He obviously has never really read the Bible!

For me, the Bible is far richer when you discover it as The Question Book – capital “T”, capital “Q”, capital “B.” Drop by my Bible class on any given Sunday and this is what you’ll hear from the students: “Do you think the world was really created in just six days?” – “Was there really a talking snake in the Garden of Eden?” – “When Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden and their sons got married, where did the girlfriends come from?” – “If Noah brought two of every animal onto the ark, how did it stay afloat if there were woodpeckers?” No one has ever actually asked that question, but I thought I’d just throw it out to you!

“Is it really an abomination to God if I order shellfish at Red Lobster?” – “Should parents really drag their rebellious children out to the gates of the city to be stoned to death by the elders?” – “Why are there so many contradictions in the Bible?” – “Why does God allow innocent people to suffer?”

Any group of people that comes together to seriously read and study the Bible will soon find themselves immersed in questions. It’s only natural! And depending on who leads the study you’ll either be told to shut up and not ask questions, or be taught that to question is to doubt and to doubt is to fail the test of faithfulness, or be given a man-made-up answer that is completely contrived…or… you’ll be encouraged to ENGAGE and EXPLORE the question.

Notice, if you will, how Jesus handles this very issue in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Here is a story in which an “expert” in the Jewish law – someone who knows everything about everything scripturally, right down to the chapter and verse – asks Jesus a QUESTION! Now this is not one of those questions you ask to spark a true discussion and dialogue. No, this “expert” in the law knows the ANSWER already. He poses the QUESTION to test Jesus – to catch him in an act of unfaithfulness.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Great question!

And Jesus answers the question in a remarkable way. Did you notice?

He answers the question by asking another question!

I don’t know if you noticed it or not, but in the 12 short verses of this story, there are no less than 4 questions that will be asked!

Because, you see, the parables of Jesus – like the Bible itself – are intended to make us ask questions and go deeper than we would if we think we have all the answers already.

So Jesus asks the “expert,” “What is written in the law?”

The “expert” answers, “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 see, this command is the very heart and soul of the Jewish faith, a summary of all the commandments.

Jesus says, “Right you are! Do this and you will live!”

But here comes the third question. The “expert” asks, “But who is my neighbor?”

That’s a great question. Because, you see, all of us place limits around our neighborhoods. Some people are “in” and some people are “out.” I was reading an article this week about Chane Street in Detroit. Once upon a time, they say, Chane Street generated more retail dollars per square foot than any other street in America except for Park Avenue in New York. It was THE place to be and do business. But now it is the place no one wants to go to. Since 1980 the population of the neighborhood has declined from almost 3,000 – mostly Polish immigrants - to just over 600 people – many of them homeless - and a third of the houses are vacant. Even those who once lived on Chane Street avoid going to that neighborhood now.

We all have neighborhoods – and neighbors – that don’t meet our standards for acceptance and safety and friendship. So this question, “Who is my neighbor?” is very revealing. It exposes our human need to divide people, and to limit God’s command to love our neighbors to just those neighbors we like – just those neighbors we get along with – just those neighbors we feel are deserving of our love. “Who IS my neighbor?”

And Jesus responds to the question not by giving an answer, but by telling a story – one of the most famous Bible stories of all – the story of the Good Samaritan. A man is on a journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. He is attacked by thugs who rob him blind and leave him half dead along the side of the road. A priest who happens to be traveling along that same road sees the man. He crosses over to the other side and goes on his way. Why? We are not told, but we all can understand how sometimes you get scared and just don’t want to get involved in other peoples’ junk.

A Levite was also traveling the Jericho Road that day. Like the priest before him, when he sees the bloodied man, the Levite crosses over to the other side and walks on by.

But then comes a Samaritan.

This is one of the things I love about Jesus. Sometimes simply by introducing certain characters into his stories he provokes more questions.

A Samaritan?

Samaritans were the people everybody else hated! They were despised by the Jewish people who considered them half-breeds, the men having married non-Jewish women during the time of the exile. And these Samaritans claimed to be the true Jews, worshiping in the true temple atop Mt. Gerizim – not in Jerusalem at the temple on Mt. Zion that every Jew knew was the one true Temple.

Think of a person, or a group of people you don’t want anything to do with for whatever reason. Think about those people and groups we Americans don’t like. Well, that’s how it was for Jewish people with these SAMARITANS.

A Samaritan?

Well, as Jesus tells it, the Samaritan stops. He tends to the man’s wounds, and puts some clothes on him, then hoists him up onto his own donkey and brings him to the ER at Fort Loudon Medical Center. He gives the triage nurse some money to pay for the man’s care and promises that if the insurance company denies coverage he’ll come back and pay the balance.

And that’s it. End of story. Then Jesus asks the last of the four questions. And I want you to notice what a brilliant question it is.

The question the “expert” had asked was, “Who is my neighbor?”

But Jesus twists the question around. Here’s what he says: “Which of these three do YOU THINK was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

Questions bring us to places we might not otherwise go. And the question we often miss in this parable is not, “Who is my neighbor?” but “What does it mean for ME TO BE A NEIGHBOR?”

I grew up in a great neighborhood. It was a development of little Cape Cod style houses built for servicemen returning from World War II. There were tons of kids in our neighborhood, including myself and my best friend Dennis Astrella. Dennis and I pushed the limits our parents put around us – we loved blowing things up - with M-80 firecrackers when you could still get them. We once spent a month building a model of an aircraft carrier. When it was done, it was beautiful, with all sorts of amazing detail. Then we blew it up. It was AWESOME!

Dennis and I lived a life of adventure. We did things we knew our parents would not let us do.

But do you know what?

Our parents always found out!

Dennis and I would come home after being up in our tree house smoking cigarettes. No sooner than I came through the door than my mother said, “Where’d you get the cigarettes?”

For a long time, I thought my mother had eyes in the back of her head.

But that’s not really what she had. Do you know what my mother had?

NEIGHBORS!

I later learned there was this huge spy network of mothers, and they were far more effective than the NSA, CIA and FBI combined. They knew EVERYTHING.

And they watched out for all us kids – not just their own – but all.

That’s what it means to be a neighbor!

You see, a neighborhood isn’t really a geographical place. A neighborhood is a living network of people who practice being neighbors to others – Jews, Gentiles, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Presbyterians – atheists, agnostics, old people, young people, adults, children.

Tomorrow night our Vacation Bible School gets underway and it’s all about people being neighbors to other peoples’ kids!

Today, over in Kenya, a schoolteacher in ill health will wrap herself up in a prayer shawl given to her by Ruth Thornton and those from our church who recently traveled there.

This week, one of our church members will be taking steps to become part of the Kairos Prison Ministry. There are incarcerated men who need a good neighbor.

Martin Luther King once wrote, “Who is my neighbor? …He is anyone toward whom you are neighborly. He is anyone who lies in need at life’s roadside. He is neither Jew nor Gentile; he is neither Russian or American; he is neither Negro or white. He is a “certain man” (as Jesus described him) on one of the numerous Jericho Roads of life.”

Dr. King goes on, “What constituted the goodness of the Good Samaritan? Why will he always be an inspiring paragon of neighborly virtue? It seems to me that this man’s goodness can be described in one word – altruism. The Good Samaritan was altruistic to the core. What is altruism? The dictionary defines altruism as ‘regard for, and devotion to, the interest of others.’ The Samaritan was good because he made concern for others the first law of his life.”

What’s the first law of YOUR life?

That’s a great question, and when you dare ask it of yourself, your old neighborhood won’t be big enough anymore.

Today’s Bible lesson started with the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Now you know the answer.