SCRIPTURE: Luke 10:25-37
TEXT: 37b“The one who showed him mercy.” THEME: Being people of mercy INTRODUCTION You got to love it, when we read in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ ministry in Samaria has been to extend the message of the Peace of God to these distant cousins of the faith. The Samaritans are more Jewish than they are Gentiles, but when they refuse Jesus and the disciple’s hospitality, James and John want to call down fire upon them, like the prophet Elijah, but Jesus says ‘No’. We don’t do that to our relatives, and we don’t want to destroy the people we are trying to draw into the love of God. That is not the kind of peace God is trying to establish with the coming of the Kingdom of God. With the Samaritan travels fresh on their minds, it seems that when Jesus makes it back in the Judean countryside and a Lawyer stands up to test him with a question about eternal life, Jesus uses a parable which includes a Samaritan as the hero. SCRIPTURE It seems that this Lawyer wants to show how smart he is, so when Jesus answers the question with a question about the Law. He quickly responds with quotes from Deuteronomy and Leviticus. Kudos to him. The way to eternal life is connected to the Law. The Law is about relationships. Living these relationships with everyone, is the description of the peace of God. Which means there are no limits to this attitude, this living, these relationships. But not being able to leave it at that, he also asks Jesus the legal question, “Who is my neighbor?” “What are the boundaries?” “When is enough enough?” Jesus then launches into this brilliant story that strikes at all of our heart strings. We all have been in that situation when there was someone who needed help, and we think, should I help? Should I launch into action? Do I want to get involved? Is it safe? Isn’t anybody going to do something about this? Am I the only one who sees this? Or maybe even the other way, remembering when we were traveling struggling with our hand carries, or car that broke down, or credit card that was declined because of expenses out of the ordinary. Is there anyone one who will come to our rescue to help us? Jesus’ answer takes us to another plane. Outside of the legal limits of the Law and into the arena of mercy. The need and demand upon us has been so great, we have become callused and learned to ignore, look away, and avoid eyes contact. We are vulnerable to being taken advantage of. We don’t have the time to be involved, we have limited resources. We think what could I possibly do to help? The message of the Peace of God is announced through the incarnation, Jesus is ministering to our wounded, hungry, thirsty, possessed and fearful. The Peace of God is not limited to our family, ancestors, race or creed. The Peace of God goes out to our neighbors through mercy. The peace of God is tied up with mercy; not giving up on the living even at death, coming near to us, seeing us, moving with caring, transgressing the boundaries of fear, bandaging wounds, healing oil and wine, giving up comfort, providing shelter, using our money, spending our time, expending effort and energy. Helping those who have no way of paying us back. And realizing that our involvement also has a future consequence. And all for what? Eternal Life? No as a result of our relationship with God and our love for others. This is eternal life. APPLICATION If Eternal Life is being in Relationship with God. God’s love brings about peace with God, peace with ourselves and peace with others. Peace is not being at rest…Peace takes constant work, energy, imagination, listening, revelation, reconciliation, Peace is in constant motion trying to keep all thing in balance. When we are successful it is like a flawless gymnast on the beam. But when we are not in balanced we look like the flaying actions of a gymnast about to fall. The Peace of God includes mercy. In January a local boy, who left Maui during the second world war, passed way but wanted to be buried on Maui. The family was looking for a UCC minister to conduct an interment service at Maui Memorial Cemetery and a hall for a small reception afterwards. They made arrangements with us and our Dodge Hall. This was a way our church helped this family pay their respect and honor the wishes of their loved one. These strangers were distant cousins in a time of need. Wailuku Union Church was able to assist them. They loved Dodge Hall and asked about the Church. They bought four cookbooks. They said their church back home was small, with a few members and asked how we were doing. I shared about our Wailuku Mission Housing project, and they were impressed that we were thinking about other ways of using the resources we had to care for our neighbors. We both recognized that depending only on member contributions is not a sustainable model for the future. They were appreciative and overwhelmed at our hospitality and welcome to their family at being able to use our hall. This was an act of mercy extended to this grieving family. This family was great. Really nice people, Kama’ainas from far away. Neighbors. I even got to share the theological theories of original blessings and Marcus Borg’s concept of Beloving over believing in one of my conversations with them. They shared with me a business model of working at home in having our data stored on the cloud so we can have shared access to it at work and from home. Our church, with our facilities, willingness to share, personnel including Jaime, ministered to them in their grief and grew a bond in Christ, faith and mercy.
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May 2024
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