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“Love in the Spirit!”
Amos 7:7-17; Psalms 82 and 25; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time -
Small Church Sunday
July 15, 2007
Prayer: O God, fill us
with your Holy Spirit, that we might better understand your Word for us, and
find ways to accomplish what love you have poured into us for others. In
Your Son’s Name we pray. AMEN.
Here we are, you and I, as
Christians celebrating our new life in Christ and our unity in the Spirit during
these post-Pentecost days since late May. We are rejoicing in our liberation
from the powers of the universe we live in, being sent out with the hope of the
‘gospel’, the good news of Jesus Christ, characterizing our religion, our faith.
We trust that God’s grace and love will lead us to the Kingdom of God and
eternal life, and BAMB!! We hear from Pope Benedict XVI on his vacation recently
(issued Tuesday) of the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church; Catholicism
provides the only true path to salvation, and that we Protestants are
either ‘not true churches or are defective!’ (WSJ,
Nicole Winfield, “Pope: Protestants are going to hell”, Wednesday, July 11th,
2007, A3, p.3). He, the Pope, had
just followed with this document after reviving the use of the Latin language
for Catholic Mass.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I
wondered of his intent; with verbal issuance by the Pope, perhaps they were
trying to defend their supremacy in the religious world once again. Perhaps they
were not quite ‘with it’ in today’s world of secularization and pluralism of
belief and thought and practice in our Western world; I even thought ‘liberal’
interpretation of anything might be tough for the Pope! But then I took a deep
breath, recoiled and read our texts for today again and again for our
understanding and fulfillment; I relaxed and calmed myself. For these lectionary
texts do summarize the law of the great commandment, loving God, and loving
neighbor; the story of the Good Samaritan, one of the best-known love parables
of this chapter in Luke, and Paul’s thankful message to the Colossians, who were
fighting off other religious cults of their times. Paul, through his colleague
and church founder, Epaphras, was thanking them for their faith and the fullness
of God in their new life in Christ. These texts are chocked full of themes, not
necessarily religious beliefs, but about the truth made known to them/us of
Christ’ love in the Spirit, of our love to others in the Spirit of Christ.
It seems pretty simple, doesn’t
it? As those in Colossae, and we, love God, love neighbor, and are compassionate
in showing mercy to our neighbor, we’ll attain eternal life? But, as we know,
there is much more to this story; I found in this love story an outpouring of
the power of the Holy Spirit in Luke and at least four themes or happenings:
contrast, compassion, creativity, and connectedness. Jesus really shuffled our
minds here, it seems, with the truest sense of meaning in the Spirit of ‘eternal
life’ and in the love of the Spirit for our ‘neighbor.’ Jesus is finding out
what his people know of the law of the greatest commandment, AND then what they
can do to practice the love of the commandment found in the law. Jesus says it
is knowing and in practicing the love of God for neighbor that we
likewise find eternal life.
First, in contrast, yes, the
gospels of Matthew and Mark have this similar story, in theory, as their
questions are, “Teacher, which in the law, is the greatest commandment?”
Remember, these? (Matthew 22:34-40, Mark
12:28-34). Indirectly, in Luke Jesus is asking the lawyer, that teacher
of Mosaic law, what it means by contrasting his own religious beliefs with his
actions of love; his beliefs of the law and his activity of loving his neighbor.
The lawyer answers Jesus question correctly; he tells Jesus the one who showed
mercy was the neighbor. The other characters, the priest and the Levite, walked
away, perhaps concentrating on the ‘Shema’ of the O.T.
(Deut. 6:4, Lev. 19:18), recited daily; the great commandment is
a ‘mantra’ for many today. It is a reminder for me to ‘stay on course’ in
helping my neighbor, but also, not to be so hard on myself that I can’t love
myself and my neighbor! They are probably contrasting their thinking about what
to do about the man along the road too. We know that in Jewish law, these ‘law’
leaders were not to touch those described in our text as ‘half-dead’, or anyone
bleeding visibly, for fear of becoming unclean
(Lev. 21-1-4). Finally, in contrast to a third Jewish Israelite coming
by, Jesus contrasts our thinking and upsets the apple cart by including a
Samaritan, that non-Jew who had the audacity to stop and put his love into
action with his caring for the man alongside the road.
Second, in compassion, the
Samaritan was probably the least likely to show any kind of sorrow or help, so
we would think; but we also remember that Luke, the physician, was compassionate
and sympathetic to the Samaritans, as they were held in contempt by the Jews,
and he included them as examples in Jesus’ teaching to his followers,
(those in the village refusing to receive Him,
9:51-56, and in Acts 8:1-25).
In June a friend of some of you,
Seagar Ithaca Degen, 17, whose father teaches here at Cambridge high school,
wrote a very meaningful ‘sermon’ telling about his mission experiences
(“ Peace, Love and God ” June 3, 2007, at Bethany
United Methodist Church, Madison, WI ) on this text. He said, “Humans, by
nature are not capable of this perfect love, only God and Jesus are.” Seagar
also commented in his recapping of the Good Samaritan story that “Jews and
Samaritans...they defined hate.” In this story the neighbor is the Samaritan,
isn’t he? There was no limit to his care and concern, anytime, any place. We can
ask, isn’t this perhaps Jesus intent when he asks us to have pity, to offer the
other cheek to our enemies? Jesus said, “....Love your enemies, do good to those
who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you
(6:27-28).”
What Seagar so eloquently stated was, “What we can do is strive
for this perfect love as Jesus told us to.” He advises us to go out and ‘spread
this love’ to all. For me, I love my Roman Catholic relatives and friends and
will never stop loving them!
Third, the creativity of the
Samaritan is perhaps in his courage to stop, his challenge of what to do and how
at the time, and his combination of bandaging with oil and wine on the man’s
wounds. He took the extra mile in creativity in placing him on the animal, going
to the innkeeper and expressing his continuity in care for wanting to ‘repay you
whatever more you spend.’ It is important for us to remember too, that Jesus’
intent is for us to know of the actions of the Samaritan; he is showing
his creative love in the Spirit by his actions. This inspiration comes from the
inside of us knowing of God’s love for us, and our actions, as creative as they
sometimes are, in coming forth from our faithfulness to God in knowing what to
do.
And last, the connectedness of the
characters in the story are Jesus’ intension for us to realize our connectedness
in relationship to God with us in order to become active in the Spirit as Christ
in us. Who can you relate to in the story of the Good Samaritan; the
lawyer, the priest, the Levite, the Samaritan? We can probably relate to the
connectedness of our neighbor, one to another, but can we relate to what action
to take part in for/with our neighbor? We can’t help but try intentionally to
understand the great commandment in its context here. The power of the Spirit in
the law of the Ten Commandments are three in our love for God, and seven for our
love of neighbor, aren’t they? You see, there is a connectedness, an inner
communion with God that we have, and then, in practice, an outer initiative for
action that comes to the forefront in us in loving our neighbor–even if we don’t
think we can. God leads us in doing sometimes the un-do-able.
The good news for us is that in
thinking and in doing, there is that Good Samaritan love that Jesus’
advises in our actions. We are following through with our care and concern for
others. Whatever it costs, we are not only ‘working’ through our faith in
thinking what God asks us to do, we are ‘doing’ likewise by acting through God
for and with others. The lawyer has argued his point of thought in asking the
question, “what must I do to inherit eternal life.?”, and Jesus has argued His
point of action in asking the question, “Which of the three was a neighbor?” and
the lawyer responded well. His thought complete, we aren’t told what happens to
him. Our thought complete, what will our action be? This is a love story, a
story of love in the Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ in us in loving
God and our neighbor. Like the Samaritan, let us ‘go and do likewise.’
Thanks be to God. AMEN.
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