Rooke Chapel Congregation, Sunday August 25, 2019.
I have chosen for our theme, this semester,
“Big Questions.”
because it is in the asking of life’s biggest questions,
living in the biggest mysteries,
that I experience God most fully.
Our scripture is full of big questions,
And I hope you have some too,
And I want to hear about them.
Though you should know from the outset:
I don’t have a bunch of easy, big answers for you,
it’s I think good to be suspicious of anyone who does.
So we’ll gather this morning and this semester to sit with the questions,
and sing and pray,
and maybe from time to time, get a glimmer of an answer.
And I hope you find this place to be a home for you,
but either way, I want to get to know you,
and if we can help you connect to another community,
that’s what I’m here for too.
You may have noticed,
that two big questions were posed to Jesus in today’s text:
What must I do to inherit eternal life,
and who is my neighbor?
And he responds,
with two questions of his own, a story,
and an injunction: Go and do likewise.
Classic, right?
Couldn’t he have just told us exactly what to do?
But that’s not Jesus’ way.
And I hope it’s the asking of big questions,
that brings you to a place like Bucknell,
Wondering big wonderings is,
in essence,
our job while we are here.
And questions matter, I think,
as much as answers, in our life of faith.
It is, of course, possible to avoid big questions.
Either with our attention jumping,
like Doug the dog from the movie Up,
from one issue to the next: “Forest Fires!”
or we can fixate on the small questions:
Which courses are the easiest?
Which majors will lead to the most money?
Where are the best parties?
What’s streaming on Netflix this month?
These are small questions.
and it’s fine to ask them from time to time
we all do.
Some of them fade with time and self-assurance.
But others, at least for me, linger. (I’m talking mostly of Netflix)
But if we give them too much time,
they start to chip away,
at our time and patience for the big, life, questions.
This semester,
for our 47 -55 minutes together each Sunday
we’ll wonder about big stuff –
like justice and God, grace and vocation, suffering and redemption.
And today’s question,
from the young lawyer,
which feels more pertinent than ever:
who is my neighbor?
Anybody hearing this story for the first time today?
Sometimes I get lucky and get to share a fresh story about Jesus with someone,
But this image, at least, is burned pretty well into our collective consciousness,
The “Good Samaritan” we call it.
Even though those words aren’t to be found in the text itself.
It is, I think,
a near-perfect story.
Drama and intrigue.
Compelling characters,
an unexpected hero,
devastating life-lessons.
Searing questions
and it makes an important point.
Actually, I think it makes many important points,
depending on where we see ourselves in it.
And we have to start with the Samaritan right?
That lavish giver of hospitality,
and carer of bodies and souls.
“Go and do likewise”
means in one sense “go and be like him.”
Care for those on the margins,
the desperate and needy,
If we took the compassionate Samaritan more seriously,
the world would be a little nicer place in which to live.
Good Samaritan has come to mean good-bystanding,
baked into laws and alcohol policies,
it has become commonplace and comfortable.
But, Samaritans were outsiders in Jesus’ day.
Despised.
Like Yankees fans in Red Sox territory.
Lehigh grads. I don’t know.
I don’t think we quite have an exact equivalent.
Both Racial and Religious others,
close enough to fear and hate.
And it’s hard to imagine,
that the listeners in Jesus’ and Luke’s days would have seen him as them.
A disruptive example, to be sure.
Emblematic of the boundless nature of Jesus’ family,
and of God’s care.
But hard to identify with,
especially back in the day.
The Priest and the Levite, on the other hand,
they were readily identifiable-with
With their important duties,
their Positions of honor.
Which would have been undermined,
if they had touched blood.
If they had sullied themselves,
the would no longer be, in a sense, Priests and Levites.
Except, they had the Torah too.
Jesus wasn’t the only one telling people to tear down walls,
and care for those in need.
Micah and Amos, Jeremiah and Leviticus,
the scripture is (and was) replete with calls,
to abandon seemingly sacred duty,
in favor of caring for the outcast and seeking justice.
And I admit, I see myself in them:
the trappings of power and status,
that keep us from really seeing those in need.
Push us to drive around the “shady neighborhoods”
or cross the street to avoid panhandlers.
Or maybe only to engage with them across the soup kitchen table,
wearing hairnets and disposable plastic gloves.
maybe you can too.
There was a famous study done a number of years ago,
on Seminary students,
who were told to prepare a presentation,
and head across the street.
On the way, they met an actor playing a homeless person,
in desperate need of help.
The surveyors wanted to see what would cause someone to stop,
and what would cause someone to keep walking by.
And it turns out,
only one thing really mattered.
It wasn’t race, gender, wealth or education,
even if the student was preparing a sermon on helping,
they were only slightly more likely to stop.
But one thing made a
A six-fold difference in willingness to help a stranger in desperate need.
Can you guess what it was?
Those who were told they had a few minutes to spare,
verses those told they were in a hurry.
Ouch, right?
Hard news given the state of my google calendar. How about yours?
Perhaps “Go and do likewise” means “slow down and look around.”
And then, of course, we have
the man in the ditch.
And there are times in which he’s me,
have you been left, bruised and bloodied by the side of life’s road?
The subject of the story is, in fact,
the beaten man.
if you think about it,
the original question is “who is my neighbor”
and jesus’ question in response is “who was neighbor to the guy in the ditch?”
The Samaritan is the neighbor.
and the command
is “love your neighbor”
So perhaps “Go and do likewise” means, “accept help.”
Perhaps it means “love the people who support you.
Perhaps, “go and do likewise”
means to acknowledge all the strange people and circumstances,
that show us grace.
But for me? Today?
I’m the lawyer through and through.
I find myself wondering if he was “testing” Jesus
not in malice, but to see if this guy is for real,
to see if grace really could run that deep,
love really could be that powerful.
the lawyer knew his bible, didn’t he?
From multiple sources,
he draws together this succinct description of the life of faith:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength,
and he even adds mind in there for good measure.
And love your neighbor as yourself.
This lawyer is ready.
And I think maybe his questions are real and earnest.
Interestingly, he doesn’t seem to have any follow-up,
regarding the question of loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
I wouldn’t have minded a little more on that side of the coin.
But I’m not in charge of these sorts of things.
But maybe “who is my neighbor?”
wasn’t self-protective.
Maybe it was serious.
This was a question of his time,
as the chaos of the Roman empire abounds,
people are dying on the street.
There are insiders and outsiders and power holders.
hopelessness and helplessness.
perhaps he couldn’t help but wonder, really, deep down,
who IS my neighbor in all this mess?
And frankly, I can’t help but ask the same.
In our time of wall building,
and truth questioning.
of polarization,
in which whole groups, nations of people are called “outsider”
and told they need to go home?
Who is my neighbor?
And Jesus responds with a not-so-subtle story,
saying, “everyone.”
No matter their nation, color or creed. Their politics.
Sex, sexuality, or gender.
Especially those in need of help.
And a story which makes us ask the next logical question:
“how do we be good neighbors?”
Sometimes we need to care,
and sometimes accept care.
Sometimes we need to slow down,
and not let our status get in the way of loving people.
Sometimes, as Dr. King said,
we have to wonder why people are being beaten on the Jericho road,
and advocate for safer systems.
But always, I think,
God is with us when we’re asking the right questions.
And this one feels really right to me.
The world is hot and crowded and complicated,
and only getting more so.
Our attention is desperately sought after,
by forces both honorable and not.
And God meets us in the questions,
saying, yes it’s complicated.
yes, it’s hard sometimes.
yes, suffering is real.
But I’m here with you right in the midst and muck of it.
With a love you cannot possibly fathom.
Not because you’re smart or doing everything right.
But because Love, Grace, is who God is.
And as that seeps into our bones and lives,
and we allow space for the questions,
I think we can’t turn around,
and ask with my hero, Mr. Fred Rogers:
Won’t you be my neighbor?
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