15 July 07

15 July 07
Proper 10C
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them.
In nominee…

Success. We all want to be successful. I mean, success can come in a lot of forms, but, in general, we tend to want to do well. Today’s first two lessons speak of the word as providing means to success.
In today’s lessons Moses reminded the Jews that the Lord “would make them abundantly prosperous in all their undertakings – in their bodies, and families, and land - as he did to their ancestors – he would make them SUCCSSFUL when they followed the law and turned their hearts and soul over to the Lord.
And Moses reminded them, they knew the word of the Lord,
That it was in their hearts and in their minds already. And that as hard or annoying as following that law may seem, turning our heart and soul to God is dealwithable,
its not too hard, not in heaven, not “over there”, here, we can do it, here, and now.
The second lesson presents the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Colossians.
Paul writes that hope and prosperity are in the gospel -- that the gospel is bearing fruit for the whole world. As in Deuteronomy this lesson says that following and turning to God leads to success. In Deuteronomy Moses directs the Jews to turn to the law, their covenant with God, Paul reminds us to look towards the gospel in Christ – our new Covenant.
Today’s readings not only serve to remind us to turn fully turn our hearts and souls to the Lord, but also reassure us that although it may not seem easy, It is not too hard. That we are capable. Paul specifically reminds us that we must be patient. We must be open, that we must be filled with God’s will and spiritual understand, strong with his strength and patience.
Lofty thoughts. Sounds hard, I mean, why bother? Filled with God’s will? Strong with God’s strength, and patience, and God’s spiritual understanding? But, God’s God. Man, that sounds hard, and, and annoying.
But taking a look at today’s Gospel, Paul makes a good point. I mean, God really raised the stakes, and his expectations.
In today’s gospel a lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Just as Moses reminded the Jews that they knew the law in their hearts, Jesus confirms that the lawyer knew the “correct” answer, and the lawyer responds that you must love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.
At this point I’m sure most of us here know the story by heart – the lawyer asks “who is my neighbor” and Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan - its one of those stories that tends to pop-up. Like the Prodigal Son and the Lost Sheep, this story seems to turn up in every Vacation Bible School curriculum and illustrated children’s bible. We learned it as children and though it gives us that warm comfy feeling inside, we can kinda of, click off, when we hear it.
A Jew is hit up by robbers. He’s left for dead. A priest passes by, but doesn’t stop so as to retain ritual purity. A Levite passes by but doesn’t stop either. Then a Samaritan passes the injured Jew - a person with a reason not to stop by – and he stops. He puts the man on his own animal, gets him to an inn, and leaves him with money.
Given the time, it would have made more sense for the Samaritan to pass by. Actually it would have made more sense for him to kick the guy while he was down. Samaritans and Jews at the time held extreme animosity towards each other.
A Jew would not have expected a Samaritan to stop and help him. To be honest, the Jew might not have even wanted the Samaritan to stop. Not only was the Samaritan not expected to stop, but it may have reflected badly upon the Samaritan for doing so. The Jew didn’t live near the Samaritan and it is highly doubtful that he considered the Samaritan to be his neighbor.
But Jesus told us that the Samaritan was a neighbor to the Jew. That if we are to love our neighbor as ourselves we have to be there for those whom we do not want to. Not when it hurts, not when its scary. We have to put ourselves aside for this – far away neighbor?
Sometimes it can be hard enough to put ourselves aside for those whom we love voluntarily. A friend who needs you when you had scheduled a date, sick relative when you are already stretched thin with other tasks. And yet, to “inherit eternal life” we must love those whom we want hate?
We can’t be vengeful. We, we as students can’t stand by children dying every day of curable diseases and not work to fund the MDGs while going out partying every weekend and say we love our neighbor. We can’t not teach our children that Americans put Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II because they looked different, cause it makes us feel embarrassed. We can’t drop bombs on hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and say we are loving our neighbor.
Who is our neighbor? According to Jesus, to a Jew it was all of the priests, the Levites, and the Samaritans. The last of whom had all the reason in the world to be angry, and vengeful, and leave the man, but instead gave him money and lodging, and hope.
It’s hard isn’t it – to not only turn the other cheek, but to turn to a person when everything in us is feeling anger and hatred. When we want to call out against a person because of their clothing, religion, or their believes, or those that we suppose they have when we look at them. Doesn’t it hurt?
Doesn’t it hurt to know that Jesus died on a cross for us to have eternal life – but for us to earn it the gospel says we have to love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our minds and that to do that MUST love neighbor as ourselves – that we have to sacrifice our pride, our prejudices, our fears and self-protection to truly see beyond what we want to see and see what is.
That in order to truly inherit that which God has promised, we must turn ourselves over to the Lord our God to be filled with his will, strength, spiritual understanding, and PATIENCE.
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them.
In nominee…