Serving a Broken World (Luke 10:25-37)
- I want you to imagine coming to church this morning
- as you come, you glance at your watch and realize you’re late
- but as you get closer to church, you see something out of the corner of your eye
- at first you think it’s a discarded sleeping bag, but then you realize it’s a homeless person
- possibly drunk, possibly ill – but for sure a homeless person
- what goes through your mind?
- do you feel some sadness?
- are you a bit worried about the person?
- do you perhaps think it’s best to leave that person alone, saying a silent prayer for them as you head to church?
- now imagine if we got to church and began to discuss what we saw with others
- it comes out at prayer time that quite a few of us had observed this sight
- a few of us slowed down and tried to determine if the person was okay
- but most of us thought that really, it was none of our business
- what would you do?
- it just so happens the message that morning is on loving others
- we look at Jesus’ response to a man’s question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
- the answer, in short, is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and, “Love your neighbor as yourself”
- we begin to discuss what it means to love God and love others
- and, as always, the pastor preaches a great sermon!
- as we leave church, we see some people gathered around the homeless man
- right away, you think, “Those people should be in church!”
- if they really loved God, that’s where they would be instead of helping some homeless person
- and you go home shaking your head
- what’s the world coming to, with homeless people right around the corner, and crowds of people who are standing outside instead of going to church?
- they need to learn a thing or two about love
- I wonder, what would you have done?
- what would I have done?
- we can talk about being a church that serves a broken world, but the question comes down to this one: what would you have done about the homeless person?
- you’re probably familiar with a story Jesus told like this
- it was in response to a question from a lawyer — right away you know there’s going to be a problem!
- the lawyer, the Scriptures say in Luke 10:29, was trying to justify himself, and so when Jesus told him to love his neighbor, he asked the classic question, “Who is my neighbor?”
- the lawyer was no doubt aware of an ancient book of wisdom, Sirach 12:1-4, that tells its readers not to help a sinner
- the lawyer is basically trying to create a distinction, that we really only have an obligation to love and help God’s people, and not others
- the scene Jesus described was the treacherous 17 mile journey from Jericho to Jerusalem, a route known for its danger
- perhaps the equivalent would be the seedy parts of the inner city in the middle of the night
- thieves sometimes lurked in the caves, jumping travelers as they passed
- Jesus tells of a man who is ambushed and robbed, left for dead at the side of the road
- you know the story
- a priest and a Levite pass by
- the wounded man could have thought, “Here comes help!”
- but the religious men pass on the other side of the road and leave the victim lying there
- and then along comes a Samaritan – a half-breed despised by the Jews
- we call this man “the good Samaritan,” but this would have been an oxymoron back then
- a good Samaritan?
- that’s like saying “Good grief!” or “executive decision”
- the words just don’t belong together!
- but Jesus describes his actions
- he goes to him; bandages him; pours oil on his wounds; puts him on a donkey; carries him to the inn; and takes care of him, even leaving money so the man has two weeks to recover
- in addition, he tells the innkeeper to keep a running tab, so he can pay any cost overruns when he returns
- now that’s ministry!
- somebody has said:
- to the expert in the law, the wounded man was a subject to discuss
- to the robbers, the wounded man was someone to use and exploit
- to the religious men, the wounded man was a problem to be avoided
- to the innkeeper, the wounded man was a customer to serve for a fee
- to the Samaritan, the wounded man was a human being worth being cared for and loved
- every day we pass by wounded people
- there is no country, no city, no postal code without them
- there are hurting souls within rock-throwing distance of this church
- what are we going to do with them, individually and as a church?
- how do we serve a broken world?
- somebody has made three observations from this passage:
- FIRST, LACK OF LOVE IS EASY TO JUSTIFY, EVEN THOUGH IT IS NEVER RIGHT
- perhaps the priest and Levite feared being rendered unclean from teaching what looked like a dead corpse
- maybe they were afraid of being ambushed themselves if they stopped to help the man
- maybe they thought, “If we help this guy, we have to help everyone”
- maybe they were late; we don’t know
- I would venture to guess that they believed they had very good reasons not to help the man
- I mentioned that it’s possible that the priest and Levite may have had theological reasons not to help the robbery victim
- an ancient book of Jewish wisdom told its readers not to help a sinner
- their theology could have led them to inaction
- I’ve heard similar theology in the church
- some quote Jesus’ statement that we’ll always have the poor with us as a reason not to do anything about it
- they don’t realize that Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 15:11:
- (Deuteronomy 15:11) There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.
- in other words, Jesus wasn’t saying, “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, don’t try to help them”
- instead, it was meant as an incentive to generosity
- “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, always be generous”
- we’ll always have the poor among us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t show God’s love to our neighbor who’s poor
- some say that Jesus’ ministry is about the spirit and not the body
- they draw an artificial distinction between ministering to someone’s physical needs and someone’s spiritual needs
- but Jesus’ ministry was about both
- you can’t read the Gospels without reading of the way he cared for hurting people, people with illnesses, people who were destitute
- Jesus went so far as to say, in essence, that whenever we see the hungry and feed them, or give the thirsty something to drink, or clothe those who need clothes, we’re doing it as to God
- look at the teachings and example of the early church:
- (Acts 2:45) Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
- (Galatians 6:10) Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
- many Scriptures speak of dealing with issues of injustice and oppression (Leviticus 25:8-55; Isaiah 58:6-14, 61:1-2; Luke 14:12-14)
- a clear reading of the Scripture will show that God does have an intense concern for the poor
- sometimes we use the excuse that the pain in the world is so vast that we don’t know where to begin or how we can even make a dent in what needs doing
- a better attitude might be to pitch in where you see a need and an ability to help
- you can’t help everywhere, but maybe you can help right here
- a storm in Florida brought in tens of thousands of starfish
- a little boy went along throwing them back in the water, one by one
- an old man came by and said, “Kid, even if you stayed here all day, you wouldn’t even make a differen ce, there are so many”
- the boy threw another one in and said, “I think I just made a difference for that one”
- we can always think of reasons not to show love to a broken world, but our reasons are seldom right
- a second observation someone made is this:
- OUR NEIGHBOR IS ANYONE OF ANY RACE, CREED, OR SOCIAL BACKGROUND WHO IS IN NEED
- there was deep hatred between Jews and Samaritans
- if you had to line up a priest, Levite, and Samaritan and ask which one would be least likely to help a Jewish robbery victim, you would pick the Samaritan
- a Samaritan would never help a Jew – or so you would think
- neighbors come in surprising places
- the lawyer’s attempt to limit his neighbors might be limiting where his fellowship is coming from
- when we see a homeless person lying on the street, that person is our neighbor
- when we see a crack addict, that person is our neighbor
- according to Christ, our neighbor is anyone with whom we come in contact
- wherever you live, here are needy people close by
- there’s no excuse not to help
- observation number three:
- LOVE MEANS ACTING TO MEET THE PERSON’S NEED
- the Good Samaritan was a risk-taker
- he was compassionate and willing to get involved
- when the Good Samaritan encountered the battered victim, he didn’t throw the man money, canned goods, used clothing, or religious tracts
- instead, he got up close and personal
- he dirtied his hands tending to the man’s wounds
- he gave sacrificially – of his time and his money
- a recent article in Christianity Today points out that in our churches, “many of our traditional outreach programs keep the poor at arms’ length and offer merely ‘commodified’ mercy” (October 6, 1997 issue)
- the church father Gregory of Nyssa defined mercy as “a voluntary sorrow that joins itself to the sufferings of another”
- the article continues, “Genuine compassion entangles our lives with the lives of the needy, and sometimes brings grief”
- on Thanksgiving Day, the 23-year old mother of a little boy in a church’s urban tutoring program was murdered by her ex-boyfriend
- there were few dry eyes in the sanctuary when the church announced the tragedy
- because the church had a connection to the family, this was not merely another crime statistic – it was one of their family
- this is risky, and it exposes us to the possibility of being hurt
- but this is what ministry is to be – relational, the giving of ourselves and our time, as well as our money
- only then can we have a lasting impact
- our church needs to think creatively of ways we can reach out and make a lasting difference
- the ideas are limitless
- mother’s day out, so that young mothers can get the sanity break they need
- foster parenting
- building houses with Habitat for Humanity — using what they call “the theology of the hammer”
- do you know about this “theology of the hammer”?
- we churches fight over all manner of doctrine, but we all agree on one theological point – the theology of the hammer, that Christ calls us to pick up our hammers and help provide shelter to those who need it
- this is a point of theology with which all believers can agree
- homelessness in Metro Toronto is reported to be at a 30-year high
- it’s estimated that there will be a 67% rise in people staying at hostels over last year
- some people put the number at over 10,000 people
- there’s a church just north of here at Prince Edward and Bloor that will open its doors on 21 Friday nights this winter in the “Out of the Cold” program — the only church that’s doing this in Etobicoke
- they’re looking for volunteers
- maybe some of you will volunteer to help by preparing meals or volunteering to help this church in this program
- if so, the time is now to get involved, and I have the information
- we, the church, are the incarnation of Christ
- we are his hands and feet reaching out to touch hurting people
- Christ does not shout to Gospel to us from heaven
- he tells it through us
- that’s risky, but it’s God’s way
- “the church you’ve always longed for” serves a broken world
- (Matthew 20:28) just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- if he served, so should we
- Charles Spurgeon argued:
- “A church which does not exist to do good in the slums…of the city is a church that has no reason to justify its longer existence…Not for yourself, O Church, do you exist any more than Christ existed for himself. His glory was that he laid aside his glory, and the glory of the church is when she lays aside her respectability and her dignity and counts it to be her glory to gather rather the outcasts, and her highest honor to seek amid the foulest mire the priceless jewels for which Jesus shed his blood”
