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The Bishop's Sermon
February 7, 2009
35th Diocesan Convention
The Episcopal Diocese of San Diego
Church of the Good Samaritan
Listen to the Bishop's Sermon here
Psalm 146
Leviticus 19: 16-18
Romans 13: 8-14
Luke 10: 25-37
Come Holy Spirit: Touch our minds and think with them, touch our lips and speak with them and touch our hearts and set them on fire with love for you. AMEN.
We all know the type. He wants to be the smartest in the room. He is a bit of a show off. And so, he asks a question. It is a question motivated not by a desire to learn or grow but to be on top. “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus, ever the good teacher, responds first with a question, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” His answer is Levitical and straight forward. It is the well-known summary of the law: love God and neighbor. Jesus praises his response. But as Luke tells the story, this cocky questioner just can't quite leave it there. Even though he was shown to be wise by the great master, he pushes just a bit further, “And who is my neighbor?”
This opens one of the great teachable moments of Jesus. We know the parable well but it opens mysteries every time we hear it if we will but listen. A man is robbed and left for dead. The seemingly pious and holy of the day pass by without offering even the most meager of assistance. Jesus gives the hero’s role to one who is despised in the community of Jews, a Samaritan. And this Good man, not only offers aid but he does so abundantly, lavishly. After telling the story, Jesus turns and asks this question: “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The lawyer answers, “The one who showed mercy.” And from the lips of Jesus, he is told to go and do likewise—and so are we.
You know, not a lot's changed in the world since Jesus first told this parable. The concept of neighbor remains very narrowly defined. We are actually artistic at saying who our neighbor is not. We live in a world, a nation, and regrettably a church that is preoccupied with dividing and disassociating from neighbor. The world continues to be divided in veritable tribal conflict on every continent. I guess we haven't hit Antartica yet, but just about every continent. Indeed, our own nation’s racism and resultant violence is a manifestation of the same behavior. We gate ourselves in and even call them neighborhoods but they are not. These gated communities keep out people that we fear and do not know. And so in a very real way, we do not even know our neighbors. We find ourselves more and more divided from each other. Along a border, just twenty miles from here, we separate ourselves from those who we fear may take our jobs and our “way of life.” And in our church, we divide into camps, liberal-conservative, reasserter-revisionist, orthodox-progressive—you get the point. We see difference and fear that difference. In our own piousness and certitude, we pass by the other wanting nothing to do with him. We don't see them as our neighbors
Who is your neighbor? Who is my neighbor? Indeed, this is the question. It is a question about love, relationship, and yes, eternal life. Seth Weeldreyer, a Presbyterian minister in Marshal, Michigan, wrote a sermon that was published in Interpretation, notes that Jesus radically transforms this encounter: “Jesus turns a legal argument suitable to definitive, defensible practical application into a narrative of life, that is, of course, not always clear. He turns the lawyer’s solicitation about other people’s values or behavior into reflection on the solicitor’s own assumptions and priorities.” (Interpretation, April 2008) And in so doing, he does the same to us.
As Twentieth and now Twenty-first Century Christians, we need to fully come to grips with the narrative of life that Jesus describes and move to make it our story. We should remember that the earliest followers of Jesus did not have the written scriptures to guide them, and for that matterfor them to fight over. They had the parables and stories of Jesus passed on one to another as precious pearls of great value. They knew and professed the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They saw the same as their future through him. They did not see this as something to be earned but simply what they were living into then and there. To be a follower of Jesus meant that they were living the kingdom of God and that life would have no end. Since perfect love casts out all fear, they were the ones to cross teh road. And we are to be the ones to cross the road and meet the neighbor.
We meet the neighbor who acts differently. We greet the neighbor who speaks differently. We try to know the neighbor who offers a different perspective than us. We reach out to the neighbor who is suffering, lonely, lost, in pain, and we reach out to those who seem just fine. We reach out to neighbor. As a community of disciples, we are not closeted in sanctuary but come to the sacred so that we can be a holy presence in the lives of others.
Today’s church is often seen as, somewhat accurately, diminished and shrinking. We seem too often caught up in our own squabbles and unaware of the world around us. While we will and must grapple with tough theological and moral issues, we also need to understand this: that these arguments are not even close to central to our life and mission. The main work of the follower of Jesus is to follow Jesus and in so doing to bring others to Christ. This way of life is most clearly defined, lived out, and witnessed by how we define neighbor and how we relate to the one who is our neighbor.
The culture that we inhabit may seem to be unwelcoming to the message of Jesus and the mission and ministry of the Church. And yet, we know that people in this age are asking the spiritual questions with great intensity. If we are a people who do what Jesus tells us to do, they will see in us a passion about our neighbor, whatever race, language, sexual orientation, gender, degree of wealth, wisdom, health, or religious purity. Who is my neighbor? Who is your neighbor? What are we going to do for and with our neighbor?
The Dean of the Washington Cathedral, the Very Rev. Sam Lloyd reminds us of a powerful scene in Dostoevsky’s novel, The Brothers Karamazov. In the scene a high society woman asks the wise spiritual leader to help her recover her lost faith. “How can I believe in God again?” she asks. He answers, “You must learn to love. Try to love your neighbor, love them actively and unceasingly. And as you learn to love them more and more, you will be more and more convinced of God and the immortality of your soul.”
In this age, indeed an age of extraordinary mission, we must be the church that looks beyond ourselves seeing that all God’s children are neighbors. We must be relentless in our efforts to bring those who are our neighbors into our shared faith. The work of discipleship is first and foremost disciples making disciples. And inextricably connected to our proclamation of faith is our witness of faith through service.
I wonder what would happen if we the people of the diocese focused in just this way. What would happen if those in our church on different sides of issues sat together and shared their faith in Jesus and then supported each other in telling their story of faith in Jesus' work in their life. I wonder.
Did you notice in the parable that the priest and the Levite did not walk together but they came along separately? That's a really a remarkable detail. You see, the Jericho road descends 2,200 feet from Jerusalem, with robbers potentially behind every corner and it was called the “Bloody Pass.” You have these two folks choosing to walk separately instead of together. As my daughter would say, "What's up with that?" Theological battles are not a new invention! I think that if Jesus were telling the parable today he would probably set a liberal and a conservative on the road. Each in their own righteousness and preoccupation would act just as the Levite and the priest of yesteryear. Who would stop today?
Dear ones, it's time for us to grasp our true nature as followers of Jesus. We are the ones who are supposed to stop, for the needy, the lost, the lonely—those who need mercy. Around us are those who are just that: they need the love, care and mercy that is in us through Christ Jesus. Let us pray that we leave this day renewed and recommitted to be Good Samaritans. For in seeing and touching our neighbor, we will see and touch Jesus.
Amen.