A Church On Fire - Week 5: "The Jericho Road"

It’s the Season of Pentecost, and we are in the middle of a sermon series entitled, "A Church on Fire." 

The inspiration for this particular sermon series comes from an unlikely source, a Spanish anarchist who detested the Church.  

“The only church that illuminates is a burning church” - Buenaventura Durutti 

Pentecost is a time for the Church to reflect on what it will be in whatever age it finds itself.  And right now in our current historic moment, the Church needs to be a light, and the only church that illuminates is on fire for the zeal of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Today, we will read what is perhaps the most well-known of Jesus’ parables, but from a different perspective, the story of the Good Samaritan.  When Jesus told this story, he took on the idea of identity politics, and he also expertly avoided answering a loaded question by changing the conversation.  

But first, let me offer some explanations: When Our Identities Get In The Way of Our Humanity. 

The struggle for so many of us to be seen and valued because of our identity is one that has brought our nation forward.  

We may have once lauded the fact that we were a melting pot of all different kinds of people brought together to form a nation of immigrants, tired, huddled masses longing to be free, but history has taught us that ideal is one that we've struggled to embrace.   

Politics / Race / Religion / Gender / Sexual / Neurodivergence  - All of the ways we identify ourselves, unity in diversity, strength in difference.  We mature when we learn to embrace one another and celebrate all the ways that we can find unity without uniformity.  

Identity is a vital part of who we are, but there’s a shadow side. 

Identity can become a narrowing of our true selves, limiting our ability to show empathy and radical love.  When we refuse to move beyond the silos we create within our identities, we lose the ability to show the love of Christ to one another.  

We need to resist the narrowing of our ability to be a true neighbor.  

A CHURCH ON FIRE IS WILLING TO BUCK TRADITION TO HELP THE HURTING 

Luke 10:25-37

25 An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.[a] “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

When all else fails, send a lawyer - “a teacher of the law” asks a question.

26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

29 But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 

“…wanting to vindicate himself” - He wanted Jesus to clarify the boundaries. 

30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and took off, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

A Priest and a Levite - part of the religious elite, keeping commandments.  

 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came upon him, and when he saw him he was moved with compassion.

The Samaritan - an enemy, an apostate, wrong people, wrong religion. 

“Gut-wrenching” love - the kind the Samaritan felt.  Leaving his identity.  

34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

“The one who showed him mercy…” The one who showed humanity, the one who exemplified the Great Commandment

What Do We Learn Here?

1.  Jesus doesn’t answer who is a neighbor; he shows how to be one. 

In typical Jesus-fashion, he refuses to be pigeon-holed, and also refuses to answer a loaded question. Instead he answers another question. 

2.  The question isn’t “Who is my neighbor?” It’s “How Do I Love My Neighbor?

The Samaritan in the story was an existential enemy for the Jewish lawyer. The fact that he was the one who put his humanity ahead of his identity and kept the Great Commandment was hard to hear.  

3.  Jesus pushes the boundaries of our ideas of loving our neighbor. 

We need to ask ourselves, "What would I do?"  We often think about how we would act in times of historic crises, but we don't have to wonder when we are honest enough about our own cultural and historic moments.  

Close your eyes for a moment.  Think of the people that you believe to be so outside of your own beliefs and convictions that the thought of being a neighbor to them makes your stomach churn.  

Jesus is saying in this story that we are called to love them radically and with great compassion.  

4.  There is no “us” and “them,” there is only us.  

The idea that we would sacrifice our own deeply held beliefs, convictions, and faith to act as a neighbor is a damnable lie.  We can be a neighbor without tolerating what is intolerable.  

"When our story is told a century from now--and it will be--how much of the American church ran after idols and delusions, false christs and conspiracices, history will not only fault the pastors for not confronting us with the truth, but the congregations who forbade them to." - Beth Moore

This is the kind of church we need to be.  We can hold true to our convictions, but also be unwilling to let our traditions become silos that we cannot move beyond to love like a neighbor. 

A CHURCH ON FIRE IS WILLING TO BUCK TRADITION TO HELP THE HURTING