July 14 2019 Luke 10.25-37 “Lucky Lawyer and Lazy Levite”

July 14 2019 Luke 10.25-37 “Lucky Lawyer and Lazy Levite” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

 +++

Luke, said to be the writer of the gospel, was in close relationship with  the Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul wrote more than half of the New Testament. Luke was close to Paul even as Paul was dying for he was imprisoned while preaching and teaching the good news. [slide  #  1  Luke and Paul] Like so many missionaries and other faithful Christians Paul was detained, restricted, imprisoned, physically assaulted and persecuted because of the gospel.

Paul says Luke was a physician, so when we see Luke’s gospel reporting of the healings of Jesus, we are not surprised that Luke shows more interest in the medical details than the other gospel accounts. What may come as a surprise is the thought of many scholars that Luke was not likely from a Jewish family. He may have joined the church under Paul’s leadership which is how they became friends. Luke is a Christian but he is not a Jewish Christian, just as our Catholic sisters and brothers are Christian though they are not protestant Christians.

In this story today we see a few more lines of separation that are drawn for our reflection. There are several people who are alike yet at the same time they are living in different worlds. There is a man traveling, tending to ordinary business. He is in stark contrast to a group of men who somewhere along the way decided to band together and go into the business of robbing people. They robbed this man who was coming down the street. They also made it their business to put their hands on people, to beat them physically. [slide #   2  beating a man] This day they decided to rob a man, beat him and leave him, not caring if the man was alive or if he was dead. What kind of world does one have to live in in order to keep that kind of thinking going on? What kind of friends does Epstein, Weinstein, R. Kelly and the rest have to have in order to hurt people? What kind of world are they living in?

In this morning’s text we see the world of the lawyer [slide #  3  lawyer with Jesus] who knows the law inside and out and the world of those who are in need of the knowledge lawyers have. There is the world of the Levite, who generally speaking, is a religious servant doing such things as – lighting the holy fires representing God’s presence to be eternally worshipped like acolytes do today. [slide #  4  lighting candles] Levites can light the fire, but they are a world apart from the priests who offered sacrificial offerings for sins and celebrations, saving some meat for the poor and for the priests as payment for their work. Priests were similar to today’s ministers who are authorized to do communion and to give authority for others to serve communion to those otherwise not authorized. [slide #  5 communion]

Today, our sanctuary is a space for priestly functions as it was thousands of years ago, [slide # 6 courtroom] yet the West Chester courtroom and many courtrooms have so many similar patterns to a sanctuary where God can be seen as a judge, wearing a robe, high and lifted up, the choir is positioned like a jury stand, the doors have security guards in a courtroom. In church we know them as greeters.

There are similarities, still the church is worlds apart from other worlds. At times the different worlds coincide at times they collide. Jerusalem was the holy City while Jericho had been cursed and doomed for destruction because of its unspeakable inhumanity to man.

The Samaritans, the priests and the Levites in Luke’s story all had the same Hebrew roots. If we had to impose a pecking order, the Samaritans would be on the bottom because during the Babylonian exile when the young and talented like Daniel were taken into captivity and the rest left wandering or wasting away as political refugees, things changed in the Jewish community.

Some sources suggest Samaritan Jews followed the laws too loosely and as a result, their Jewish roots and their histories took different turns and they claimed Mt. Gerizim as the center of worship rather than Jerusalem. Jerusalem was considered to be the very city of God.  Perhaps the Samaritans did not go to Sabbath meetings to worship God like those who worshiped in Jerusalem. Maybe they stayed home and washed their camels instead. Perhaps they sat around wells drinking and playing games and wishing instead of working to make their dreams come true. Perhaps those ideas were just stereotypes used to keep a brother down.

The Samaritans were the Hebrew brothers and sisters of the Levites and the Priests, yet they were worlds apart and not even on speaking terms; the Jews and Samaritans did not socialize together according to the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at the well. [slide # 7 woman at the well]

But Jesus is all about bringing together different people from different worlds in order to abolish the pecking order, in order to highlight the idea that everybody is somebody. We imagine Jesus would boldly wear a t-shirt that says, “No matter where you come from or where you are going, I have a place in my heart for you.”

What a world it would be if we could communicate the idea whether in a whisper or on a megaphone – and say to the motley homeless person living under the bridge, to the blind beggar, to the person who hates our guts, to the person who makes us sick. How our world is daily transformed when we are able to wear such a t-shirt on our backs or in our hearts that says, “No matter where you come from or where you are going, I have a place in my heart for you!”

The lawyer in Luke’s story was lucky because Jesus had mercy on him instead of ridiculing him for asking the silly question, who is my neighbor when everyone knows our neighbors are every child of God, whether near or far. The priest was lazy because to be lazy is the opposite of disciplined. We disciples need to be disciplined, we need to do what is needed when it is needed. To be lazy is to leave God’s good work undone, to be indifferent when others suffer, to be selfish and cold-hearted. A disciplined disciple is trained to go wherever God leads them and alleviate trouble and triumph over trauma. A disciplined disciple is a prayer warrior and a peacemaker.

The priest in Jesus’ story acted in the same way that the Lazy Levite did in the parable. Who knows? Perhaps the Levite was following in the footsteps of the priest, going in the wrong direction. They should rather have been following God.

The Samaritan, unlike the priest and the Levite who avoided the wounded man and crossed over on the other side of the street,… the Samaritan had extraordinary compassion for this man. We can believe that the Samaritan had walked a mile in this man’s shoes. We can believe that the Samaritan had also been robbed, and beaten by a few who did not care if he lived or if he died.

If you thing about it hard enough, you can also conclude that God is the Good Samaritan. God is also the one whom humanity has robbed. God is the one whom humanity beats down, caring not that God lives or dies.  

Does Jesus not tell us that we need to be like God? We need to be the Good Samaritan. We also need to walk a mile in the shoes of those who are the least, the last, and the lost. And if we have not experienced someone else’s heartache, heartbreak, and despair, we ought to at least get close enough to care as God leads us. We ought to at least be able to listen and articulate what they say instead of always saying what we think.

Is the church not called to stay in the path of those who are victims rather than cross over on the other side? [slide # 8 Good Samaritan] Are you not called to bandage wounds, pouring soothing oil on them and wine that protects and disinfects like the center for disease control? Are we not called to do our part in making sure the hurting have transportation and a place to lay their heads in peace? This is what the United Methodist Church does day and night, night and day. And we want to be on board with that. We want daily to ask God to keep us in God’s will.

Are we not called to serve as a church that has hundreds of dollars’ worth of compassion like the Good Samaritan who provided two denarii, worth two days’ pay? Are we not called to network with others who can help us take care of those beat down in our world?

Are we not called to care for each other today and not forget about them tomorrow? To go and see about them in their tomorrows and to pay the price that God is pleased with as long as God is pleased with it?

We are to be like God. God is the Good Samaritan. We are to seek God’s will so we can be a part of God’s plan. One of the students in my English class wrote a story about the time she and her siblings were hungry because her parents were not taking care of them. The parents were afflicted with the disease of addiction. A drug dealer appeared at her door with a bag full of food. She was grateful to this drug dealer and one thing led to another and as a child she began to work for the drug dealer. The first thought that came to my mind was, “Where were the Christians? Why did a Christian not feed those children?” So we ask ourselves today, where are the least, the last, and the lost and am I on the same side of the street that God is on? Amen. [slide # 9 imitators of God]