Three Kinds of Travelers
Luke 10: 25-37 Good Samaritan, Deuteronomy 24: 17-22 gleaning laws. Ps. 82
Imagine Willie Nelson's song "On the Road Again"
"On the Road Again." As a church we're "on the road again" this fall.
We're "on the road again." …and it's much like the Jerico Road in our scripture this morning.
Now, the question I would ask you is this: Which of those persons best represents you?
- With whom do you identify as a member or friend of this church?
- With which attitudes, values and philosophy of life do you most identify?
So, are you ready for a little experiment? Just FOR FUN,
Let's have a show of hands before I begin to describe in more detail some of the characteristics of those who are "on the road again.! Who are you most like?
a) The robbers"? (spare the thought!)
b) How about the good religious folk, the "priest and levite"?
c) Or maybe you're the "Good Samaritan" (write down numbers)
OK, now let me describe these different Jerico Road folks in a little more detail, in case you need a little help deciding where you might fit in here.
A) First, the ROBBERS…. Their attitude towards. life might be described as: "WHAT'S YOURS IS MINE; I'LL TAKE IT." These are the TAKERS.
1. Some folk come to church (present company excluded) to take whatever they can without much thought of return.
a) The Significant Rites of Passage in life -- of Baptism, Marriage or Funerals.
b) A worship experience on Sunday morning that will nurture their Spirit and refuel their energy for the week,
c) Education for their kids, Confirmation for their teenagers,
d) Counseling in time of crisis.
These are the riches and the blessings that Jesus Christ is pleased to provide through His Community of the Church… Christ is ever generous, and His Church must always be Generous, but his heart must be saddened when people come ONLY For TAKING.
2. Like "robbers" on the Jerico Road, there are a lot of TAKERS in the church; but also notice, the church itself can be guilty of "taking."
a) We can take people for granted. Denise McGerald, Joyce Mehrtens, always. there
b) We take and use people in one leadership position after another until some feel like the guy in the story-"beaten up and left by the side of the road!"
c) We take our building and grounds for granted --using them,
- leaving things for others to put away and clean up,
- thinking the lights will always be on & the heat always up thinking that, because we work for God, God provides these free of charge.
- letting our conscientious custodians & our few hard-working Trustees & volunteers like our Kitchen-Elf Shirley Petrule, worry about taking care of them.
Yes, the Church can be a "taker" too. So some of us on the Jerico Road may be like the "robbers" or the "takers."
B) Others of us here this morning may be like the priest or the Levite in the story. Their attitude can be summed up with the phrase, "What's MINE IS MINE and I'LL KEEP IT." These folks are afraid if they get involved, they'll lose what they have -- their faith, their position, their financial buffer, their security.
I can identify with these folk! As a college student and young adult I was a rebel, a shaker of the status quo. What a shock it is to find that now I AM the status quo!
1. In the church there are some who would just keep the Church the way it is - don't change, don't grow, sing the old hymns, keep the old order of service, the old fashioned language. The "keepers."
2. Others like to KEEP their faith the way they remember it as kids in Sunday School 50 years ago -- Heaven is up; Hell is down. God is sitting on a throne "up there", meting out points for good behavior and punishment for bad.
The Devil is dressed in red with a pitchfork "down there." All the bad things that happen in this world - wars, disasters, accidents, disease -- are explained as being God's will!
And people keep their minds closed to any new truth that might emerge for them from a fresh look at scripture as illumined by modern scholarship, or from fresh applications of the old, old story, or for new prayer forms that could take them deeper into the Heart of God.
3. "What's Mine is Mine, so I'll Keep It!" So we "keep" our money and our talent and our time, afraid that we'll run out, we won't have enough for ourselves.
a) The passage from Deuteronomy this morning speaks Biblical wisdom to the "KEEPERS." In Palestine in Biblical Times there were 4 kinds of people who didn't own land, therefore had no means of income:
1) Levites. Temple staff. Combination: Trustees, Custodians, Altar Guild, Worship Committee. They were to be supported by the worshipping community.
2) Widows (often war widows)
3) Orphans - children of the widows.
4) Foreigners, "the resident aliens" - slaves, merchants, people traveling through.
b) Deuteronomy says,
"Remember, there was a time before you had your own land!.
Remember, before God intervened and brought you to this land, you were SLAVES -- SLAVES of foreigners, the Egyptians!"
You were longing for someone to treat you with respect and fairness and to help you survive.
So, you who have land and harvests, (that is, you who have income), don't squeeze every ounce of it for yourselves. "When your bring your grain in from the field and a sheaf falls off the wagon, don't go back for it -- leave it for the foreigner, the orphan and widow.
"When you gather the grapes from your vineyard, don't go back a week later to get the late-ripeners. Leave those for the foreigners, the orphans and the widows."
God: "Remember, you were a slave in someone else's land, therefore I am commanding you to do this. This way the Lord may BLESS YOU in all your undertakings."
c.) In other words, those of us who have resources must realize that It's BY THE GRACE OF GOD - God's providing the FREEDOM, the LAND, the RESOURCES, the TALENTS, the HEALTH to earn a living.
Those who HAVE have the responsibility of expressing their gratitude to God by LEAVING A PORTION for those who HAVE NOT. We are not to HOLD ON TO and KEEP every bit of our resources for ourselves, but to provide for those who don't have the abilities and resources that we have.
We share in ministry with the Wider Church through what we call "Apportionment."
It's our fair share of working together and also helping poorer churches bring the ministry of Christ faithfully to their neighbors and neighborhoods. THAT's the way God has for providing for his less fortunate --through those of us who have more.
When we want to HOLD ON TO and KEEP everything that comes to us, we're acting like the Priests and Levites on the Jerico Road.
C) And this brings us to the third attitude toward life, Exemplified by the "Good Samaritan.", The man who picked up the victim of the beating, dressed his wounds, took him to a clinic and gave them his credit card.
"What's MINE CAN ALSO be YOURS, so I'LL SHARE IT."
1. This is the attitude that undergirds the whole economy of life that Jesus taught and lived. It is the keystone of everything of value in this life. It's the attitude that creates an environment of kindness and trust that makes you want to get up in the morning and live another day.
a) E.g. (age 26) United Methodist Florida Migrant Ministry. Joe Rees, Bean City ( pop. 600), Clewiston (pop 8,000), wife, Debbie, daughter Diane (15).
"What's mine can also BE YOURS, so I'LL SHARE IT.
b) I think of the RADICAL life-style change Walter Petrule took on by sharing his bachelor quarters with his friends' college aged daughter.
"What's mine can also BE YOURS, so I'LL SHARE IT.
2) Your time, your money, your talents & abilities - the Biblical attitude is RADICAL, and it flies directly in the face of our culture... and of human nature. The Biblical attitude is, all that we have is not really ours! It's entrusted us by God to use well while we're here --or talents, our time on earth, our intelligence, our finances, our children . . .they don't BELONG to us to use as we please. They are "on loan" to us to use and INVEST in ways that will please God.
a) No one is better qualified to teach us about this than those living on "borrowed time."
- I met Brenda Grant in the summer of '99 when she had just gone to stay at her daughter's after 2 months in the hospital with surgery and chemotherapy. She was only 60 at the time.
- She said, "I don't expect to live a long life, but I'm grateful for every day I have. I'm going to see the beauty and do my prayers and meditation and enjoy my family and thank God for every day.
- When Brenda started coming to church again in March, The Thrift Shop Manager had broken her collar bone, and Brenda threw herself into helping in the Thrift Shop.." useful"
- She also said to me, "If there's anyone going through treatment for Breast Cancer, and you think I could help them, I'd be more than happy to talk to them. I'd love to help someone else by sharing my experience.
Brenda stayed for the Prayer times following worship to offer her prayers for others struggling with disease. She had hoped to be part of this healing prayer ministry Thursday.
2) Pain and suffering is something we can share. Don't just keep it to yourself, but use it as a way to ENTER INTO the pain and suffering of others so that you can be a support to them. (Bereavement Group)
e) Why does it take someone with a terminal disease to make us realize that we're ALL living on borrowed time? --whether we live to be 102 or only 'til next week, our whole time on earth is "on loan" from God, to use and invest to be a blessing to others while we're here.
What's MINE CAN ALSO BE YOURS, so I'LL SHARE IT.
3) How about your faith? SHARE IT so others can grow.
a) Some of our Sunday School classes are full of kids, but others have 4 or 5 children. The teachers are working their hearts out preparing…. Why not invite families on your block or at your work who don't have a church to bring their children to our Sunday School?
b) Parents sometimes feel awkward about sharing their faith with their children.
… New Confirmation curriculum includes a book of "TalkPoint" sheets for students and parents to do together.
… Last weekend during the sleepover the kids received a letter written by their parents completing open-ended sentences like these:
+ Some of your best personal qualities are…
+ I am thankful to God for the fact that you …
+ I believe that your involvement in the church and having good Christian friends will help you to …
+ Faith in Jesus Christ will help you to …
+ My prayer for you right now is, "Dear God, help my child to…
+ For myself I pray: "Dear God, help me to…
Don't keep you thoughts and feelings and FAITH to yourself, Share them, especially with those dearest to you.
4) What's MINE CAN BE YOURS TOO, so I'll SHARE IT." And there are SO MANY absolutely wonderful people in this church whose lives typify this attitude:
But if this Church is going to thrive, it needs more of you to join them on the Jerico Road.
CONCLUSION:
So as a Community of Jesus Christ, we journey down our Jerico Road this morning and in the months to come,
1. Some of us will go down that road as TAKERS, some as KEEPERS, and some as GIVERS.
Which will it be for you? (I suppose we could take another show of hands, but I don't think we'll do that….!)
2. Anyway, my prayer for our journey this year is that more and more of us will want to try the style of life that Jesus depicted in that Good Samaritan
a) and discover the BLESSING that God has for Givers--the joy and sense of abundance and expansiveness that comes sharing.
b) That we become sensitive to the many among and beyond us that are hurt and in need and who are lying beside life's roadside.
For "What's MINE can ALSO BE YOURS, so I'LL SHARE IT!"