Embrace Widely
Rooted • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
On April 2, 1739 John Wesley — the founding father of Methodism — wrote in his journal, “At four in the afternoon I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation…”
What he was referring to was his willingness to accept an invitation from a colleague of his — Rev. George Whitfield — to join him in field preaching to a vast number of people who were considered “non-church folk.” John and George were both priests in the Church of England, a very proper and formal Christian establishment. What this meant, was that there were people who just weren’t church material — often due to the fact that they did not own clothing nice enough to attend their local parish.
George Whitfield had an eye and a heart that were particularly inclined to the plight of the poor in England, and in particular orphans. He believed firmly that these people were just as worthy and in need of hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as those who came to church. And so he took the unorthodox route of preaching in fields to anyone who would listen. And he drew massive crowds.
This began what would become the deeply evangelistic heart of the Methodist Movement. Which makes it all the more tragic that the relationship between George and John would sour over the following years. And it would not sour over personalities, but rather because of an unreconcilable disagreement over a non-essential doctrine called predestination. They wouldn’t be the first or last friends to part ways over religious beliefs, dogmas, or any other human ideology.
Today we continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke, and begin a new series called “Rooted.” In this series we will look at some of the essential teachings of Jesus, and how they shape our Wesleyan Theological Tradition — or in other words, the core values that we hold as United Methodist Christians.
I think that one of the greatest problems that we face in our world is how polarized almost every realm of our existence is. And this is deeply obvious within the world of the American Church. And I get it. We all think we have the right answers. I mean heck this is a series about Wesleyan Theology, and I’m going to highlight what we believe. But do understand this is not to say that what everyone else believes is wrong. This is to say that what we believe is beautiful and is unique in some ways and is a way of believing that moves us to live out the life of ministry that God has specifically called us to live out. Today we look at how our faith tradition calls us to “Embrace Widely”
But it’s also important to know that we don’t come up with these things out of nowhere. We are a people who are deeply devoted to the words and teachings of scripture. And so that’s where we begin.
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”
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.”
And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
So a very smart person, a lawyer — which is someone who knows “the law,” the Torah, the first five books of the Bible very very well — approaches Jesus and is likely trying to get him to say something that can be used to trap Jesus. And Jesus isn’t dumb, so he’s like well you know what the book says, what are we to do to inherit eternal life. And the lawyer quotes from two different places — the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus (your two favorite books I know), giving us like our most famous command of Jesus. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.
But, now don’t take this the wrong way. Any Lawyers here? What is like the main task of any lawyer trying to win a case? To find nuances and even loopholes in laws in order to secure a favorable decision for their client.
Our guy here is no different. Here’s what he says to Jesus
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
He’s like yes yes I understand the law says I must love God and love my neighbor. But. Who exactly is my neighbor?
But there is even more to this question. As a Jewish man this expert in the law has a very specific world view. A very exclusive way of life.
Jews were stuck in the middle of a very strange situation. They were a holy people set apart by God from the very beginning of their story. The law that this guys knows so well actually has some stipulations about how they are supposed to avoid being too mixed up with other religions and cultures.
But geographically and politically now they are in the middle of a melting pot. They are occupied by Romans, greeks and other cultures are all around them, in their cities, trading with them, ruling over them etc.
What this man is trying to get at is, who exactly do I have to treat this way?
To Jews, to call someone “neighbor” gave them a title as important as “brother, sister, father, or mother”
So Jesus responds with a story:
Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
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.’
To really understand this story there are some facts that we need to sort out.
A priest and a Levite are both men who had important jobs in the temple. They are heading down the road away from Jerusalem to Jericho, having presumably just finished up their duties in the main temple.
Think of yourself after a day of work. Driving home, tired. You’re at a stop light and you see that man or woman with the sign that says “just hungry.” Or you get that phone call that someone needs your help.
It’s a lot harder to say yes I’ll help you when you are tired, just hoping to get home to your family.
But these men also lived according to the Jewish law, a law which prohibited them from coming in contact with blood or a corpse. They would be considered unclean until they performed an extensive ritual cleansing — prohibited from engaging in religious matters and even entering their own homes.
So they do what would be expected under the circumstances. They pass on by.
Meanwhile traveling down the same road is a Samaritan. When he sees the man and takes pity on him. He has compassion. And out of his compassion, he approaches the man — using his own goods of wine, oil, and bandages, he bandages him. Puts him on his donkey and then continues to walk the rest of the journey down to Jericho.
He cares for him at an inn, then leaves the innkeeper with enough money to care for the man for several more days, promising to pay more for future care if the need arose.
This character is unexpected. He does something that Jesus’s Jewish audience wouldn’t expect.
Samaritans were hated by the Jews. They were the people who returned to settle the northern part of the kingdom after the exile. They rejected Jerusalem and it’s temple as the proper place of Worship. They rejected all of the Jewish scriptures other than the first 5 books. They had intermarried with other nations. They were considered Half-blood Heretics. Just a few years earlier, due to a dispute between the two groups of people, Samaritans had apparently desecrated the temple in Jerusalem by spreading human bones throughout it just before the passover, and consequently the Jews could not observe their most sacred Holiday.
To introduce a Samaritan as the hero and main character of his story was to strike a particularly sore nerve.
And so Jesus, continues on. He answers the original question of “Who is my neighbor with a question of his own —
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
You see this whole discussion was based around a man, a religious man, who knew what the Scriptures said, trying to qualify those around him as deserving of his love. Jesus flips it around, bringing back on the man. Neighbor, is not a term that we should be using to qualify those outside of ourselves, it’s a term that either does or does not describe US. He say’s it’s not about who your neighbor is, its about YOU. Are you a neighbor?
If we want to be qualified to call ourselves neighbors to those around us, we’ve got to understand what it really means, what it takes. We’ve got to look to the ultimate neighbor, the one who came and was a neighbor to all, and who still today is a neighbor to each of us.
How many of you remember this from your years growing up.
This is the church, this is the steeple, open it up and see all the people.
Its a nice cute little rhyme right? But I think that sometimes this is all we see. We open up the church, we see all the people, and that’s where our vision stops. We forget to look out the door.
Jesus didn’t just look into the temple and the synagogue to see the people.
Look at this from Mark’s Gospel
As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
And this is how Jesus describes us, his followers:
“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.
No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
We let our light shine before others when we embrace them, despite our differences. Our light shines when we embrace those that have been rejected, who expect to be rejected. Our light shines when are a neighbor to those the world doesn’t expect us to be a neighbor to.
The late Fred Rogers once said “How sad it is that we give up on people who are just like us.”
We are conditioned to look at differences. We are conditioned to sort ourselves into races, cultural identities, political parties, and ideological camps first. These classifications give us the justification that we need to close ourselves off and make our pool of potential neighbors smaller and smaller.
And you know what, I don’t think that’s how Jesus would want us living. And I don’t think that’s how our old friends George and John would want us living either. It’s almost comical that our movement was born and then immediately faced the same kind of human mess of division that we still face today.
You see, after going their separate ways the boys had an opportunity to reflect. One of George’s followers (who obviously still held great animosity against Wesley) said to him, “We won’t see John Wesley in the heaven, will we?” Whitfield humbly replied “Yes, you’re right, we won’t see him in heaven. He will be so close to the Throne of God and we will be so far away, that we won’t be able to see him!”
Likewise, when John was asked to deliver the sermon at George’s funeral he said of him,
“He is a man of a truly catholic spirit, who bears all these continually upon his heart; who, having an unspeakable tenderness for their persons, and an earnest desire of their welfare, does not cease to commend them to God in prayer, as well as to plead their cause before men; who speaks comfortably to them, and labours, by all his words, to strengthen their hands in God. He assists them to the uttermost of his power, in all things, spiritual and temporal; he is ready to “spend and be spent” for them; yea, “to lay down his life for his brethren.”
These are two men who learned to embrace widely. Both of the world outside of the church in the fields that they preached in, and of the world within the church — a world of differing ideas and ideologies.
As we navigate the changing nature of our world and the reality of another election year that is sure to build higher walls around our beliefs and identities, and further push us to avoid embracing widely and being a neighbor to all — we all need to ask ourselves “is this the way of Jesus?”
Are we embracing widely, or still trying to qualify. Do we see parties and potential threats or do we see people who are loved by God and called to be loved by us. Do we see opportunities or do we see threats. Do we see people or do we see problems.
I’ll leave you with this quote from a seminary professor that I just adore.
“John Wesley fell in love with the people of England, and then he fell in love with the people of the world. And that’s what I want. To fall in love with the people of this world.”
So friends. Let’s together, fall in love with the people of this world. No ifs or buts. Just unbridled, un qualified, widely embracing love.