Move Outside

Sermon for Proper 10   Move >> Outside  July 15, 2007  CtK  Luke 10:25-37

Greeting

Friday Night – Spring of 1983  (actually more like Sat Morning)

A rookie police office and his FTO (Field Training Officer) working nights – Traffic on I-95

          Northern Dade County (north Miami)

As stopped along the road people stopped – “Bad Accident”

          There are people outside the cars. . .

          Some were walking wounded – some I think had been thrown.

It was in Broward County –

          Called FHP

          Called BCSD

          No one could respond – so they went.

They ventured north until they came the scene.

          It was as bad as they had heard

          Medics arrived

Many had passed the scene, but just kept going

          Those charged with responsibility of that roadway couldn’t come

          Who you might ask was the neighbor?

          Who behaved like the neighbor Jesus mentions in his parable?

One of the officers began placing flares to alert other drivers & protect the injured

          As he was placing flares

          Car of party goers – crested an overpass and hit the officer

          Killed instantly.

In the aftermath – on good church person commented publicly to family

          If this young officer was such a good Christian why hadn’t he been in church

          He of course was in the FTO program and working on Saturday nights/Sun mornings

In the parable the good, faithful distance themselves

          They move to the other side of the road

          How many drove by and did nothing – we’ll have no idea

For one stop and render aid in Jesus day was a huge risk –robbery – death?

The Samaritans were unfaithful – they were hated.  They certainly weren’t good

          Yet Jesus says it was a Samaritan who would have never been in church on Sunday who rendered Aid.

Some parables come from real life. A pastor tells of one such parable that came from a surprising source: a man of about thirty who lives in a boarding home for the mentally ill.

One Monday morning this young man rang the doorbell of the manse, looking to return something he'd borrowed. Because the pastor was busily engaged at the time with drinking coffee and reading the previous day's paper (it was his day off, after all), his wife answered the door. She invited the man in and left him standing in the front hall while she went back to the kitchen to get her husband.

The pastor came out, and he and the man finished their business in a moment or two, still standing there, just inside the front door. The visitor turned to leave, but before he did, he stopped and said something that made an impression on the pastor. "Tell your wife she paid me a great compliment," he said, beaming a smile of genuine gratitude.

"Oh, really?" the pastor answered. "What did she do?"

"I've lived in this town for four years," he said, "and today is the first time I've ever been invited inside any of the houses."

And who is my neighbor?

A young woman and her three children came into the local food pantry at a downtown church. She hung by the door for quite some time, watching, waiting for the few that were already being served. Finally, when no one was left, she and her three little daughters came forward. It was easy to see that the mother was embarrassed to be in such a situation. She held her head up, and with her hand resting on the girls' shoulders she asked for food.

There were a few basic bits of information that needed to be gathered and written down. Finally, the woman who was waiting on her began to gather the food. Three large bags were filled and given to the mother and her children. As they turned to leave, the mother paused, looked back, a tear running down her cheek and said, "You people must be like Jesus. I always knew that he was real, but nobody ever showed him to me before."

The Gospel – literally the Good News calls us to view everyone as neighbor.

          This calls us to move outside of ourselves, outside of our comfort zones, outside of the walls our world tells us we should build around ourselves.

How do we move outside?

          It is clear that in Jesus teaching and choice of characters.

                   The young lawyer wouldn’t be any of those walking along the road

                   He would have seen himself as the one beaten and robbed.

Today, until we see that it is the Good News, God himself who stops to pull us out the ditch that sin has wrought will we ever be able to move outside – and do good.

Of course, once we experience God’s care – God’s very grace – can we remain within the walls we wish to create?

Amen.