detour ahead

I think we all know something of what it is like to adjust course at some point. Sometimes we plan for contingencies; sometimes it is thrown at us when we didn’t see it coming. Sometimes we have multiple options; sometimes we have no choice. If there is one thing that is for certain in life, it is that very little in life is for certain. Perhaps this is why the wisdom writer in Ecclesiastes can say,

Ecclesiastes 9:11 NIV

11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

Our best-laid plans don’t always go the way we want. Sometimes we have to adjust. Consider all the ways that may happen. In 2015 my life adjusted course to deal with cancer; radiation and chemo and surgeries and recovery. But consider this, it doesn’t always have to be a hardship or bad thing. Maybe there was an awesome job promotion or a big raise or a really good year for the business; and now financial goals need to be adjusted because there is a significant increase of income. That’s a good adjustment. The point is this: detours happen all the time. Plans get thrown into a new direction quite often. Sometimes those detours are trivial and insignificant. Sometimes those detours can carry some major impact upon our lives.

It seems like we don’t need to be reminded of that right now. Living in the middle of a health pandemic has placed detours everywhere for all of us in some way. whether it has been dealing with online school classes, or canceled travel plans, or loss of work, or isolation from extended family and friends; we have all been dealing with major detours for the past several months.

how do these unexpected detours connect to the life and journey of faith?

The question comes to mind, how do these unexpected detours connect to the life and journey of faith? Here is what I notice; most often the first reaction is resistance to any detour. It may not be surprising, after all. That seems to be our first reaction any time an unwelcome and unexpected detour presents itself. A few weekends ago I made a trip up to Pentwater for a day. US-31 had some road construction in Muskegon, so my phone GPS rerouted me off the highway and through town to avoid the traffic backup. It was not the original route I was planning to take; but it turned out that rerouting my journey was for the best, though I might not have thought so at the time. I was a bit resistant at first, but it turned out that rerouting was for the best.

Do rerouting moments like that ever happen in our life and journey of faith? Absolutely. In fact, the Bible is full of examples in which people find their journey of faith with God to be rerouted. And so many times we see that the first reaction is resistance, but the reroute of faith is actually for the best. That is what we are going to be considering in this series of messages. I am beginning with a familiar story that Jesus tells, the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10:30–37 NIV

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

the priest and the Levite

Much has been written about the parable of the Good Samaritan. There are so many angles we can take into this story because there is so much good instruction we can pull from it. Today, then, I want us to focus our attention on one feature of this parable in particular. I want us to spend some time today considering the first two travelers who happened to come upon the man who had been robbed and beaten. Jesus tells that first a priest and then a Levite come along the road, but they both pass by the man without stopping to help. Let’s spend some time today looking at just that moment.

priests and Levites - worked in the temple to conduct religious worship

Priests were those people in Old Testament Israel that functioned as the mediators between God and the Israelites. It was the priests who did the work in the temple of making sure the offerings and sacrifices were all properly in place. And then comes the Levite—a person from the Israelite tribe of Levi. Let’s not forget that all of the priests would have been Levites as well. But those from the tribe of Levi who were not specifically assigned the role of being a priest would then provide the extra support work that was needed in order for the priests to perform their religious duty.

people whose first priority was to make sure religious worship took place

To bring the story forward and try to put a little context around it so that it gives us a place of reference today, we’re talking about a church pastor or elder, and a church volunteer—musician or Sunday school teacher or nursery attendant. The priest and the Levite represent those who somehow work and serve in the ongoing ministry of God’s people. Let me be careful now in how this story unfolds, because the ones Jesus portrays negatively in this parable are people who fill the kind of role that I fill here at this church. In fact, I know that there are many of us here in this church who volunteer and use our gifts in some way for the ministry of this church. When we read this story about the Good Samaritan, there is no way we can get around the inference that the priest and the Levite are references to us.

priest and Levite represent church people

We cannot deny that. All the parables of Jesus have points of reference in which his audience relates to characters in the story. The robbers and the man who is beaten are more objects of the plot than they are characters who draw some specific parallel in Jesus’ audience. That means the only choices we have for inserting ourselves into this story is to either be the priest/Levite or to be Samaritan. And there is no possible way we can pull from the time of Jesus any understanding that Samaritans could ever be understood as religious members of God’s chosen people. We cannot get past it. The only way those of us in the church today can ever read or understand this story is to acknowledge and confess that our place in the story is the place of the priest and Levite.

how does my story of faith show parallels with the priest/Levite story?

Now then, if that is the case, it might be good to take a closer look at all the assumptions and baggage wrapped up in the characters of the priest and Levite which might also be assumptions and baggage wrapped up in our stories today too. The priests and the Levites had a job to do for God’s people. And I think we should note that their duty was not a bad thing. In fact, the jobs that the priests and Levite performed on behalf of God’s people were jobs given by God himself. These were jobs written in scripture. By doing the jobs that priests and Levites were assigned to do, these individuals were simply living in a way that followed with the Word of God. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, that’s a good thing.

priority to maintain ceremonial and spiritual purity

The Book of Leviticus lays out all of the rituals and conditions that are necessary for priests and Levites to perform all these temple jobs that were so important among the people of God. And remember here that Jesus is telling this story in response to a question he is asked by an expert in the Jewish law. The person hearing this story would certainly have known all of this background information about the rituals and conditions that were necessary for priests and Levites. Among these conditions was the requirement that priests and Levites could not participate in their religious functions if they were in any way declared to be unclean.

In particular, one of the rules these individuals had to follow in order to remain ceremonially clean was a regulation which stated they may not come into physical contact with a dead body. Jesus tells us in this parable that the man who is beaten is left half dead on the side of the road. In other words, touching this man would most certainly push over the line of maintaining the religious purity that was so important to the Jewish religion. Perhaps we could even say that the priest and the Levite ought to get a free pass on stopping to help this guy because to do so would have rendered them as no longer fit to be a part of temple worship.

Let me put it more bluntly. Stopping to help this poor dying man would have carried the penalty of being kicked out of church. It was an act of mercy that that would have resulted in defiling the ceremonial and spiritual purity of good moral worshippers of God. I mean, I’m all for helping people in need, except when it means crossing a line that somehow compromises my own standards of purity and moral compliance. Is that so wrong?

Let’s face it. We do, in fact, make those same arguments today. We also live among a religious community which has put up some barriers in order to protect our own standards of moral and spiritual purity. We sometimes make decisions about stepping aside from the needs of certain people if we deem those people to be a blemish upon our own righteous standards. Churches have done that in the past. And churches continue to do that today. The very real struggle and very real failure of the priest and the Levite to do the right thing in this parable ought to smack us square between the eyes because it lays bare the very real struggle and very real failure we encounter yet today as people of the church.

detour

parable presents a choice: go help a wounded man, or go to church

And so, Jesus tells a story which presents a detour of faith. Jesus tells a story that sinks right into the heart of the most devout believers and challenges the direction in which our faith is pointing. The parable creates a paradox of sorts. If the priest or the Levite stops to help the wounded man, it is a choice that means they must step aside from participation in worship with the people of God at the temple. Jesus presents this parable with a paradox. Which is the more important act of faith, helping a person in a time of need, or joining the people of God for worship at the temple? Jesus levels this story straight at us today as well. Which is the more important act of faith, getting this right, or getting to church?

That’s a touchy subject right now. People have been away from church for quite a while because of health concerns with coronavirus. Understandably, people want to get back to church. And that’s not a bad thing. Scripture tells us that we ought to gather with other believers to worship together. Gathering together for worship is good for God’s people. Worship is one of the ways in which God blesses his people. It’s not a bad thing. And so, when a detour came along this past March that steered us away from gathering together for church, of course it seems understandable that we might resist. That’s not the kind of adjustment in course we like to see. That’s a detour we would like to avoid.

are we being presented with an opportunity to adjust the direction of our faith right now?

could it be that getting this moment right is more important than getting back to church?

Many of us are naturally left in a place where our biggest concern for the church today is about getting back again to where we were before. But did we ever stop for a moment and consider if God might be placing the church on a detour right now for a reason? Could it possibly be that we are being presented with an opportunity to adjust the direction of our faith a bit right now? And could it be that getting this moment right is more important than getting back to church?

Let’s take this story of the Good Samaritan and make some applications that might be helpful for us right now. Let’s consider if a detour of faith might be exactly what we need at this moment because the direction of our spiritual lives could use some adjustment. If any of you have signed up to participate in one of our August Gathering Groups, these questions will help set up a discussion that you can continue with your group sometime later this week.

the samaritan went out of his way to help one in need | we are all the ones in need of Jesus to rescue us

when has someone gone out of their way to help you?

The Samaritan who stopped to help the one in need in this story went out of his way to do it. He took a detour that cost him something personally of his own time and effort and money. Can you think of a time in your own life when someone has done something like that for you? Has there been any example in your life of someone else who has gone out of their way to help when you needed it? Let’s start there with a time when perhaps you have been on the receiving end of getting support. Let’s start there because we all need to remember that this is the way Jesus comes to each one of us. We are all like that man beaten and left half dead by the side of the road. We are all left that way in our own sin and brokenness. We are all the ones lifted up by Jesus and brought to a place of healing. And our place of restoration came at a cost; it was not free. But Jesus paid for it completely on our behalf. We start with a story of receiving help because that’s the place where each of us begins before God.

when have you adjusted the way you live out your faith to help others?

food pantry in the lobby

Next, let’s talk about a level one detour. This is a detour of faith which is perhaps unexpectedly and unavoidably thrust upon you. You did not make the choice. Several years ago, this church made the intentional choice to open and operate an emergency food pantry. In March we had no choice but to take that food pantry on a detour because we could not have people coming into the building. We saw the detour, and we went with it because there seemed to be no other way to go. And it was a detour which led us to basically turning our entire church lobby into a food warehouse during a time in which we distributed 100 times the amount of food aid that our emergency pantry normally gives out. We took the lobby—a room that is intended to be a place of gathering fellowship for the church—and we turned it into a place of helping complete strangers who were hungry and needed food. We saw a detour which presented us with a question of which was a more important use of the lobby, getting this moment right or getting back to church?

Can you identify a detour of faith like that in your own life? Are there any examples where you have been thrust into a place which has left you with some kind of adjustment and new direction in which your faith comes to life and finds expression? What does that look like for you?

is there an opportunity in front of you right now to adjust the course of your faith for the moment in which God has placed you?

let’s make one more consideration to close out this message today. Think about a level two detour. Level one detours are placed upon you without choice. Something in life turned you around, and you had no choice but to respond in some way. Level two detours are opportunities for adjusting the course of your faith which may be completely voluntary. Can you identify any opportunities like that in front of you? Maybe you have a story of making that kind of faith adjustment already. Maybe it is a story of an opportunity that is in front of you right now. I hear these stories often from people who make the decision to sign up and be a mentor with our life skills class. They are stories of people who never saw themselves as being the mentor type before. But when the opportunity came along to steer faith in a direction that pours into the life of someone else through a mentoring relationship, they adjusted course and connected with someone needing a mentor. What does your level two detour look like right now?

When all of humanity fell into sin, Jesus rerouted himself on a journey which ultimately took him to the cross so that you and I could have new life. Is there an opportunity to reroute your journey of faith right now on a detour which brings you closer to God, even if it means taking an adjusted direction to get there?