08 7th Sunday after Pentecst Deut 38.9-14
My friends, I greet you today in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Today we will look at three stories. At first they will seem to be different stories. They occur at different times. One of them never actually happened. And yet they have more in common than you may think at first.
The first story is the story of a man standing before a large crowd. Now this isn’t the first time that this particular man has stood before this particular group of people, but this time is different. The man is Moses. The people are the children of Israel. They are preparing to enter the promised land. And Moses recounts for them their 40 year history and all that has happened. He tells them of their slavery in Egypt, how they crossed the sea on dry land, how they stood before Mt. Sinai and saw the presences of God. He reminds them of preparing to enter the promised land, and then refusing to do it, and then of the wandering the came as a result. But here they are again, preparing to enter the promised land one more time. Moses reminds them of the covenant, the promise that God made with them and the blessings and curses that come with that covenant. It is at this point that our lesson comes in. “Don’t be overwhelmed by these things. They aren’t impossible for you to do. It’s not like you have to go into the heavens or cross the seas to see this, rather the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” In other words, “You can do it. You can live this way”
Now you don’t have to spend much time in the story of the people of God to see that they don’t have a very good track record. Even though these things are within their reach, they fail to keep them. They mess up again and again and again and again and again. And every time, they come to their senses, they repent and God forgives and restores.
You see this story is not about the Children of Israel. They are major characters in this story, but the story is not about them. Rather this story is about their God. This story is about our God. It is a story that shows his grace and mercy. It is a story that highlights his patience and forgiveness. It is a story that emphasizes his reconciliation and restoration. If this story were about them, then God would be patient, forgiving, graceful, merciful, reconciling and restoring because of them. But there is nothing in them that has earned or deserved these things. Now to be sure, they do have these things, but they have the patience, forgiveness, grace, mercy, reconciliation and restoration from God because of who he is. The have it because thy have a great God.
Our second story is a familiar one. Of course the danger with familiar stories is that they can become too common and we lose the power of their impact. We think we know the story, and don’t always take the time to really hear it. But we tell the story, and listen to the story so that that doesn’t happen. This story is about a traveler. And along his journey he is ambushed by robbers. They take everything he has, even his clothes. They beat him up and leave him for dead on the side of the road. Superman is flying overhead and sees the man, and yet he just keeps flying. He would have stopped, but he was in a hurry. There is 1st aide seminar on the other side of town and he doesn’t want to be late. A short while latter, Spiderman is swinging through the area. He sees the man, swings to the other side of the street and keeps going. He would stop, but his girlfriend, Mary Jane, is meeting him at the theater for the premier of her new movie, and he doesn’t want to keep her waiting. Lex Luthor, the self-proclaimed greatest criminal master mind of all time comes by. He sees the poor traveler and goes to him. Lex bandages his wounds, covers him up and takes him to the local hospital so that the traveler can get the kind of care that he needs.
This story is a story with a major twist. The two people that we would naturally expect to stop and offer help, don’t. The two people that would always be called upon to help, the two people who have always helped, don’t. And the one person who you would least expect to help, the one who is associated with all that is bad, he is the one who does good.
Now the way Jesus told this story the hero was a Smaritan, and what a scandle this would have been. We know this story as the parable of…? The good Samaritan. But in Jesus’ day the words “good” and “Samaritan” were not words that you would use in the same sentence. Well, unless you added the phrase “There is no such thing as a” in front of it.
Now we can talk about Superheros amd Samaritans until we are blue in the face, and we would not be fully grasping the point. You see this is not a story about Superheros or Samaritans, it is not about victims and robbers. Although they are certainly characters in this story. No this is a story about mercy. It is a story about undeserved, freely given mercy. And that is the emphasis. The traveler was not helped because he was some kind of super important person, but he was helped because someone had mercy on him.
This is the kind of mercy that God has for people. Not just for some, not just for the ones who look or think like us, but for all people. God is merciful. We do not deserve it. Because of our sin we deserve to be separated from God. That is what should happen. But instead our God had mercy on us. Which brings us to the third story.
This final story is a story that you are very closely connected to. Because even though it is not a story about you, you are one of the major characters in this story. It is the story of God’s people today, here now and in this world, this place. It is really not all that different from the pervious stories we just heard. In fact our story is the continuation of the 1st story we heard about God’s people preparing to enter the promised land. Like them we know what God expects of us, and we mess up again and again and again and again. And when we do, we go to him asking for forgiveness. And we receive it.
Like the traveler in our second story we find ourselves helpless, only not from robbers but from sin. And so our God became a human being and he died on the cross and rose again, so that our sins would be forgiven, and so that we would have life and reconciliation and relationship with our God. The people of God in our first story passed through the waters of the sea. We passed through the waters of baptism. Made his own dear children at the font.
The people of God in the first story, were not made God’s people for their own sake. They were not the end in and of themselves. Rather they were a means to the end. You see God chose for himself a people and a nation to be his, so that through them the world would come to know God and know who he is, and what it is to live life with him. God set up a people for the sake of the world.
The same is true for you and me. We are not here for ourselves. We do not exist for our own sakes. We are not an end. Rather we are a means to an end. We exist for the sake of the world. We are here so that through us the world would know of God’s great love them. So that they would know the same love and grace and mercy, the same forgiveness, reconciliation and relationship that we know.
The mercy of God that is poured out into our lives, and that marks our lives, the same kind of mercy that was shown to the wounded traveler in our second story, is the kind of mercy that is to be the mark of our lives. We are to show God’s love. And we do this as we care for and serve the people in our lives. This shows up as we provide meals to families who have just had a baby or are struggling with illness. This shows up as we support organizations that care for the homeless and those less fortunate than we are. This shows up as we provide food and clothing for those who need it. And in doing these things we are proclaiming God’s love and mercy. We who have been shown much mercy should have mercy be a mark of our lives.
It is a work that we have been called to do together. By ourselves we can do something, but together we can do a lot more. We are here today as the people of God to share the story of God’s love in Jesus and to enable others to share in the story. This is what ministry is. The ministry that we do for our families and neighbors we do together. That ministry to our neighbors entails you and me as we do this work of God in our place.
He promised to be with us always, and to provide us with all that we need to do this. And so we live as his people making know his story. And enabling others to participate in that story too. This is the story that began a long time ago. It is a story that included the children of Israel. It is a story that reaches through time and includes us. And it is a story that will continue to reach into the future until Jesus returns. May God bless us as we serve him, now and always. Amen.