Trinity 13
Luke 10:23-37
September 15, 2019
“Living Neighborly”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Weknow we should love our neighbor as ourselves. But with any law or commandment,there’s always ways to find loopholes or make up loopholes. Like the classicdriving over the speed limit. We say, “Well, they allow you to go 5 over.”There’s our loophole for that. Or when God says don’t gossip about others, ourclassic loophole is, “I’ll only tell just this one person.”
Withthe commandment “love your neighbor as yourself,” the classic loophole is tojust change the definition of neighbor. “Well, who’s my neighbor?” If there’ssomeone we don’t really want to make the effort to love, then we just tellourselves, “Well, they’re not my neighbor. They’re not my responsibility. Idon’t have any connection to them. They don’t deserve any help. Etc.” We canalso change the definition of love. Instead of love being “caring for them,wanting the best for them, putting their needs above our own”—we change the wordlove to mean “leave them alone and let them do whatever they want to do.” Soinstead of love our neighbor we get leave our neighbor alone. That’s anotherway around the commandment to love our neighbor.
Butin the Gospel reading it’s the first redefinition. Changing the definition ofneighbor. Jesus tells this lawyer to love his neighbor as himself if he wantsto get life in heaven. But the lawyer is expert at loopholes in the law. Hesays, “Well, who’s my neighbor?” Now we will talk about today a right way toask that question, “who’s my neighbor?” Because that’s important too. To knowexactly who God wants us to help. Butthis lawyer isn’t honestly asking the question. What he means is, “I don’t haveany neighbors.”
Thatmay sound strange, but it’s true. The lawyer actually thinks there’s no onethat needs his help. He actually thinks there aren’t any neighbors that needhis love. Now I’ll show you how this works because we also do it all the time.The lawyer is a well-off guy. Most likely in the middle to upper ranks ofsociety. The people that he hangs around with are also all like him. They’redoing just fine all by themselves. So the lawyer says to himself, “There’s noone that needs my help. All of my neighborsare just fine. Who are these neighbors I’m supposed to be loving?” Of course,there are truly people he should be loving and helping. But to him, thosearen’t his neighbors. Those are all people way beneath him. People that don’tdeserve his help. So he honestly thinks he doesn’t have any neighbors to love.
Tothis Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus restores the rightdefinition of neighbor. Who is our neighbor? We are the neighbor. And we are tobe a neighbor to everyone who’s in need of our help. So, in essence, everyoneis our neighbor. No matter who they are. With this, Jesus puts us to shame.
Whocan Jesus honestly call His neighbors? Who’s a neighbor to Jesus? Well, He hasthe Father and the Holy Spirit. Who else reigns in heaven with the Son of God?Who’s Jesus going to be neighborly with up there? There’s no one, right? ButJesus wasn’t content to only love His neighbors in heaven. Instead, like aloving, good Samaritan, He came down off His heavenly road and descended intothe dirt with us.
Jesuswas pleased to come down here and be your neighbor. He’s your good neighbor.Your good Samaritan. He’s the real StateFarm, “Like a good neighbor, Jesus is there.”He’s the real Mr. Rogers, singing, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” Jesus isyour good neighbor. He saw you and me in our sin, dying. And He didn’t say,“Well, these guys aren’t my neighbors. They don’t deserve my help. I don’t haveanything to do with these mortals.” Instead, He did everything for us.
Here’swhat Jesus, your good neighbor, has done for you. He saw your wounds, the battlewounds of your sin and death. He saw you bleeding and dying. And He hadcompassion on you. He bound up your wounds. This He did by taking your sin anddeath to the cross. As He died for your sin and died your death, your woundswere taken away. Stitched up. Bandaged and healed. Then He poured oil and wateronto your wounds. These are Holy Baptism and Holy Communion.
Hewashed you clean in the waters of Holy Baptism. Just like Mom does when youfall off your bike and skin your knee. She’s there to clean you up and dressthe wound. There’s Jesus with the water of Baptism to clean you up and make youwhole again and pure again. To give you a good conscience and take away allfear.
Andthere He is with the wine of Holy Communion. He’s there to sanctify you. Tokill all the germs of sin and death. To give you His own body and blood—His ownlife. Which is the health of your soul.
Andthen Jesus puts you on His back and brings you to His inn. This is His holyChurch. His Father’s house. That’s where you live now. You live in the Father’shouse. Jesus has paid your reservation and room fee. And you will live in theFather’s house for eternity. We’re members of His Church here on earth and whenwe die we’ll continue to be members of His Church in heaven. And He pays theentire bill.
Youare Jesus’ neighbor. He loves you. He loves you as His own self! Praise God.And now He says to you and me at the end of the Gospel reading, “You go, and dolikewise.” You go and be a neighbor to others.
Nowwe’ve already said that everyone is our neighbor. And this is true. But thefact is—we’re not Jesus. Are you really going to be able to help every singleperson in the world? I don’t think so. Jesus can do that. He’s the Son of God.But we cannot possibly help every single person that needs help in the world.So now we want to ask that question in the right way, “Jesus, You are my GoodNeighbor who has shown me mercy. Now who is my neighbor?” There’s a right wayto ask that question and there’s a right answer.
Haveyou noticed the world becoming less and less neighborly? Neighbors don’t talkto each other as much? People don’t observe simple courtesies and politeness asmuch? Have you noticed people are too busy to make small talk and spend timewith one another? Of course we have. Now what’s to blame? Well, all kinds ofthings. Of course there’s TV and the internet. Social media. We can throw someblame that way. Smartphones. Everyone staring down at their phone instead oftalking to one another. Sure, we’ll throw some blame that way.
Butthere’s another aspect that’s changing in America—we’re losing the doctrine ofvocation. You’ve all heard that less and less people are Christian in Americaall the time. Well, the more Christianity goes away, then the more thiscommandment goes away—“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Christians understandthat we have a vocation to love our neighbor. In fact, that’s pretty much thewhole point of life is to love our neighbor. Love God and love neighbor.
Butas America becomes less Christian, love your neighbor as yourself is simplyreplaced with love yourself. Wouldn’t you agree? Wouldn’t you agree that theAmerican way now seems to be love yourself rather than love others as yourself?We’re losing our way. We’re losing the doctrine of vocation—which is that God’smain desire for us here on earth is to serve and love our neighbor.
Sowe’ll reclaim a bit of that right here and now in the last part of this sermon.Who is your neighbor? Jesus has told you, “You go and do likewise.” He wantsyou to live neighborly. So who is your neighbor? Well, to figure that out youlook to the doctrine of vocation. You ask, “Who has God put in my path for meto serve?” Remember—the point of your life is not to serve and love yourself.But to serve and love others. So who has God put in your path to love andserve?
Itstarts in your immediate family. When you’re born, the first people you love isMom and Dad. Then brothers and sisters. Grandma and Grandpas. So forth. Then ifGod gives you a spouse and children—these are your immediate neighbors. Theword “neighbor” in English and in Greek literally means those close to you. Thosenear to you. There’s no one nearer than your family.
Thenwe walk out a little further from our family. And the next closest neighborsare our church family. Our brothers and sisters in Christ. Who is yourneighbor? The people right here in this building with you. And the people inall the other church buildings. We give our offerings to Church to make surethat this family is provided for. To make sure the Gospel continues to be heardand delivered. And we make sure to help whenever any one of us needs mercy.
And,finally, then we walk out a little further to the people in our workplaces, ourcommunities, our state, and our nation. And there also we find more neighborsthat God puts in our path. People close to us that need our love and mercy.
Asyou all know, it can very often be difficult to know when to help and when notto help, who to help and who not to help. But the doctrine of vocation helps alot with that. We realize that God puts people in our paths that He wants us tolove and help. Just like He did for the Good Samaritan. We can’t help everyone.But God will bring to us the people we are to love. It starts with our family.Then with the Church. And then to the workplace and the rest of society.
Inour vocations we can live neighborly and do just as Jesus said, “Go and dolikewise.”
InJesus’ name. Amen.
