Luke 10:25-37
Proper 10 (15) - Year C
In days of yore an important question was that of "eternal life." Often it now seems the question is more of "what do I have to do to get by today?
We can phrase that in terms of getting whiter teeth, a desirable partner, a workable bank account, or other such, but it all boils down to smaller life goals rather than larger ones. We are still trying to find a way to keep the Sabbatical Year from our door.
In Matthew (19:16 ff) and 8 chapters later in Luke this same question has the kicker of "sell your possessions and give the proceeds to the poor". To be aware of our neighbor is going to very quickly lead us to this same conclusion. We will be ready to offer to whatever innkeeper is around a blank check (even an innkeeper as sly as Thenardier in Les Miserables?)
In Mark (12:28 ff) we note a difference when this question is not being asked as a test. In this case the "kingdom" is not far away.
So, are you interested in drawing closer to GOD? There is a definite cost. Face it. Enjoy it.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/july2004.html
Hearing and Doing. Another lovely pairing.
Who among us cannot come out with words of wisdom. We know the patter. Formative language runs through every culture in one meme or another.
We hear and can repeat the basics of the accumulated wisdom. We know what's right and wrong. That's built into us.
But there are so many differing and conflictive pressures upon what we hear. Sometimes these are simply too much for us to simply do what we hear. We find ourselves giving more heed to lesser words. We find ourselves choosing alternative directions for no better reason than "because". We ignore what we hear figuring we can beat out a better path, construct a better mouse trap.
For whatever reason, our hearing of "pity", "mercy" and "kindness" seem to be the last things we will try, even though they, also, are built in to us.
As we draw nigh to Sunday, Resurrection Day, the First Day, may we tune our hearing the whisper of a plumbline stilling itself in direct line with mercy.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/july2004.html
Most test questions have a built-in expected answer. Usually test questions are hypothetical in nature, looking to bolster one theory or another.
When we have our eye on a larger picture it becomes possible to respond to test questions in a manner that shifts the vision of the asker of test questions and allows a different response to rise out of their imagination, heretofore blocked because of the power of the question they asked. Test questions are also questions of limits that allow us to avoid stretching our mercy or implementing love steadfastly.
When finally faced with a storied response it becomes evident that the initial question wasn't sharp enough to lead us past today, only strong enough to perpetuate yesterday.
When, in this case, the tester began looking for a limit to mercy, they found they needed to ask a different question: "Who is not my neighbor."
When test questions are paired with their obverse they are able to turn and face a situation with hope of healing partiality and restoring mercy to its crucial position in logic.
= = = = = = =
A word history [MISSING URL] for neighbor from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.
Loving one's neighbor as oneself would be much easier, or perhaps much more difficult, if the word neighbor had kept to its etymological meaning. The source of our word, the assumed West Germanic form *nahgabur, was a compound of the words *nehwiz, "near," and *braum, "dweller, especially a farmer." A neighbor, then, was a near dweller. Neahgebur, the Old English descendant of this West Germanic word, and its descendant in Middle English, neighebor, and our Modern English neighbor, have all retained the literal notion, even though one can now have many neighbors whom one does not know, a situation that would have been highly unlikely in earlier times. The extension of this word to mean "fellow" is probably attributable to the Christian concern with the treatment of one's fellow humans, as in the passage in Matthew 19:19 that urges love of one's neighbor.
- - -
plumblines aplenty
pointing toward gravity's center
like a porcupine pincushion
none parallel to the next
only aligned
with its direct oppositein our local neighbor
we find subtle differences
not lined up
with our own field's pull
neighbor is always
about differenceswe find different neighbors
within ourselves
our religious persona
turns priestly
denying wounds
inopportunelyour doctrinal plumblines
claim uniqueness
wounding others
on top of insult
distancing ourselves
from dwellers nearour samaritan neighbor
our set-upon neighbor
offer opportunities
to replumb
from the other side
aligned and in tuneneighbors all
within my personal habitat
with butterfly wings
affecting climates
inside and out
of understanding
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
I was almost appointed to a half-time pastorate in a self-described "conservative" congregation. Back when that seemed to be the case I had begun thinking about this week's lections as the texts for a first sermon.
Knowing there was going to be testing going on in that setting, as well as in the intro to this passage, I was glad to note the double commandment that would speak to this congregation's piety with "loving G*D" and their local mission emphasis with "loving neighbor".
I was less glad to have to also note those troublesome issues of "loving self" and a congregation being an inn for all manner of wounded folk where we would have to be with them, rubbing shoulders and building new stories, without a guarantee that a first downpayment by Jesus in a Samaritan guise would be sufficient over a long-haul and we would need reliance upon mercy beyond our current loving limits. These "also-noted" would begin pushing at needed growth areas of how we live beyond categories and stereotypes and an investigation of how these more difficult aspects fit with a pride of being "conservative". And, whereas pushing engenders push-back, questions of degree of a new revelation that it might be glimpsed and choice of examples would take more intentional care than would later come more easily.
If I could carry a tune I would sing Leonard Cohen's Song of Bernadette for occasions such as this.
Blessings on seeing your congregation, family, job, etc., as a Mercy Inn franchise.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/07/luke-1025-37.html