Go And Do Likewise
This is an outline of my
sermon text for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, on July 14,
2019. The video is from Redeemer. I used the Gospel lesson; Luke 10:25-37, the Parable of the Good
Samaritan as my inspiration for my message. + pBRC
Be with us God
as we open our hearts and minds to your Holy Word.
Move our hearts and souls and bodies to share your love and do your will.
We pray in the name of the Creator & of the (+) Son & of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Move our hearts and souls and bodies to share your love and do your will.
We pray in the name of the Creator & of the (+) Son & of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
·
Whenever I am not sure what to do with a text, I turn to
some of my favorite preachers and look at what they said about the text, and
that usually helps to guide me.
o With this parable, it
wasn’t that I didn’t have any idea of what to say, but that I had too much to
say.
o In addition, the last
time I preached on this parable, several members of one of the churches in
Wisconsin stopped attending that church because in my sermon that Sunday, three
years ago[i],
during the week when Philando Castle was killed by a St. Paul police
officer, I said that “Black Lives Matter.” (link)
§ So I want to be sure
that what I would preach today would be God’s Will and not my wants.
§ I wondered if the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King ever preached on the parable of the Good Samaritan,
and found that he included the lesson in his last speech, “I’ve Been to the
Mountaintop[ii]
(link)” in Memphis, just
days before he was assassinated.
§ Rev. King’s thoughts
can be summarized in these quotes.
· “The first question that the priest asked, the first
question that the Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will
happen to me?’ But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the
question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’".
·
The way to be a neighbor is to be concerned not about
yourself, but about what will happen to someone in need.
o You put yourself
second. They are first.
§ That is what Jesus
was pointing out to the lawyer when he asked what is in the law. The lawyer
said, "You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you
will live.” (Luke 10:27-28)
·
God is first,
neighbors are second, and you are third.
o His philosophy is in line with what Dr. King says is
the point of
·
But the tip of the point that Rev. King shows us is that the
way to be a neighbor is to think about what happens if you DON’T help.
o Could that man who
fell into the hands of robbers along the Jericho Road been a trap to lure
others into the hands of those robbers? CERTAINLY.
o Could those robbers
be hanging around looking for another man to strip and beat and leave half
dead? ABSOLUTELY.
o But what if he was
just a victim? ‘If I do not stop to
help this man, what will happen to him?’
§ Or, to put this in politically charged and dangerous
language, Does the life of a man
who fell into the hands of robbers along the Jericho Road matter?
·
For those of you whose blood pressure just jumped a bit,
take a deep breath. Take another. Relax.
o The reason that
phrase is politically charged is because people don’t listen.
o Black Lives Matter.
Immigrant Lives Matter. Trans Lives Matter.
o Brown Lives Matter.
Refugee Lives Matter. Gay Lives Matter.
§ These rallying cries
have been used to draw attention to situations where people legitimately
believe that there are people who don’t believe that their lives, and the lives
of those they love, matter.
§ The cry of Black
Lives Matter stems from a series of police shootings and violence against young
black men that were being ignored.
·
The protestors chose to not make their argument a question:
‘Do Black Lives Matter?’ and instead to make it a statement, ‘Black Lives
Matter.’
·
The problem came because most white people didn’t pay
attention. They were so used to minority communities asking, that when a
statement was made, they felt it came at their expense. They heard ‘Black Lives
Matter More.’
o That wasn’t what was
being said. It was a simple declaration that their lives matter, and that
attention needed to be paid to them, and to the crisis they faced.
o Let me try to explain
it another way, and hopefully you will listen.
§ You may have worn pink to support Breast
Cancer research or for a loved one who has battled Breast Cancer. You want to
draw attention to this medical problem. You want their fight to matter. You
want their lives to matter.
§ It doesn’t mean that you don’t care about
people with other forms of cancer. It doesn’t mean you have no sympathy towards
those with heart problems, or kidney problems, or battling mental issues. You
accept that their battles and their lives matter.
§ Because those illnesses can happen to
anyone, without regard to gender, or age or even skin color, you can accept
that drawing attention to one group does not mean that others matter less.
§ Many people understood this inherently.
They used similar language to draw attention to their causes and concerns.
· That’s why you subsequently heard that
“Gay Lives Matter,” especially after the shooting of the Pulse nightclub in
Orlando.
· That’s why the call that “Brown Lives
Matter,” “Refugee Lives Matter,” and “Children’s Lives Matter” are coming alive
in response to the inhumane conditions that our federal government is forcing
those seeking a better life in our country to endure.
o
Now
if you feel that sites like the one the Vice President visited on Friday, where
384 men were caged in a room with no air-conditioning, with no cots, no showers
and where they had to receive permission to get a drink of water is fair
treatment for someone who is simply accused of a misdemeanor crime, may God
help you if you violate a traffic law on your drive home.
§ You would also be
ignoring the THIRTY-SIX (36) times the Torah, the first five books of the Old
Testament commands that the alien, the foreigner, the refugee be treated as
equitably as God’s Own People.
§ You would also be ignoring that Jesus
includes those who are imprisoned as those whom he says needs special care and
attention.
· Those who started the Black Lives Matter
campaign never said their lives matter more. They wanted people, white people
with some say, some sway, some authority to agree, and look at addressing their
concerns about the killing and violence being perpetrated on Black people by
the police.
· Those who used that to say Gay Lives
Matter and Trans Lives Matter never said their lives matter more. They wanted
people, straight people with some say, some sway, some authority to agree, and
look at addressing their concerns about the killing and violence being
perpetrated on gay, and especially transgendered people.
· Those who are now saying Brown Lives
Matter, Refugee Lives Matter and Kid’s Lives Matter never said their lives
matter more. They wanted people, anyone with some say, some sway, some
authority to agree, and to get the Federal government to stop separating
families and making children take care of children, and to stop putting people
who are only accused of a misdemeanor crime of living in conditions that no one
would find acceptable for their pets.
· No one has been saying that these peoples
lives matter more than yours. They have just been trying to get your attention
to get you to act.
· Except Jesus. Jesus and Me. Jesus, Dr.
King and me.
o
We
tell the parable of the Good Samaritan because the Good Samaritan valued the
life of the man who fell into the hands of robbers more than he valued his own
safety.
§ There is no dispute about that being the
point. We’ve tried to give cover and reasons to the Priest and the Levite which
don’t stand the inspection of those who know the Cleanliness Codes of which
those cover stories try to use to their advantage.
§ ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen
to him?’
§ That is saying His Life Matters. More.
· That is accepting that I Am THIRD.
· That is the answer to who is your
neighbor, whom you are to love as much as you love yourself.
o
“Which
of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands
of the robbers?’ (Luke 10:36)
§ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ (Luke 10:36-37)
§ He said, “The one who valued his life.”
§ He said, “The one who valued the beaten man’s life
more than his own. That is who was a neighbor to the man who fell into the
hands of the robbers.”
o
Jesus said, ‘Go and do likewise.’" (Luke
10:37)
§ ‘Go and do likewise.’
§ ‘Go and do likewise.’
§ ‘Go and do likewise.’
§ AMEN.
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