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"Go, and Do Likewise" Luke 10:25-37
by Clancy Nixon
July 15, 2007
Church of the Holy Spirit
Ashburn, Virginia
www.HolySpiritAnglican.org
Many historians call the time of Enlightenment beginning in the eighteenth
Century the "Age of Reason." That was a time when many in our culture began to
radically rethink many of the underlying assumptions about our world and how we live
our lives. In many ways, we continue to live in the Age of Reason, though some might
disagree with the advent of Post-modern ways of thinking. In any event, now we know
that the earth is not the center of the universe, but rather that we are living in this tiny
speck of a solar system on the outer arm of a huge galaxy numbering thousands of
millions of stars in a universe numbering thousands of millions of galaxies. Reason
brought us this understanding, and the process of rationalization proceeds apace to help
us find more efficient, more effective ways of ordering our lives. We continue to see a
lifting of old taboos, a radical reordering of how we live, year by year, all based on how
we think about it in light of science and new philosophy. We want to live reasonable
lives, to make a reasonable living, and to have a reasonable amount of spare time. One of
the worst epithets you can tar someone with in the DC area is to say that they are not
being reasonable.
In our gospel story, the expert in the law seems like a reasonable man. He
wanted to know if Jesus was reasonable, too. And he asked a very big question, the most
important question any of us can ask a question about his eternal destiny: The lawyer
asked, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus asked him in return what
the lawyer thought was the answer to his own question, and the lawyer answered
correctly with the summary of the law, also known as the Great Commandment. Let's
say that Scripture from Luke aloud together: "'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, 'Love
your neighbor as yourself.'" Luke 10:27 You'll notice that the first half of our mission
statement at CHS is a paraphrase of the Great Commandment.
The lawyer wanted to know what this really meant, so he asked Jesus, "Who is
my neighbor?"
Jesus responded to his question indirectly, by telling the story of the Good
Samaritan who stopped and went out of his way to help a dying man when other
supposedly orthodox religious men wouldn't stop to help.
After telling the story, Jesus asked the lawyer, "Which of them was a neighbor to
the man?" The lawyer replies, "The one who showed mercy on him." Jesus tells him,
"Go, and do likewise."
"Go, and do likewise." Let's say it together: "Go, and do
likewise."
The reasonable lawyer's fear was that it would be too hard to love his neighbor if
everyone was his neighbor. So he asked Jesus who his neighbor was because he assumed
that if he could limit the scope of his duty to where his duty was reasonable, then he could
meet the demands of the law, and so be justified. I'm a lawyer. Once a lawyer, always a
lawyer, because the title "lawyer" means you have graduated from law school. In law
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school, in first year Torts class, students are taught the "Reasonable Man Standard." This
judge-made standard applies in many situations to guide us as to the legal liability of
people for their actions. In American law, there is no positive duty to help a stranger in
need, partly because judges have decided that a reasonable man would not think it his
duty to help, and partly because of the dangers involved.
The lawyer's faulty
assumption about limiting the scope of his duty caused Jesus to reframe the question for
him. Let me explain. The lawyer asked, "Who is my neighbor," because he wanted to
make distinctions between neighbors and non-neighbors, and so limit the scope of his
duty, so he would not have to do more to help others than seemed reasonable.
Essentially, Jesus turned the question around. Instead of answering the question, "Who is
my neighbor," Jesus asked the lawyer, and Jesus asks us all a different question, and here
it is: "Are you a neighbor to those in need of your help?" Jesus is telling us that the right
question to ask is not "what class of people must I love, and what slice of humanity may I
disregard;" the right question is, "who is in need around me?" Instead of looking at
ourselves, and our limited resources in time and money and compassion, Jesus says, look
at the wounded person in front of you. Your neighbor is anyone who needs your help.
Show mercy on them. "Go, and do likewise."
But, you may say, that is not a reasonable way to live. We have all heard it before
let Jesus be the Savior; that is not our job! We have got to have boundaries in our
lives. We can't do it all. And those are right and true statements. We can't do it all, no
matter how filled with the Spirit we are. It's not a reasonable way to live. Jesus knew
that. It's not reasonable to leave the 99 sheep defenseless while you go out and search
for the one that was lost. By the world's way of reckoning, it's not reasonable to take a
lower paying job that requires fewer hours of you so that you can coach your daughter's
soccer team or befriend your unchurched neighbor. It's not reasonable to put aside your
work when you are behind with a looming deadline in order to listen to a coworker who
is grieving some loss. It's not reasonable to see people who interrupt us with their
problems as Angels sent from God to us, to see interruptions as holy. The priest and the
Levite were reasonable not to stop for the wounded man. It is not reasonable to stop to
help travelers in distress. You never know who you might be dealing with they could
hurt you they could even kill you. One of my schoolmates from high school, Birdie
King, was indeed killed by a hitchhiker he had picked up. It's no wonder that Christian
discipleship seems unreasonable to many people. It's often costly.
My friends, allow me ask a foolish question. How did we ever get the idea that
God calls us to a reasonable life? [PAUSE] God calls us to a holy life, not a reasonable
life. In our prayers of the people, we pray for those who minister to the sick, the
friendless and the needy. Jesus is telling us here that we are all called to minister to the
sick, the friendless, and the needy, and we cannot leave it to the Salvation Army, or to
people with a mercy gift.
People are needy right here in our congregation. Some people need your
offerings to the Benevolence Fund just to see a doctor. Here in Northern Virginia, far
from extended family and old friends, people aren't just looking for a friendly church,
where we smile and shake hands. People are looking to make friends with someone in
this church. That takes time. Have you invited a newcomer to lunch recently? How
about an old timer? There are needs all around us. While none of us can meet
everyone's needs, we can all be open to minister God's love to a soul new to us.
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God's economy is not reasonable. The world's economy says if you have a need,
then you choose someone you think you can trust, and ask them to meet your need. If you
need something that costs money, then you pay them to meet your need. That is not
God's economy. God says your need will be met as you reach out and meet the need of
another. Let me say that again: God says your need will be met as you reach out and
meet the need of another. This other person is not necessarily someone you choose, but
often is instead someone God places in front of you. I've gone to Al-Anon meetings from
time to time to remind myself of some basic truths about life. The whole 12-step family
of ministries are built on this same premise. Your need will be met as you reach out and
meet the need of another. Chuck Colson landed in prison for crimes he committed during
the Watergate scandal. In prison, he reached out to meet the needs of others around him.
That is how he found his calling in life, and Prison Fellowship was born. I've seen this
happen over and over again. God will use you in your place of greatest brokenness, the
area of your greatest need, to minister to others with that same need.
It's the law of love: as you give, you will receive. Let's say the words of Jesus
together: "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken
together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it
will be measured to you." Luke 6:38 That is the way Christ builds his church: we bear
one another's burdens, and in that way our burdens are borne.
The Samaritan whom we call good, but whom the Jews despised because of his
race and theology, shows us that everyone is deserving of our love. If someone is
wounded, they need help. Show mercy on the man; show mercy on the woman; show
mercy on the child.
The Jewish lawyer in our story was a reasonable man, but he missed the point. It
is not always reasonable to live a life of self-giving love. Through God's power, you
won't live a reasonable life; you'll live a holy life; a loving life.
Remember what Jesus said at the end of this parable: Go, and do likewise. So I
say to you: Go, and do likewise. Go, and do likewise. Go, and do likewise.
Now I'd like to open the mike and ask you to share briefly, maybe one minute
tops, of how someone has been a Good Samaritan to you, has shown mercy to you.
...
Now I'd like to ask you to pray in silence and ask God how you can go and do
likewise, go and show mercy on a neighbor in need. Who is the wounded person in front
of you? Let's listen in silence.
...
Show mercy. Go, and do likewise. Go, and do likewise. Amen.
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