Citizenship -- A Way of Living

Introduction:

The passage I am about to read from the Gospel of Luke begins with a lawyer, also known biblically as a scribe, asking Jesus a question. The lawyer is a scholar of the law, which means a scholar of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. The scribes are the ones who have taken the teachings of the Torah and written 613 laws that a devout Jew must practice in their daily lives to be faithful follower of God. Let’s listen to the exchange between the scribe and Jesus.

Read Luke10:25

The lawyer asks Jesus the question hoping he can make him look bad in front of his followers. To see if he can find something in Jesus’ teachings that does not affirm the word of God as it is contained in Torah.

There are a couple of words in this verse that I want to define a little deeper that are important to understanding what the scribe’s question is asking. The first words are “eternal life.” We often translate this phrase as Christians as our life in heaven. But that is only part of its meaning. The words eternal life are also another name for God in the scriptures. The life we are connected to now and forever. The other word I want to look at is inherit. The Torah is about Israel being freed from captivity in Egypt and receiving or inheriting the gift of life in the Promised Land. Also remember at the moment of this conversation between Jesus and the scribe, Israel is waiting for a Messiah that will become king, who will be a political leader that frees Israel from captivity once again and return them to a promised land life. Biblical scholars say that this question by the lawyer is asking Jesus, “What do we need to do to be reconnected to God so we can once again become a great nation?”

On this Fourth of July weekend as we celebrate the birth of our nation, is it still not an appropriate and pertinent question for us? What must we do, O God of eternal life, to be connected to you so we may continue to live as a great nation?

But Jesus does not fall for the trap the scribe tries to set for him. He answers with a question, knowing the scribe is well versed in the scriptures.

Read verses 26-28

Jesus actually affirms the scribe. You know what to do. You know the teachings, now live them. Love God with your whole being, love your neighbor as you love yourself.

The scribe realizes that Jesus has emerged from this exchange unscathed, even retaining his air of authority. So he cannot walk away without trying once more to diminish Jesus.

Read verse 29

The word justify means “to acquit, to validate, or to establish oneself as right.” Ok, the scribe responds to Jesus, define neighbor. In the Jewish faith, there is a very strict hierarchy of social value. And there are some in the culture who are deemed so unimportant that they are not even on the list. They have no value at all according to the scribes. Some of them are probably in the crowd and are followers of Jesus. The scribe probably believes he now has Jesus trapped, for now he must either reject the teachings and authority of the Jewish religious leaders and the Temple, or reject some of those who are presently following him.

It is hard for me to comprehend that Jesus, as the incarnate God in our midst, is so rejected and that there are those who go out of their way to try and diminish and humiliate him. All he is trying to do is to show us how to love and be the best we can be together, as a community, as a nation, as God’s people. Yet, we know that this response of rejection of Jesus and his teachings is still strongly expressed today. We still encounter people who diminish the teachings and love of Jesus today.

Again, Jesus is too astute to be channeled by the scribe and now answers his question with a story.

Read verses 30-37

Jesus turns the scribes question from, “Who is my neighbor?” to “Who is acting neighborly?” Christian educator, professor and author Parker Palmer says that there is more to this story than a reversing of the scribe’s question. He says it contains what he calls a secondary agenda. Jesus not only changes the focus of the question, but he directly challenges the teachings of the Temple leaders and their beliefs that some are more loved by God than others. The Samaritan is someone who is not on the social list I referred to earlier. Samaritans are a despised group of people by devout Jews. Let me make an analogy to show how controversial Jesus’ story truly is to his listeners. If Jesus told this parable or story to us today, the role of the Samaritan would be an undocumented alien or a Muslim or a Gay person. It is no wonder that Jesus was always getting in trouble as he continuously was irritating the religious leaders by challenging their beliefs and asking them to see others in a more loving and caring way.

So let’s go back to the original question that was asked by the scribe. “How must I be connected to the eternal life which is love and how does that enable me and us to be a great nation?” I believe in this scriptural context we could substitute the word “citizen” for the word “neighbor.” So we could understand Jesus’ response as, “How do we practice good citizenship?”

Let us turn to the apostle Paul and his writing to the church at Philippi.

Read Phillipians 2:1-4

“If there is any encouragement in Christ.” Remember the prefix “en” means “to be wrapped in.” So if we are to be wrapped in the courage of Christ we must live in compassion and love. Compassion is a combination of two Latin words, com which means “with” and pati which means “to suffer”. Compassion, biblically, means we are willing to enter into another person’s life, even if it means to enter into their suffering, and understand and experience life from their perspective.

In this writing Paul shows us the same progression of relationship that Jesus teaches in the Great Commandment. We love God first, our neighbor second and ourselves third. Yet, in the Great Commandment Jesus reminds us that it is only when we have love for ourselves that we even have the ability to love another. We must be secure in our love of God and God’s love for us, if we are ever going to be able to love others. It is only when we are secure in ourselves that we have the strength and ability to set aside our wants and needs to be fully present for another and be a gift of blessing and compassion for them.

What must we do to be good neighbors, good citizens, so we may live in a great nation?”

Sermon:

When Nancy and I were on vacation, we visited Nancy’s sister and her husband in Colorado Springs. As we drove into the city we passed Fort Carson. On the fences surrounding the post we saw hundreds of signs welcoming home the troops. Many of these signs were obviously hung by family members. “We love you . . . .” “You are our hero.” We asked Nancy’s sister about the signs and she told us that a company was returning home the next day after a tour in Iraq. Nancy’s sister and her husband are both retired full colonels from the Army. They know first hand the joy and the heartache of the troops and their families. In the midst of the discussion, Nancy’s sister told us that some of the troops were now serving their fifth or sixth tour of overseas duty. Then she said, “It is not fair that we have asked and continue to ask so much of pour troops and their families, especially when so little is asked of the rest of us. The toll these continued deployments takes on a soldier and even more his or her family is overwhelming.” You could truly hear the deep care and concern, and yes, frustration in her voice. “We are not even paying for these wars, but we are leaving the cost of them for our children and grandchildren to pay.”

I thought about the difference of what I was hearing from Nancy’s sister versus what I had heard about the shared sacrifice of World War II. I am much too young to know about the war first hand, but there are many of you here who do. I have heard how everyone pulled together as a people and as a nation, sacrificing whatever was needed to win the war. Everyone shared in the effort as citizens as the country fought to protect the ideals of a great nation. That in a time of need and crisis, the whole country came together to face it together, and to resolve it together.

I guess I am somewhat a romantic or an idealist. It seems to me that what it means to be a neighbor or a citizen is that you or we are a people who face times of need and crisis together in a common bond of love and concern for each other. My earliest recollection of public life is when John F. Kennedy was President. You know the words I heard that impacted me. “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” Country, is not some abstract term, but defines us as a people called America.

On this Fourth of July weekend, as we celebrate the birth of our nation, we are reminded of the incredible ideals that define who we are as a people who share their life together. Alexis De Toqueville was a French Social Philosopher who came to America in the early 1830’s to observe first hand this experiment called America. After observing life in this country, De Toqueville said, “What makes America great is that America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, it will cease to be great.” What I believe he meant by this, is if individualism ever becomes more important than our social relationships, if the “I” ever becomes more important than our neighborliness, we will lose what makes us great.

On this Fourth of July, as we celebrate the birth of our nation and the ideals that define who we are as Americans and what makes us great as a nation, may we always remember that we are “one nation under God,” the eternal life of love. And that our love for God is seen in our love of neighbor.

Sermon delived by Rev. George Cushman on July 4, 2010.