Sermon for July 15th 2007

For The Story Stool Time (when the children are invited forward), I shared the story of John 6:1-12, where Jesus feeds the multitude of people using only five small loaves of bread and two small morsels of fish offered by a young boy.

I shared an interpretation of the story that posits the miracle in the action of feeding so many people with so little food. The interpretation speaks of the little boy touching the hearts of all those present through his act of generosity. As a result the people all reach into their own packs and purses and pockets and take out thier own lunches and share them with one another. The miracle comes from the transformation of a selfish heart that suddenly is able to share without concern with others ... It's a powerful story about the abundance of the Kingdom of God and how sometimes all we need to do is share ...

The Sermon:

Jesus used stories quite effectively … He knew how to spin a tale, and bring his audience from where they were, to where he wanted them to be … The story of the Good Samaritan is just such a story.

In the context of his journey from Galilea to Jerusalem, Jesus is preparing himself for what lies ahead. Theologians have argued whether or not he knew that he was going to die – but at the very least he knew that his life was about to under go a radical alteration. He was pushing the envelope, he was challenging the status quo, he was upsetting the proverbial apple cart. At the very least, Jesus would have known that he was going to have a very, very rocky road. The trial was inevitable, torture and suffering was pretty much a given …

So, he was preparing himself, and preparing his followers. He wanted them to be ready. Not only to watch him suffer – but to be prepared for the moment in time when they themselves would suffer too …

As a result, Jesus spent a great deal of his time and energy speaking of the Kingdom of God and what it is like. The story of the Good Samaritan is an example of Jesus teaching us about the radical nature of the Kingdom of God …

A young man asks Jesus a simple question – “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Not your run of the mill question, but to one involved in what you would loosely describe as the institution of the Church, it is what undergirds the whole understanding of the institution and our reason for involvement therein … If we’re not getting rewarded in this life time, we better be rewarded in the next life time …

The young man has a vested interest in knowing whether he would be burning in hell, or savouring the rewards of heaven … What must I do he asks the rabbi?

Be a good neighbour … comes the easy answer. But who is my neighbour he asks further?

So Jesus, answers the question with a story … a familiar story, that in its familiarity has lost some of its impact. We know the story too well. We’ve heard it too many times. We know what is about to happen, and so we tend to miss the obvious impact this story had …

Let’s take a moment to retell it … A young immigrant who has just arrived in Brandon was on his way to work at the Maple Leaf Plant. He didn’t speak English well, he had just arrived from Latin America in the last week. He was trying to set up a new life for himself and his young family. In his pocket was all his id, his passport, his work permit and all the money he and his family had until his next pay day. He was walking along the Richmond near Trinity United and Bethel Assembly thinking about work when suddenly a couple of hoods jumped him and pounded him into the pavement. They robbed him of his id and his papers, his money, his cell phone, wallet and as a final insult they took his shoes and his coat, leaving him battered and bloodied on the side of the road – unconscious, bleeding, and utterly alone …

In a moment two cars passed by the young man lying unconscious on the road. In the first car was a minister from one of the local churches. He was intent on getting to the church to prepare for the board meeting that was happening that night. The Congregation was getting ready to address the issues that are arising from the dramatic increase of immigrants in Brandon and the many challenges they faced. He and the church wanted to do something about it, so they were getting ready to offer English as a second language classes, set up support groups and get ready to just be present and help in whatever way these new communities needed … He glanced that the young man and thought to himself – “he must be sleeping it off … why does he have to do it on the lawn of my church?” He slowed slightly, but continued on shaking his head with disgust.

In the next car was the chair of the Community Group that was formed in response to the sudden and dramatic influx of immigrants to the community. Like the Board of the Church, they saw the needs and they pulled together a number of community people to help out. Today they were sitting down with some officials from various levels of Government to begin accessing funding and resources to put this vision into a reality. The meeting today would be tense and high-powered, and his mind was focused on getting the biggest bang for the buck for his community. As he drove by the young man on the side of the road, he glanced over and thought – “really? Couldn’t he stagger his way home last night?” As he continued to drive by, intent on getting to his meeting on time, and getting money to help the poor immigrants to his community.

The young man lay there … still bleeding … still unconscious … still desperately alone …
Then a battered old car pulls up … out of his steps … NOW, this is where the story can take a dramatic turn … In the Liberation Theology take on this story, the figure is the GOOD …, and in the blank we add whatever term is current: the good homosexual, the good biker, the good Taliban member, the good First Nations person, the good East Indian, The good welfare mom, the good … whatever person or group flies beneath our radar and has been the recipient of our contempt, is the person who we are to insert in this story … Look deep within and find the figure that we distrust, or fear, or even hate … and place them in that role …

That’s how powerful this story can be …

But this story can be even more powerful.

This story can be very dramatic if we step back and for a moment see and experience it from the point of view of the man, or woman who is lying battered and bloodied and broken on the side of the road …

A recent immigrant … a substance addicted first nations person … a homeless drug addicted street person … a young mom on her way to her underpaying job … if the person on the side of the road begins as a marginalized figure and through violence loses EVERYTHING, including their identity, where do they have left to turn?
Their neighbour …

The first one is too preoccupied … The second one is too rushed … They watch as car after car speeds past them … maybe they are conscious and just watching … Until one who is marginalized JUST LIKE them steps out and lends a hand …

Not only do they offer care … they give the victim back their identity … they are no longer an un-person… a nameless, faceless figure by the side of the road – they are a PERSON, who is broken, and battered, and bloodied and worthy of care, compassion and love … A hand is offered, care is extended and help is provided … Not just a simple – “there there” and a pat on the hand and a shake of the head, but a commitment to care – a commitment to get the person from the side of the road to a place of healing – the hospital … a clinic … a warm bed …

In our scenario, it would play out with the Samaritan figure going the step further and contacting Maple Leaf so that the victim would not be jobless, it would involved helping find out who this person is, and returning to them their identity … It would be about being present in a real way as the healing journey begins …

Both the victim and the Samaritan become people to one another and the Kingdom of God becomes real and tangible … it is more than just words.

This is radical stuff … this is not for the faint of heart … This is about altering our reality and living in a new territory, a territory where God’s ways become our ways …

The heart of the Kingdom of God is radical inclusion – everyone has a place. The nameless immigrant lying battered on the roadside AND the good homosexual, the good terrorist, the good street person they are included ALONG with us … everyone has a place.

The Kingdom of God is a place of radical abundance – there is enough for everyone. The five barley loaves and the two grilled fish become symbols of our fetters being loosened and our shift to being open to share with each other and with complete strangers … The little boy showed the way, and a crowd was transformed.

The Kingdom of God is about being in uncharted territory – it is where God wants us to be. Right now, realistically speaking – we live in a time and a place of decline. Our town is struggling, our Church is aging, our community is dying … but we ARE people of the Resurrection. Our challenge is to think outside the box – to celebrate what we have and what we are, while boldly embracing and welcoming radical new ways of being Church beyond this group … The Church is the people – all the people … the people we greet on the street each day, the people we sit at fellowship with, the people we live alongside … Just because they don’t worship here today, doesn’t mean they aren’t church – it just means the Church is in transition and something new is forming …

The Kingdom of God is about revisioning the world in a bold new way and living accordingly … The stories Jesus told have universal and timeless messages … What he said 2000 years ago in a time of huge societal transition, still speak to us today …

Faith based on Hope, love, care and compassion is what we have … and it is all we need … The vision is clear – The Kingdom of God … the challenge is for us to look forward rather than trying to defend at all costs what once was …

Jesus didn’t advocate the support of the temple and its structure – he wanted his followers – and us to think beyond the institution that is the church. Today we stand in a place where the institution has been found lacking – just look to the settlement announced by the Catholic Church in Southern California … Our own denomination is struggling with issues of abuse, falling attendance, and aging congregations (ourselves included), yet we stand in a yeasty time where more and more people are craving something spiritual. Even in our little town, young people are asking the big questions of spirituality, and even though they find the Institution lacking, they look to the Church …

Our challenge is whether we will be too distracted to pause and help, or do we have the faith, the courage and the boldness to stop and to not only help the nameless victim lying battered on the side of the road, but to stop open our hearts, our arms and our lives to them, and to welcome them in …

The story Jesus told – the stories we retell, are not comfortable stories. They are challenging stories. They are stories that should cause us pause. They are stories that should change our way of seeing the world, our faith, our lives and what it is that we are about as people of faith gathered together as Church …

The story of the Good Samaritan is about including ALL people … The story has been told … now the challenge is for us to live that story today in the streets of Minnedosa … the challenge is to make this story OUR story …

There are battered and wounded people all around us … we are called to care for them, we are called to stop and lend them more than a fleeting thought and few shallow words … we are called to engage and transform the world … we are called to care … about each other, and about the nameless stranger who happens by … we are called to care for our neighbour …

And it begins here (heart) … and is expressed here (hands) ...
May it be so – thanks be to God …
Let us pray …