Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:1-14

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon Title: "Bearing the Fruit of Good Work as Children of God"

Sermon Text: Luke 10:33-34: But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him in his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Last Sunday I received some chuckles from our congregation when I suggested that many of us often regret that Paul Harvey did not write the Bible because we would like to know the rest of the story as far as many of the snippets and brief pictures that we get of situations and people in the Bible. Certainly there are many things we would like to learn about the rest of this familiar story. How long did the man who had suffered at the hands of the robbers stay at the inn? How much did the Samaritan have to come back and pay for his upkeep in the inn, and did he in fact come back and pay as he promised?

I certainly do not claim to know the answers to these and many other questions which are not told as part of this parable. What we do know though is far more than that lawyer who first heard it knew. We do know the rest of the story. We know the punch line. For us it comes as no surprise to learn that the one who helps the man who had suffered at the hands of the robber was a Samaritan. The story is so familiar and his actions have become seen as reflecting what any good concerned person would want to do so that the rest of the story does not have the impact that it would have had upon that lawyer. We are not shocked, dismayed, horrified as we come to see whom Jesus would call the hero of this story. Partly, of course, the punch line does not have that element of surprise and shock for us because most of us do not know any Samaritans. As a result we cannot appreciate the way in which the hero of the story is someone whom this lawyer would have despised. He was someone whom the lawyer would have been raised to see as an enemy. We see his shocked reaction in part as Jesus asks him, "Which of these three, do you think, was neighbor to the man who fell into the hand of the robbers." His reply is interesting. He is unable to come to the point of affirming that this one whom he despised and considered an enemy could possibly have done this good deed while the people he respected like the priest and the Levite had walked past on the other side. So instead of responding, "The Samaritan," he avoids having to give him a name, or even a genetic title by saying, "The one who showed him mercy."

One writer suggested that the full impact of this story can be felt only as we translate it into contemporary terms. She suggested that if she was trying to tell this story in her town it would be someone being mugged near the bus station. The mayor and the pastor from one of the big churches in town would pass by, but a homeless alcoholic would be the one who would come to the aid of the victim. (Forbid Them Not, based on the Common Lectionary, Cycle C, by Carolyn Brown, Abingdon Press, 1991, page 133)

I do not know how you might want to translate this parable into life in Marianna, or our world today and whom you would want to make the hero of the story. Possibly we could think of an American solider injured in Iraq, an American Army General comes by, see him but walks on. An Iraqi Government leader whom this and other American soldiers had helped to come into power comes by, sees him but walk on. But an Isalmic militant on his way to a suicide bombing sees him, stops and has pity on him, gives up what he was planning to do, and does what he can to help him and to ensure that he gets all of the care and attention that he needs.

How often have we heard such a story out of Iraq? We can imagine that if this actually took place it would be splashed across our newspapers, and on all of our new channels. Larry King and others would want to interview the soldier to find out how he felt about getting help from such an unexpected source. Other news casters may well want to try to interview the man who had helped this soldier to find out what had prompted him to change his mission in this way and to reach to help rather than seek to destroy this one he considered an enemy.

In some ways, of course, the story that Jesus tells would have sounded about as unlikely to the lawyer who first heard it as the possibilities of such a story out of Iraq for us today. It is in some ways the shock and unexpected nature of this story that prompts us also to think about the persons in the story with whom we would identify. Certainly I am sure that we would all hope that we would like to identify with this Samaritan and to think that we would be ready to do as he did. To be called a "good Samaritan" after all is not a shocking thing in our world today but rather a title which most people would wear very comfortably. But when we think about it how easy is it for us to see ourselves in that role? After all, if the Samaritan was seen as an enemy, then the probability is that the man who had suffered at the hands of the robbers would also have been seen as an enemy by the Samaritan. Yet however much he might have despised and maybe wished that the robbers had killed the man he has pity on him and does what he can to help him. I wonder how many people who have readily claimed the title of "good Samaritan," would see what they had done to earn such a title was helping not just someone who was less fortunate than themselves, but as actually helping someone whom they despised and would prefer to see dead than alive. How easy indeed would anyone of us find it to identify with the "good Samaritan," in this story?

I feel sure that most of us, even if we have to confess that we have done so on many occasions, would prefer not to identify ourselves with the priest and the Levite who seem so uncaring and so self-centered in this story.

If we do not want to be seen like the priest and the Levite and find that being the Samaritan is not an easy role to play the only person left in this familiar story with whom we might identify is, of course, the man who suffered at the hands of the robbers. I heard recently the story of the way in which this story was acted out, but throughout the story despite what other people may have been doing the stoplight remained on the man who had suffered at the hands of the robbers. What impact would such a presentation of this story have upon you? What difference do you see in the story if you view it from the point of view of the helpless man who has suffered at the hands of the robbers? One of the things that we see very clearly is that he was too helpless to help himself. Without the help of the Samaritan he would have died there on that road between Jerusalem and Jericho. When we start to see ourselves in such a helpless state we begin to see in this story the truth of the gospel message being acted out. The surprising nature and shock of the story as the Samaritan has pity and stops to help reflects the shocking, surprising good news that God also has shown pity on us. The middle section of the "Brief Statement of Faith of our Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)" prompts us to look at our own lives and our failure to be all that God would have us to be as God’s children and to confess, "We deserve God’s condemnation." It would be so easy for that to be the end of the story, and that any hope of a good and loving and intimate relationship with our Creator God has been lost forever. But, of course, we know the rest of the story. The good news, of course, is that instead of leaving us in such a helpless state unable to make ourselves pleasing to God, God has had pity on us, and has comes to us with mercy and with grace to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. Instead of calling us enemies who deserve his condemnation he comes and he calls us friends and children, who are assured not of what we deserve but of love beyond our deserving and of mercy and of grace of which we are not worthy. As we see ourselves lying helpless there on that road between Jerusalem and Jericho we see that the ultimate good Samaritan was Jesus Christ who was despised and rejected himself because he dared to show pity on people like ourselves, and to declare by word and by deed that all people were worthy of God’s love. Instead of being bold to declare that we deserved God’s condemnation he come to declare to us God’s mercy and God’s grace. It is because the people to whom he writes in the church in Colossae have come to hear this good news in Jesus Christ and have come to accept it for themselves that Paul gives thanks for them.

One version of this familiar story that I read recently added something of a suggested ending to the story when it has the man who had suffered at the hands of the robbers fit and well again and ready to leave the inn with gifts of new clothing, food for the journey, and enough money to make it home. As he prepares to leave so he turns to the innkeeper and he asks, "How can I ever repay you?" The innkeeper replied, "By keeping an eye out for hurting ones by the side of the road and caring for them." The man nodded and turned his face towards home. (The Clergy Journal, March 2007, page 42)

In Jesus Christ, God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. We decide to follow Jesus not in the hope of gaining God’s favor, but as a response to all the love, mercy and grace God has already shown to us in Jesus Christ. All of our good works can never repay God for all that God in love and in mercy and in grace has done for us in Jesus Christ. As Paul reminded the Christians in Colossae we show our gratitude to God by bearing the fruit of good work as the children of God in our concern and our compassion for fellow children of God who are hurting and suffering. We bear the fruit of such good work only because we know we would not be the people we are today if God had not kept an eye out for hurting ones like ourselves by the side of the roadways of life and had cared for us. We seek to pass on the love that has been given to us. Let us affirm again the good news of all that God has done for us to assure us that we are indeed God’s children using the words of affirmation printed in the bulletin. Let us stand and affirm our faith together…

Affirmation of Faith: From the Brief Statement of Faith of the