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08.31.08

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

THE GOOD SAMARITAN CHURCH

ECCLESIASTES 4:1-12; LUKE 10:25-37

• The Call to Witness
• What We Need To Do
• From the day Peter preached the very first Christian sermon to the crowds of people gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, through all the centuries to this present day, believers have sought to understand what it means to be witnesses for Jesus Christ
• Jesus’ commission to those who would follow him is very clear: we who are called to follow are to continue the work in the world that Jesus began
• So important is this work that Jesus’ charge is recorded four times by the writers of the New Testament (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:45-48, and Acts 1:8)
• In each of these places, the words of Jesus are stated differently
• Go, make disciples, baptize and teach
• Go into all the world and preach the gospel
• Repentance and forgiveness will be preached to all nations
• You will be my witnesses
• Yet, the point of his words is quite clear: Jesus came to begin to fulfill the mission of God in the world and he has entrusted the responsibility of continuing this work to his followers
• What Jesus gave us is a clear indication of what he wants us to do, but what he didn’t do is give us a plan, a prescription, a foolproof method that would work every time in very situation
• He did, however, give us the power we need to accomplish his mission through the blessing of the Holy Spirit
• There is no book entitled “Evangelism for Dummies” that we can refer to
• The “how-to” he left up to us to figure out for ourselves through the guidance of God’s Spirit, and that, I think, was intentional
• Recognizing the diversity that exists among the people God created, there isn’t one cut-and-dried way to proclaim this good news effectively
• The most effective way to fulfill this commission Jesus has given us is to be in touch with the needs of the people to whom we seek to minister, and those needs will vary from generation to generation and from culture to culture
• How We Try to Do It
• So in those centuries from then until now, we have devised many different ways to be the church, to proclaim the good news and share God’s love and grace with others
• We hold revival meetings, camp meetings, and prayer meetings
• We have pipe organs, praise bands, guitars, harps, flutes, symphony orchestras, choirs, and anything else we can think of to lead us in our worship
• Some of us raise our hands and shout and yell, and some of us bow our heads in silent reflection and meditation
• As we have devised a variety of ways to worship, so have we searched for ways to witness
• We stand on street corners and yell at those who pass by
• We send multicolored postcards with clever graphics
• We knock on doors, make phone calls, send out personal letters
• We broadcast services on TV, radio, and web casts
• We take out ads, hang posters and develop web pages, all for the purpose of seeking to be faithful to Christ’s call to faith and service
• Are any of these better than the others?--No
• Are these methods effective? 
• Sometimes yes and sometimes no, depending upon the circumstances in which we use them
• The critical question we need to ask as we seek to minister in the name of Jesus is “Does the ministry we are offering meet the needs of those we are trying to reach?”
• The Samaritan Model
• Jesus’ Model for Ministry
• While Jesus doesn’t give us a cut-and-dried program for mission and evangelism that will work in any and every situation, he does give us a model that is applicable in every situation
• The application of the model will vary from circumstance to circumstance, but the model gives us a framework around which we can structure our ministry
• That model is based upon Jesus’ own understanding of the purpose and mission of his life
• Jesus walked into his hometown congregation one Sabbath in the early days of his ministry
• When the time came for the Scriptures to be read, Jesus took the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and read these words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
• When he finished reading, he said to those gathered there, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your presence.” (Luke 4:16-21)
• In the presence of those gathered that day, Jesus declared the purpose and goal of his life and ministry: Jesus came to meet our needs
• The litany of things described in that passage was simply a litany of human needs
• In that simple statement said in Nazareth a long time ago, Jesus outlined one of the most effective means of leading people to find the power of God in their lives—show them how God’s love meets their needs
• His mission statement ought to be ours as well: “We have been called to meet needs”
• Elements of the Samaritan Model
• In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shows us how to apply this model to our ministry
• The discussion that day centered around what’s really necessary to go to heaven or to find life
• The conclusion of the argument is simple: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself
• Jesus said to do that and you will really live
• But the lawyer, wanting further clarification, seeking to find the answer to the question, “How do I do that in my daily life?” asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
• So Jesus told a story about what it would look like
• As he concluded his story, Jesus said go and do the same thing, and this is the only story Jesus told that he concluded with these words
• It’s the story of a Samaritan simply responding to a need
• It’s the actions of the Samaritan the Jesus lifts up as the model for us to apply to our individual lives and to the life of the church
• And the action of the Samaritan is based upon the model of Jesus’ own life
• There are four important points we need to notice about the way this Samaritan responded to the man who had been beaten and robbed
• Go to Where Needs Are
• The first point is that he came to where the man was
• Unlike the priest who passed by at a distance, and the Levite, who came a little bit closer but still did nothing meaningful to help, this Samaritan got off his donkey and came directly to where the man was lying
• He met him where he was, on the man’s own terms
• Obviously the man was not able to come to him so he went to the man to discover his needs
• The priest and the Levite represent two other ways we, as individuals and as the church, have responded to the needs around us
• Like the priest, we have often ignored the needs we encounter, pretending we don’t see, and we pass by, wrapped up in our own concerns
• Like the Levite, sometimes we may dare to come a little closer, realizing that maybe we should do something, so we toss a few dollars at the problem and we continue on our merry way
• But the Samaritan challenges us to do what Jesus did—to get off our donkey and go to where the people are and find out what the needs are instead of waiting for people to come to us
• Meet Immediate Needs First
• The second point is that he ministered to the wounded man’s immediate needs first
• He dressed and cared for his wounds, took him to the inn, and provided for his continuing care there
• Although they were both men of differing faiths and nationalities, one a Jew and one a Samaritan, he didn’t first try to convert him before ministering to his needs
• Notice that he didn’t say to the man, “Are you saved?  If you were to die today, do you know you would go to heaven?”
• It’s not that spiritual matters are unimportant, but the man’s most urgent needs were his physical needs
• A loving response to physical needs opens others up so that we might have the opportunity to address the spiritual needs in their lives
• As Paul says in Romans 12, “If your enemy hungers, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink,” and as the writer of James says, “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?”
• Such was Jesus’ pattern
• Jesus never began by preaching, but by touching, healing, and helping
• Only after people were touched with his love were they able to hear and believe his message
• Give of Yourself to Help
• Thirdly, notice that this Samaritan gave of himself to help
• He invested himself in this man’s situation and used the resources he had available
• These were his own resources—his own time and energy, his oil and wine, his donkey, his money, and possibly even the shirt off his own back to make the bandages
• He was willing to give all he could give and more to save this man’s life
• Ministry of this type is costly, but is it not worth it to save the life and improve the condition of another child of God?
• This man gave no thought for himself—he saw a need and he gave
• Have we not, too often, backed away from helping because it was too costly for us?
• Has the church not, too often, cut the dollars and time and energy it devotes to mission in order to maintain its own comfort?
• Demonstrate the Love of God in Action
• Finally, we must notice that by doing these things, he demonstrated the love of God to this wounded traveler
• It made no difference that they were different
• It made no difference that, in order to help, he had to place himself in harm’s way
• It made no difference that providing help was costly
• This was a fellow human being; this was another child of God
• Moved by love for another human being, he had compassion for him
• He didn’t have to preach to him
• His loving, compassionate, self-giving acts demonstrated his love for God and God’s love for all who suffer
• And, perhaps, it opened the opportunity for him to share his faith with him at another opportunity
• Are We a Good Samaritan Church?
• The Condemnation of Our Actions
• The words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes challenge and condemn us
• Solomon, in his wealth of wisdom and experience, saw suffering and oppression, with no one willing to provide comfort
• And that suffering was so great that Solomon concluded that the dead are better off than the living, and better still would be never to be born
• He saw envy as people constantly strived to outdo others
• He saw selfishness and greed as people tried to grab as much as they could for themselves and work meaninglessly for no one’s benefit but their own
• And Solomon’s conclusion?—all this is meaningless, all this effort is vain because there is no love and compassion and grace
• So Solomon says we need each other, more than that, we are responsible for each other
•  It is only in meaningful, self-giving relationships that we truly discover the love of God
• The Steps We Need to Take
• There are a lot of wounded travelers out there
• Do we know who they are?
• Do we know what their needs are?
• Have we taken the time to go and find out?
• Are we willing to meet those needs, to give of ourselves, and thereby, demonstrate the love of God?
• So often in the church, we don’t know if the ministries we offer are actually meeting people’s needs
• We engage in activities simply because we believe that’s what we’re supposed to do, that’s what we’ve always done
• And we do it without any clue of who we’re trying to reach, what their needs are, and if our programs come even remotely close to addressing those needs
• So we find ourselves often engaged in meaningless activity that satisfies nobody’s needs but our own, and we approve of it by saying, “Well, we tried.  We can’t make people come.”
• The Good Samaritan Church is the model for outreach and evangelism Jesus sets before us
• It’s a model that’s applicable to every time and place in every generation
• And it works because it keeps the church current and connected to its culture
• Until we’re willing to go to where people are, understand their needs and invest ourselves in meeting those needs by demonstrating the love of God, we have no chance of fulfilling Christ’s call
• It’s time we stop “playing church” and start “being the church”
• Otherwise, we’re just wasting our time