Sermon "Compassion" - Marissa Rohrbach

7/28/2019 Sermon "Compassion" - Marissa Rohrbach

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Go and do likewise.

In the name of

Theres a young woman in her early 20s that Ive beentalking to a lot lately.

Shes just about at that point in life where she is feelingready to make her own decisions to really take hold of herown life.

And still, every once in a while, Ill watch as she comes to me or to her mom or to someone else in authority and asksthem to make the decision for her.

She doesnt do it directly but in sort of a round about kindof way.

Tell me what you would do? Tell me how to do this?Whatever the form of the question the underlying desire isto have someone show her the right way.

When in fact, we know thatthe right way is something we

have to find for ourselves.

We have to face the fear of the possibility of getting it wrong and make the decision for ourselves.

But its easier with the tough stuff to hope that someonewe trust will show us the right waythat someone will showus where all the danger spots are

This is exactly what the lawyer is doing in our Gospel today.

He knows the law. He knows the way. But he still wants Jesusto take out the guesswork for him.


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He wants to be assured as we all do that all you need todo is follow this short easy list of tasks and poof. Eternallife.

Which one of us is unlike the lawyer?

He asks Jesus a question. Jesus answers it simply and thenhe says no wait! It must be more complicated than that!

Tell me exactly what I need to doblack and white linesdont leave anything to chance.

Give me the path. Show me the way. Turn me in the right

direction.

Almostdo the work for me?

The lawyer, which probably here means that he had studiedscripture a great deal that he knew the religious law well doesnt want to have to navigate his faith.

He wants Jesus to spell it out. To eliminate the doubt.

And how does Jesus respond?

Not so easily.

Jesus tells a story that many of us have heard more than afew times.

The story of the Good Samaritan is one of Jesus mostfamous parables.

A man goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho and on the wayhe is stripped, beaten, robbed, and left to die.


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Since we presume that this man is a Jewish man, we shouldbe shocked when it is not the priest or the Levite members of his own tribe who stop to care for himno it isthe Samaritan.

The Samaritan and the Jews had despised each other forthousands of years before Jesus told this story.

So the crowd around Jesus would have been uncomfortableas Jesus told this story.

In fact, you can almost hear the lawyers discomfort in hisanswer he doesnt name the Samaritan as being the mansneighbor he just says the one who showed him mercy.

So, as we often do, we find Jesus defying culture, ignoringboundaries, and trying to create a new social order.

We also, though, find Jesus in this story teaching a differentimportant lesson and its that lesson that struck me mostthis week as I thought about these texts.

At the end of our passage today from Colossians, Paul writesthat we have been rescued from the power of darkness andtransferred into the Kingdom of God.

Rescued from the power of darkness and transferred into thekingdom of Godthus enabled, because we have beenforgiven, to share in the inheritance of the saints of light.

Now but not yet of Paul.

Jesus parable today shows us what the kingdom of Godlooks like shows us what we should BE like if we have beentransferred into the kingdom of God.


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There is this dichotomy between light and dark betweenthe lawyer who seeks righteousness based on right-ness andthe Samaritan, wrong by all accounts, who shows mercy.

Dark and light.

Rightness and mercy.

The bigger lesson that Jesus seeks to teach the lawyer withthis parable is that the greater trait is not to be able to quotechapter and verse

Not to have the law to cite as your defense

But to show mercy.

To show compassion.

To be part of the kingdom of God is to show mercy.

We live in the light when we take a step away from beingright when we are brave enough and mature enough tonavigate our own path of faith without the crutches of the

rightness of the law.

Its still nice to be right, isnt it? But the point is that oursalvation doesnt depend on it.

Our salvation depends on Christ who teaches us that thefirst and foremost job of those who would follow him is tocare to welcome, to love, and to show mercy.

We live in the light when we choose this new way its risky,for sure.

Because there are fewer clear signs on our path when loveproves more important than piety.


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Things seem a little more ambiguous because they are.But

If we believe ourselves truly to be saved by Jesus Christ

then our focus has to shift.

Not because doctrine and religious law are bad butbecause Jesus shows us time and time again that love andmercy are greater.

Jesus raises up the Samaritan not because he was able tocite the holiness codes, or quote chapter and verse, orbecause he offered the greatest gift at the temple.

History tells us hed have done none of those things.

Jesus raises up the Samaritan because he shows mercy.Because he puts his duty of kindness ahead of those thathave been constructed by man.

And then as if this lesson wasnt enough

He tells the lawyer to go and do likewise.

To go and be like the hated foreigner.

To trade his pride in his rightness to trade his security inhis doctrinal regulations to trade his position and comfortof authority and privilege

For a position that is defined by servanthood and by thedesire to show mercy.

Go and do likewise. Go and show mercy first.

You have been rescued from the darkness. Transferred intothe kingdom of God.


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How will you live it?

Are you ready to put love first? To take part in this newkingdom?

Or are you still holding onto the old order undergirded bythe false security of law and rightness?

To whom do you owe your love and mercy this morning?

Jesus says go and do likewise.

Documents

Sermon "Compassion" - Marissa Rohrbach