Go and do

The same thing happens when a person drags out the congregational constitution to see what is the exact minimum needed for one to be a voting member of the parish.

Article C8.02.c indicates that a penny in an offering envelope and filling out a Communion attendance card once each year is all that is required.

But that is a long way from the spirit and intent of the rest of the article which lists privileges and duties of the member of the congregation as

(1) making regular use of the means of grace,

(2) worshiping regularly

(3) studying the Bible

(4) living a Christian life

(5) supporting the work of the congregation with time, abilities, and money.

It is a claim laid upon our whole life, not something that can be fulfilled with a penny and a few minutes of time.

Go and do likewise.

The legalist might say that means that each of us is to go physically to Jericho, buy a donkey, witness a highway robbery victim, wait until two other folks have passed by, and then take care of the victim, paying the local innkeeper and returning later to settle accounts with him.

The tourist agencies might like that, but we know that is silly.

Instead of asking what is the bare legal minimum, we do much better in asking what in the great variety of situation and opportunities in front of us we shall tackle first, knowing that they are all potential gifts of God to us.

What we point out first is the love of God which he has shown us, and which we are invited to share.

Go and do likewise, then means both to give and to receive that love of God.

We have trouble with both sides.

It is hard for us to receive anything as an expression of Christian life.

Each of us wants to appear strong, in charge, capable.

We'd rather turn down help than admit that we are less than perfectly capable.

When we are rushing around getting ready for an event, how much better it would be to accept help from yet some more people in order to get the task accomplished, even if it might take a bit longer.

How much better it would be if the event was “owned” by a larger group of people than our core group of organizers.

We need to work on this aspect of things.

We can allow another person to participate and live out their love of God and care for the congregation's leaders. Let's not miss it!

A similar thing often happens at the time of death in the family.

Friends and neighbors offer help, and we have to appear strong and so turn down offers of help, and turn away expressions of love.

It really is too bad that we keep on doing that to each other.

The parable of Jesus shows us that God is determined to break through any of the barriers which we erect against either showing or receiving mercy as a gift of God.

No barriers.

The person lying in the ditch couldn't speak, so that one could not tell if he was from Boston or Miami.

The robbers had taken even his clothes so that one could not tell if he was labor or management.

The old barriers don't matter.

The social or ethnic or economic or religious status of the person is not to affect the giving or receiving of mercy.

We have used the term Good Samaritan so frequently that we have forgotten how this would have choked in the throats of good Jews.

There had been 9 centuries of strife between these folks who lived so close to each other.

The people would never have expected Jesus to make the Samaritan the hero of the story.

The Jews regularly prayed a curse upon the Samaritans each Sabbath.

Yet, in Jesus' story, it is the hated outsider who proves to be neighbor.

Go and do likewise.

--Give and receive mercy.

--Without barriers.

Bob Greene of the Chicago Tribune writes of a friend who provided home and companionship for a young neighbor with a serious disability while mom was in the hospital.

There were no welfare agencies involved.

The need was simply met.

Andrew McColom of the NY Times writes of Eric Hultgren, retired, who carefully handcrafts toys and gives them away to children in the hospital.

The latest count was 450 toys made and given.

Just because.

Contance Milloy of the Washington Post writes of Jermaine Washington who donated a kidney to a friend.

When family members refused to consider it, Jermaine offered his kidney, and it was a match and was accepted.

Many questioned the act and indeed his sanity but he replied:

I prayed. I asked God for guidance, and that's what I got. [RD06.93, p.50]

Are those stories too far away for us?

We have lots close at hand also.

There are the persons who lovingly care for neighbors all around the community in very quiet but effective ways.

We have a group that sends greeting cards.

We have another group that makes phone calls.

There are those who are blood donors.

There are those who smile appreciatively when someone offers a hand.

There are those who have offered to be organ donors in case of their untimely death.

I signed up for the bone marrow registry.

Not that I am anxious for them to find a match and call me!

If all of this is too dramatic for us,

What about something so simple as being kind to the neighborhood kids instead of yelling at them?

There is a whole world of possibilities.

Go and do likewise

--Give and receive mercy.

--Without barriers,

--in specific ways,

--Just because God has loved us.

The lawyer who questioned Jesus wasn't interested in receiving God's love or giving God's mercy.

He only wanted to show Jesus how good he was.

Here is how an Arab Christian scholar has said that the lawyer expected the conversation to go:

[Bailey, Through Peasant Eyes, p. 39]

The lawyer asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” expecting the response to be: “You relatives and your friends.

The lawyer will then say, “These I have fully loved.”

Jesus will then praise him and he'll go out nodding to the crowd and being very pleased with himself.

But Jesus did not respond in that way.

What a shock to the lawyer!

Go and do likewise may not be easy, comfortable, profitable, or pleasant!

It involves risk, danger, expense, and trouble.

Harry Wendt, the author of the Bible-study series we use, has this cogent sentence: Every time you pray for the needs of others you must be prepared to become part of the answer.

Let's think carefully about that, and then come again to the table where we are assured each time we gather that here is strength and encouragement to Go and do likewise.

Notice that our second lesson today from the beginning of Colossians echoes the same idea.

Things get organized through prayer, knowledge too is important, but they are tied directly to action on the basis of prayer and knowledge.

Listen again how Paul phrases it:

We have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

Go, and do likewise, Jesus directs. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.