Sermon 18th March 2012

Today, Ben Hughes preaches based on the Gospel reading from Luke 14: verses 1-14.

Greetings to you all on this special festival of Mothering Sunday

It is also Laetare mid lent Sunday. (So you have made it half way…keep going)

I am not actually going to be speaking about Mothering Sunday as such but would like to wish you and your families both near and far every blessing and strength in Our Lord on this day.

To understand the stories in this passage properly it is very helpful to understand Luke the person and the unique nature of His Gospel.

Tradition suggests that Luke was a medical doctor and academic who was probably a Gentile and likely to have also written the book of Acts.

This isn’t important and is just speculation but what is very apparent in his Gospel is that Luke is revealing Jesus to be a person who is the champion of the outcast, the poor and sick. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is clearly Jewish, divine, loyal, generous, fair, inclusive, international. Luke’s Jesus is about people and has a central focus on teaching us how to best live our lives. It is a social and inclusive Gospel that turns the worldly values of money, status and power on its head. Last week we learnt from Gill about Jesus’ attitude to belongings and our worries about wealth and money. This week Luke’s Gospel teaches us how to treat one another. Especially those in more difficult times in their lives than us.

I consider there to be three parts to this reading which I have titled them in such a way that they conveniently begin with the letter S.

Sabbath

Service

Snobbery

So the Sabbath what is it

The Sabbath law is the fourth ‘do’ of the Ten Commandments

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy,

Six days thou shalt labour and do all thy work but the seventh is the Sabbath and the day of the Lord, in it thou shalt not do any work, nor thou son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, cattle and stranger that is within thy gates.

It is an explicit and very clear command.

The Sabbath laws in the time of Christ were strictly upheld, breaking them was punishable with instant judgement and possible death by stoning.

As well as that, teams of scribes and Pharisees over the centuries had discussed the minutia of these laws and the interpretation of the laws. For example the simple act of Breaking ears of corn in the palm of the hand to feed a hungry stomach had become for the Pharisee a clear breaking of the Levitical Sabbath law of not to grind corn on Sabbath.

As well as all the debate and endless discussion about the interpretation of this forth commandment, it became possible way to use the Sabbath laws a way of setting or stitching somebody up. Observe somebody working and reporting them to the priest, Pharisee and doctors of the law was as good as ruining them if not worse.

And this is the kind of that might be happening here.

We don’t know – the man with dropsy was genuine and had sought out Jesus but the attitude of the host was certainly not genuine. V1 although invited to the house of the Pharisee he was being carefully watched. Jesus was eating with two-faced wolves.

But according to this story as in other parts of the Gospels Jesus knows their thoughts and is ready with a question of his own. Put simply he says is it not right to do good and heal on the Sabbath or not?

They remain silent and Jesus then rightly and justly heals the man. Next, Jesus then hits them where it hurts with a killer question.

Ands this question is a judgement, and they condemn themselves outright in their answer. ‘Tell me,’ Jesus says, ‘your ox, your son’ (cleverly referring to the words of the actual commandment), ‘if it falls in a well, (Jerusalem was full of wells, it was one of the reasons why Jerusalem was Jerusalem) … ‘if it falls into a well will you not immediately pull it out?’

They said of course.

You see it is straightforward - necessity always betters the rule. Jesus says in John’s Gospel ‘Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath’.

A helpful illustration is the necessity of a fire engine jumping red lights to save a life.

But for us and the Sabbath? What do we think? What do we do in our busy twenty-first century lives?

Well I have to say in my opinion, something changed profoundly in our country when shops and supermarkets opened for trade on a Sunday. I know - for non-believers Sunday was a dreary drag but it has, I think changed the spirit of this land for the worse. It was in my opinion, making Sunday a trading day - one of the first ‘greed rules’ over everything else turning points. In retrospect, fifteen years on has it helped the majority of people live better and easier lives? On the contrary, it has made it harder, it has put our communities under enormous pressure to remain active and forced individuals into work when they might need to be rest.

In the long term people are more productive when they are rested. Resting on a Sunday is a very good cure for anger apparently. Sabbath is good for society and the changing attitudes to the fourth commandment a challenge for us modern day Christians.

Resting on the Sabbath is very good for families to get together as well. Yes, someone has to cook the Sunday lunch but done in love and appreciated it becomes an activity of togetherness, communion, unity. If it’s a chore, a ritual then question why you do it!

And for those who have been Christians for a long time, what do we think about Sunday now! My advice is as Gill advised last week. Be watchful. Be watchful how you conduct yourselves about the Sabbath. As with money as with belongings - be careful how you act. Be smart. Jesus uses his wits when dealing with these very tricky Pharisee people. Nothing wrong in that! It is also good to go against the popular grain!

God’s laws make perfect sense in the end. We need to rest our minds, souls and bodies. The land that we live in needs rest a rest too, as does all in nature. The trees of the fields need to clap their hands and join in the worship of song and praise that all nature has for its Creator. It is good that this happens; it is good for us to be able to hear the leaves rustle on the trees in the centre of the city on a Sunday.

Having a good rest on a Sunday is best for all people, if they could only understand. We are hard-wired to take one day off. It’s in our God-DNA. People who work non-stop can be dangerous in the workplace on the road, they are likely to become inefficient and are more likely to have an accident, get ill or breakdown.

And for those where it is necessary for to work on a Sabbath - what do we do about them? Well they should be respected and we should make it as easy as possible as they serve us. Someone has to collect, tie and hold the rope to pull the son out of the well to use Jesus’ illustration!

Snobbery

Well this is a difficult one to define but here goes!

Groucho Marx, the famous well-regarded philosopher, once said

"I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member"

This glorious anti snobbish statement is also paradoxically - snobbish.

We as humans we do like to group ourselves into like minded associations. We also like to classify and stereotype others. Even if it means being an inverted snob. I have a friend who is actually a member of the Anarchists community action group!

I am a member of the Oxford and Cambridge Club ‘don’t you know’. That is the Morris Oxford and Austin Cambridge club!

But I am also a member of the Riley Club, the Rover P4 Drivers Guild, the Renault club, I am in a band, I am a member of the Church of England, a communicating member of St Saviour’s. I was a member of the Coded Welders Association. I have Union membership and am a member of the GTC. I am insured ten times over, and so and so on.

All these things that we are, or can do give us status in the eyes of others, good and bad, and, like the clothes that we wear, affect the way in which people perceive us.

What does Jesus says on this matter? He says, ‘So what?’ He doesn’t care about the outside appearance it is what is in the heart that really matters to him.

And that is what is refreshing about being a Christian. It should not be about outward appearances, it is about our insides. Jesus says status is more meaningless if it makes you think that you are better than anybody else. And it is very dangerous, he says, to use your position to intimidate and bully others. That is the reason for the fury of the Pharisee’s whenever they met Jesus. Jesus, who called them many things including white-washed tombs - would not accept their self-imposed status and authority and instead presented to them a real authority from God in the miraculous healing of the sick, raising the dead and forgiving sins. Something that they could not do in a month of Sabbaths.

And the error of conceit that makes us proud is a tricky one. It slips in quietly when we are off our guard… then we become exclusive and we become proud. And, before we know it, we are letting others know of our importance, taking charge in situations we are not qualified or possibly welcome in, thinking we are the reason for the event, letting our egos dominate. And we perhaps form ourselves into cliques and groups for mutual benefit - finding people of similar position and like mind to bolster our own status. It is a very easy thing to do. Jesus warns us in this passage - do not give to get back…there is no point in that!

Our lives are fragile enough and become more so when we think that we are in control of them. The principle tenant of Christian conversion is taking the me out of our lives and allowing God to replace the me with him.

I am not a psychologist or marketing guru. There are many reasons why people want to be best and prove themselves and there is nothing wrong in that. And that is not a problem or the point of Jesus’ criticism. Wanting to better oneself and improve your pedigree is not a problem in itself. What is the purpose of learning if it is not to improve ours and other lives? But to be naive and unaware of the dangers of conceit and the desire for status can be walking into a trap. I understand enough of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to know that seeking power and status through wealth and position can become an impossible treadmill - because you will never be satisfied and you will eventually pass on, leaving it all as dust.

Jesus is very clear. Jesus says humble yourself, be humble, do not brag, do not boast for it is better to serve than be served. Be as you are, as you have been made by God and love thy neighbour as thyself and allow yourself and others to be loved by God.

God is no fool, He understands us, and he knows the temptation that we are under. He knows us intimately and our needs. He sent his son Jesus to save us from ourselves. Jesus gives us this perfect warning in this passage. Do not set yourself up by sitting in high places because you will be humiliated - probably by those that you have most despised. Then it will be worse for you don’t you see…

Finally Service

The antidote to snobbery and conceit is simple: Serve others as Christ serves you.

Not in a patronising way, or an ‘I’m here to help’ kind of thing. Jesus wants to see in us a genuine vision and I choose that word carefully, vision meaning like an x-ray vision of being able to see clearly through the façade that people put up around themselves. Jesus wants us to see the person behind the mask, behind the fear, the failure the addiction or whatever, through the things we layer up around us to hide or protect. Jesus is not even, I believe, interested in the sin; it is the person he is always after.

What is evident from this passage and other Gospel stories is Jesus illustrating again and setting the example of genuine service and love for others over all. It is the illustration of the kingdom and the path to eternal life. He is explicit that we should endeavour to do the same. The way into his kingdom, he says is to serve, to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, to give when asked and not to count the cost.

But then you say ‘I can’t do this, I can’t let go. It’s too hard to serve - habit has got a hold over me’. Think of the rich young man who turns his back on Jesus because of his love for money and Jesus’ impossible answer to his disciples over the matter - It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle….and the complete bewilderment in the disciples response ‘So who can be saved’!

Jesus says rest assured… what is impossible for man is possible for God.

The word metanoia (a Greek word that we do not really have a good and direct translation for) describes a redemptive activity that begins and continues until the task is complete. It means transformation from the inside out through repentance and understanding of one’s total dependence on God. It expresses itself as God’s invisible and permanent work in and on our lives.

By submitting your lives in Christ, repenting of your sins and laying yourself prostrate before God, is the way in which God can strip back and rebuild and make good. He does it because he has to, to prepare us for his service and to prepare us for eternal life. The transformation is taking place as we speak and it will manifest itself in fullness of your resurrection in Christ.

All we have to do is give our permission for it to happen and God allows his Holy Spirit to do the rest. And like any rebuilding program there will be mess and a certain amount of possible restructuring and demolition. But the pain, discomfort and inconvenience of such work is temporary, it will pass and all things will be well.

We can put the blocks on, we can go down kicking and screaming we can envy the work of God in others, we can rebel and some choose to do so. But God’s love remains and is patient and steadfast. He will seek, find and love the hardiest sinner, and surprise us all with the changes that he can make in a life.

So for us all - to serve God is to be free from the burden of judgement and death. To accept and love people for what they are is to love and serve Christ himself. ‘Get off your high chair and come and mix it down here with me’ is the invitation from Jesus! His Church is not the shining light social club high on the hill but the Church in the gutter where the needs are greatest.

To honour God’s laws is to fall in line with the Maker’s way. Today is our Sabbath, today is our day, today is our communion. Jesus delights in sharing his body and blood with u:s we in turn must share the welcome, his love with others. Jesus stepped down from heaven into a world of corruption, sin and death and we must step in with him. To step down is to step up. To step up is to step out; and to step out is to move in faith in God.

Amen Alleluia

Sermon 11th March 2012

Today, our Curate, Gill Tayleur, preaches based on the reading from Luke 12: 22-34

DO NOT WORRY

A young woman who had just qualified in accountancy, answered a newspaper wanted advert for an accountant. She was interviewed by a very nervous older man who ran a small business that he had started himself.

"I need someone with an accounting degree," the man said. "But mainly, I'm looking for someone to do my worrying for me."

"I beg your pardon?" the woman said.

"I worry about a lot of things," said the man. "But I don't want to have to worry about money. Your job will be to take all my money worries off my back."

"I see," the accountant said. "And how much does the job pay?" "I'll start you at fifty thousand."
"Fifty thousand pounds!" she exclaimed. "How can such a small business afford a sum like that?"

"That," the man said, "is your first worry."

What do you worry about? ...

I wonder if any one of us here, is thinking, “I don’t worry, I never worry.” Really? Never worry about your health? Your job, or lack of it? Money? Your children? Your parents? Your relationships? Your future?

We all worry. Some more than others. Some personalities are more natural worriers than others. And some people do have greater difficulties to face, more to worry about, than others. I’m well aware that some here have hugely difficult and painful situations going on. But I suspect we all worry at times.

Let me recognise here at the outset that some people suffer from so much worry and anxiety that it’s an illness; my comments this morning are not in any way intended to get at them or make them feel guilty. Professional help is needed for the medical condition of anxiety. That’s not what I’m talking about here; I mean ‘ordinary’ everyday worries that we all have, some of, or a lot of, the time.

It has been said that the modern Western world is built on worry. Sometimes you see worry on the faces of people hurrying along the street. You see its burden; see how they’re weighed down with it, bound by it. And we ourselves may know that feeling of burden, sometimes more like being choked. Our worries have us by the throat and our fear of what might happen threatens to overwhelm us.

This world thrives on people setting higher and higher goals for themselves, and each other, so that we worry all day and sometimes all night about whether we will reach them. If we have a job, we worry about getting a better job, pay rise, bigger house, smarter car or smarter electronic gadget. And if we do meet those goals, we set new ones, higher ones. What we have is never quite enough. And if we don’t meet our goals, we feel we’ve failed. Either way, this sense of worry and dissatisfaction. Is this really how we’re supposed to live?

Jesus’ words we’ve just heard, show that much of the world has faced the same problem, for much of human history. The difference is the level at which worry strikes. Many of Jesus’ hearer only had just enough to live on, and there was always the prospect that one day they wouldn’t have even that. Many of them would have had just 1 or 2 spare pieces of clothing, a few possessions, no more. One disaster, like the family bread winner being sick or injured, could mean instant destitution. Of course it’s still like that for many people across the world. And it was to people like that, not to people worried about affording the latest electronic device or foreign holidays, that Jesus gave his clear and striking commands about not worrying over food and clothing.

We now know that worry can itself be a killer. Stress and worry can cause disease, or contribute to it. And so Jesus’ words we’ve heard this morning can be literally life giving, health giving. Jesus says, “Do not worry”.

Why? He gives 2 reasons.

First, because it’s pointless. Worry is futile. Jesus says “Will you live even a little bit longer if you worry?!” Of course not. It won’t change anything.

And the second reason Jesus says not to worry is because our Father God will provide for us, he can be trusted.

Jesus says, look at nature. Look at the birds. God gives them what they need, as they need it. It’s not that they don’t work, they do.

Some birds like domestic chickens, I’m told work very hard. And we should work if we can, sometimes work very hard. But our feathered friends don’t seem to worry about the physical supports of their life, their food & water & shelter. They simply look for it as they need it and take what they find. They don’t save up their food

and store it away for tomorrow. They don’t have barns of food

for their future, for their security. God provides for them. And Jesus says God will provide for you too. Look to him for your security.

Storing up for the future in barns – or banks more likely for us –

can’t keep us secure, keep us safe, anyway. Money can’t keep us safe from the real dangers of life, from serious illness and accidents and tragedies and the things that hurt most like relationship breakdown. Don’t put your trust in money, Jesus is saying, put it in God! Trust in God and don’t worry for your future.

He goes on to say look at wild flowers or lilies, see how beautiful God makes them. The flowers that grow on a hillside can show a radiance of beauty that we can’t begin to match!

People use money to make themselves feel beautiful, to feel attractive, to feel young, to feel important, worthy in the eyes of others, loved and approved of. And we may worry about all those things too. But Jesus says, look to God for your sense of being loved, of being beautiful and accepted in his sight. Don’t put your trust in what makes you feel attractive and important, put it in God!

Trust in God and don’t worry about your clothes or appearance to others.

“How much more valuable you are than birds!” and about the lilies “how much more will he clothe you, o you of little faith!”

It takes faith to trust in God. Faith in his goodness, and in his love.

When we remember, and experience, just how good & loving & kind & gracious & merciful our Father God is to us, and choose to believe it, then we can grow to trust Him. When we hear what Jesus said about God’s love, when we see how Jesus showed it – and best of all when we look at the cross where he died for love of us, died to set us free to know his love and goodness for ourselves, then perhaps we can grow to trust him more.

It’s not easy. (This series is on the cost of discipleship because Jesus warned that it wouldn’t be easy!) Not easy to trust in God rather than worry, because trusting in God doesn’t mean everything will necessarily turn out well.

Trusting in God doesn’t mean awful things don’t happen. We know that. We don’t trust God that he will always stop bad things from happening in this life – although we know that ultimately, in all eternity, all pain and suffering will cease. We trust him now that he is always good and he always loves us and is with us, regardless of what we’re going through.

To be honest, I’m still figuring out what it means to trust Father God with the things I treasure most and that I am most tempted to worry about, namely my children growing up. But I’m learning – and for now, what I can say for sure, is that God is always good and he always loves us and is always with us, and that’s what I’m trusting. I’m not trusting that everything will go as well as I want it to, for me or for them. Even when life is painful, we can trust that our Father God is always good, always loves us and is always with us. He can be trusted.

So Jesus said, do not worry, because it’s pointless. Do not worry, because our Father God can be trusted.

So, how do we not worry? What’s the alternative and how do we do it?

Verses 31 and 32 give us the key. “But seek his kingdom” and “Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”

Instead of focusing on ourselves, what we want, how we might get it, what might happen, what might go wrong; instead of all of that, Jesus tells us to focus on God and his kingdom.

What is it, this kingdom that Father God is pleased to give us, and we are told to seek, to look for, rather than worry?

The Kingdom of God is life with God as supreme King, life under his rule, his will, his eternal purposes. Life under his love & mercy & power. Life knowing his goodness & love & presence. Everyone and everything that lives under God as King God, whether by nature or choice, is living in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is here and now, as well as in eternity, when everyone and everything will live under his kingly rule forever.

Living for the kingdom of God means every part of our life being surrendered to his kingship, rule, his will, his purposes. And every part of our life being aimed at spreading his kingdom, that is spreading his rule, and the knowledge of his goodness, his love and presence. It means investing our life in what God’s doing, spending our life on what matters to God. That of course means loving God with all our heart & mind & soul & strength & loving our neighbour.

(Thank you Adrian for the enormous challenge last week to see our neighbour as beyond whatever boundary we put down to keep them out.)

Living for the kingdom of God means we’re to devote ourselves to God’s worship and service. We’re to invest time and effort in our relationship with Father God through his son Jesus, to know and trust him better. We’re to care for the earth and delight in God’s creation. And we’re to give ourselves for the good of other people.

And one practical outworking of this living for his kingdom, is described by Jesus in the verses following the one about God giving us his kingdom. “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.”

In those days, for most people, their possessions were their capital, their investments, their savings and their security for the future.

What they earned was needed for day to day living, and maybe they gave a portion of it to the poor or to the temple, to God.

But Jesus doesn’t mention their earnings here, he says sell your possessions! He’s saying sell your capital, your investments, your savings for the future! Be that generous! And that fits with what he has just said about the birds not storing up food in barns for the future.

Are we that generous? Or are we greedy?

Do we think we’re greedy? Or materialistic?

Apparently, in surveys, no one thinks they’re greedy. Everyone thinks people who have more than they do, are greedy. But we can be greedy however much or little we have.

And greed has an inbuilt blindness to it. A few verses earlier in this chapter, in v15, Jesus says watch out and be on your guard against greed. Why does he say watch out for greed? He never says watch out for adultery! That’s because we know if we’re doing adultery (!!), but we might not realise we are greedy.

Greed is deceptive. And we need to watch out for it, be on guard for it, very carefully, to spot it in ourselves. We need to be suspicious, not trust ourselves, to ask ourselves questions like:

Do I really need that? Do I really need more? Couldn’t I live more simply?

Couldn’t I give more of my money away?
In my pursuit of money, do I work for companies, or do deals, or produce products, that are bad for people?...

If we won’t ask ourselves questions like these, we’re refusing to watch out or be on our guard against greed.

Do I really need more?

Couldn’t I live more simply?

Couldn’t I give more of my money away? In my pursuit of money, do I work for companies, or do deals, or produce products, that are bad for people?

If we won’t ask ourselves questions like these, we’re refusing to watch out or be on our guard against greed.

Jesus is saying, be outrageously generous! Be generous with even your savings and investments for the future! Give them away! ....

Could we be that generous? Or do we think we truly need all we have? And that we need to spend more?

Can you imagine saying to a man in a refugee camp in Somalia,

or to one of the freed slaves the Griffiths are involved with releasing in India, people who have nothing, “I can’t afford to give any more; I need all this.”

Living in the kingdom of God, living by God’s rules and purposes, will affect our money, even our savings. God has been so generous to us, giving even his son Jesus, so we’re to be generous to those in need. And trust his goodness and love in the future.

And then this passage concludes with a very telling and challenging truth. “[Build up] treasure in heaven – For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

What we do with our treasure, or money, is very telling. It’s an indication of the state of our hearts. How we spend our money – and our time, our energy, the things we think about and dream of and save for – shows us where our hearts lie, what we truly love and treasure.

Jesus says, instead of building up riches or treasure for the here and now, spend it on God and his kingdom, for what he’s doing, his purposes, are eternal, they last forever. Save your treasure in heaven, where thieves or moths can’t take them, where the forces of nature and human evil can’t harm. Working for God’s kingdom cannot be destroyed; playing a part in God’s eternal purposes has a value that will last forever. Living for and spreading God’s kingdom by loving Him and our neighbour. Trusting in his goodness and love and presence. That’s how we deposit treasures in heaven on a daily, hourly basis.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Doing the Godly thing with our treasure, both reveals a Godly heart, and leads to a Godly heart. And our heart is the centre of our being and directs all we are and do. Thus a heart rightly focused, on God and his kingdom, brings health & wholeness to our whole being.

So the crucial question is, where is your treasure? Where is your heart? Focused on God and his kingdom, his purposes?

Or on ourselves, our wants, our worries?

So let’s pray...

Sermon 4th March 2012

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, preaches based on the reading from Luke 10: 25-33

“Jesus replied, “You go, then, and do the same.” TGN

“Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” NIV

1. I looked very hard but I couldn’t find one. I was convinced there would be one. I thought Maplins - the electrical shop – would have one: they seem to stock gadgets for almost every conceivable eventuality and the thing I wanted covers a much more pressing gap in the market than many of gzimmos they did have the shelves. But I looked around very carefully and I couldn’t find one so I am afraid that this morning I must preach without one. Which is a shame, because, today one would have been very useful. I apologise.

What was it? Well it seemed to me, thinking about today’s sermon, that there had to be some form of automated indicator that the preacher was re-using material from previous sermons – that he was saying something he had said before. I imagined that it would involve an orange flashing-light on a pole and perhaps a short burst of a selected alarm. I assumed it would need to be triggered by my pressing a remote-control button on the lectern – but did not rule out the possibility that its development might have reached the point when it could detect “a repeat” from a nervous voice pattern or a slightly elevated outbreak of sweat on my forehead? I am genuinely surprised not to have located one; if there is an investor in the market willing to back the development of what seems an obvious money-making invention perhaps we can talk afterwards?

2. The point is that our readings in Lent bring us today to one of the most familiar passages in Scripture, the parable of the Good Samaritan – so familiar in its detail and its message that we use its title as shorthand to indicate that help came from an unexpected source (it came from a “good Samaritan”) or to encourage one another to give help when we might not expect to (won’t you, we ask, be a good Samaritan?); and the name Samaritan itself has, through the organisation set up in the early-1950s by Chad Varah, come to mean availability, listening, concern, help at times of desperation when not only do those things seem impossible but when it seems that there is no possible person who can provide them. The Samaritans are there.

So what else is there to add to what we know already and what can I say that I have not said before?

3. An interesting angle is that we are coming to the story in the season of Lent and in the context of our learning about discipleship and in particular recognising the cost of discipleship. Our readings this Lent are all from Luke’s gospel: but I suggest that today’s reading is of a different character to the passage which Cameron used to kick-off our studies last week (Luke 9 “anyone who puts his hand to the plough and them looks back behind him is useless for the Kingdom of God”) or Gill’s passage for next week (Luke 12 “don’t worry about life ... about what to eat, ... about clothes..”). They sound like “Lent” passages – they sound like they involve giving things up; they are obviously addressing the question of the cost of following Jesus. In contrast the parable of the Good Samaritan is not about cost but about benefit; not about giving something-up but about taking something on, about taking the love which we have that is small and making it bigger. That doesn’t sound very Lenten? What’s the cost in that?

4. When James came to write the letter which we have towards the end of our Bibles the commandment that we should love our neighbour as we love ourselves had become known as the “royal law”: he wrote if you really keep the royal law found in scripture [and quotes the law], you are doing right” (James 2:8). And clearly at the time that Jesus was teaching, the formulaic answer given by the lawyer to his question was a recognised summary of the essence of the obligations under the Jewish Law: love God and love your neighbour. The lawyer was not the only person who posed a similar question or test of Jesus and this was not the only occasion when the royal law is repeated in the reply: Jesus included it in reply to another

lawyer, whose own reply led Jesus to comment, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God”. And he used it in his response to the Rich Young Ruler who went away sad at the demands made on him by such a law.

What is a little odd about this is that when you go to find the commandment to love your neighbour as yourself in the books of the Law in the Old Testament, it is easy to overlook it. In contrast to the command to love God with the whole of ourselves, which stands out at the head of key passages, this royal law appears only as a fragment of the expanded text of the key commandments in Leviticus 19:

“17 'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbour frankly so that you will not share in his guilt./18 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD./19 'Keep my decrees. 'Do not mate different kinds of animals. 'Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.”

I point this out, not to devalue the command, but to put in context the lawyer’s question: this central command to love our neighbour was given in the context of laws for a community. It is reasonable to suppose that in this context our “neighbour” is our neighbour, or a member of our village or of our tribe. Whatever the constraint is that is placed around the “class” of neighbours, however large or small, it is reasonable to suppose that the class of neighbours whom we are commanded to love is limited. Which is good - because, when we are honest, that fits our experience: our capacity to love (whatever that means) is limited; even our capacity comfortably to accept love is limited. The limits may be very small – our partner, our immediate family, our wider family, plus some friends, our favourite football team and, of course, people at Church. And isn’t this supported by all that research suggesting that when an organisation gets beyond a certain number of people (is it 100?) it is not possible to know everyone, let alone love them. And also, doesn’t fit with our prejudices? Yes of course we don’t want those prejudices to affect our response to people, but that is not to say we don’t have them? That would be nonsense. We all stereotype other people, don’t we? We all have our prejudices, inherited from parents perhaps, or borne of experience of life, good and bad. It is almost a feature of evolution – self-protective – that we are like this.

5. Ah. That is the cost. That is the cost of being a disciple – or rather the first cost. The way we think, our self-justification, the pride we take in where we have got to, how we are better than others, how even we are somehow different from others – that “way we think” must be surrendered. The Samaritan is every person left outside the line we want to draw to limit those who are neighbours; the Samaritan is every person from whom our upbringing and culture have taught us that we can justify maintaining a distance; the Samaritan is everyone we judge, everyone we criticise, relying on those judgments and criticisms to keep them beyond the boundary.

You know already (flashing light/alarm) the historic, cultural and religious divisions between Jew and Samaritan; you can read the Samaritan woman’s stereotypical description of the differences between them in John’s account of her meeting Jesus at the well – and a little earlier in Luke 9, we read of the time Jesus was not even allowed into a Samaritan village as he was bound for Jerusalem. The enmity was huge. By painting a picture of a meritorious, loving Samaritan, Jesus’ words aimed straight at the heart. But it shouldn’t be a surprise to us – because we know what he has done and said already – that he has touched lepers, worked with tax-collectors, eaten with prostitutes, healed the child of a Roman, reasoned with a lunatic and spoken of a mission to the poor, to the captives, to the blind and the bruised – and spoken too of loving enemies, against revenge and in favour of gratuitous service. That no conceivable limit can be placed on the love of our Master can be no surprise to us, his disciples?

6. And then there is the second cost: “Jesus replied, “You go, then, and do the same.” TGN/“Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” NIV.

Amen