Who is My Neighbor?
(Free Version)- 5th Sunday after Pentecost, Amos 7:7-17; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke10:25-37
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The good news of Jesus carries within it a natural challenge to the powers-that-be. Called by God, Amos declared justice to Israel and judgement on her leaders. In writing his letter to the church at Colossae, Paul subversively calls out the “fruitfulness” celebrated by the gods of the Roman Empire: economic prosperity, fertility, and military conquest. Instead, Paul celebrates a different kind of fruitfulness: a life centered in faith, hope, and love. In his parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus calls out the religious establishment of his day, who are more concerned with keeping themselves ritually clean (in control) than they are in living as the people of God. The kingdom of God is, in some real sense, anti-establishment; but it is more than anti-establishment.
The good news of Jesus changes the moral life of a Christian. Amos proclaimed judgement to a religious establishment which tolerated idolatry and syncretism with other faiths leading them to trample the poor and the oppressed; this was particularly grievous because Israel herself was once an oppressed people. Paul celebrates the good that has come from the church at Colossae, how they love one another. And he prays that God would continue to strengthen them, so that they might please God in every way. The parable of the Good Samaritan calls the hearer to see the most unlikely people as our “neighbor.” The kingdom of God is, in some real sense an ethical transformation, but it is more than an ethical transformation.
So, if the kingdom of God is more than a critique of the establishment, and more than ethical command (though certainly not less than these things), what is the heart of the kingdom of God?
When we surrender our own need for control to God, we are better able to see his face in the foreigner, in the stranger, and in our enemy. Like the man in the ditch, Jesus himself was rejected, beaten, and left for dead. And like the Good Samaritan, Jesus is the unlikely one who heals our wounds.
When we live life by the Spirit of God we are able to see every person we encounter as someone who can be used by God to heal the world, even to be part of healing us.
Our neighbor is a gift from God and we can trust that God is at work in his heart, not dependent on us. We are called to celebrate, rejoice, and join in God’s work.The homeless woman on the street is not a nuisance, but an embodiment of God’s kingdom. She may be in the ditch in need of salvation, but she is also carries healing, hope, and restoration. The person at work who frustrates you may be the very one who is teaching you something about the heart of God.
“Neighbor” includes the everyday people in your life. It is often easy to walk by our neighbors and not say a word, never get to know their name or their story. God is at work in them! And we are invited to love and serve them.
Through the prophet Amos, a man from far away Judah without the right credentials, God proclaims justice. Likewise, Jesus, the prophet born in Bethlehem of Judea, is the unlikely one who proclaims and walks the road to justice and healing.
Jesus invites us to see the world differently. In God’s kingdom, those who think they are right and justified by their works or their status are revealed for who they truly are; and those who have been considered the scum of the earth but have humbly come before the Lord are forgiven. The way of Jesus shows us that this is good news, for the whole world, not just for a few.