Lectionary Year C
July 15, 2001
Luke 10:25-37

Contemporary Address

STEP VI: Contemporary Address:

(FS) SERMON OUTLINE: "A Word in Favor of the Accused"

INTRO>: A new children's book is out with literary revisionism: the Tale of the Three Little Pigs as told by the Wolf. Of course, none of it was his fault-- he claimed that those pigs simply entrapped him! He speaks out most entertainingly in his own defense.

In our hearing of this Parable, the Priest and the Levite come out about as badly as the wolf: cold, legalistic, unfeeling! But this morning, I'd like to say a few words in their defense!

I. THEY WERE ON THEIR WAY, PERHAPS, TO WORSHIP: THE PRIEST TO OFFER SACRIFICES, TE LEVITE TO ATTEND TO THE TEMPLE.

A. Suddenly, they see a bloodied body sprawled by the road!

B. I used to travel from a Mexican state capital to a tiny mountain village with a civil engineer who was overseeing a building project. He never failed to say, "If you see rocks in the rock duck, because I'm throwing this pickup into resverse as fast as I can!" Those rocks were a sign of impending ambush and robbery.

C. Now, how could those gentlemen know for sure that the robbery victim was not being used as "live bait"? There were bandits around!

D. For all they knew, he mught already be dead, or might die at any minute. By Leviticus 21, if they touched a dead body they would be unclean-- unable to do their work!

E. Now, stoppping would be dangerous-- how did they know that they wouldn't soon be lying, beaten and robbed, next to the man?

Besides, they had important work to do for God! And if they were "unclean", they couldn't.

The duty to help balanced with other duties-- to God, as they understood God's priorities, and to themselves!

II. WHAT WOULD WE HAVE DONE, IN THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES? Would we have been able to do as the Samaritan? --- despised as a :half-breed", a "heathen", he still exposed himself to the danger of stopping--

A. He interrupted his journey--

B. He paid plenty, and was ready to pay more--

C. With no clear prospect of reward.

III. AND HE WAS THE ONE JESUS PAINTED AS A TRUE NEIGHBOR.

A. Hundreds of years before, Amos preached that Yahweh was holding a "plumb line" next to Israel, measuring its stature and finding it wanting.

B. In response to the legal expert, Jesus named that plumb line: "You shall love the Lord...You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

C. The Accused (Priest and Pharisee) could have had good reasons for not stopping. We have our excuses--

1. "She's poor because she's lazy"
2. "Why should I help him, after what he did to me?"
Etc.
Etc.

D. But the love of God has been poured out for us in Jesus Christ. If we would respond to that love, God calls us to let that same kind of gracious, compassionate, giving love flow toward our neighbor. Without excuse; without heeding the barriers between people.

What would the plumb line reveal about our love for God...and neighbor?

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