Pastor S Notes for Lectionary 15 in Pentecost, C Date: 7/14/13

Pastor’s Notes for Lectionary 15 in Pentecost, C Date: 7/14/13

Theme: Parable of the Good Samaritan

Bible Ref’s: Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Psalm 25:1-10; Colossians 1:1-14; and Luke 10:25-37.

Prayer of the Day

O Lord God, your mercy delights us, and the world longs for your loving care. Hear the cries of everyone in need, and turn our hearts to love our neighbors with the love of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Brief Sermon Outline: “Worship to Rock Your World”

Focus Statement: Jesus, our despised Samaritan neighbor, rescues us out of the ditch! Alleluia!

1. I’ve asked everyone in the congregation to help me out with a mission assignment this summer—bring in a couple choice rocks to share w/ others. We’ll be sharing those rocks during our Season of Creation in Sept. w/ a theme something along the lines of “rocking your world with God’s love.”

2. Now as we also work with the 7 marks of discipleship (prayer, worship, learning, etc.), we could do a whole sermon series on “disciplines to rock your world”—prayer to rock your world, worship to rock your world, learning to rock your world, b/c this is the effect God has on the worlds we create.

3. In other words, we humans expend a lot of energy/resources/imagination constructing worlds that keep our homelands safe, that keep our enemies in their place, that maintain our sense of right/ wrong, good/bad, honorable/shameful, faithful/sinful—it all puts us at the center of our universe.

4. “What must I do,” the lawyer asks Jesus, “to inherit eternal life?” Which is just the way we humans go about constructing our worlds religiously, culturally, politically. ”What must I do…?” already pre-supposes “we can do it!” And we work and we work to justify/reinforce our self-made contraptions.

5. So Jesus responds by rocking the Jewish lawyer’s world with a parable re: a Samaritan who does things so out of stereotypical character—with such compassion/generosity/mercy—that the rock-hard distinction between Jew and Gentile, between clean/unclean, righteous/sinner just crumbles.

6. So we construct worlds all the time that need to be rocked, to be crumbled so that over the course of time, we DO get the sense that God is rocking our world—that what’s so amazing about the gospel of God’s love in Jesus Christ is that it turns our world upside down, it always surprises us.

7. This happened in a sense when I took Krehl and Madeline to Summer Visit Day at St. Olaf. They oriented us to all the typical questions high-schoolers & parents ask, but they had this interesting segment intended to give us all an idea of a typical classroom experience at the college level.

8. So we heard first from a theatre professor re: the Russian Realist Movement of the 19th c., follow-ed by a sociology professor who spoke on the place of the burqa/veil in Muslim feminist thought.

9. But after these two short lectures, they talked together about how a liberal arts college experience breaks down your world from what you thought you knew—and that this is a really good thing!

10. Well, their presentation was really tame compared to the actual world-crumbling experience of a Babylonian exile, or addictions to drugs, or diagnosis of cancer, or tragic accidents to loved ones, or the myriad other disasters by which our worlds are not-so-easily rocked, & we must turn to God as our only rock/salvation. But what these professors tried to stress re: the liberal arts experience is how discipleship and growing into a vital & real-life relationship w/ J.C. should be in the church.

11. Prayer to rock your world, worship to rock your world, Christian ed. to rock your world, outreach to rock your world, stewardship to rock your world. God’s Spirit is stirring in all these ministries of our church, rocking our worlds to love our neighbor as much as we’ve insisted on loving ourselves.

12. “He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.” (Ps. 25:9) Let that be a prayer to rock our world—that we would honestly acknowledge the humiliation that set our souls right before God thru the cross—Jesus, our despised neighbor, who rescued us out of the ditch.

13. And may our focus this month on the elements of worship direct our thoughts/actions truly to pay God’s steadfast love forward w/ all our heart, soul, mind & strength, loving our neighbor as ourself.

Hymn of the Day: “Lord of all nations, grant me grace” (ELW #716, LBW #419)

Children’s Sermon

Pastor: Good morning, kids. Did you notice that we’re getting close to Vacation Bible School time? Did you see all the decorations? <affirm the kids’ observations> I hear that Eldon the green monster is going to be making a movie to tell the story of VBS next week.

Fred: I’m excited to tell a story, too! Today, I want to tell the story of a kangaroo who got surprised in more ways than one.

Pastor: Ooh, that sounds interesting, Fred. Are you going to read us the story out of a book?

Fred: No, it’s going to be a personal, dramatic improvisation.

Pastor: Well, that sounds even more interesting…

Fred: impersonating a kangaroo So, there was this kangaroo hopping along a rode, and he got surprised by some mean hyenas who beat him up and took all his money and left him dying in a ditch! <Fred goes through some dramatic moves to convey the action

<impersonating a holy cow A holy cow came along, but when he saw the kangaroo in the ditch, instead of helping him, he thought, “I’m way too busy to get involved with that poor kangaroo. No one will notice if I just pretend not to notice…” And so the holy cow went over to the other side of the road and walked on by…

<impersonating a duck movie star> Then a famous movie star duck waddled along, but when she saw the kangaroo dying in the ditch, she quacked to herself “Ooh, look how dirty and icky he his. I don’t think I should risk getting smelly and dirty touching him…” So the famous movie star duck quickly waddled on past…

<impersonating an ugly purple salamander But then this purple salamander who was very quiet and all the kids would tease him at school about how ugly he was, when he saw the kangaroo in the ditch, he felt very sorry for him and decided to help him out. His purple salamander mom had given him some money for ice cream and a book and a new bike…and instead of buying all that stuff, he took the kangaroo to the doctor and paid all his doctor bills.

<impersonating the kangaroo> So the kangaroo got all better and always remembered how the ugly purple salamander helped him out of the ditch and saved his life. And he devoted the rest of his life to helping other animals out of ditches. The end.

Pastor: That was a wonderful telling of the Bible story we’re going to hear in just a minute, about the Good Samaritan. Jesus told it as a teaching story. But what I especially liked about your telling, Fred, is how you put yourself into each character’s point of view. That really helps you to understand the story better, and to make decisions for yourself on how you should act.

Let’s pray: Loving God, thank you for sending Jesus to rescue us out of the ditch of our sin. Teach us how to be story tellers of your love for all people and all creatures. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen

The Word

(Deuteronomy 30:9-14)

[T]he LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, 10 when you obey the LORD your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 11 Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?" 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?" 14 No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

(Psalm 25:1-10)

1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.

3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.

5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.

6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.

7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O LORD!

8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.

(Colossians 1:1-14)

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. 3 In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7 This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit. 9 For this reason, since the day we heard 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, 10 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. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

(Luke 10:25-37)

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27 He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 28 And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." 29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, `Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Sermon Notes

We usually hear this story [of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37] as an exhortation to do good, to help the stranger in need with abandon. This is true and necessary, especially in a world so often character-ized by our neglect of one another. Our ability to ignore the plight of others is breathtaking. The Good Samaritan therefore remains an anomaly in our midst.

Yet there is another aspect of this story too easily missed. Notice why Jesus tells this parable. He is confronted (inLuke 10:25)by a theological opponent seeking to show Jesus and his followers the errors of their ways.“How do I achieve eternal life?” the lawyer asks. Jesus points to the daily prayers of his people and responds, “Love God. Love neighbor.” His answer is both simple and at the heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. A mere four words can summarize so much teaching, so many stories, so much faith in a God who is always in our midst.Love God. Love neighbor.