Boating Season has begun
Luke 10:25-37
Well I know that some of you heard some of this sermon before but you may not have heard me make the same conclusions. As the title suggests you are going to hear another fascinating adventure about me and my boat. This time it involves a lesson about who is your neighbor and who are your friends.
I have lived across the street from Matt and his family for about five years. They are a younger couple in their twenties with two little girls, one of them just three months old. I meet them briefly when they moved in and I have invited them to church on one occasion but for the most part we have kept to ourselves. In todays scripture Jesus is talking to a lawyer who puts Jesus to the test about living Gods law as it relates to our neighbors.
It seems it was not enough for the lawyer to be right about the first question he put to Jesus but he had to take it a step further. What is it about lawyers anyway? Clearly Jesus saw what was coming and was not taken by surprise.
I had no idea that my neighbor Matt was out of work recently. There was nothing that indicated that to me. He had been cleaning up his yard just like I was. He was coming and going just like I had been. There was nothing to let me know that he could use a friend and a day out in a boat. I had no idea they just recently became parents again to another little girl.
Much like todays scripture about the man who gets beat up, my little boat is very much in the same condition. It is not much to look at and it too has seen better days but it sometimes will get you from point A to point B. Just like our victim in todays passage each journey holds its own unique challenges.
Jesus told this story to the lawyer to make a distinction about just who is your neighbor in life. Even though the lawyer had correctly repeated the rule of the Ten Commandments Jesus felt that the lawyer was missing the spirit of the law or essence of the message in this truth. In fact the lawyer was trying to put a finer point on things. The lawyer was trying to justify himself about who should be recognized as a neighbor. Is a neighbor the person living next to you or is a neighbor more than that?
Well Friday was a beautiful day and I had been working on the house and yard all week cleaning things up. I figured it was time to reward myself with a day out in the boat and maybe a day out fishing if it wasnt too early to try.
My co-workers know about my little boat and some have even shared in my experiences and still they willingly accept an invitation to test fate with me by venturing out on the water. This says a lot about their lives. Either they are really bored and need a little danger in their lives or they really have nothing else to do. Maybe they really do enjoy sharing the experience and building a friendship with me around this vessel I call a boat.
My friend from work is also a younger man in his early thirties with a couple of kids, a wife a mortgage and a car that often needs repair. He too needed a day away from his daily problems and it seems he enjoys discovering new ones with me while boating.
In the lesson that Jesus puts forward he gives us a look at four kinds of people. We hear of robbers, a Priest, a Levite or Church person and a Samaritan or some one from the big city. You could fill in your own version of characters for yourself based on todays society. You could say the robbers were robbers that has not changed in 2000 years, the Priest was a Minister or Pastor and the Levite was an Elder or member of a local church and that the Samaritan was one of those young people with body piercing that you sometimes see.
The lesson that Jesus puts forward is meant to be a kind of law case for the lawyer. It is meant to be a familiar set of circumstances and not a difficult case to solve. The facts are clear enough but somehow the outcome is not what the lawyer had expected. In this case we are not to decide who did the wrong thing but we are to determine who did the right thing. That is often contrary to what lawyers look for.
It is easy enough for us to love one another here in the church. We all believe the same thing we are all living for the same thing, we are all hoping for the same thing. But the rest of the world; the other 90 percent that we meet in our daily lives do not necessarily share our world view.
They do not know Jesus the way we do, they do not share our beliefs and understanding of who God is and why we are here as His Ambassadors. It remains for us to be living examples to them. It is not enough to be a Christian in word and dress up for church each Sunday or attend a church function now and again. We have to interact with the world around us in a way that draws people to Jesus.
In the scripture lesson you know that the Priest is so heavenly minded that he is no earthly good as he passes by the injured man on the other side of the road. The Levite too passes by maybe offering a prayer but not much more. Finally a person who you would least expect to help some young tattooed body pierced out of town big city type person stops renders first aid and transports the injured person to a place of safety and pays for that person to stay at a hotel and leaves extra money to cover any unforeseen expenses.
The lawyer was focused on the robbers. The lawyer was focused on the act that caused physical injury and the injustice caused by the assault but did not see the spiritual injury caused by all who avoided the man in his real need. Jesus sees our real needs, He sees the opportunities for us to meet peoples real needs, their spiritual hunger for a demonstration of Gods love. The events that Jesus describe demonstrate for us how we can take even a bad experience and turn it into an opportunity for demonstrating Gods love.
So I got my boat all ready and I was sure it was ready to go this season. Last fall I had it fully serviced and it was running like a top when I put it away for the winter. A few days ago I thought to get the battery charged up at the local garage. He never charges me and it gives me an excuse to buy my mechanic a coffee and feel like I did him an act of kindness in return. Before I left for work that day I saw my neighbor on his porch and I asked him if he wanted to go fishing on Friday. I explained how another friend was going with me and Matt agreed he could go.
At work I talked to my friend about where we should try our luck and we asked everyone what they thought was a good place to go. We clearly had no idea and no plan but we knew we were going to escape our daily routines for a few hours and get out on the water. I mentioned how I had invited my neighbor and we made our plans.
Finally everything was ready, we all met at my house and I went over to Matts and re-introduced myself to his wife and family. Matt explained that he like so many others in Wallaceburg was now out of work and just getting by. He could really use a day away from his problems. Now he had a new baby to care for and his wife was a busy mother to two little girls who needed mom at home. I shared how I too had been through periods without work and encouraged him to hang in there.
My friend from work was a little late his car had needed servicing and it was more money than he had planned to spend. He too needed to get away if only for a few hours. We loaded up the boat and headed out. Things went great, the weather was nice the boat ran great and we had our choice of fishing holes all to ourselves. It was Friday and everyone else was at work except us.
We tried several fishing holes with no success and we had spent a lot of time just running up and down the water looking at the wildlife. Still it was great to be out. We ran into some young men who had boat trouble and we were able to offer our help since we had lots of tools. I have learned to keep lots of tools as a result of my own boating emergencies.
It felt good to be on the other side of an emergency for once. They got their boat going again and we were off. It was near sunset when it happened. Our boat, my boat was dead in the water, the battery had died. It seems we had been using the electronic fish-finder too much and wore down the battery. We had not caught one fish all day so we just watched them pass under us with the fish-finder. For us that was even fun until the boat would not start.
I thought I had packed everything, and I did except for the ores. Fortunately there was enough power in the battery to run the little electric motor and we made it to shore and to a farm house where we were helped by a young man with tattoos and body piercings. Suddenly there were four young men anxious to offer solutions and provide a boost.
We were off headed for home finally. Loading up the boat was a comical exercise but we did it. I felt so bad about getting us stuck I offered to buy supper. We shared a meal, we laughed at our calamity and we compared our life long outdoor adventures. We made friendships and built up our relationship as neighbors. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind [c]; and, Love your neighbor as yourself. Do that and when you get to heaven people will thank you for being a good neighbor and a friend. It is possible to be both. Now go and do likewise.
