sermon 7.11

So, how many of you have heard this story? What do we usually call it? Who do you want to be in this story? Who do we tell the children to be?


Tell me what you know of the characters, the Levite, the priest, the Samaritan.

That all seems entirely too simple to me. I’m going to propose to you that who you really are is the man on the ground. But first let’s go to the rest of the story.

Here we have a man – we don’t know anything about this man. We don’t know if he is young or old, righteous or not, good or bad, businessman or farmer, Jewish, Gentile, Samaritan, Ethiopian, …

We only know he went down to Jericho from Jerusalem. Now, I would imagine a road. Maybe you do too. Here are some paintings:

They happen to show someone who has passed by the man, and they insinuate a road, narrow, but real.

Jesus knows that the listeners actually know the setting he has put this story in. They know what going down from Jerusalem to Jericho means. Here is the map I showed you last week

where you can see Jerusalem to Jericho and what the map makes it look like – not very hospitable. It's about 30 miles as the crow flies - you just can't get there as the crow flies.

In reality, the Romans had built a road – a real road, paved and wide from Jerusalem to Jericho complete with soldiers to keep away bandits and toll booths so you could pay for that privilege.

Most continued to go down to Jericho the old way, this is where they went. This trail is known as the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Why – there is the very real possibility of losing your way, not finding water, being attacked by bandits or animals. There are no trees - though you will and did find Bedouins with herds of goats or sheep that eat anything that sprouts green. This is the Judean desert.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death. That is where this man, this no name, no tribe man went down and was attacked and left for dead. He was stripped of his valuables, stripped of his clothes, stripped of his identity and left as a sinner on the side of the path. All who passed him could see that he was a sinner and they could see nothing redeeming about him.

This man did not know that today was the day he was to trust in the Lord, that he needed to be ready and call on him, that he should have been walking in the paths of righteousness or this would not have happened! The Levite and the priest – well they knew. It was obvious that the man was a sinner – and he got his just desserts! How could this man expect any mercy, any compassion, any grace from them!

This man must not have listened on Sunday to the Word as it was preached. He must have skipped Bible class and surely had lapsed in his devotional time each day. Why, he probably had even quit praying, quit talking to God. And maybe his intention in going to Jericho was to go partying or to gamble or to do some shady dealings. He just didn’t pay attention and had slipped into the easy life of sin, metaphorically into the valley of the shadow of death.

Our God is not like the gods that others hold dear. Our god doesn’t look down on us as we wallow in our sin and then walk on by. When we are in our deepest and darkest place, when we are in the valley of the shadow of death and are attacked on all sides, whether we deserve the attack or not – our God does not walk by. Our God bends down to earth, comes down to earth as a person, a person others don’t pay attention to, a person no one wants on their team, a person others either ignore, rant against, or hate and pours the wine of forgiveness on our wounds washing us clean. Then he pours the oil of anointment over us claiming us as his own.

Then, amazingly our God picks us up and takes us to a house where the community of God can care for us. Of his own wealth God gives what is needed for our life. His wealth including his own son who came here and gave his blood that with the wine you receive today you might receive the forgiveness of God once more.

The grace that comes from God is as unearned, as unexpected, as abundant as the grace you see coming from the Samaritan. And it is all done without our seeing and maybe without our even being able to thank.

We are you see the man on the road, naked, nothing of value, no identity until God comes to us. If we don’t realize that, in truth, we are that man in the valley of the shadow of death needing the grace of God, then we are truly lost.

But if we do realize it, if we do give thanks to God that we have been redeemed by the body and blood of our Lord Jesus the Christ, if we do – then we have the opportunity to be the hands, the feet, the body of that Samaritan, of our Lord.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9:7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.



Imagine, just for a moment, imagine what that could look like in this church. Imagine, if our hands reached, our feet went, our tongues talked, our backs bent. Imagine. Shalom!

Last week's sermon

I picked up this little ceramic plate in Jericho. (Sorry, those of you reading this can't see it) It says ‘shalom y’all’. I don’t know how our sayings got into the Israeli language for such objects, but I thought it was cute. And apropos for my office.


Shalom is the greeting as you meet and as you leave – in actuality it is asking the peace of God to be in that place. This is what the sent ones are to say to the townspeople. Shalom, peace of God, be with you.

What a great way to greet people – oh, yeah – we do that when we say ‘peace be with you.’ Do we ever take it back? hmmm

We spent a few hours on the Sea of Galilee in a fishing boat - and in just the short time we were in the boat the winds from the Mediterranean came blowing across the land and whipped up waves, the sea was teaming with life, fish of many kinds, the water came pouring into the sea from the Jordan River in the north and flowed out the bottom as the Jordan River – watering the land, flowing by Jerusalem, and flowing into the Dead Sea.

Both seas were remarkable and yet one was so alive and the other dead – not growing, just making dark black mud and salt.

These 70 that Jesus appointed were like the Sea of Galilee. They had followed Jesus and listened to his teachings. They had followed Jesus and watched him heal the sick and even do exorcisms. They had listened as he refused to call down fire for vengeance over Samaria.

These 70 watched as Jesus stretched out his hand and touched a leper, immediately curing him. They watched as Jesus said to the man with the withered hand – “come and stand here,” by me. Then Jesus without ever touching him said, “Stretch out your hand.” And it was restored.

The 70 heard Jesus’ sermon on the plain where he said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” And as he admonished all to love their enemies and do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you.

The 70 saw him raise the widow’s son outside the gates of Nain, just down the road. They saw the sinful woman anoint him with an alabaster jar full of ointment on his feet – and he forgave her all her sins. They saw him heal the Gerasene, the other, the gentile, of a legion of demons by sending them into the pigs.

The 70 were filled with who Jesus was and could be as disciples should be, then were sent out and they went.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 says

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 7a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.



For everything there is a time. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;



This lesson is seen with the Sea of Galilee and with the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee receives water from the Jordan and is teaming with life and fresh water because it goes out. The Jordan River continues its trek south. A disciple receives all the training and at one time or another it is the time. For everything there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven, A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. The time for a disciple is when he or she is sent out – and thus becomes an apostle. Apostles are disciples who are sent out. Note, by the way, none of these 70 had anything special to speak of, none were priests or scribes or nobles. They were regular people.

On the other hand, the Dead Sea receives all the water from the Jordan and keeps it. There is no ‘out of the Dead Sea.’ It is like a disciple who learns and learns and sees and sees, but never gives it away, never says anything to anyone about what he has heard or seen or experienced. It becomes a dead faith.

Discipleship without apostleship leads to stagnation – however to take this analogy even further – if the Sea of Galilee just flowed into the Jordan River without taking in more of the Jordan from the north – well, it would die as a sea. Apostleship without discipleship leads to burnout.

That is - how can we express our faith to those who meet us if we are not taking in the life giving waters of God’s word? How can we express our faith to those who meet us if we are not in constant contact with God through our prayer life? If we aren’t, it is like a dam was put at the northern point of the Galilee and all the life giving water sucked out of the sea.

A life-giving faith requires both – the inflow of discipleship learning and the outflow of being sent into the world with a message.

Jesus tells us clearly, “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

How is your disciple life? Do you hear the call to be sent out? Jesus calls all walks of life, all manner of intelligence, all sizes of people, all ages of people -  to tell the story of his life, death, and resurrection, a story we love to tell, a story that is life-giving to so many. Do you hear the call? If so, shalom.