Live Love! – Sunday, July 10th, 2022 – Pastor Pressnell

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the Fifth Sunday of Pentecost. Today our readings continue to focus our attention on how to live our lives as Christ followers. How does the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus change us and transform the way we live our lives? Last Sunday, we heard the Lord call us to proclaim peace and joy. And now today, the Lord is calling us to live love – to love those around us wholeheartedly and unconditionally. Our Old Testament reading this morning gives us some very specific and concrete ways to love those around us. And our Epistle reading this morning reminds us that living a life of love is indeed living a life worthy of the Lord, living a life that truly pleases him. And finally, in our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus shares with us what has come to be known as the Parable of the Good Samaritan, calling us to love those around us, not just with words, but also with our actions. So, beloved, let’s dig deeper.

Our Old Testament reading this morning is from the book of Leviticus, the 19th chapter. Here in chapter 19, the Lord tells Moses to speak to the entire assembly of Israel. And the Lord wants Moses to remind God’s people that they have been called to live holy lives as a reflection of God’s own holiness. They have been set apart by God himself to live their lives differently, to live their lives in a way that demonstrates and bears witness to God’s mercy and grace, that demonstrates and bears witness to the transformative power of God’s love. As God’s people, they are called to live love in some very concrete and specific ways. And beloved, as Christ followers, so have we. Love, you see, is not an abstract, intellectual, philosophical proposition. Love is concrete. Love is lived out in very specific ways. And here in our Old Testament reading this morning, the Lord gives us some very specific and concrete ways to live love. First of all, the Lord says, “When you reap the harvest of your land, don’t reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of our harvest. Don’t go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.” Notice, beloved, the focus here on the vulnerable and our responsibility as God’s people to be very intentional about showing care and compassion for the vulnerable in our communities. We may not harvest grain or grow grapes to make our living, but we are still called to care for the vulnerable who are all too often left on the fringes of our communities. My first call out of seminary was a linguist and Bible Translator among the Ekajuk people in southeastern Nigeria. The Ekajuk were a small tribe. The largest tribe in that part of Nigeria were the Igbo. And the Igbo have a very interesting word for “poor” – “obenyi. Translated literally, “obenyi” means “the one loved and supported by the community.” What an incredibly powerful understanding of “poor.” Yes, beloved, we are called to love and care for the vulnerable in our communities!

Then the Lord goes on to describe other very specific and concrete ways to live love. “Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Don’t deceive one another. Don’t swear falsely by my name. Don’t defraud or rob your neighbor. Don’t hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight – pay your workers on time. Don’t curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind. Don’t pervert justice. Don’t show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great. Judge your neighbor fairly. Don’t go about spreading slander. Don’t do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. Don’t hate your neighbor. Don’t seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone.” And then the Lord sums up this long list of “don’ts” with a very simple, yet powerful positive. Simply “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Yes, beloved, love your neighbor as yourself. Live love!

And that, my beloved, brings us to our Gospel reading this morning in Luke, chapter 10. Here in our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus shares with us the parable we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Notice the context for this parable. Luke tells us that, “on one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Notice, beloved, this is not a genuine question. It’s a question used to test Jesus. It’s a question meant to be used as a trap. It’s a question meant to make Jesus stumble and fall with an incorrect answer. But Jesus doesn’t take the bait. He recognizes the trap. He will not stumble and fall. So, he answers the question with a question of his own: “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” You’re an expert in the law. So, you should be able to answer your own question! And this expert in the law proudly answers his own question: “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 love your neighbor as yourself.” Yep! This is the right answer. And Jesus acknowledges it’s the right answer. “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”

But that’s the rub. It’s not easy to love the Lord with ALL my heart, with ALL my soul, with ALL my strength, and with ALL my mind. And it’s certainly not easy to love my neighbor as myself. That’s so broad, so all inclusive! So, this expert in the law tries to do what all of us on one occasion or another have done. We try to narrow the scope. We try to make this call to love God and love my neighbor more palatable, more manageable, more doable. So, this expert in the law asks Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

And with that, Jesus shares this parable, this most familiar parable, which we most often give the title “Parable of the Good Samaritan.” But beloved, over the years, I’ve come to believe this title – “Parable of the Good Samaritan” – really isn’t a very good title at all. In fact, in some ways it’s done us more harm than good. Why? Because this title causes us to focus our attention only on the Samaritan. Now to be sure, the Samaritan is, without a doubt, remarkable! But because of this title – which, by the way, is nowhere in the original text – we think this parable is about him and his good deeds! But I think that’s a mistake. I think the real focus of this parable is the nameless man, beaten and robbed and left for dead. I think a much better title for this parable is “The Parable of the Nameless One” – the one we so easily overlook, the one who really doesn’t matter to anyone, the one we turn into nothing more than a prop for the story.

And that’s why I wanted to share this painting with you by the 19th century Spanish painter, Pelegrin Clavé y Roqué. What first strikes me about this painting is the strange feeling that somehow the artist has gotten it wrong. In Jesus’ parable, the nameless man is robbed, beaten, and left to die. But here in this painting, the nameless man is beautiful and powerfully built. There’s no blood or dirt or gash anywhere to be seen. And even as he lies there, there’s a certain majesty about him that bespeaks a great inner dignity. How could the artist get this nameless man so wrong? He should have been painted with bloody gashes and swollen bruises. Why don’t we see this in the painting? Beloved, why indeed……

Notice the light that washes over the nameless man and the good Samaritan holding him. The light has its source outside the painting. In a very real way, the light comes from our eyes as we look at the painting — notice the direction of the shadows! It’s our eyes of faith that’s the source of light illuminating this nameless one. It’s our eyes of faith that allow us to see this nameless one the way God sees him. And it’s our eyes of faith that illuminate the good Samaritan who’s drawn near him. The artist gives our eyes the power to make beautiful this nameless man.

In contrast, look at the other two men in the painting – the priest and the Levite. Can you see them on the road over there? They can hardly look at this nameless one. They’re only able to see a man who is ugly and frightening and obviously dying, a man to be spurned and avoided at all costs. So, they pass by on the other side. In the words of Isaiah, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by humankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

Beloved, the artist wants us to associate this nameless man in his painting with the body of Jesus just taken down from the cross. He wants us to see an image of the crucified Christ very similar to Michelangelo’s famous sculpture, the Pieta. The artist wants us to recognize, to see Christ himself in the nameless ones all around us. Jesus came to give us such eyes, so that we could see those around us the way he does. What an incredible thing the resurrected Jesus does in our lives! His new life in us gives us the power to restore God’s image in a person by seeing them with new eyes, the eyes of the living Lord Jesus! His new life in us then gives us the power, given what we now see, to love the nameless ones around us in very specific and concrete ways. Yes, beloved, we have been empowered by Christ himself to live love!

And that, my beloved, brings us at last to our Epistle reading this morning in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, the first chapter. Notice how Paul begins this letter. First, there’s the normal greeting for one of Paul’s letters: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother…. To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ…. Grace and peace to you from God our Father!” But notice what comes next – a prayer of thanksgiving! And what’s Paul so thankful for? He’s thankful for the Colossians. Specifically, he’s thankful for their faith and the way the Colossians are living love! Listen carefully to these words of Paul: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the Gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the Gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.”

Beloved, these Colossian believers had experienced God’s mercy and grace in Christ. Their lives had been changed and transformed by the Good News of Jesus. And now, having had their lives changed and transformed by the Good News of Jesus, they are living love! And this love, lived out in very concrete and specific ways, is bearing fruit. More and more people – having been loved with the love of Jesus – are coming to faith and becoming Christ followers themselves. Beloved, living love in concrete and specific ways is the mark of being Christ followers. Jesus said it this way: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Yes, beloved, living love is the mark of being Christ followers!

Notice what Paul says next: “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.” And what’s been Paul’s prayer? “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Notice, beloved, first and foremost Paul wants the Colossians – and us – to grow in wisdom and understanding so that we can recognize more and more opportunities to live love, so that we can take advantage of those new opportunities to live love, so that we can know how to live love even more wisely and well, so that our love for those around us will bear rich fruit – in their lives and ours. Paul wants the Colossians – and us – to live our lives worthy of the Lord, to live our lives in ways that are pleasing to him. And beloved, more than anything else, that means living love in very real, very specific, and very concrete ways. “Love one another as I have loved you. Everyone will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”

And beloved, Paul recognizes that living love takes a lot of energy. Living love day in and day out can sometimes be exhausting. That’s why Paul prays for the Colossians – and us – to be strengthened with God’s power, which in turn gives us both patience and endurance to keep on living love, even when it gets hard, even when it gets exhausting. That’s our calling as Christ followers! We know where we once were – held captive in the kingdom of darkness, held captive by sin, death, and Satan. And beloved, we know where we are now! We have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness. We now live in the kingdom of God’s Son, the kingdom of Christ that has no end. We are his, now and for all eternity! In him, we have redemption, now and for all eternity! In him, we have the forgiveness of sins, now and for all eternity! Oh beloved, this is what we share with those around us as we live love today, tomorrow, and every day! Amen? Amen!