Living in Dignity

There's a word we don’t hear in our lessons today. We hear so much about love it almost just rolls past us. But one word I think we should engage is Dignity. It never appears in our lessons but I think is very much a part of what God’s law and Jesus’ teaching are about-the worth of each person God created matters to God. Dignity is a word sorely needed in our world on so many levels. Not the least of which is the notion that “Stand your ground” and “turn the other cheek” are incompatible.

Jesus is preaching and talking about loving neighbors and the crowd knows it. It’s from Leviticus-Love your neighbor as yourself. But here’s the thing- the word that is not in Leviticus-enemy. There’s no hating enemy in Leviticus. It might seem like Jesus is a little sloppy about remembering Leviticus. But I think he preaches to what he knows people have decided to believe. “Not my neighbor” means “OK to hate.”

He preaches dignity to the crowd for themselves, for those Galileans who are oppressed by the Roman rule, and for all their others. We all have “others.” The ones who are not neighbors to love.

I’m just back from the Youth Sleepover, where kids constantly question the scope of how much is really expected, questions about what each newly encountered situation demands: “ But Pastor…!” you REALLY mean I have to do THIS?” No wonder those 10 commandments became over 600 rules in Leviticus. We all ask the questions.

Today Jesus sums up God’s “yes” to our “No” about the poor, the stranger, the deaf, blind, rich, extended family, and more. All the people we encounter not those we want to. And if you think about your day and who you encounter- it’s often largely not family. If you stop and think many of us encounter and spend more time with the doctor, the store clerk, the bus driver, the food server, coworkers.  What does it mean to love and honor them? With dignity? Maybe it starts with seeing them as people in the picture as opposed subjects of McWages,  immigration limits, healthcare and more.

A little deeper, think about all the people you just cannot abide or maybe even have hurt you. Them too? One of our kids on the overnight is struggling with controlling anger. She already has a label-she has “anger management” issues. Like that ends the possibilities. She's been taught it's the response to everything that is challenging. When she gets mad she thinks nothing of “popping” the offender. But I have "anger management issues." She insists that “ I choose my attitude based upon how you treat me.” Sounds kind of like “eye for an eye.” And she can hold her anger and not let go. As I work with her to find better avenues, I shared with her the saying “holding a grudge is like letting someone live rent free in your head.” Why would any of us give that much of us to our "enemy"?

It sounds easy to talk the talk, but the real walk is so much harder. Because frankly til Jesus is done, there are no enemies. And love isn’t just about being nice, its about God’s framework as our lens. Our default says it’s not possible. Or at the least that some great models accomplish it but it’s not reality. It is easy to overlook God at the center of relationships-I am the Lord and YOUR God.

Our walking in God’s ways and also turning away from things takes God. Relationships and wisdom are not static. Not just memorized it in Sunday school. Not a simple set of brightline moments. We tend to collapse time and history in ways that take away the reality of all of the in between good and bad. Owning the journey may be one way to then recognize the importance of walking close with God in guidance. Even if it’s only in looking back that we see where we’ve been with God. 

The truth is that if we really try, being God’s people, God’s reflection is heavy duty lifting. Yet, the early Christian church’s ability to embrace this and to relieve the misery and hardship of urban life for the majority poor in cities was the major factor in growth of Christianity. Being a persistent, pervasive and reflection of Christ so that the community is seen as God's.

Even as we might cringe to hear that God will provide for the good and evil. Comprehensive, indiscriminate and undeserved kindness is God. Even in Jesus’ time Josephus noted - “it is surely madness to expect God to show the same treatment to the just and the unjust!” The struggle is timeless. And it sounds so good but it’s so hard.

This is where I think our translation of the gospel gets it wrong. We hear “be perfect.” And frankly that be perfect part is just not for real. That’s kind of a crappy translation. Looking back to Leviticus, we hear- be holy as I the Lord your God am holy. And I think it’s fair to say that related to being holy is being whole. The greater righteousness which embodies God’s empire imitates God in wholeness.

To be whole or holy takes active trust and obedience- walking with. It takes what only God can give- faith and the Spirit

Constant and comprehensive love even in the face of opposition is what we see of God across Scripture and then to the cross. And we are then empowered to be whole, doing love toward all, including those we call enemies.

To even begin takes constant discerning of what the kingdom looks like in each situation. But one writer notes, “no matter who we are the Jesus truth is this: Because I am made in the image of God, I am deserving of dignity and respect. Often Sunday School repetition has lessened the shocking impact of Jesus’ words for us today, nothing can lessen even for us, how very hard it is for us to love an enemy: how incredibly difficult it is to live this truth. But if we are to live as people of dignity, it is a skill we have to learn.”

And here is where there is another challenge. We often lift up great models of the faith- Martin Luther King, Jr., Desmond Tutu, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and others. Like they are icons or super Christians. And they are almost inaccessible. Often model people of the faith are hard for us to embrace as connected to us.

So I want to share in closing two stories about everyday people in the struggle to live God’s dignity.

On the sleepover, our 12 kids got there to join about 100 kids total. We were sitting church for the opening and one of our girls turned to me and said, “Pastor, we are surrounded by a sea of whiteness. How’s this gonna be for us?” The fear of the enemy dynamic was alive for her. How will the Riveras and Figueroas, and Rosarios fit in the picture? As it turned out our 11 girls were put in a room with three girls from Bernville, a town of a few hundred that doesn’t experience our diversity. I am happy to say that in the midst of concern, the gospel was proclaimed in how everyone came together. Even if it centered around Justin Bieber as much as Jesus. That’s a story that has to continue to be lived to become working reality.

Here’s the second story, of love and dignity when it has not been reality. Philip Yancy’s book Rumours of Another World tells of South Africa, at a Truth and Reconciliation hearing after the end of apartheid. Where people tried to reconcile the injustices.

“A policeman recounted how he and other officers, had shot at point blank range an 18 year old boy, just because he was black and then burned the body to destroy the evidence. Eight years later, the men returned to the boy’s home and forced his mother to watch as they bound her husband, poured gas over him and set him on fire. The room grew quieter and quieter. And then the judge turned to the woman and asked: ’what do you want from him?’

She replied, ‘I want him to go to the place my husband was burned, and gather up the dust there so that I can give him a decent burial.’

‘He took all my family away from me, but I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to my home and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him. And I would like him to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him too. I would like to embrace him so he can know forgiveness is real.”

Imagine the power of that wholeness.

I cannot imagine the cost to her, what her neighbors thought of her. But what dignity, healing and hope she brought through her love for her enemy, not just to herself, and not just for him, but for all who hear the story. Including us.

We don’t love our neighbors because they deserve it. We love them because God says they are our sisters, and our brothers, and because God, while we were yet sinners, loved us first.”

God calls us into this holiness, this wholeness, this love. It is hard work. But if we want to live with dignity, it is the only thing to do.

 

(For more on this I invite you to read "What Dignity" on the www.sacredise.com blog)

Draw Near

I have been the Good Samaritan, Sam actually. When I was in junior high school, our church youth choir put on a musical about the Good Samaritan entitled “Sam.” And I knew there was only one part for me, I HAD to be Sam. Especially because it was the title role and there was a solo and then I would get my name in the newspaper article and my friends would come to see me and it would be great! Well, when I got the part, I of course needed the right outfit and since we were going for a modern urban look, I went out a got a really great hoodie the first time they were in in the ‘70s. And I made sure my makeup was just right so when I walked out on that stage I would look good. And I would appear caring and then sing my solo in the spotlight. And I WAS good. And thinking how great it was to look good singing about doing good. I thought a lot about that word “Good.” I didn’t think at all about that word “Samaritan.” Or what that meant. And I suspect most of us don’t either. I mean, we don’t have any Samaritans walking down the street here, has anyone seen a Samaritan lately? But by not remembering that word in Jesus’ story we miss out on the depth of the story.

There are lots of ways people interpret this parable. Parables are the stories Jesus uses to demonstrate some greater truth. And many people focus on that word “good” in the Parable of “The Good Samaritan.” But the main thing Jesus is telling us this day is not “do good.” He’s not. The Bible does tell us to do good and to share good- that is very Scriptural and good, but Jesus is not telling the man who asks the question to just do a little good.

Because the story is told in response to a man who thinks he IS good, who knows all the rules. He asks Jesus what God really expects- what do I really have to do. Jesus responds by asking him what Scripture says- and he knows it- Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. It practically rolls off his tongue. Echoing those words God gives in Deuteronomy to the people that will lead to long life for the people and their ancestors. And apparently the man does not have a question about loving God. His question is about that neighbor part. Who is my neighbor? Loving a God we cannot see might seem easy.

Loving people right in front of us that we can see is something else.

What do I have to do? Who do I really have to love? What will it take? Mind, soul, heart and strength means “all in.” There has to be a limit. This is when Jesus tells the parable. That story of a road that is known to be dangerous, and people known to be sketchy, and the poor so desperate they will rob to survive, and enemies we cannot imagine we have to see, much less think they have anything to give us that we would want. It’s not a pretty picture- but it’s the way that leads to the man in the ditch, and people acting like that’s just the way it is. We want to hear- do a little good , show a little mercy and it’s OK.

Not so. In the larger narrative of the gospel of Luke we keep hearing that the kingdom of God has drawn near. Draw near.

And Jesus challenges all those limits- in that word Samaritan. Drawing near includes enemies. In some parts of the world and in our country, it may be easy to identify large groups of people who would fit our modern day “Samaritan” but I suspect for us here in Reading this day, I could probably ask each of you who that is and get a variety of answers. But we all have a person or group of people who we cannot trust, or don’t understand, those we cannot forgive. Jesus stands all that on its head and says your view of “neighbor” and your heart must be moved. How we see the poor, the unclean, the desperate, the dangerous, the enemy must be moved. This includes how we respond to them and how we see God in them- we have much to learn. And here in our own neighbor-hood the truth is we are not seeing everyone. And we miss out when we don’t see and embrace others truly.

Even our own mission statement, well intentioned, misses the mark. How many of you know it? For those who don’t the key part I want us to hear is that we say we “meet our neighbors at their greatest point of need.” But then what? Are we doing good, showing a little mercy, but then parting still strangers? Are we changed by God in this? And what about our greatest point of need? Do we imagine our neighbors meet us there and have things to offer to us, other places where we will both encounter God?

I have another Good Samaritan story. A man went to a city to do business, and while he was there he was ambushed, beaten, robbed and thrown from a moving car onto a sidewalk and left for dead. Dumped on a bust street, still in his business clothes, though they were now bloodied and tattered because the way we rob someone is to slit all their pockets. But on a street where it is not uncommon to see people in a heap on the sidewalk, he could just be another drunk, or a bum. There he is, a victim of people desperate enough to rob to survive. And other people dressed like him, walk on by as he lays there half dead. But an itinerant street vendor, sees him and crosses over to where he is. The street vendor may or may not have been an immigrant, who may or may not be illegal, he may or may not have been serving questionable food, making money under the table. He may or may not have warrants out for his arrest, and he may or may not have even been religious, much less Christian.  And he had many things to risk. He left his cart- which meant he was missing all those lunch sales that feed him and a family. And his cart could have been robbed. And it could turn out that when the police come they say- this guy is a drunk, but we have your name on a list. Or the people that robbed the man, might have seen the street vendor start to help and come back for him.  And he had no reason to get involved, much less help the man, call authorities and convince them to help.

But changed lives. Because the man laying there half dead was my father. Who is alive today because of that street vendor. And my greatest sadness is that we never learned his name and we could never thank him. Because in the world of important law abiding people, he was too insignificant to be remembered. It’s like he was unseen. Yet it was THIS man who went beyond all the limits to show compassion. And my father is alive because of it. When we keep those we assume have nothing to offer at a distance, we miss out on the life and love God intends for all of us. The story of the Unknown Street Vendor changed my life view.  He lived out love your neighbor as yourself.

When we allow ourselves to be taught anew and open our eyes to the world, Christ teaches us real love and reminds of our real story. We are all helpless, in need in some way, and unable to save ourselves. But we are all given life and a future in Christ, and a place in the kingdom drawn near.

But that life will always feel incomplete when we don’t see our neighbors as we see ourselves, when we don’t draw near. “They” are “us” and we are ALL the ones God saves, and loves, and uses to give and to receive. And this is the neighborhood here- where people we feed share to feed others, where juvenile sex offenders crochet caps for babies in a NICU, where addicts watch this church and where everyday random people tell me they pray for us even though we do not see them here today. It is nothing short of life giving and miraculous and happening in places we’re not looking.

God is calling us to open our eyes to see God at work, and to share compassion and love with all our neighbors in the kingdom. Draw near.