[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #565, Pentecost 7, 7/15/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Pentecost 7 -- July 15, 2007


Psalm 82
Amos 7:7-17
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25 37

All You Need To Know About Eternal Life You Learned In Kindergarten.

We make salvation complicated in order to avoid obedience.  Moses says, 
"All you needed to know to live in God's kingdom you learned in 
Deuteronomy."  Jesus simplifies it further, "All you needed to know to 
live in God's kingdom you learned in the Shema."

The story of the Good Samaritan is an explication of the proposition 
that the rule of love is the only rule you need to know.  A devout and 
astute colleague of mine once observed about a church that they didn't 
need any more Bible study.  They needed to start doing what the Bible 
says.  W. C. Fields was caught reading the Bible on the movie set.  To 
which he responded, "I'm looking for loopholes."  Was the Levite 
studying the Torah when he passed by the man beaten and lying by the 
side of the road?  Is Bible study itself obedience?  Is Biblical 
knowledge itself the source of salvation?  Is theological 
sophistication the same as intimacy with God?  The thief on the cross 
didn't know the Bible.  He knew Jesus.  This is not an argument against 
studying the Bible or pursuing the knowledge of God but rather an 
argument for the spirit of God's love in our hearts and the practice of 
God's love in our actions.

The Priest and the Levite in Jesus' parable can stand for those who 
seek to possess eternal life by their knowledge and practice of the 
religion; the Samaritan, for those on whose heart God has written the 
law by the imposition of the Holy Spirit.

Just as Amos said, God has dropped a plumb line into the house of 
Israel.  But Jesus has found this heir of Jeroboam, this Samaritan, to 
be upright and the house of Judah to be askew.  The plumb line of God 
is love and can be dropped into any setting as both a guide and a 
judgment.  “’What do you see, Amos?’ Yahweh asked me. ‘A plumb line,’ I 
said.”

“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...”  (Colossians 1:9)

We can all be like the Good Samaritan when we allow God to transform 
our minds with "the hope laid up for us in heaven".  The priest 
operated on the hope of getting to Jericho before dark; the Samaritan, 
a higher hope.  The fruit that each bore was appropriate to the hope 
that each had.

Professing love for God and not loving the neighbor is not acceptable 
to God.  We didn’t need Jesus to tell us the Psalmist had already heard 
God tell us. “No more mockery of justice, no more favoring the wicked! 
Let the weak and the orphan have justice; be fair to the wretched and 
destitute; rescue the weak and needy; save them from the clutches of 
the wicked!” (Psalm 82:2-4)

"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 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled 
you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.  He has 
rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the 
kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness 
of sins."  (Colossians 1:11-14)

"It is not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, but that 
has been found difficult and not tried."  (Malcolm Muggeridge)




May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
(an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at
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