Sally O. Langford - "Uncomfortable Grace" (July 15, 2001)

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-	The third lesson is from the Gospel According to Luke,	0:02
	the tenth chapter.	0:05
	Just then, a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.	0:08
	"Teacher," he said,	0:11
	"what must I do "to inherit eternal life?"	0:13
	He said to him, "What is written in the law?	0:16
	"What do you read there?"	0:19
	He answered, "You shall love the Lord, your God,	0:22
	"with all your heart and with all your soul,	0:25
	"and with all your strength and with all your mind,	0:29
	and your neighbor as yourself."	0:33
	And he said to him, "You have given the right answer.	0:35
	"Do this and you will live."	0:39
	But wanting to justify himself,	0:42
	he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"	0:45
	Jesus replied: A man was going down	0:49
	from Jerusalem to Jericho,	0:53
	and fell into the hands of robbers who stripped him,	0:56
	beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.	1:00
	Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road,	1:06
	and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.	1:09
	So, likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place	1:14
	and saw him, passed by on the other side.	1:18
	But a Samaritan, while traveling, came near him	1:23
	and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.	1:27
	He went to him and bandaged his wounds,	1:30
	having poured oil and wine on them.	1:34
	Then, he put him on his own animal,	1:38
	brought him to an inn, and took care of him.	1:40
	The next day, he took out two denari,	1:44
	gave them to the innkeeper and said,	1:47
	"Take care of him, and when I come back,	1:50
	"I will repay you whatever more you spend."	1:53
	"Which of these three, do you think,	1:58
	was a neighbor to the man who fell	2:00
	into the hands of the robbers?"	2:02
	He said, "The one who showed him mercy."	2:05
	Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."	2:10
	This is the word of the Lord.	2:14
-	Thanks be to God.	2:17
-	Comfortable.	2:29
	That's how you and I like to feel	2:32
	about our Christian faith.	2:35
	And most days, comfortable is exactly how we do feel.	2:38
	Think about our relationship with God.	2:45
	That's in pretty good shape, right?	2:50
	Here it is, the middle of July,	2:53
	and we are at Sunday morning worship.	2:56
	You and I could be relaxing at Myrtle Beach	3:00
	or sleeping late in the North Carolina mountains.	3:05
	But instead, we've come to worship at Duke Chapel.	3:10
	God's got to feel good about that,	3:15
	especially when you include	3:19
	what else we've been doing for God lately;	3:22
	praying, reading our bibles,	3:26
	and participating in Bible study groups.	3:30
	And look, for a minute,	3:35
	at our relationship with other people.	3:36
	No big problem there either, right?	3:40
	Especially if we had no major flights this week	3:44
	at home or at work.	3:48
	You and I probably waved to our neighbor	3:52
	as we backed out of the driveway this morning.	3:55
	And certainly, we smiled and spoke nicely to one another	3:59
	as we passed the peace a few moments ago.	4:03
	You and I have been good neighbors;	4:07
	by giving money to missions,	4:11
	donating clothing and food to needy people,	4:15
	and serving dinner at the homeless shelter.	4:19
	That's pretty good, if you ask me.	4:24
	You and I are good, religious people.	4:28
	We love God.	4:33
	And we love our neighbor.	4:35
	We aren't so very different then,	4:40
	from the lawyer who, one day, asked Jesus,	4:42
	"What must I do to inherit eternal life?"	4:47
	This lawyer was comfortable with his faith.	4:54
	He had been trained well in the Jewish way of life.	5:00
	He knew the Torah backwards and forwards.	5:04
	He was a good, religious man.	5:09
	He knew what God expected of him.	5:12
	The lawyer was probably delighted	5:17
	when Jesus asked him to answer his own question:	5:20
	what must I do to inherit eternal life?	5:24
	The lawyer knew the answer to that question.	5:29
	It was easy, the scriptures were clear.	5:33
	And so with complete confidence,	5:38
	the lawyer said to Jesus,	5:40
	"You shall love the Lord, your God,	5:44
	"with all your heart and with all your soul	5:47
	"and with all your strength and with all your mind,	5:51
	"and your neighbor as yourself."	5:56
	"That's right," Jesus said, "do this and you will live."	6:01
	But wanting to keep the conversation going,	6:11
	the lawyer asked Jesus another question:	6:13
	who is my neighbor?	6:18
	The lawyer figured that he'd look pretty good,	6:21
	no matter how Jesus answered the question.	6:24
	He could boast to Jesus that he had loved all	6:28
	of those neighbors already.	6:32
	Or else he could point out neighbors	6:35
	that Jesus had left out.	6:37
	But Jesus, instead of answering the question,	6:41
	who is my neighbor, told a story.	6:44
	He told a story about what it means to be a neighbor.	6:49
	All of you know the story.	6:57
	We heard it read aloud just a moment ago	7:00
	but it's a story we've heard time and time again.	7:03
	"A certain man," Jesus said,	7:08
	"was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho."	7:12
	Jesus did not identify the man.	7:18
	But the lawyer probably assumed the man was a Jew.	7:22
	This man was attacked by robbers who beat him,	7:29
	stripped him and left him half dead.	7:32
	Two good, religious individuals,	7:37
	one right after another, then passed by the dying man.	7:39
	But neither the priest nor the Levite stopped to help.	7:45
	Excuses aren't given but they're easy to imagine.	7:54
	Perhaps purity laws kept the priest and the Levite	8:01
	from stopping to help an unclean, dying man.	8:06
	Or maybe both the priest and the Levite assumed	8:13
	that somebody with more nursing skills	8:16
	than they had would soon come along.	8:20
	But whatever the excuses,	8:25
	neither the priest nor the Levite stop	8:28
	to help the injured man.	8:33
	It was the third traveler,	8:39
	the Samaritan who stopped to help.	8:42
	Now, most Jews despised Samaritans.	8:48
	Samaritans were a racially mixed group	8:53
	of people who refused to worship at the temple in Jerusalem.	8:56
	No conscientious and law-abiding Jew,	9:02
	like the lawyer listening to Jesus' story,	9:08
	would expect a Samaritan to be kind and decent.	9:12
	But it was the Samaritan	9:21
	who had compassion on the dying man.	9:24
	The Samaritan delayed his journey,	9:30
	put his own life at danger and expended considerable time	9:33
	and money to get the injured man the help he needed.	9:39
	And so at the end of his story,	9:44
	when Jesus ask, "Which one of these three	9:46
	"do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell	9:51
	"into the hands of the robbers?"	9:55
	The lawyer knew the correct answer.	9:59
	"The one who showed him mercy," the lawyer replied.	10:04
	"Go then," Jesus said, "go and do likewise."	10:12
	The lawyer had felt good about his relationship	10:23
	with God and his neighbor	10:28
	but after listening to Jesus' story,	10:32
	he felt uncomfortable about his faith.	10:35
	And here it was, someone that he usually thought	10:39
	of as a heretic and a halfbreed, a Samaritan,	10:43
	who had proved to be more than a neighbor,	10:49
	more of a neighbor than he.	10:53
	Last Sunday night, a group from my home church in Charlotte,	11:01
	discussed together the Good Samaritan.	11:06
	The more we talked about the story,	11:11
	the more we felt uncomfortable about our faith.	11:14
	All of us in that group are good, religious people	11:20
	but the more we talked, the more we identified,	11:25
	not with the Good Samaritan,	11:29
	but with the priest and the Levite.	11:32
	One woman shared how she had just finished reading a story	11:37
	about the AIDS epidemic in Africa.	11:42
	Normally, the woman said, she skips over those articles	11:47
	about crises in far-off places	11:51
	on the other side of the world.	11:54
	But this article, she read from start to finish	11:57
	and she was appalled by how comfortable she had felt	12:03
	about her Christian life when millions upon millions	12:08
	of men, women, youth and children were dying	12:16
	of AIDS in Africa.	12:20
	"Aren't those African people my neighbor,"	12:24
	the woman asked us.	12:29
	The rest of us had our own confessions to make.	12:33
	We confessed that we try not to think	12:38
	about the Filipino people who live	12:40
	in garbage heaps in Manila.	12:43
	We turn the other way when we hear about the Pueblo Indians	12:48
	in New Mexico living in poverty and perhaps contaminated	12:53
	by the nuclear waste from Los Alamos.	12:58
	We don't like to read those articles	13:03
	in the newspaper about violence in the Middle East	13:05
	or Northern Ireland or Jamaica or Chechnya.	13:09
	But we had to confess that it's not only our neighbors	13:18
	in far-off lands that we haven't loved.	13:21
	We haven't been merciful toward people in our own community,	13:25
	our own neighborhoods, our own families,	13:32
	even our own church.	13:35
	We'd like to think that we are like the Good Samaritan,	13:40
	but all of us in Sunday night's bible study group	13:45
	had to confess that we're more like the priest	13:48
	and the Levite instead.	13:53
	Ann Tyler's novel, "Saint Maybe",	14:00
	tells the story of a 19-year-old carefree college youth.	14:06
	This college student, Ian,	14:13
	has his life turned upside down when,	14:16
	because of his own thoughtless words and actions,	14:19
	he triggers, at least in part,	14:24
	the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law.	14:27
	Ian is a wreck over the guilt he feels	14:33
	and one Wednesday evening,	14:39
	he wanders into a small store-front church	14:41
	called The Church of the Second Chance.	14:45
	He explains to the minister the guilt he feels	14:50
	over the death of his brother and sister-in-law.	14:54
	And then he ask Reverend Emmett,	14:58
	"I am forgiven, don't you think?"	15:02
	"Goodness, no," Reverend Emmett replies.	15:08
	Ian, in protest, says,	15:15
	"But God forgives everything, right?!"	15:18
	And then Reverend Emmett gives this council:	15:23
	God does forgive	15:28
	but you can't just say, "I'm sorry, God."	15:30
	Why, anyone could do that much.	15:34
	You have to offer reparation;	15:38
	concrete, practical reparation,	15:41
	according to the rules of the church.	15:45
	Ian is disturbed to hear this	15:50
	and so he ask Reverend Emmett,	15:52
	"But what if there isn't any reparation?	15:56
	"What if it's something you can't fix?"	16:01
	Reverend Emmett replies,	16:07
	"Well, that's where Jesus comes in, of course.	16:11
	"Jesus remembers how difficult life on Earth can be.	16:14
	"He helps with what you can't undo.	16:20
	"But only after you've tried to undo it."	16:24
	This is even more disturbing to Ian to hear,	16:31
	especially when Reverend Emmett goes on to suggest	16:35
	that he should raise his brother's three orphaned children.	16:39
	And then in a panic, he ask,	16:46
	"What kind of a cockeyed religion is this?"	16:49
	"It's the religion of atonement and complete forgiveness,"	16:55
	Reverend Emmett says,	17:00
	"It's the religion of the second chance."	17:03
	You and I, just like Ian in Ann Tyler's novel,	17:12
	"Saint Maybe", would welcome easy forgiveness	17:17
	for the many ways we have failed to be merciful	17:24
	and to love our neighbor.	17:27
	But Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan	17:30
	offers no easy forgiveness.	17:34
	We find there instead, a word of challenge,	17:38
	even a word of judgment.	17:42
	And when you and I understand Jesus' call to us	17:47
	to go and be merciful, to go and love	17:51
	as the Good Samaritan did,	17:54
	even when we say, yes, it gets easier, not harder,	17:57
	that's because we come to see that neighbor love,	18:03
	true neighbor love, knows no boundaries.	18:07
	True neighbor love is without limits.	18:13
	It has no preconditions.	18:18
	Nevertheless, there is a good dose of grace	18:23
	in Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan.	18:29
	Look at the story again.	18:33
	If the victim of the highway robbery was a Jew,	18:37
	then that Jewish man received unexpected grace	18:42
	from the Samaritan.	18:47
	The victim of the robbery	18:51
	did not deserve the Samaritan's grace,	18:53
	the Samaritan's mercy, but he received that grace	18:57
	and mercy nevertheless.	19:03
	Isn't that how it is in our lives, too?	19:07
	Think about the unexpected people,	19:12
	people whom we have thought unworthy	19:16
	or not so able to give as we are,	19:20
	to be a neighbor as we are.	19:24
	Think about how those people	19:28
	turned out to be true neighbors to us.	19:30
	I learned a truth about bein' a good neighbor	19:36
	on a mission trip to Mexico 15 years ago.	19:41
	I went with Dr. Mac Richey,	19:46
	the trip was sponsored by Duke Divinity School.	19:48
	One hot day, our group traveled by van,	19:53
	out into the middle of barren,	19:58
	dry countryside to visit a family.	20:00
	Cacti were the only plants around.	20:05
	We went to see a family	20:10
	who were raising pigs through the Heifer Project.	20:12
	And because of these pigs,	20:16
	the family now had a yearly income of $300.	20:17
	Such a small amount of money.	20:24
	But this family was hopeful.	20:27
	Our group visited with the family and admired the pigs,	20:31
	and then we turned to go.	20:36
	But the mother of the household stopped us.	20:39
	She had sent her son down into the village	20:42
	to buy all of us bottled drinks,	20:44
	and now she wanted us to come out of the hot sun,	20:48
	into her house and rest.	20:51
	When we saw the bottled drinks on the kitchen table,	20:55
	we knew that the woman had just spent	20:59
	that week's income on us.	21:02
	We were amazed by that hospitality.	21:07
	The Mexican woman was, for us, a Good Samaritan.	21:13
	I, as well as other members in the group,	21:18
	had gone to Mexico,	21:21
	eager to see how we could share our wealth	21:23
	and our understanding of God with the Mexican people.	21:27
	But as I drank that bottled drink,	21:32
	I knew that I was just beginning to understand	21:36
	what loving God and loving neighbor are all about.	21:39
	The Mexican woman, on the other hand,	21:45
	she already knew what being a neighbor entails.	21:48
	My story's not unique.	21:55
	You, too, can think of occasions when someone	21:58
	was a neighbor to you.	22:02
	You and I have received grace,	22:05
	even when we did not deserve grace.	22:07
	God, of course, is the ultimate good neighbor	22:13
	to you and me.	22:19
	In the final analysis,	22:21
	you and I trust that it's by grace we're saved,	22:22
	not through our good works.	22:27
	And the Gospel of Luke makes that truth clear.	22:30
	A few chapters later, after this story,	22:34
	in chapter 18, yet another individual comes	22:37
	and ask Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"	22:41
	It's the rich ruler this time,	22:48
	who wants to be reassured that he is okay	22:50
	in his relationship with God and his neighbor.	22:54
	And the rich ruler goes away sad	22:59
	when Jesus tells him	23:02
	to sell what he has and to come follow him.	23:03
	But that's not the end of the story.	23:08
	Jesus goes on to tell his disciples,	23:11
	"It will be harder for a rich man	23:15
	"to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel	23:17
	"to go through the eye of a needle."	23:21
	"Who, then, can be saved," the disciples ask.	23:24
	And Jesus replies, "What is impossible for humans	23:31
	"is possible for God."	23:38
	Do you hear the good news?	23:45
	The story of the Good Samaritan	23:48
	does remind us of all the neighbors	23:51
	whom have not loved.	23:54
	There's no way you	23:56
	and I can be comfortable today about our faith,	23:58
	because over and over again,	24:01
	we have not shown other people mercy.	24:03
	But having said that,	24:09
	you and I keep on trying to be a good neighbor.	24:11
	That's because, ultimately, God is the one who saves us	24:16
	and God is the one who enables us to be merciful.	24:21
	That's the good news of the story of the Good Samaritan.	24:27
	God is the God of the second chance.	24:32
	And so this morning, you and I can leave worship	24:37
	renewed and strengthened for loving God and our neighbor.	24:42
	What's impossible for us is possible with God.	24:49
	Thanks be to God, amen.	24:58

Item Info

Title:

Sally O. Langford - "Uncomfortable Grace" (July 15, 2001)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 0:02. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 25:05.
The most uncomfortable part of the Good Samaritan parable, Langford says, is dually that we are confronted with our own lack of good neighborliness, and that no one – not even the wounded person whom the Samaritan helps – is deserving of God’s grace; thus, God’s grace is uncomfortable, because we will never fully emulate it even as we are commanded to do good works through love. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4r20sb0k

Date:

July 15, 2001

Speaker:

Langford, Sally O.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 10:25-37

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-1076
ref10309_3cu
uachapelsermaud
duke:320879
dcrau001720
ark:/87924/r4r20sb0k
63032eac-39df-49f5-8a7b-bd1c76d51506

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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