January 20 - "Them"

January 20, 2013

Series Title: Me, Us, Them

Anchor:  tetrahedron

Frame:  Them

Thread:  Phoenix Principles

Experience: Stretching hearts to welcome others, the “them”

Them

Luke 10:25-37

An expert on the Law stood up to put Jesus to the test and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit everlasting life?” Jesus answered, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” The expert on the Law replied: “You must love the most high God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus said, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you’ll live.”

But the expert on the Law, seeking self-justification, pressed Jesus further: “And just who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “There was a traveler going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, who fell prey to robbers. The traveler was beaten, stripped naked, and left half-dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road; the priest saw the traveler lying beside the road, but passed by on the other side. Likewise there was a Levite who came the same way; this one, too, saw the afflicted traveler and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was taking the same road, also came upon the traveler and, filled with compassion, approached the traveler and dressed the wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then the Samaritan put the wounded person on a donkey, went straight to an inn and there took care of the injured one. The next day the Samaritan took out two silver pieces and gave them to the innkeeper with the request, ‘Look after this person, and if there is any further expense, I’ll repay you on the way back.’

“Which of these three, in your opinion, was the neighbor to the traveler who fell in with the robbers?”

 The answer came, “the one who showed compassion.”   Jesus replied, “Then go and do the same.”

                Hospitality transforms the closed heart into one that can welcome the other, the “them.” It seems that Jesus heart was all about those that the good society of his day considered the “thems.” Jesus reached out and welcomed the outcasts, the women, the widows, the foreigners, the poor, even lepers and prostitutes. While it may be somewhat natural for human beings to draw lines between “us” and “them”, for Jesus the work of the Kin-dom was blurring and crossing those lines.

                The oxymoron of church work is that the more we focus on ourselves (we need more members, we need more money, etc.) the weaker we become. It seems that those who follow Christ gain their health and strength from finding the “them” and offering welcome and succor. Healthy attention to the inner being somehow prepares us to be open to strangers and sojourners.

                This is the weekend of the MLK holiday. While over-used, King’s “I Have a Dream” speech talks of a time when the divisions of race are overcome. Still, today there is a huge us-them divide over race in the United States.

                One of the questions facing us in our Urban Abbey process is “Who is the ‘them’ that the Spirit is leading us to?”