ETHICS FOR MODERN CHRISTIANS BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
PART IV - HOW TO BE A DISCIPLE JOHN M. BUCHANAN

WITHOUT BEING RELIGIOUS NOVEMBER 12, 1972
LUKE 10:25-37

Several years ago a Broadway musical with the engaging title "How to Succeed. in
Business Without Really Trying" parodied the way corporate life sometimes rewards a man
for skills and abilities that have very little to do with the real business of the cor-
poration. A few years later a Methodist minister, Charles Merrill Smith, wrote a little
book, "How to Become a Bishop Without Being Religious", that poked fun at the same prac-
tices in the institutional church. I should like this morning to add to that impressive
repetorie with a contribution of my own under the title "How to be a Disciple Without
Being Religious" - without music, of course. For that is, I believe, precisely the point
of the most famous story Jesus every told, the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

But first the situation - which turns out to be every bit as interesting as the
story itself. A lawyer (scribe) came to Jesus one day to talk a little theology. "Teacher",
he asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Now the man was an ecclesiastical
lawyer whose job it was tc know and interpret the Jewish law = a law that contained 613
separate rules and regulations covering every possible human condition. The law defined
morality: to obey it was te be good: to disregard it was to be sinful. This man knew
the law; he also knew that the answer to his question was the very bed-rock of the law
and the whole Jewish legal system. And so we can conclude that he really wasn't there to
talk theology but to set a rhetorical trap. He was there,that is to say, in the name of
established religion in order to wrap and indict one who more and more was looking like
-an enemy of religion. Jesus knew what was happening and responded by asking another
question: "What do the scriptures say? How do you interpret?" The lawyer knew the book.
"You must love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul,strength and mind - and your
neighbor as yourself." And Jesus said simply: "Correct. Go and do it."

But now the lawyer, who had come to set a trap - to talk theology ostensibly but

really to prove that Jesus was an enemy of religion = was in a trap. He was on the
defensive. And so he did a very logical thing: he asked another question. "But, who is
my neighbor?" One has to assume that at best he wanted to get into an involved philoso-

phic discussion regarding the definition of neighbor, just as contemporary Christians

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sometimes want to discuss whether or not a communist is to be served and loved as a
neighbor. At worst, he was still holding out for the trap, hoping that Jesus’ own rhetoric
would prove his threat to the established religion,

So Jesus told a story that answers the question, “Who is my neighbor?", but in the
process turns that question completely around so that it sounds Tike "To whom am I a
neighbor?" And when it is over we Fave moved from philosophic speculation to a radical
and revolutionary new definition of ethics: and a firm imperative to guide any would-be
disciple.

YOu know the story. A man on the treacherous road from derusalem to Jericho was
attacked, beaten, and robbed and left to die in the ditch. A priest and lewite passed by,
but a Samaritan - a religicus heretic and racial half~breed - stopped, bound up his
wounds, transported him to an inn and arranged for his care. .

It doesn’t take a great scholar to interpret and apply that. It says, to begin with,
that the life of Christian discipleship is a life of outgoing, spontaneous, extravagant
love. In the negative sense it says, once again, that following Jesus Christ has very
little to do with obeying the rules laid down by any particular culture as the definition
of morality. After all, the priest and the levite - a minor temple functionary - were not
bad men. They did no wrong: they broke no Taw. They simply made a wide circle areund
the man Tying in the ditch and proceeded with their journey. Their law had no prescrip-
tion for what to do about half dead Cews along the road-side. Their neat religious system
simply did not deal with the matter of meeting human need in unusual circumstances. That's
first: Christian discipleship is defined by love: love spontaneous enough to stop by the
road: love creative enough to operate outside the Taw: love courageous enough to deal with
a very risky and tentative and questionabla set of circumstances.

second, the story says that this unique discipleship - this spontaneous, creative
and courageous jove ~ begins with the ability to participate in the life of others. One
writer put it this way: "Love not only looks for resources to hetp - it lets us SEE the
misery of our fellowman. Before Tove sets our hands in motion it opens our eyes."

(Helmut Thielcke - How to Believe Again, P123)

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That is to say, the priest and the leyite may have reported the incident to the
authorities: they may have set up a Task Force to study conditions along the dericho road.
Men of good will ought to and do perform that kind of service. But the disciple loves -
and thus feels the immediate and personal pain of that man lying in that ditch.

1 think that is quite to the point. For at this time - in this place - we have at
our disposal a whole way of life that eilows us to make wide circles around human misery.
If we don't want to we don't ever have to see poverty. We can sit in atr conditioned
comfort, listening to F.M. stereo, drive to Randolph Street in downtown Chicago by express-
way, through and around some of the worst slums and ghettces in the Western world and never
see a thing. We can, if we choose, watch Julie Andrews and Doris Day on televion instead
of the documantary cn prison life. We can, if we choose, busy ourselves with meetings ,
P.T.A., Scouts, concerts, and just not have the time to sec our neighbor across the street
whose marriage is breaking up and who is dying for someone to care and listen and share.

Well, love opens cur eyes, and lets us feel the pain of our brothers. Love demands
that we see him, not just lying in the ditch by the roadside: but in the office - in our
church ~ even in ow families. Christian discipleship calls us to love ~ whenever and
wherever we find another human being who is hurting.

It would be easier, of course, if our world was as simple as that Tonely road fram
Jerusalem te Jericho. But it isn't. It's bigger, busier, faster and incredibly more
complex. Individuals in our world get Tost in structures and institutions and bureaucrac-
jes. If you're going to think abcut the poor in America, for instance, you have to think
about a structure - namely the Welfare establishment, and that, I would suggest, becomes
& political and economic issue. I don't think the parable is asking us simply to increase
our giving to the United Fund - although that is commendable. I don't think it means
that we should hand out more Thanksgiving Baskets. In fact, I think Thornton Wilder was
right at Teast much of the time when he warned that philanthropy “may be nothing but a
roadblock on the way to social righteousness". I don't think the parable is urging indivi-
dual Christians to provide band aids for cpen,bleading wounds in our society.

You see, if my neighbor who is hurting, is part of a group & heopte caught up in

what we euphemistically call a “social problem", my Tove - by necessity ~ has to find

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some new strategies. I can write a letter to an inmate in prison and send him a box of
candy at Christmas - but that isn't helping the problem that is crying out today for a
solution - penal reform.

The Church, the body of Christ, the community of disciples acting corporately in the
name of their Lord, must learn to love spontaneously and creatively and courageiousty too.
And that is the "hottest" issue before us today. To what extent should the church attempt
to act like Jesus Christ?

That question is being answered today - Stewardship Sunday - by Presbyterians aT]
over the country, whe for the past five years have been walking in ever widening circles
around the man lying in the ditch. They are deing it by cutting pledges ~ by giving Tess
and Tess to that part of the church's mission that js attempting to follow Jesus Christ
right down inte the valley of human suffering.

You see, we belong to a church that has historically seen its mission in terms of act-
ing as a church - not just as several million individuals. We belang to a church that
Senses the imperative to love being laid on it ~ as a church.

Let me spell that out. I received a special communique this week from Willard
Heckel, the Mederator of the General Assembly. The subject was mission - and money for
mission. "In the summer of 1971, as 1 visited Hong Kong, I saw a medical

misston caring for children in a crowded refugee area. Still
remembering the faces of these children, I am reminded of the
care that Jesus gave in healing the physical illnesses of people.
Let's insure the continuance of this life-giving program of our
Church.

Jesus cared about those who were hungry. Our Church cares too!
This summer I visited a blue jean factory in Mississippi, where
people are working and know the dianity of employment because
our Church was there to help in an area of massive uremployment
and poverty. Let's be steadfast in supporting this creative
mission.

Jesus cared about people whoa were uprooted from the mainstream
of society. Our Church cares too! This summer 1 visited an
alcoholic rehabilitation center in New Mexico on one of the
main routes, helping young and ald alike who are wandering
across tha country. This work needs our unfailing support."

Included withthe communique was a list of mission projects that are being cut-back
because of the reduction in mission money. Missionary and overseas personnel will be

reduced by 85 positions in 1973. Of the 85 medical persons on the field ~ 20 are coming

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home. Work with American Indians must be reduced by 16% Grants to the 46 Presbyterian
Colleges in the country will be cut in half.

I know why that's happening. It's happening because the Church persists in seeing
human misery and persists in attempting ta do something about it. We belong to a church
that sees its mission in those terms. It's dangerous - it's risky ~ it makes us terribly
vulnerable. Because if you're going to follow Jesus Christ into some very complex situa-
tions you're going to make mistakes, and make people angry. The temptation is very great
today to back away from that type of mission: to return to the kind of religion character-
ized by te priest anc the levite in the parable, The temptation for the Church - for its
ministers - and for individual laymen - te take a detour around the problems of our cul-
ture ana to return te the business of making people feel good - is very real. And if
you're looking for that kind of church - that kind of Christianity ~ you den't have to Took
far.

I don't agree with everything my church does or says. But I thank God that it is
remaining the kind of church that will take risks and become vulnerable rather than selling
out.

You are asked today ta make a financtal pledge for 1973. Part of the money given
here will be given te the mission program of the United Presbyteiran Church in the USA -
about 15% of it. 85% will be spent here - in the mission of this particular congregation.
You have been told about the need and the way this congregation hopes to meet the need.

I would simply add that ali of that my conviction that in the final analysis Stewardship
and the Christian ethic converge: that we express our Jove by supporting the Church that
attempts ta extend their love into the world.

The parable cf the Good Samaritan began with a theological question - and a good one:

_’ Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Everyong asks that question sooner
or later but it dcesn'’t always come in those words. What is the meaning of my life?
What am I hore for? For what lasting purpose am I living? It’s the guestion being
asked with a new urgency by young people all over our Tand. It's the question you and
I ask when Tie becomes stale and fiat, just a succession of days leading nowhere. It's

the question being asked by pecple turning to astrology and Eastern Religions and

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mysticism, by the Jesus People. - Gerhard Hebel suggests that much neurosis is simply
the product ef asking that question, not finding the answer, and then descending into a
cycle of intrespection and brocding. He suggests the ranedy - "Being-there-for-the-
neighbor", which sounds suspiciously like Jesus' answer ta the scrihe.

Hho among us isn't hungry for an answer to that question? Who among us isn't hungry
for a faith that is alive and vibrant and real. The answer is this: it is not a matter
of obeying more religious rules: it is rather to open our cyes and discover our neighbor
who needs us. Helmut Thiclicke put it this way:

"The only place I can reach God fs where he chooses to be prosent:
in my felicw man, whom I help without thinking of myself, the
Felicw man for whom [ am available and wham I love." (ibid. P.120)

I doubt that he intended it that way, but when Jesus hold up the story of the Good
Samaritan as a model of discipleship, he was alsa telling the story of the Gospel. You
and T are the man in the ditch. He is the onc who has come and keeps coming to the
roadside. He is tha onc whe comes to feed our pain, to stand with us ia suffering, te
cie our death. He is the Good News that God loves us and cares fcr us: that we are
worthy enough in the eyes of God ta be the recipients of his son's life. He is, for us,
the miracle of God's incredible love.

And because God is like that for us, we are called te be Tike that for others.
Stewardsnip-Ethics - what it really is is the Gospel. To participate in it: to be

loved and to love is to usher in a littie bit of Gad's Kingdom on earth. AMEN

Father, forgive us for taking detours around human need. Forgive us for neglecting to
care for those who arc closest to us. Help us te Tove and give - in the spirit of him

who laved us and gave himself for us: cven Jesus Christ. AMEN