It’s vacation time. I once enjoyed air travel; now it seems a hassle. First of all either, I'm getting bigger or the seats are getting smaller. Second, are we flying or not? Have you had that experience?
I miss the intercom humor of airline personnel in “the good ole days.” For example, I remember a captain saying, “we have now reached our cruising altitude. Please feel free to move about the aircraft, but please stay inside the plane until we land. It’s a bit cold outside and if you walk on the wings, it affects the flight pattern.” Or, “there may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only four ways out of this airplane.” I say, bring back the humor of “the good ole days.”
The word of God challenges us to let our conscience be our guide in our daily lives. “Deuteronomy” in Greek means “second law.” The law of ancient Israel was simple, the author writes, and it is found within our own hearts: love God and love your fellow human being with all your heart and all your soul.
The passage from the letter of Paul to the Christian community in Colossae is really a hymn about the divinity and activity of Christ. Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God, the revelation of God. Everything God ever wanted to say or do for us he did and said in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Christ, gloriously alive, is the exemplar for what we will become.
Yes, God entered into the human condition through Jesus of Nazareth, who through his death and resurrection by the power of the Spirit reestablished for us a right relationship with God. This new friendship invites us to give thanks, and to ask for the grace to live a god-like life.
The Gospel tells the famous story of the Good Samaritan. In those days a Samaritan was persona non grata among the Jews, someone you would never be seen with. And that's the shock value of this parable. Who’s our neighbor? Everyone, even this Samaritan. Every man, woman, child, whatever ethnic background, religious tradition, sexual orientation, is our neighbor.
Now there are many Good Samaritan-like stories. Some of you may have heard of the academy award winner, Sidney Poitier, who appeared in “Raisin in the Sun.” It’s a classic movie about an African-American family in a Chicago tenement. The storyline is simple: the mother inherits $10,000 from the father’s life insurance policy. She wants to put a down payment on a small house. The daughter wants to go to medical school. But the son pleads to open a convenience store with a friend. Against her better judgment, the mother agrees. And the so-called “friend” skips town with the $10,000.
The son -- played by Sidney Poitier -- can barely bring himself to tell his mother and sister. And when he does, the sister launches into a tirade. But the mother interrupts her and says: “I thought I taught you to love your brother.” “Love him!” the daughter says. “There’s nothing left to love!” The mother replies: “There is always something left to love … When do you think it’s time to love your brother the most: when he’s done something good and made things easy for us? No! Not at all. It’s when he’s at his lowest and can’t believe in himself because the world has whipped him badly. When you start measuring your brother, measure him right. And make sure you‘ve taken into account what hills and valleys he’s come through....”
Exactly right: The worse things seem, the more to love. Jesus assures us of his unconditional love and mercy. Jesus asks us to be as ready as he was to lift one another up, to forgive, to support, to love especially those who may disappoint us the most.
.All of us have the potential to do great things for God. And it begins with small, ordinary things. Random acts of kindness.
I close with this thought: How about…
forgiving those we don’t want to forgive;
being compassionate to those we want to ignore;
making peace with those who have wronged us;
caring for those who really need us;
loving people when that's the last thing we want to do;
carrying our inescapable crosses with a positive attitude; and
persevering in what we know we should do, even if we want to give up.
The great eighteenth century preacher, John Wesley, summed up our potential with this phrase: Do all the good we can. By all the means we can. In all the ways we can. In all the places we can. At all the times we can. To all the people we can. As long as ever we can. Amen.
