Community Church Sermons
Year C
July 11, 2010
Pentecost 7
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Luke 10:25-37
Rev. Martin C. Singley, III
Our son Peter used to come home from High School football practice and collapse on the couch in the family room. Battered, bruised, exhausted, this muscular, athletic, warrior of the gridiron would take the TV remote control, push a few buttons to get the right channel, turn up the sound, and then smile a smile of peaceful contentment as he heard:
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...
It's a neighborly day in this beautywood,
A neighborly day for a beauty.
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?...
I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So, let's make the most of this beautiful day.
Since we're together we might as well say:
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
And with that song ringing in Peter’s ears, all was well with the world.
Many of you know that the late Mr. Rogers – Fred Rogers – was a Presbyterian minister. From 1968 to 2000, Rogers opened his children’s show – Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood – by singing that wonderful neighborhood song while changing into a cardigan sweater and putting on sneakers. Millions of children grew up in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, including our two. And even today, when that distinctive music comes on, they stop what they’re doing, sing along, and all is well.
You see, Mr. Rogers knew the secret to life! He had learned it from Jesus. And he taught it to our children every day!
This secret to life lies at the center of today’s reading from Luke 10. Now we all know these verses as the story of the Good Samaritan. It’s one of the most famous stories in the Bible. And the term “good Samaritan” has even entered our modern vocabulary. Our church was instrumental in starting the Good Samaritan Center of Loudon County which helps people in need. Sometimes you see the Good Samaritan Van on a highway helping a stranded motorist. And oftentimes we hear about some Good Samaritan who came along to aid an injured person. We even have laws described as “Good Samaritan laws” which are designed to protect from liability people acting in good faith as good Samaritans.
But as well as we know the story of the Good Samaritan, we sometimes miss the secret it makes known about how to find the life God created us for.
When Jesus was asked to describe what eternal life looks like in real life, he said it looks like – a NEIGHBOR! This good Samaritan takes on the role of a neighbor to the injured man on the Jericho Road, and Jesus tells us this is what it looks like to be filled with eternal life. The best description of what a true Christian is like is – a good NEIGHBOR!
Now you know that I’m not particularly fond of religious jargon, even though I confess that I still fall into theological talk fairly frequently. But we religious people have a tendency to suck the meaning out of life by describing it in sacerdotal terms that few people really understand let alone care anything about. So we’ve had this “Yard Sale” this weekend in the “NARTHEX”! I’m not sure how many 8 or 9 year old kids know what a “Narthex” is, but I can tell you about a grown-up who once confessed to me that they thought the “Narthex” was the place we stored dead bodies for funerals.
Narthex. Doxology. Premillenial, mid-tribulational, dispensational eschatology.
All that and a buck-seventy-five or so will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
But Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship – a way of being – a way of living. And if we could break this faith away from all the artificial words and definitions we use to describe it, maybe we could help people understand what a wonderful way of life it is!
To live as a Christian is to be a loving neighbor. It’s as simple as that!
And to be a church is to become a loving neighborhood.
I grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts – on Calumet Avenue. It was a typical post-World War II neighborhood of Cape Cod style homes. Our neighbors on one side were the LaMarches and they had three kids – Jackie, Danny, and Michelle. Danny was a year or two younger than me and was kind of tall and skinny. So we used to lower Danny by his ankles down into the sewer in front of our house to retrieve lost whiffle balls.
Next to the LaMarches were the Astrellas. Dennis was my best friend growing up and – well, you know more about the exploits of me and Dennis than is probably good for you to know.
Next to them were the Govers. Their first names escape me, but I remember how Mr. Gover came home one day with a pet monkey. All the kids in the neighborhood were thrilled! We loved that monkey, and Mr. Gover let us play with it. But Mrs. Gover said it was the monkey or her. Unfortunately, Mr. Gover got rid of the monkey.
On the other side of us were the Dickies and they had a dog named Blackie. When my dog Sam got distemper and had to be put to sleep, Blackie and I sat out on the steps howling in grief and comforting each other.
The Pratt’s lived next door to them, but they moved away just about the time I was going off to high school. The Roses moved into that house and they had a teenage daughter named Marilyn. Dennis and I used to call her “Chick-Chick”. Chick-Chick and Dennis ended up getting married.
It was in that neighborhood that we kids learned to ride bikes, and play ball, and climb trees, and make friends. Our parents – like us kids - didn’t always see eye-to-eye and sometimes got on each others’ nerves, but if someone needed something there was always someone to help, and when tragedy struck, they circled the wagons and loved each other through it.
It wasn’t a perfect neighborhood.
But it WAS a neighborhood.
And while I may have a difficult time understanding what it means to be a church with all its ecclesial, liturgical and theological language, I have no trouble at all understanding what it means to be a NEIGHBOR.
Do you understand what I’m saying?
I was out visiting a family this week and they told me how much they love their neighborhood, and their neighbors. From the day they moved in – like almost all of us, from someplace else and without the support structures we had back home – their neighbors opened their arms and welcomed them. They share the goodness of life together, and they walk with each other through hard times, too.
A neighborhood.
That’s what it means to be a church. And that is what is so distinctive about a Community church.
We are not called to be a religious shrine where rituals are performed and denominational cultures are imposed upon people. No, a Community church is best described as a fellowship of Christian neighbors loving neighbors. And together, we try to create a Christ-centered neighborhood that seeks the well-being of the whole community.
So if you can hold this vision of our church as neighborhood in your mind for a while, what are some of the key ingredients that go into being good neighbors, and how can we make our church neighborhood the kind of place that Christ calls us to be?
The first thing I’d say is that a good neighborhood is one where new people are reached out to and warmly welcomed.
Back in the day when we started our 8 o’clock service, we noticed something odd. People coming to the service would back their cars into their parking places. We used to tease them about leaving their engines running so they could get a head start over to a restaurant for breakfast. But in addition to all that, when a newcomer showed up for the worship service, someone would always invite them to come along to breakfast. Why? Because that’s what neighbors do! And the next Sunday, those people would back their cars into a parking place, too!
You may have noticed that we’re trying some new things in our church that are designed to embrace those who are new to our church. The Friendship Cards you received this morning are an example. You’ll notice that EVERYONE received a Friendship Card because we believe it’s not neighborly to ask our guests to do something that the rest of us don’t do. That would be like inviting new neighbors over to supper and asking them to cook the food while the rest of us sit back and enjoy eating it! We hope our visitors will fill out the card and that our regular members will too. And most especially, we hope you’ll all indicate on the card how we can be good neighbors to you. Do you want to know more about our church? Do you want to get involved in some meaningful activity? Would you like a visit from a pastor? Do you have a prayer request? We hope the Friendship Cards will be helpful in welcoming our new neighbors and embracing our whole neighborhood in the love of Christ.
We want to be a church that is friendly and welcoming. Why? Because that’s what good neighbors do!
A second important thing about a good neighborhood is that neighbors look out for each other. When my boyhood buddy Dennis Astrella and I climbed up onto the roof of his house so we could look down the street through binoculars at the new girl “Chick-Chick”, I was amazed to go home that night and hear my mother say, “What were you doing up on Astrella’s roof today?” There was no way my mother could have seen us! But someone had seen us! And turned us in! Our neighborhood had “eyes”, if you know what I mean.
A good neighborhood is one where people look out for each other and take care of each other. That’s why we have Stephen Ministers, and support groups, and a Prayer Chain, and a Parish Nurse. That’s why our pastors are out visiting at the hospitals nearly every day. That’s why we have frozen soup here that can be picked up and brought to a sick friend. That’s why we have a bus ministry, and a golf cart shuttle, and the Friendship Kitchen that brings hundreds of meals every week to frail elderly folks all over the county.
Why do we watch out for and take care of each other? Because that’s what good neighbors do!
And you may have noticed that we have a strong focus on people outside the immediate neighborhood of our church. Next Sunday we will welcome many of the 25 college students our church is providing with generous scholarships. You’ll often hear some of the students say, “I couldn’t go to college if it wasn’t for you.” A Community Church that sees itself as a neighborhood full of loving neighbors extends its concern beyond its own walls. I like to think that Jesus hoodwinked us all into coming here. He used the golf courses, and the mountains, and the lakes to lure us to this setting where we can become helpful neighbors who partner with families to build houses, and with children to heal the scars of abuse, and with those who have been turned off by the Christian Church to find their way to Christ.
Why? Because that’s what neighbors do!
And Christian neighbors bear a tremendous responsibility to transform a church whose first instinct is institutional survival into something that looks less like a religious institution and more like a loving neighborhood.
Why? Because that’s what Jesus taught us to be!
And he was the best neighbor who ever lived! How often he invited people to supper! He supported those going through hard times. He befriended people who no one else dared to even acknowledge.
Do you remember how he wouldn’t let people go home from one of his rallies before they were fed? 5,000 of them! Do you remember how he provided the wine for a wedding that had run dry?
That’s what neighbors do!
So let me invite you to do something far more important than figuring out the Holy Trinity, or memorizing all the books of the Bible.
Focus your eyes on Jesus, and learn to be a neighbor.
And join together and help our Community church become a really good neighborhood.