Love Is The Way - Sermon for the Fifth Sunday After Pentecost (July 13, 2025)

Scripture Readings: Deuteronomy 30:9–14 | Psalm 25:1–10 | Colossians 1:1–14 | ​Luke 10:25–37

“Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” (Luke 10:25).
 
If you could ask God one question right here and now, what would it be?
 
Probably not something minor… you’d ask about something that mattered to you, right? Something that might really change how you live out your days if you knew the answer.
 
Well, in our Gospel reading this morning, we see that Jesus gets asked one of those kinds of questions… one that ends up being even more challenging and life-changing than the questioner had intended.
 
Our Gospel passage from Luke Chapter 10 begins with Jesus being approached by a lawyer… that is, by an expert in the Law of Moses… the Torah… the terms of God’s holy covenant with Israel… the ancient rules that guided their people’s sacred relationship with the LORD Almighty.  
 
These lawyers were serious about their work… scholars spending their time pouring over the Scriptures… not just as an exercise in academic research, but out of the earnest desire to help bring God’s people back from the brink of disaster, and into full alignment with the LORD, walking faithfully in His ways.
 
In Jesus’s day, many Judeans… the descendants of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, still saw themselves as experiencing the turmoil of Exile. Even though they had technically been back in the land of their ancestors for several generations… ever since their return from Babylon, they had not exactly been prospering. Actually, they had been living under the thumb of one foreign empire after another… and had never fully recovered the previous sense of independence and freedom their people had once enjoyed.
 
In those days, it was the Romans who occupied the whole region, and the leaders in Jerusalem, the High Priest and his associates, worked hard and politicked to keep the peace, or at least to maintain the status quo. And yet, many still recalled the glory days of King David… and longed for the promised Messiah, God’s Chosen One, who would come to restore God’s Kingdom once and for all, and set history back on track.
 
In the meantime God’s people, especially experts in the law, had a clear idea from their Scriptures about what they were supposed to do: they were to be faithful to the covenant! They were to turn back to the Living God, and serve Him faithfully, in the hope that He would have compassion on them again, and show them His own faithful love by coming to their rescue.
 
In fact, our first reading today from the book of Deuteronomy is about this very hope: that when God’s people had gone astray, and were facing all sorts of troubles as a result, the way forward… the way to find life again would be to turn back to the LORD, and show their wholehearted love for Him by keeping His commandments.
 
In the chapters before our Deuteronomy reading, Moses had just spelled out for Israel the grave consequences they could expect from breaking God’s laws. He warned them of catastrophes and famines, of plagues like the ones poured out on Egypt… of Israel being beaten down by their enemies, and scattered across the world among the nations. And sadly, in the rest of the pages of Scripture, we see how this grim prediction comes true, as first Israel in the North, and then Judah in the South end up in Exile.
 
But even way back in Deuteronomy, God’s people are giving a word of hope: if they will turn back to the LORD, even when everything seemed lost, and love Him with all of their heart, God promised to reach out to them in His compassion and healing mercy… and save them.
 
Deut. 30:1-10, “When all these things have happened to you, the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you. Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.
 
 Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live. The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on the adversaries who took advantage of you. Then you shall again obey the Lord, observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, and the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
 
Right from the beginning, God knows that His people will struggle to stay faithful to Him. He foresees their need for forgiveness, and rescue, and reconciliation… and offers them this hope: that by seeking the path of faithfulness… of loving God wholeheartedly, and walking in His ways… they would be rescued and come to share in the Living God’s blessed life.
 
But one problem was that the lawyers, teachers, and religious experts in Jesus’ day were not all on the same page when it came to defining what faithfulness to the covenant looked like in practice. Some had fairly strict views. Others were much more lenient. And this led to all sorts of debates about the proper path to follow, or what were the most important commandments… as God’s people wrestled with competing opinions and visions of how to put ‘first things first’.
 
Can we see any similarities to our own situation these days?
 
Using politics as an easy example: I think almost everyone can agree that things can, and need to be a lot better than they are. I don’t know of anyone right now who’s saying, ‘Yeah, things are perfect just the way they are...’ We all agree that something serious is amiss in our society. And yet… we also have wildly different ideas about what we should do to make things better… or even about what the most important thing is that needs to be changed… the foundational piece that needs to be fixed for the rest of society to then be re-built upon. Is it education? Housing? Debt reduction? Medical care? Investment in industry… traditional or otherwise? Something else entirely?
 
Of course, all of these things matter! But the question is: what is the most important thing for us to get right?
 
Shifting gears from politics to our own religious context: we know that the Christian Church in many communities across North America is struggling these days. That’s not the case across the board, but in many places Christians are facing real and persistent challenges that we don’t quite seem to know how to address.
 
One of the problems faced by our own Anglican Church here in Canada is our declining membership, especially among younger generations… and all the fear and uncertainty that comes along with this reality.
 
There are lots of different ideas out there about how we might try to turn things around. Should we radically change our worship style, or make our spaces more appealing and comfortable for a younger generation? Should we heavily invest in marketing strategies and building an online presence? Should we focus on offering all sorts of specialized programs that meet the specific needs of these absent demographics? I could go on and on, and maybe you’ve got a few interesting suggestions yourselves.
 
But the big question is: what is the most important thing to do? Where do we start? What is the key to the Anglican Churches’ long-term revitalization? Not simply jumping on bandwagons, but turning our story around for good?  
 
The question is not rhetorical or academic. It’s high stakes. It matters. What is the most important thing we are to do if we are to be God’s faithful people today?
 
And this is the kind of question and tension at work in our Gospel Reading today… the context in which Jesus is being, not just asked… but tested… put on the spot. He’s being examined to see where He falls in these kinds of high stakes debates, not just about someone’s individual destiny, but about the future of God’s people?

What must I do to inherit eternal life? What does God really require of His people? What is the most important commandment of all? These questions are all circling around the same concerns. And this lawyer probes Jesus to find out where He stands. But instead of offering a straightforward answer, Jesus turns the tables on the lawyer, and asks him to give his answer.
 
And the lawyer quickly lays his own cards on the table, quoting from this famous passage from Deuteronomy: /
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27).
 
But then, surprisingly, the law expert goes on to add another commandment alongside this one, just as Jesus Himself had done. After this commandment to love God, the lawyer adds “and your neighbor as yourself.” This comes from a completely different part of the Torah, from Leviticus 19:17-18, which reads: “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
 
Love God with all that we are, and love our neighbours as ourselves. That is his answer. That is what he believes will lead him into God’s blessed eternal life. And here we find that Jesus and this lawyer are in complete agreement! At least, they agreed in words. In principle. But when it came time to explore the real implications of those words, it turns out that a great deal more still needed to be said.
 
For then the lawyer, seeking to justify himself, pushed Jesus further: and who is my neighbour? What do we really mean by neighbour? Who counts? Who is in, and who is out?
 
Strictly speaking, the commandment in Leviticus called for God’s people to love their fellow Israelites as themselves. This was a rule about life within the boundaries of their covenant community. And many in Jesus’ day were quite happy to define ‘neighbour’ as simply one of their own.
 
And the same goes for our day too. Many around us are happy to offer help to someone who shares our culture, our language, our values… our ways of doing things. To love someone who likes the same things that we like. Who hates the same things that we hate. Someone that we can easily talk to. In this way of thinking, a neighbour is someone a lot like us. Everyone else are strangers… or maybe even enemies. And that makes it really important to figure out where the line is… deciding who is our neighbour, and who is not.
 
But this is not how Jesus saw things. And what’s more, He sees that we need a much more drastic change of course than to simply be more kind to our own kind.
 
And to make His point, He tells a story: A story about a man who is attacked, robbed, and left for dead by thieves on the road. A story of a man who’s unjust suffering and pain is ignored by two well respected members of his own community… and who is then helped out by a complete stranger. Someone completely unexpected. It’s a well-known story, even by some people outside the Church.
 
And because it’s so well known, it’s easy for us to miss the heart of what Jesus is saying to us… especially if we just take it to mean: be nicer to everyone. That’s part of the story, for sure… but there’s so much more!
 
Because in this story, Jesus is dramatically shifting the foundation for how many, in His own day, and in our day, understand what it means to be faithful to the LORD… what His will and His ways really look like… and what the Living God has always wanted for His people.
 
Of course, we could spend all day looking at the details of this story, and unpacking all sorts of interesting points. And I’m actually really tempted to do that. But instead, we’ll just look at a few of the most important points that I hope will be helpful for us as we seek to be faithful to God’s ways today.
 
And so, let’s spend some time together seeking to understand the saviour in the story: the Samaritan, someone who would have not just been seen as a stranger, but maybe even as an actual enemy.
 
But what is a Samaritan? And why does Jesus include a Samaritan in this story about loving our neighbours?
 
The Samaritans as a community trace their lineage back to the Northern tribes of Israel… those few who remained in the land after the dreaded Assyrian Empire sent most of their people into exile. Their name comes from the old capital city of Israel: Samaria. And they considered themselves to be the true and faithful followers of the Living God.
 
In Jesus’ day, they lived in the land West of the Jordan River, between Jerusalem to the South, and the hills of Galilee to the North. And although they had a great deal in common with their Judean neighbours, they were also bitterly divided from each other. They had their own sacred place of worship at Mount Gerizim, and wholly rejected the Temple in Jerusalem. And for their part, their Judean neighbours thought that the Samaritans were completely compromised and spiritually corrupt too. The two groups apparently had no dealings with one another, and there had even been outbreaks of violence and bloodshed, driving even bigger wedges between these communities.

The image I often use to describe their tensions are the hostilities between Catholics and Protestants in the past, like during 'the Troubles' in Northern Ireland… although nowadays there are plenty of other examples of deep and abiding divisions between close communities. Samaritans and Judeans had a lot in common, but what they differed on often seemed insurmountable.
 
And yet, in the story that Jesus tells, it’s a Samaritan… someone who would be considered an enemy, that has compassion on the Judean man who was robbed, and he goes out of his way to help and rescue him… to literally save him.
 
An enemy becomes a saviour, moved by compassion to rescue a stranger left for dead by their own people. This is the story that Jesus tells us about God’s kind of love.
 
And then after dropping this bombshell, Jesus reframes the question asked by the law expert. The lawyer wanted to know who is his neighbour… as in, who is he required to love, and who can he safely ignore? It’s a question about boundaries of concern. Where’s the line? Who’s in and who’s out?

But Jesus asks the lawyer: ‘Who was a neighbour to the man who was robbed? In other words, what does it really look like to be a neighbour? The focus is shifted away from trying to define who’s in and who’s out, and towards exploring what it looks like for us to truly live God’s way?
 
And it looks like this: the one who had compassion was a true neighbour… the one who treated a suffering stranger… even an enemy with mercy and care… going out of their way to rescue him, and save him. Jesus says that’s what God wants for His people! That’s what the command in Leviticus has been pointing His people towards all along. And so, Jesus tells the lawyer, and He tells you and I as well, to “Go, and do likewise!”
 
Why would Jesus reframe what it means to love our neighbours in such an extreme way? Because that is what God’s love is really like! He’s not just open towards those who are already like Him, God is moved with compassion, and mercy, and holy love to save even those who are estranged from Him… and even acting as His enemies… turning their backs on His love.
 
We see this love all over the place in the Scriptures, but most of all in the face of Jesus, the Son of God Himself, as He took our place at the cross to share God’s saving love with us all while we were all at our worst. While we were beaten down by life, and left for dead… while we were being driven by our selfishness and sins… while we were indifferent to the desperate needs of those around us… while we were living completely at odds with God’s holy ways… that’s when Jesus went out of His way to come to our aid… to give up His life and be raised again to rescue us… to bring us the forgiveness, and freedom, and blessed, eternal life of God that we all… that our whole world truly needs.
 
As St. Paul puts it so powerfully in the fifth Chapter of his letter to the Romans: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:6-10).
 
This is the love that we have received. And this is the love that the Church has been entrusted to share with our broken world: the love of God we have come to know in Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, that seeks to turn enemies not simply into neighbours… but into beloved brothers and sisters in God’s family. A love that calls us as Christ’s people to see the needs of all those around us, and moves us with compassion to do what we can with God’s help to bring real healing and hope.

As we look for a path forward, both in society at large, and as the Church, there are lots of good things we can and really should do. But without God’s love at work in and through us, all of those things will eventually come up empty. If we really want to walk the path to life, the most important thing will be for us to start to share in and share God’s love. Not just with ourselves, and those who seem to be like us… but with all of our neighbours. That is, with everyone that God puts in our path. So with the Holy Spirit’s help, may we faithfully follow Jesus our Lord, and Go and do likewise. Amen.