[Oe List ...] Salmon:-Who is My Neighbor

[William Salmon]

Friends and colleagues –
	This is a sermon delivered last Sunday by Barry Dundas, the Sr. Pastor at Salina Trinity United Methodist Church. This is a masterpiece on the topic of homosexuality (our most painful topic in the UMC, and the most neglected) and it needs to be shared. What do you think? 
      Bill Salmon
      
      Who is My Neighbor?
      A sermon preached February 7, 2010
      By Rev. Barry Dundas
      At Trinity United Methodist Church
      Salina, Kansas
      
      In 2007 I was elected as an alternate delegate to Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church. The Jurisdictional Conference has one primary function, to elect new Bishops. Of course we don’t know most of candidates, but the church has a process to help us with our work. We have the endorsed candidates fill out lots of paperwork answering “Bishopy” type questions. Then they meet with each delegation for interviews. Over two days we had interviews with nine candidates for three Bishop vacancies. It was a fascinating experience. The written work included a specific question about the inclusive nature of church. Of course all of the candidates supported inclusiveness. It is central to our theology that God loves all people. If you speak against inclusiveness then you are not going to be elected Bishop. What I found interesting is that most of the candidates mentioned things like gender, ethnicity or economic inclusiveness, but never mentioned homosexuality. Only one candidate that I remember addressed homosexuality in his paperwork. He wrote that he believed the issues around homosexuality are possibly the most painful issues in our church. A few sentences later he followed it up by saying, “However I support the current statements of the United Methodist Church.”

      This was a great opportunity to ask what I thought was an intelligent question. When you are interviewing Bishop candidates, the last thing you want to do is ask a dumb question. I thanked him for having the courage to acknowledge the pain surrounding the issue of homosexuality when many of his colleagues did not. I even went further by saying that I believed the church has often been the source of the pain to which he nodded in agreement. Then I asked him my big question, “How do reconcile acknowledging the tremendous pain around this issue and your statement that the church should not change anything, that we should just keep the status quo?” I have to admit that I was quite proud of myself. I wanted to yell out Bazinga! His response was very short, “We can’t change anything, we would lose too many members.” That was not the answer I expected, at least not from a Bishop candidate. I thought he at least would give me some kind of theological argument. That I could respect, even if I disagreed with him. At least show me that you have wrestled with the question, you might be my next Bishop.

      You see I believe he had at least one thing right, homosexuality may be most painful issue in the church today, and often the church has been the source of that pain. One of our church members has adult daughter who is gay. He shared with me that she refuses to go to a church. Even though she was raised in the church and still believes, she has received so much abuse from church that she cannot even walk in the doors. As she puts it, she has endured all the Christian love she can stomach. I asked many of my gay and lesbian friends where the church has missed the point on this issue. There answers were very consistent – judgment. They tell me the church preaches against judgment and claims that Christians should not judge, but when they come to a church, that is the message they hear. They are told over and over, you are not worthy to be here, you are not acceptable to God. I think we need to be honest; the church has done more damage than good on this issue. Why is that? Maybe we have forgotten something that is central to our faith.

      Two weeks ago we handed out Bibles to our third graders. It was a great day. As members of their church family, you were asked to circle your favorite verses and place your initials beside them. It took me awhile to choose my favorite verse because there are too many. Finally I choose the passage in Matthew where Jesus is asked, what is the greatest commandment? He replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” I tell you, if I could just do these two, I would be happy. It is about loving God with everything in your being, centering yourself on God and God’s purposes, but also loving your neighbor. The two cannot be separated, they are too connected. If we love God, than we must love our neighbors.

      That is my favorite passage, but I also love what Luke does with this commandment. Unlike Matthew or Mark, Jesus does not give the commandment. A lawyer comes and asks him the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” In other words, what is central to life with God? Jesus asks what is written and it is the lawyer who responds with the commandment. Jesus just confirms that he got it right and then the lawyer makes his mistake. Wanting to justify himself he asks, “Who is my neighbor?” What he is really asking is who is not included, who do I not have to love? Jesus answers by telling the Good Samaritan story, one of the most powerful yet scandalous parables in the Bible.

      The story is about a man who is beaten and robbed on a dangerous road between Jericho and Jerusalem. The first two passersby are religious leaders. Not only do they ignore him, they distance themselves from the man. Like the Bishop candidate, they acknowledge his pain but are too afraid to do anything about it. The Samaritan however not only stops, but acts to bring healing to the wounded individual. To understand this parable we must first acknowledge that to a first century Jew, Good Samaritan would be an oxymoron. They saw absolutely nothing good in any Samaritans and the feeling from the Samaritans was mutual. Their history went back nearly 500 years to the time of the Babylonian exile. When the Jews were taken to Babylon, not everyone was taken, only the Jewish leadership and the people with power. Many were left behind on the land. And who were these people who were left behind? They were the nobodies of society, the unimportant and the powerless. Some who lived in area of Samaria continued to live there and intermarry with people outside the Jewish faith. When the Jews returned from exile, they decided that these Samaritans no longer counted. They were half bloods, a mixed race that had diluted the pure faith. Even though they still worshipped the same God and practiced Torah, these people were unacceptable to the “real Jews.” After 500 years, you can see how this animosity would have grown.

      For Jesus to make a Samaritan the hero was scandalous, but it also made his point. When he asked the lawyer who was the neighbor, the lawyer only had one possible answer, “The one who showed mercy.” Jesus tells him to go and do likewise. The answer to his question, “Who is my neighbor?” is very clear. Everyone is your neighbor. Not just those who look like you or act like you. Nobody is outside of God’s love. If you want to love God then you must love all of God’s people.

      It is very clear to me that our homosexual brothers and sisters are the Samaritans of our time and place. For a long time they have been told that they are nobodies, people who don’t count, who are unacceptable in God’s church. They have heard the message loud and clear, “You are not our neighbors!” How does this happen in God’s church? How have we forgotten our greatest commandment?

      Brian McLaren tells a powerful story of the church he served. His church had an e-mail listserv that was used to discuss issues of faith. For many weeks they had a lively discussion on the issue of homosexuality. A man in his congregation who struggled with his own sexual orientation confided in Brian. He wanted to post a message explaining what it feels like to hear messages like “hate the sin, love the sinner.” However he could not break his anonymity, it would be too risky and too painful. To preserve his identity he asked Brian to post his message with the pseudonym pain. He sent Brian the message to post, but when he copied the message he also copied the return path at the bottom. It included both his real name and his return e-mail address. Brian had no idea until someone called and told him. Mortified he the called man and rushed to his house. He found the man weeping with his family. Brian said that he died inside at that moment. They talked and prayed. Brian apologized to his friend and miraculously he forgave Brian. Brian concludes his story by saying, “Still, the fact remains that a homosexual man whom I had hurt so deeply was far more merciful to me than most churches are to homosexuals.”

      We can no longer just acknowledge the pain. We have been walking on the other side of the road far too long. We have not lived our greatest commandment, to love God and to love our neighbors. At the end of the story Jesus tells the man, “Go and do likewise.” Love your neighbor – all your neighbors, just as God loves them. It is time to stop living out of our fear and to start living through God’s love.
	
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