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

[KarenBueno at aol.com]

Thanks, Bill.  I forwarded this sermon to my clergy and a couple of  lay 
leaders.  I have also been working to get us to make a reconciling  statement, 
Margaret.  I go to Good Shepherd United Methodist in Thornton,  Colorado.

Karen Bueno
 
 
In a message dated 2/12/2010 8:13:40 A.M. Mountain Standard Time,  
wsalmon at cox.net writes:

 
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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