10th July 2016 - King Sterndale

9:30am                    King Sterndale           10th July 2016   Trinity 7 

Col 1:1-14                                                                            Luke 10:25-37

Colossians reading - just to note how encouraging Paul is here. Sometimes think of him as the kind of school teacher/ authority figure who is never satisfied  - whatever you do it’s not quite good enough - not at all the picture here - taking real pleasure in them - their Christian life is bearing fruit - they are getting to know God better - they are open to God helping them to live the quality of life he wants to see from his people.

Well, we think they must have been a pretty saintly lot ….perhaps but only in the sense that being saintly is within our grasp too.

Let’s go to Luke - ‘what must I so to inherit eternal life’, what does God want of me? - we might expect Jesus’ answer to be tough, designed to weed out as many people as possible. 

But what does Jesus say? I want you to be a good neighbour  - is that it? does he set the bar no higher than that? We all want to be good neighbours. We know what neighbourliness is - to find it is the heart of what loving our neighbours as ourselves means should be a refreshment - not an impossible barrier - not designed to weed people out but to draw people in.

Is there a stumbling block? - doesn’t need to be - depends on us. But there is something to stretch us. Jesus wants to expand our understanding of who are neighbour is - and that isn’t as easy as it sounds and never has been.

When reading the Gospels you sometimes get the impression that if anywhere in ancient Galilee you heard a loud noise and a lot of laughter and talking and singing, you could be reasonably sure that Jesus of Nazareth was around somewhere nearby. Jesus created fellowship wherever he was. And it is one of the things in the Gospels that is remembered as most distinctive about him, because even then some of his friends were embarrassed by it. The indiscriminate generosity and the willingness to mix with unsuitable people were already, in the first Christian generation, just difficult enough for the Gospel writers to scratch their heads and cough just a little bit about it. But they could not deny it or suppress it. It was too vividly remembered. Jesus sought out company and the effect of his presence was to create a celebration, to bind people together.  

We can’t choose our neighbours. Jesus wants us to be a good neighbour to the people we are uncomfortable with, the people we don’t really like or approve of, the people we don’t normally notice - his only qualification for who our neighbour is  - are they in need? if someone needs help and we can give it they are our neighbour. What that help may be will vary - go back to the parable - if the next person  along - not strong, no transport, no resources but they had stayed with the man and flagged down the next passing donkey - they are being the best neighbour they can be. 

Being a good neighbour won’t always mean being able to solve somebody’s problem - some problems aren’t like that  anyway - sometimes companionship is the best that we can offer, sometimes it can be more.

Neighbourliness, hospitality don’t sound very much like saintliness, but they are part of the kingdom of God, often they are the first visible sign of the Kingdom of God on earth and they are part of the fruit that Paul saw growing in the Church at Colossae. We can bear that fruit too.