Over the years I have driven Fords, a Plymouth, a Dodge, a Chevrolet and a couple of Saturns.  Each car was a little different, but they all had one thing in common – the need for tires.  It did not matter whether it was a Ford Escort, a Saturn Vue or my mother-in-law’s Cadillac, which I drove for several months, they all needed four tires to be inflated to be drivable.  Over the years I have served as a pastor for churches in San Leon, Sugar Land, Pattison, Richmond, Pasadena and College Station.  Each church was a little different, but they all had one thing in common – the need for Core Values.  It did not matter whether fifty or 1,500 people called the church their church home, they each needed some agreed upon values, whether tacitly or stated, to function.  What are the Core Values for A&M United Methodist Church?  I believe they are Compassion, Conviction, Conversion, and Community.  Compassion is the call for us as a church to care for anyone who has a need that we can meet.  Conviction is the belief that God has a plan for our lives and our church.  These are the Divine expectations by which we live. Conversion is the belief that God can transform our lives in such a way that we become new in God’s eyes.  Community is the living out of our faith with one another, recognizing that God does not call people to be Lone Rangers in the faith.  Compassion, Conviction, Conversion and Community – these are the core values of A&M United Methodist Church.

Compassion cares - wherever, whenever, whoever.  This is what we learn from the life and ministry of Jesus.  One day he was visiting with his disciples of their experiences of ministering in his name.  They were amazed at how people responded to their words and prayers.  In the midst of the excitement an expert in the law stood up and wanted to engage Jesus in a theological discussion.  It was a conversation that he would not easily forget.  You will find the exchange in Luke 10:25-37 on page 111 of the New Testament in the Pew Bibles.  Hear now the Word of the Lord:

²⁵Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” ²⁷He answered, “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; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” ²⁹But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³²So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ ³⁶Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” ³⁷He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The Word of God for the people of God.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.  In this passage Luke recorded for his readers the conversation between Jesus and a lawyer looking for life.  Let us pray.

Compassion cares – wherever, whenever, whoever.  I am not sure that this was good news for the lawyer and perhaps it is not the best news for us – unless we find ourselves half dead by the side of the road.  However, notice that this story is the answer to, “How can I have eternal life?”  Are you looking for life?  I mean real life, life as it was meant to be, kingdom life, eternal life.  It begins with compassion.

Compassion is not intelligence. 

The lawyer must have heard Jesus instructing his disciples and certainly by now he had heard of his teaching.  He was fascinated by the level of intelligence of the carpenter’s son from Nazareth.   He stood up to test him, to engage in an intellectual conversation.  “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 
          Jesus seemed almost non-responsive to the lawyer, “What is written in the law?  How do you read it?”
         This was too easy.  Every Jew knew the Shema from Deuteronomy 6: “Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind,” and the neighbor command from Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 
         Jesus seemed to be ready to get back to his conversation with his disciples as he told the lawyer, “Do this and you will live.”
         I’m certain that the lawyer was disappointed.  Jesus seemed so brilliant, but refused to enter into a discussion with the lawyer.  The lawyer would try one more time, “Who is my neighbor?”  My guess is the lawyer really wanted to know, “Who is not my neighbor?  Where are the limits to this whole neighborly love concept? Let’s talk about it.”
         Jesus, however, knew that the last thing some people need is another Bible study.  “Go and do,” is what this guy needed.  “Put into practice what you know is right.”
         Yandall Woodfin is one of the brightest men that I have ever met.  He taught me philosophy in seminary until I thought my head was about to explode.  To reflect upon the act of reflecting can strain the brain.  However, it is not any of Dr. Woodfin’s philosophical lectures that stand out when I think of this intellectual giant.  It was his Christian spirit.  If he saw some trash on the ground, he picked it up.  If he saw a gardener tending one of the beautiful flower gardens on campus, he would stop and visit about the gardener’s life and family.  After class I often saw him talking with the custodians on staff.  He knew them better than any of his students, because they had worked together for many years.  There was a tenderness, an approachable nature in this professor that impressed me the most.  It was compassion – wherever, whenever, whoever.
         Don’t leave this lawyer too quickly in a rush to get to the Good Samaritan, you will miss something if you do.  Compassion is not intelligence.  I am thrilled with the United Methodist Church’s response to Disciple Bible Study, Christian Believer, Beth Moore Bible Study, and all the other studies offered.  My heart beats with a desire for every member of this church to be involved in a faith forming small group – be it Sunday School, Home Small Groups, long term Bible studies, or any other of the expressions offered here.  But don’t confuse intellectual conversation for compassion.  Don’t lose sighted Jesus’ few words to the legal expert, “Do this and you will live.”  Compassion is not intelligence, it is not being the champion of Bible Trivia.  Compassion cares – wherever, whenever, whoever.
 

Compassion is not inherited. 

Jesus looked at the lawyer desiring dialogue and told him a story of a certain man who had been walking from Jerusalem to Jericho, down a 17-mile winding, twisting road, past deep ravines and scattered caves.  I have been on this road and it is not hard to imagine robbers jumping out from one of the switchbacks.  They beat the man, took his clothes, his possessions, and left him for dead.  It was not uncommon for priests to travel that road and their assistants, the Levites.  Both of these religious leaders passed, one by one.  Each of them crossed the road and went on the other side.  The priests and Levite were leaders who had been born into their professions.  That was the first qualification for a priest or a Levite – they must be born into bloodline of Aaron.  They were trained in their tasks, their responsibilities and their prohibitions.  These were good guys and I am very careful not to throw any rocks at the religious leaders.  Those rocks tend to turn out to be boomerangs.  Nevertheless, neither of these men allowed compassion to win out in their journey.  They had inherited their roles as religious leaders, but they were not compassionate, not in this story.
         The commentators are quick to point out that Jesus gives no explanation as to why neither of these men stopped, or why both of them crossed by to the other side of the road, but do we really need an explanation of that.  There are hundreds of reasons not to stop and really only one reason to stop.  This past week on Dateline, a security consultant did an experiment of breaking into cars in broad daylight to see how many bystanders would dial 911.  They did not even have to intervene, just call someone who would.  At a train station, only two people out of fifteen who had witnessed the guy breaking a window with a cinder block, reported the break-in.  Outside of a crowded diner, only one person, a probation officer, called the police.  The reporter’s conclusion, “Most people don’t want to get involved.”  One commentator was more sympathetic to the clergy in this story.  Fred Craddock wrote that the priest and the Levite were caught in a situation where they had to choose between duty, extending compassion to a wounded man, and duty, remaining ceremonially clean in order to fulfill their role at the Temple.
         As I read that I was reminded of Ralphie in the movie, “A Christmas Story.”  The kids on the playground had a heated debate over whether or not one’s tongue would get stuck on a metal flagpole in sub-freezing temperatures.  Flick was certain that it was impossible and attempted to prove the fallacy of such a myth.  However, when he put his tongue on the freezing flagpole he soon discovered the error of his assumption.  His tongue was stuck and he could not free it.  Just then the bell rang, recess was over.  All the kids raced back into the schoolhouse.  Ralphie was the last to leave and as Flick pleaded, “Don’t leave me! Don’t leave!”  All Ralphie could say was, “The bell rang.  The bell rang.” And he left his helpless friend glued to the flagpole until the Fire Department arrived to release him.
         I don’t need an explanation of why the priest and Levite left the man on the side of the road beaten and bleeding.  I have been there far too often.  “The bell rang.  The bell rang.”  I have a tight schedule, I’m not sure I have time to hear the whole story.  Within the past couple of weeks a staff member came into my office, sat down and confessed, “I’m down.  Drained.”  I had fifteen minutes to finish up a lesson plan and get it to my substitute facilitator, because I had two meetings on the same night.  “The bell rang.  The bell rang.”  Compassion is not inherited.  Compassion cares – wherever, whenever, whoever.
 

Compassion is inspiring. 

Enter the hero – but this is not who anyone would have expected.  I’m sure everyone who heard this story and had witnessed Jesus’ compassion for the poor expected one of the am ha aretz, the people of the land, the common folk, to show up and render aid to the ailing fellow man on the side of the road.  Jesus sent shockwaves through the crowd when he announced that a Samaritan came by, saw him, had compassion on him, bandaged him, provided medical assistance to him, put him on his animal, brought him to an inn and arranged for what commentators believe was about a three and half weeks stay.  This took the risk of injury as he stopped on a dangerous road, the expense of time to tend to the wounded man, the hardship of walking when he could have ridden passed, the expense of at least two days wages and the promise of more if necessary.  This Samaritan, one whom the hearers would consider ceremonially unclean, a social outcast and a religious heretic reveals to all readers compassion cares – wherever, whenever, whoever.  It is an inspiring picture indeed.  Even the lawyer had to admit, this is what a neighbor looks like.
         I’ve always want to hear the rest of the story.  Did the man get well? Was there a difference in his life? Did he want to get even with the ruthless robbers?  What happened next?  I want to know, because I have experienced that Good Samaritan stories cost a great deal and seemed to help very little.  Years ago I saw a woman crying as she stumbled down the side of the road.  I stopped to see if she was OK and she told me she had been beaten by her boyfriend.  She had nowhere to go.  I offered for her to come home with me where Tammy and I would feed her and arrange for her to find some help.  Of course, it was not easy convincing someone who had just been abused to get in the car with a complete stranger.  As I was trying to convince her that I was safe a policeman drove up seeing a crying beaten woman saying “no” to a man in a car.  As I was trying to explain the situation to the policeman, my wife drove by and saw me talking with a policeman and a disheveled woman crying by the side of my car.  Finally, it all got straightened out and the woman came home with Tammy and me.  We fed her, called her parents and arranged for her to get some help.  All she needed was to get her stuff from her boyfriend’s apartment and she was sure he was gone.  He was not.  After threatening me with physical violence, he spoke to her.  It was late in the evening.  My entire night had been spent helping a woman who came to me and said, “I’m going to say here after all.” 
         “That’s it,” I thought to myself, “Never again will I waste a night trying to help someone.”  But then I find this story and hear Christ’s call, “Go and do likewise.”  Compassion cares – wherever, whenever, whoever.  Norval Geldenhuys wrote in his commentary on Luke, “Whoever needs me is my neighbor.”

Luke leaves us wondering if the lawyer ever really got it.  I wonder if he knew that by doing this, everyone of us who reads this passage has to answer the question ourselves?  Well…

·         Compassion is not intelligence – having the right answer.

·         Compassion is not inherited – being born into the right situation.

·         Compassion is inspiring – doing the right thing.

Compassion cares – wherever, whenever, whoever.  Amen.