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Mark Wheeler
Luke 10:25-37
05/01/2022
“Live Like Life Lasts Forever”
Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church
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#639 . . . Surely Goodness and Mercy
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Join in as Pastor Kathy leads us in our Call to Worship:
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Hello everyone! Welcome to worship at Lidgerwood!!
Welcome! We are glad you are here with us today!
We gather in our church sanctuary – a holy place – and it’s also a safe place – where the divine and the human connect together. Welcome to this holy sacred and safe place today.
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Let’s take a second to welcome each other, and those in the room, look at the camera and say HI to your friends who are at home. Tell your loved ones, whoever you can see , “The Lord is with you – and also with you!!”
Welcome to this “gathering” in God’s name. We are assembled in NorthEast Spokane, WA, along with people from all over the world. We are very glad you are “here” with us.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit presence and power, in your homes, through your phones and computers, in this building here, and in your lives. Pray with us … and hear and be transformed by God’s Word.
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Our Opening Song of Devotion and Praise is –– Spirit of the Living God – #297!!
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Open our hearts today, O Lord, to feel the powerful strength and love you have for us. Help us to listen, not only with our ears, but with our spirits for your words of compassion and healing. Enable us to become more faithful disciples for You; for we ask this in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Live like life lasts forever! Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Live life on the edge. If you go, go out with a bang!
I am the 3rd of 4 children in my family, with a sister 6 years older, a brother 4 years older, and a sister 2 years younger. So, growing up meant I shared a bedroom with my big brother – kind of thrilling for me … but a real bummer for Larry. He was in high school and I was still in elementary school – we were 4 years apart! We were never the best of friends, and we had the fraternal fights that every set of brothers have – I hid his homework; he ripped up my comic book; I hit him in the head with a golf ball; he threw a knife at me.
But I always looked up to my brother. When Larry was in high school, he joined the church youth group and made friends with a “cool” set of guys – Kelly Capps and Tom Tarbell. Kelly was funny, and Tom was rebellious. Tom eventually hooked Larry up to “Uncle Jim”, a Presbyterian Pastor who led inner-city, homeless kids backpacking in the High Sierras of northern CA. This grew into a Summer Camp for our Presbytery.
So, when I was in high school, I went backpacking with Uncle Jim … and by this time Tom was one of Uncle Jim’s assistants. This meant living life like there was no tomorrow … or like we could never die! We went for 9-day backpacking trips, and spent every afternoon after a 6-8 mile trek, climbing mountain peaks … with no real training, and absolutely no real equipment!
One time we were climbing a pretty sheer face, and the wind was howling against our backs, and I was scared to death – stuck, couldn’t reach the next handhold, toes clinging to the tiny ledges they were glued to. Tom was ahead of me, about two feet farther than I could reach, on a flat ledge, and Bruce, my other friend, was below me about six feet.
Talk about living like life lasts forever! With no real training and absolutely no official climbing gear, Tom took his Levi’s jeans off and lowered a leg down the rock for me to grab with one hand while he lifted me far enough to reach the ledge with my other hand! And then he put his pants back on, we helped Bruce up and went on our way.
We were teenage idiots, I know; but we thought that’s what living life like it lasts forever meant!
Tom died about 20 years later, climbing a peak in the High Sierras. Life like that does not last forever!
Today’s teaching from Jesus is a parable we all know. Last week we read an analogy parable – where each part of the story represented something in real life. Today’s parable compares and contrasts some aspects, and then surprises its original hearers into realizing that they’re the ones who need to change. I invite you to turn with me to Luke 10:25-37 and hear Jesus’ answer to how we live life like it lasts forever …. ----
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25 Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”
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28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
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30 Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
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33 But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. 34 He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next dayhe took out two denarii,gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’
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14 As 36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.
Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”
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Most of the time when I have heard a teaching from this parable, the speaker uses it to answer the question about who our neighbors are. But notice that the question that introduces this parable has nothing to do with neighborliness. The “neighbor”-question is a secondary level question. The primary question is “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Or, “How can I live forever?”
“How do I Live Like Life Lasts Forever?” Jesus reminds this man of the most important Old Testament Law: to love the Lord with all your heart, all your strength, all your soul and all your mind; and the 2nd most important is just like it: to love your neighbor as yourself.”
“How do I Live Like Life Lasts Forever?” Obey the Great Commandment! In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus gives this answer to the question of a lawyer who simply asks which of the commandments is the most important. In Luke it is in response to, “How do I inherit eternal life?” “Obey the Great Commandment to love God with everything you have! Oh, and you can show that, in part, by loving your neighbors deeply.”
And then like any good lawyer, or husband, or teenager, the man asks, “Who is my neighbor?” It’s like, “How many dishes do I have to wash?” or “Which pine cones do I have to pick up?” “Wait – when you asked me to pick up my socks off the floor, you meant ALL my socks?” ….
And here Jesus tells him a make-believe story about a good Samaritan. Jesus chose the real-life, dangerous thief-filled road between Jerusalem and Jericho, and then He picked good, high profile type leaders to do what is right according to the Jewish laws about touching potentially dead people. But it was a despised, prejudged half-breed, spikey haired, tattooed, dude with brown skin from the wrong side of the tracks who came and rescued the injured, beaten traveler.
Basically Jesus says, “Be like the guy you thought was gonna be the antagonist … but he turns up being the protagonist – from villain to hero. That’s how you live like life lasts forever…. That’s how you inherit eternal life…. Love God and love your neighbor like that.”
In 2022 Spokane we might ask where this dangerous road is. Is it in downtown at night? Is it Riverfront Park after dark? Is it under the freeway after midnight? Could any of us, would any of us go there and help a homeless gang banger lying on the street? How much would we help? How would we help?
Today allow me to name just one such member of this particular fellowship – I believe there are several names that might be called out, but today – I name one woman who everyone who meets her would name her as just such a neighbor as Jesus describes as He answers this question about how to live life like it lasts forever!
I name: Katherine Bell.
There is no one in all of north Spokane, or Coeur d’Alene, or in any of the stops between here and Yellowstone or Glacier Nat’l Parks, who could even make up a bad story about how Kay lives her life. And, while I didn’t know her for the 1st 70 years of her life, I know for a fact that these last 7 years she absolutely loved the Lord with all her heart, soul, mind and strength; and she shows that by loving her neighbors, no matter who they were, without exception.
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I will close this message by restating that, while I see nothing wrong with a life filled with thrill-seeking adventure – it makes for good TV – but we can never inherit eternal life simply by striving for excitement. Live life like it lasts forever by receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior and loving the Lord with everything’ we’ve got … and then follow Kay’s example by loving our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. Amen.
Great God of Creation, we worship You in spirit and in truth.
Lead us into our 2nd hundred years of learning how to love our neighbors.
Prepare us for Your coming Kingdom and everything You would have us do and be here at LPC. We really want to love You completely, and we want to love our neighbors with full compassion!
Confirm Your direction with joy and hope.
In Jesus’ authority. Amen.
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Our Choral Anthem !!! Choir – – “Lest We Forget”
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Pastor Kathy leads us in prayer
- what are some praises, thanksgivings, adorations we want to offer?
- Is there a person or a situation you want to lift to our Lord for His answers and grace?
21 We pray this in the name of Jesus, who taught us to pray: [The Lord’s Prayer]
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Just like those earliest Christians, we sing praises here in this place because of the commitment and faith and generosity of others who shared the Good News of the Gospel in their time.
So we turn now, in our time, and share our faith and our commitment through generous giving to support the ministry of this church in Christ’s name. Let us gather our gifts together and offer them to God in gratitude and praise.
Receive our tithes and offerings as symbols of our very lives and livelihood, given as response to Your life given for us! Bless it, and by it bless the world around us. In Christ’s name, Amen.
– Offering (4449 N Nevada St, Spokane, 99207 ; or click HERE, or text 833-976-1333, code “Lidgerwood”)
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Communion Song #776 – Let Us Break Bread Together –! As we sing our Communion Song this morning, remain seated as our Communion servers bring the broken bread and the poured cup to you – note that each tray has good-old-fashioned Communion Cups and Broken Bread AND our newer COVID-friendly self-contained Communion Elements – please feel free to take which ever you want (if you take the cups with the lids on, there are also wafers under those lids, so you only need the cups – if you take an “open cup”, also take a piece of bread from the center of the tray). Hold your bread and cup until Pastor Kathy leads us in partaking.
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Expedition Song #708 – Blest Be the Tie that Binds –! We began today singing the blessing from Psalm 23, and we close praying for the blessing of Community!!
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We continue with this benediction: May we Grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
And give glory to God, today, and forever! Amen.
And as we do that: “May the Lord bless you and protect you;
may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.”
32-33 Announcements
Resources:
Wheeler, Mark; “Live Like Life Lasts Forever”; Lidgerwood Presbyterian Church; 04/22/2007.
https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/06/prayer-of-people-good-samaritan.html
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