Is there something we can do?
– Christians have been called to be the salt and the light of the world. We are being called to change the world. We want to make a difference in this world.
– When we look around the world we live in today, we are constantly bombarded with bad things happening every day. Natural disasters, violence, inequality, homelessness, poverty.
– How are we Christians supposed to change a world like this?
– And when you start thinking all these terrible things that are happening, they are so out of reach that we become disengaged, tired, and overloaded.
– In the end, we end up doing nothing because we have become so cynical that nothing can be done about this world. Even for Christians.
– But the good news is “There is something we can do”.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37
– A lawyer challenged Jesus by asking Jesus how to inherit eternal life.
– Jesus told the parable to a lawyer to change his perspective from “Who is my neighbor” to “Whose neighbor am I?”
– A man was robbed, beaten and left for dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.
– A priest and a Levite saw the man but passed by on the other side.
– A Samaritan saw the man and had compassion. He helped the man and took him to an inn. He gave the innkeeper money to take care of the man and to promise to pay the innkeeper back if needed to.
– The Samaritan is the neighbor to the man because he showed the man mercy.
– Jesus invited the lawyer to do the same: “You go and do the same”
The Turning Point
– What if Jesus is calling us to do the same? “You go and do the same”
– Being someone’s neighbor and helping someone is an inconvenience. It would take up your time. You would have to make sacrifice. It will cost you money even.
– But compassion can drive away our sense of inconvenience, indifference and helplessness.
– We cannot change the world…. BUT we can change someone’s world
– For some reason, we always think that we need to do big great things to help another person. It doesn’t always have to be.
– We only need to do one thing at a time for one person. When we act together as a church, we can make a difference. We can change that someone’s life.
