Sunday, July 14, 2019. Rev. Scott Ramsey, preaching.Scripture Readings: Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37

To access the Bulletin, click on SAVE PDF to download or open in a new window.

SERMON TEXT

We’re continuing with our summer sermon series this week,

entitled “Bearing One Another’s Burdens.”  The summer theme comes from last week’s reading

from Galatians 6, where Paul tells the Galatians to bear each other’s burdens,

which fulfills the law of Christ.  Last

week, we talked about how ‘bearing each other’s burdens’ leads us to understand

that Christian freedom is not freedom

from other people, but is actually freedom

for other people, always oriented towards the common good – oriented

towards those who are suffering, and towards those with whom we disagree.

Bearing one another’s burdens fundamentally involves a turn to your neighbor.

Colossians 1, which Pam just read for us, describes the Christian life as “bearing fruit.”  Paul writes, “Just as the gospel is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard the gospel and truly comprehended the grace of God.”  Paul wants the Colossians to “bear fruit in every good work as you grow in the knowledge of God.”

Bearing fruit means that you and I are like trees or vines, which are planted in the love of God, nurtured with prayer, fellowship, study, and service, and pruned by the daily challenges that come to us in life.  Anyone who has done any gardening at all can tell you that the process of ‘bearing fruit’ cannot be rushed.  It’s a process, a journey. You do not force fruit to come out of the tree; you cannot yank fruit out of the vine. You’ve got to patiently tend the vine, give it time, and allow the underlying forces of life within the vine to bring the fruit forth.

Bearing fruit is an image of

growth, of abundance, of energetic life and vitality. That is what God wants to do in your life.

Little Collin, who was baptized

today, has joined up with the fruit-bearers, an ancient stream of people who

seek to bear fruit for the world.  From

this point forward in Collin’s life, he is part of a people who are trying our

level best to align our lives with God’s will in the world, which will, over

time, yield fruit for the well-being of the world.

Just as we are wondering what it

might look like to bear fruit, Jesus drops the parable of the Good Samaritan

into our laps.  And this parable teaches

us that, for disciples of Jesus, ‘bearing fruit’ – just like bearing each

other’s burdens – involves a fundamental turn to your neighbor.

A lawyer stood up and asked Jesus

what is involved in eternal life, abundant life, the life of heaven.  As a good rabbi, Jesus directs him to the

Torah.  “What is written in the law?  What do you read there?”  This lawyer is a good student, for he gives a

good answer:  “Love the Lord your God,

and love your neighbor.”

Love God, love your neighbor.

That’s the heart of it. It’s as simple as that, and it’s as demanding as that.

Eternal life, for the disciple of

Jesus, is inextricably tied up with your neighbor. There is no eternal life

apart from our neighbors.  Eternal life,

according to this text, is not an individual matter.  A question about eternal life is what

triggered the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Eternal, abundant life is not something we can

get on our own. We get there together.

For the disciple of Jesus, the neighbor is sacred.  The neighbor and the neighbor’s wellbeing are

tied up with our own.  Other texts in the

New Testament go even further to identify Jesus with the neighbor.  “As you have done it to the least of these,

you have done it to me.”  For disciples

of Jesus, the face of your neighbor is like the face of God.

The Greek word here for ‘neighbor,’

plesion, is derived from the word for

“close by.”  As in “your neighbor” is the

one who is close by.  We are to love whoever

happens to be close by. That is the one we are