photo #8427599

THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST July 13, 2025 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Opening Hymn is: “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart” Lutheran Service Book 708 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zg_nDRFMjg Confession and Absolution – Page 184 The Introit – Psalm 136:23-26; antiphon verse 1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever; and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever; he who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. The Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) – Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us. The Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest) – Page 187 The Collect Prayer of the Day: Lord Jesus Christ, in Your deep compassion You rescue us from whatever may hurt us. Teach us to love You above all things and to love our neighbours as ourselves; for You love and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Our Bible Readings – Old Testament: Leviticus 19:1-18 Psalm 41(antiphon verse 1) Epistle: Colossians 1:1-14 Gospel: Luke 10:25-37 The Nicene Creed – Page 191 Our Hymn of the Day: “Christ is the World’s Redeemer” Lutheran Service Book 539 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxcGD3ti2QE The Sermon – Brothers & sisters, peace, grace, and mercy be to you through God Our Father, and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” That’s the question the Jewish religious lawyer, a Scribe, asks Jesus at the beginning of our Gospel reading this morning. An all-important question. One that perhaps troubles us. And one that Jesus answers when we look closely at this parable. Last week in our Gospel text, we learned Jesus had set His face toward Jerusalem. There He had an appointment with the cross. Before this Christ sent 72 disciples out into the countryside to prepare the towns and villages to receive Him. To receive His Good News as He made His way to the crucifixion. Many from those places came to faith in Christ. Jesus was teaching some of these people when a Scribe asks the question, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" The very question tells us something important about the lawyer. He believed in the resurrection, or he wouldn’t have asked about eternal life. He believed eternal life was something to be inherited. Yet unfortunately he assumed there was something he had to ‘do’ to get on the right side of the person who made out the will. In effect, he was asking Jesus, "How can I earn merit points with God so that He’ll let me into Heaven? Jesus answers plainly. The only way to ‘earn’ eternal life is to keep God’s Law perfectly. Christ asked the scribe to remember Holy Scripture, what we now know as the Old Testament. Jesus says, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’ The lawyer responds with an answer from the Law of God. He quotes Moses and says, “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 neighbour as yourself.” These words from Deuteronomy, and our Old Testament reading in Leviticus, are the same words Jesus Himself used when people asked Him what the greatest Commandment was. Love God -- Love your neighbour. Jesus commended the lawyer's answer, "You’ve answered correctly; do this, and you will live." It’s at this point that the lawyer asks for clarification, "And who is my neighbour?" But he’s really asking, "What is the minimum amount of love I must dole out in order to win God's favour?" He didn't want to put himself out any more than necessary. Perhaps he hoped his neighbours were the other Scribes and Levites who lived in his neighbourhood. People he would have felt comfortable with. So Jesus, knowing His heart, as He know ours, tells the Scribe the story of the Good Samaritan. Christ does this to help His disciples, the lawyer, and us, understand not only God's standard for loving our neighbour, but also the only way human beings can enter Heaven. Jesus starts by describing a very human situation – a robbery. The crowd knew about thieves and killers on the roads between towns. Perhaps some people in the crowd had personal experiences. Most of us know someone who’s been a victim of theft. Sin infects all cultures, in all times, not only ours. Then Jesus through the parable introduces the Scribe to the priest and Levite. Christ was very careful to say that they were coming ‘down’ from Jerusalem. This meant they were finished with their duties in the temple. If they were heading ‘up’ to Jerusalem, they might be able to say they were obeying the Laws of Moses, especially the one that says in Leviticus 21:1 'No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people.” Jesus was careful to take away that excuse. As the people listening to Jesus wondered why neither the priest nor the Levite helped this poor man lying half dead beside the road, Jesus drops the hammer. He introduces the Samaritan. When we think of Samaritans, we remember not only this good man, but also when Jesus healed ten lepers and the Samaritan was the only one who returned to say ‘thank you.’ We remember the woman at the well in Samaria. Her encounter with Jesus converted her from a sinful woman with a bad reputation into an evangelist for her town. When we read the Bible with 21s century eyes, Samaritans seem to be very good people. Today we honour this group by naming hospitals and nursing homes after them. But Samaritans, in the eyes of the Jewish people, had a very different image during the time of Jesus. Samaritans were the descendants of Israelites and Gentiles. A Jewish father would have nightmares about his daughter marrying a Samaritan. So now, imagine the shock and offense when Jesus chooses a Samaritan to be the hero of the story. The Samaritan came along and he didn't just feel sorry for this poor victim as a fellow human being who had some bad luck. He felt a deep, godly compassion for him. The Samaritan showed love to a person who would have hated him, to a person who considered him less than human. The Samaritan sacrificed his time, comfort, even his safety, to care for this poor victim. He did everything he could to help the wounded man. Then Jesus turned to the Scribe and said, "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?" The lawyer was stuck. He was looking for a means to earn his way to Heaven, cheaply, for an excuse to ignore his neighbour. He was looking instead to love people he thought were lovable, and despise people he thought despicable. Instead, Jesus set a standard of human behaviour that calls on us to truly and purely love the enemy, a standard so high no one can honestly reach it. The religious lawyer wanted Jesus to change God's Law and make it easy for him to slide under the bar and reach salvation. Our Gospel says he was “desiring to justify himself.” Instead, Jesus gave him this impossible standard that showed he could never ‘earn’ salvation. We’re in the same position. We may never see someone dying along a road, yet we all meet unlovable people every day. What do we do when we encounter them? Do we honestly ask ourselves, "What would benefit that person the most. How can I help this person?” Or do we find ways to avoid and shun them? Do we pass them on the other side of the road of life? Do we follow the examples of the priest and Levite most of the time, and the example of the Samaritan only occasionally? If we honestly examine our souls, we realize we fail to show love to our neighbour and the ones around us on the pure, 100 per cent of the time basis called for in God’s Law. In fact, if we consider ourselves spiritually, we realize we’re like the poor man on the side of the road. We’re spiritually dead in our sins. We’ve fallen among the robbers of satan, the world, and our sinful nature. We lay, half-dead, along the spiritual highway of our lives, waiting for a future of eternal separation from God. On our own, we’re without hope, and without help in ourselves. Where can we turn? Do we turn to the Law? Can we earn Heaven with our ‘good’ works? That would be like expecting help from the priest and Levite in the story. They trusted in the Law, but were no help at all to the poor victim. So we, too, are in desperate need of a Good Samaritan to rescue us before we’re lost forever. Who is that Good Samaritan? It is God's Champion – Jesus. God Himself stepped down from Heaven onto this earth. He took on human flesh. He walked the roads of Israel and taught about the Kingdom of God. Martin Luther wrote, the irony is the one who told this parable is the Good Samaritan, our Good Samaritan – Jesus Christ Jesus is the only one who kept the Law of God perfectly. When the robbers of sin, death, and the devil attacked Him, Christ defeated them, and defeated them in the most unusual way. He allowed them to torture and crucify Him. Those robbers thought they had another victim, but God used the shame of the cross to defeat them. Jesus rose from the dead and declared His victory over our enemies. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ carries us to safety. Not to an inn, but to the community of saints, the Holy Christian Church. It’s here, among others our Good Samaritan has rescued, that we’re sustained and fed. Just as the Good Samaritan told the innkeeper, "Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back," so Jesus Christ tells us, "Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Jesus Christ has given us a promissory note signed in His blood. It’s here among the saints that the Holy Spirit applies the comforting message of the Gospel. We can read God's Word again and again, and always learn something new. It’s here, in the Church, that we stay connected to Christ, to His body and blood through the Lord’s Supper. We confess our sins together, and never run out of God’s forgiveness. It’s here that we wait for our blessed Good Samaritan to come back, and take us to live with Him forever. And while we wait for Jesus to return, we have the blessed opportunity to tell others how Christ rescued us, and where they can find help. Yet it’s only after Jesus rescues us, that we can fulfill the Law of Christ. It’s then that we can become Good Samaritans to others, by allowing Christ to work through us, and a Church that reflects His love. We can't be Good Samaritans on our own, but only through Christ acting through us. It is our Saviour who gives us the strength. It’s our Saviour who wins us salvation, and eternal life. And it is His love, compassion, and care that I pray will be with you this day, and forever. Amen. The Prayers of the Church THE SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT – Page 194 The Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 The Lord’s Prayer – Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. The Words of Institution – Page 197 The Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) – Page 198 The Distribution The Nunc Dimittis – (Song Simeon) Post Communion Collect (Left-hand column) – Page 201 The Salutation and Benedicamus The Benediction -- The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Our Closing Hymn: “Lord, Dismiss Us with Your Blessing: Lutheran Service Book 924 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LpdpGO-sJ4