There are few passages of Scripture that point out God’s vision for Community better than the story of the Good Samaritan. 

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered: “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”  “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’  “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”  The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”  (Luke 10:25-37)

Love the Lord your God…and your neighbor as yourself.  Being in community and FOR one another may involve risking any of these:

• our being inconvenienced
• our involvement and concern costing us something
• our timetable being impacted
• our image being tainted
• our being viewed as meddling
• and our feeling overwhelmed by the needs of others.

How do we discern whether it’s my responsibility or someone else’s?  

None of us should feel the need to be Messiah.  All of us should be concerned to follow Him. 

Jesus said “Go and do likewise.” For many of us, those are hard words.

If someone’s situation presents me with the opportunity to have mercy or pass by, it’s probably a good place to “Do likewise.” 

How can I do that without being impolite or feeling like a meddler?  Probably the simplest answer is to ask, “Is there a special way I can pray for you today?”  If they would value the help, they’ll tell you by how they phrase their answer.  If the answer is “No, everything’s fine,” then the opportunity isn’t ours.

We were Created to BE in Community and we are Created to BE FOR Community.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”  (1 John 3:16-18)

Isn’t it interesting that God said it wasn’t good for the man to be alone (Genesis 2:18) so He made woman? 

God was there with Adam, yes?  Adam wasn’t truly alone in one sense, but very much alone in a human companionship and community way. 

God created us to be in community.

This was brought home to me in a strange way.  My husband and I have a dog named Harley—a smooth haired fox terrier.  He attracts a lot of attention, particularly from children.  Last evening, Harley was taking us for a walk when a little boy ran up and asked if he could pet our dog.  The little boy smiled when I said “Yes” and then he looked at my face with the bandage from my surgery and asked, “What’s that?”  I immediately thought of the medical answer and decided that wouldn’t be nearly as informative or age appropriate as the answer I gave him: “I had an owie on my face and so the doctor took it away.”  The little boy said “Oh, that’s good.”  While he was petting Harley, two little girls came running up to see Harley too, and one of them spoke for the pair and asked “What happened?” and they both pointed to their faces corresponding to where my bandage is.  I gave them the same answer and they said, “Oh.  OK.”  After this episode, I talked with my husband about how I ran into a woman from church while I was at the store earlier and she also asked me “What happened?”  I’m sure everyone I encountered was wondering about this prominent bandage, but only she—a friend—asked. 

Community:  husband, boy, girls, strangers, friend…

Think of all the ways this never would have happened if I were not in community.  No one to see my face or diagnose my cancer.  No one to perform the surgery.  No one to make the car that I drove home.  No bandage manufacturers.  No store at which to shop or cashiers to ring my purchase of bandages.  No friend.  No strangers.

But there was a difference between the strangers at the store and the children.  None of them knew me—they had that in common.   I’m not a child psychologist, but I thought it was really fascinating that children asked about it whereas the strangers–adults–were silent.  Were the children merely curious?  I imagine the adults were too. Was it children’s innocence and observation?  Unlike adults who also observed, perhaps children had awareness and concern because they have an association with bandages that is different—a “kiss it, make it better” mentality?

Why is it that my friend acted in a similar way to the children?  The simple answer is that she cared.  She loves me with the love of Christ. 

Observation.  Curiosity.  Concern.

Strangers observed and may have been curious, but what about their concern for another human being? Maybe it was there, but as adults they’d learned not to express it.  Then I wondered back to the children.  Could their questions evidence a rudimentary community on display before the layers of social mores and taboos would turn their thoughts inward, fear would silence their questions, or responsibilities would dull their concern and transform it into resignation or apathy?

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  (1 Corinthians 12:26)

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

We were made to be in community—to be invested in one another beyond the simple “How are you?”  In the United States, most of us have the individualism as standard equipment and community is something we must relearn.  There is no better place to relearn community and our concern for others than in the church.

We were Created to BE in Community, so let’s ask ourselves how can we better show community within the church and in our neighborhoods today?

Isn’t it wonderful that when God set out to create human beings, that He made us each to be individuals?  No cookie cutter, mass-produced, dime-a-dozen clones.  Each one of us is handcrafted.

Beyond that, each of us is handcrafted for a purpose.  And while we are each gifted with personalities, talents, and abilities to do the very work we were created to do, we weren’t created as individuals simply to supply a worker-bee role with able bodies.  We were created as individuals–not just to DO but to BE. 

Maybe your voice isn’t like a songbird, but God wants to hear your voice because it is the sound of your BE-ing.  God wants to see your smile—not because it’s dental perfection—but because it’s an outward demonstration of joy in your BE-ing.  God wants for you to pour your tears out before Him when you’re sad because this too is a part of your individual life, your BE-ing.  Even the scars of our lives—the marks on our bodies and emotions—are part of the BE-ing that make each of us unique from every other human on the planet. 

I’ve been thinking about this a lot.  As of this writing, I’m recovering from having a basal cell carcinoma lesion removed from my face.  Once the pain and swelling go away, there will be a scar (hopefully it will not be too noticeable).  But for Christians, these scars are our stigmata—the marks of life—as we pick up our cross and follow Christ on a journey of BE-ing in a fallen world. 

Every scar represents a moment of trust that God is my Savior and He carries me through.

I have already been a Cancer Survivor and these scars from surgeries over the years form something like the fingerprint of God, yet unique to me. 

They are marks reminding me of how my anger at God was transformed by tears and His reassurance into trust.  If this world were the destination, my anger at God would be more enduring.  I would question, “Why me?” and ponder the unfairness of it all.  But instead I trust.  I trust that I have been made with love.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak,  because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.  All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”        2 Corinthians 4:13-18

The destination is not this earth, this body, this job, or this competition.  The destination—eternity with Jesus—will involve a new earth, a new body, renewed purpose, and a purified spirit.  It will be the endless BE-ing that I was Created to BE.  Unique to me, and perfected in Christ.

Every year at this time, I get asked, “Where do you buy your plants?”  My answer reveals much about what I think of God’s first Commission for man.  We were Created to BE Stewards.

Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground– trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

It makes me smile that God’s first job for mankind to do was to enjoy gardening within God’s sanctuary.  He didn’t create us to just view the garden.  He created us to work it and take care of it: stewardship!

For us, stewardship is more than just money or time.  Despite the million sermons on stewardship that focus on giving to the Church and the need to scale back our lifestyles to give more by way of a financial tithe, stewardship is far bigger than paid pastors often admit.  Stewardship is not synonymous with stingy or cheap…even if it results in the noble goal of supporting missionaries or the Church.

Big picture stewardship is what we see in the Parable of the Talents: putting God’s resources to work as if God Himself were putting them to work (Matthew 25:14-30).  Do we ever see a penny-pinching God scaling back and being miserly in order to bless someone else?  Or do we see a God with infinite resources looking for faithful stewards on whom to lavish it?  We act sometimes as though Church-supported missionaries are the only people God cares about…or that vocational missionaries are the only ones sent to reach a world in need of God’s love.

Stewardship involves discerning where God wants us to invest what He has given to us.  So, sometimes I try to save money and grow things from seed or buy things at a “big box” store like Home Depot where I worked for several years.  Other times, I will buy plants and other products from smaller independent stores where their livelihoods depend on shoppers willing to spend more for a product to keep them in business.  There are times that I will buy things from places that are little “mom-and-pop” stores where I pay a premium for something truly unusual in order to preserve their niche in the marketplace and put food on their tables.   

Today, I will pick up flowers I ordered from a local food pantry called COOL (Christian Outreach of Lutherans).  Even though I don’t go to a Lutheran church, I love people who do and the people they help through their food pantry.  Yes, I may pay more for the joy of helping their fundraiser, but this is all part of being a steward.  Maybe you have a fundraiser in your area that does something similar.

We can witness to a world in need of God’s love through how we spend money.  When God gives resources into our families, He is using us as His hands and feet to supply the needs of others.  Church supported ministers and missionaries, yes, I don’t want to diminish that.  But people with financial needs work at Home Depot, small independents, premium outlets, and go to food pantries.  God is providing for them through us…just as others are God’s instruments to provide for our needs.  We are not to bury our talent in the local church institution and burden it with caring for every family—everywhere—and to put food on everyone’s tables. 

God commissions us all for fruitful Kingdom work in many places—we were Created to BE Stewards.

As I’ve pondered the American reaction to the death of Osama Bin Laden, I’ve been trying to decide what word would characterize my reaction. Rejoicing isn’t right. Happy isn’t right. Celebrating isn’t right. Glad. Gratified. Grateful…none of these are exactly what pinpoints what the reaction ought to be because of this:

Like it or not, Bin Laden was made in the image of God.

That’s what the Bible says.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26)

 Isn’t it interesting that before God ever made you, He had in mind that you would bear His image?

• Before His hands picked up the dust and formed you?
• Before He breathed life into you?

 Before you were born, He created you—and all the rest of mankind—to bear His image.

For us to rejoice in the death of Bin Laden is for us—in a strange way—to rejoice over the destruction of the image of God in another person. Make no mistake: Bin Laden was destructive, dangerous, and had nothing but contempt for his fellow human beings. His actions were wicked, evil, horrific, reprehensible, and brought deep sorrow to thousands of innocent people. Yet, under all Bin Laden’s sin, the image of God was there because he was human and God had created him.

For that reason, we cannot trivialize death of any human being, even in light of Jesus’ mission of destroying the devil’s work.   Jesus destroyed the devil’s work by the power of His love and grace.

Issues like how a Christian should respond to the death of Bin Laden should not divide Christians from one another. We can be satisfied that God used human agency to accomplish His justice. We can honor the bravery of the Navy SEALs and the careful planning. We can be grateful that peace among men has one less enemy today. We can praise God that God alone is righteous and that His grace saves sinners—just like us—who repent. We can ask for hearts that can somehow love our enemies.

We can do these things by remembering that we were CREATED TO BE…God’s Image Bearers.

1 John 3:5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.

From before you were born—from the day you were made,

God knew who you were CREATED TO BE. 

You were not created to be static—like a rock which is acted upon by its environment of rain and ice and the winds of time.

You were not created merely to be alive—like the trees or the flowers of the field, growing but living at the mercy of the weather.

You were not created simply to be alive and thinking –like dogs or horses or dolphins or doves.

You were created to BE. 

To be is a linking verb, but can also be used existentially.  It also has dynamic and stative uses.  One grammar web site writes:

The verb “To be” is said to be the most protean of the English language, constantly changing form, sometimes without much of a discernible pattern. Considering that we use it so often, it is really too bad that the verb “To be” has to be the most irregular, slippery verb in the language.

I like to think of “To be” as organic and intrinsically part of the human condition–our state of existence and life itself.  Organic has a punctiliar sense to it—a point in time, an origin.  But organic also implies a living quality–movement, progression, dynamism—that shows we were not meant to be victims of the elements.  Rather, we are to engage life.  We are created to BE.

• To be—as a point of origin.
• To be—as an ongoing linking verb.

We are created in the image of God, our Creator. 

 Our Creator—without beginning or end—calls Himself “I AM.” 

Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

Given that we are made in I AM’s  image, what action verbs will you choose to link with your BE? 

Let’s ponder today what stewardship of this life entails and what it means that we are CREATED TO BE .