Hi Fannie! The sermon from today's church service was about the verses in Luke 10: 25-37, and it reminded me of my trip there to Washington D.C. and my visit to your INC church June 9, and the sermon I heard therein about how eternal life is gotten merely by obeying God and *also* that he who contradicts this edict is a LIAR.
:-) Remember, the Jews of Christ's time believed that to touch a dying man was sacrilege because the dying were unclean, and so it was the law, presumably God's law, not to help the guy lying broken in the street. The verses in Luke go like this: "And behold, a certain lawyer got up to test him, saying, 'Master, what must I do to gain eternal life?' But he said to him, 'What is written in the Law? How does thou read?' He answered and said, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength, and with thy whole mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.' And he said to him, 'Thou hast answered rightly; do this and thou shalt live.' But he, wishing to justify himself, said to Jesus, 'And who is thy neighbor?'." "Jesus answered, 'A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell in with robbers, who after both stripping him and beating him went their way, leaving him half-dead. But, as it happened, a certain priest was going down the same way; and when he saw him, he passed by. And likewise a Levite also, when he was near the place and saw him, passed by. But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came upon him, and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And he went up to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And setting him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more thou spendest, I, on my way back, will repay thee.'" "'Which of these three, in thy opinion, proved himself neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?' And he said, 'He who took pity on him.' And Jesus said to him, 'Go and do thou also in like manner.'" Ang galing diba? Jesus meant that the lawyer should abandon traditional notions of God's law, as carried down from Moses, and be the good Samaritan, and that the Samaritan, who obviously didn't follow the Jewish law, was a better follower of God than the Jews and representatives of the Jewish Church who followed their traditional laws (laws mandated by the Church). What this means is that eternal life is NOT gotten merely by obeying the law, or what the Church says is the law, but only what the Bible and what Jesus shows us is God's law. Love thy neighbor as you would thyself! And who is your neighbor? Those not in your community or in your church should be included, even those outside the INC; even those you come across who are strange and different than you are! I hope you take this commentary in the manner I intended it to be, not so much criticism of your Church but a personal comment and reminder to you from me. Mark ------------------------------------------------------------------ Version 2 occurs the summer of 1998, before I submitted the talked about proof of God. The conversation goes something like this [from memory]: me: have you heard the parable of the Good Samaritan? saket: no, I'm not familiar with Christian parables. me: <tells the story of the Good Samaritan, along the lines of the story above> saket: so, what does it mean? me: it means that it is better to be a good Samaritan than a mediocre Jew. saket: ??? me: the Samaritans were enemies of the Jews at that time. The significance? Resolution of a 4000 year old conflict in the middle east.
