God for Dummies

“God for Dummies”
Luke 10:25-37
Todd Buegler
July 14-16, 2007
Lord of Life


Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, and from Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

I love bookstores. I love books. I normally could spend hours wandering through bookstores, browsing. However, in the last year or two, I’ve noticed something. Every time I walk through a Borders, or a Barnes and Noble, I can’t help but almost feel almost overwhelmed by the yellow-covered paperback books with black print proclaiming that I am dumb, and borderline helpless on whatever the particular topic might be. An entire industry has sprouted up around us, the American public, being dummies. When I first saw the “Fill-in-the-blank for Dummies” books, I thought “that’s pretty clever…and probably helpful.” But it feels like we’ve entered “dummies overload.” What startles me is the sheer number of titles…here’s a quick sampling of titles I found when I wandered Barnes and Noble last week. I wasn't even looking very hard:

Economics for dummies
Mutual funds for dummies
Office for dummies
African American history for dummies
Mortgages for dummies
Guitar for dummies
Reading for dummies (so how do you read the book?)
Ipod for dummies
Puppies for dummies
Auto repair for dummies
Investing for dummies
Networking for dummies
Sailing for dummies
Fishing for dummies
Investing for dummies
English grammar for dummies
Home buying for dummies
Catholocism for dummies
Golf for dummies
Buddhism for dummies
The bible for dummies

The list goes on and on and on…There are literally hundreds and hundreds of titles. There are things about which I am dumb, that I didn’t even know existed.

I don’t know, they probably serve a purpose. In a world where we have to put labels on things like hair dryers that say “Do not use while sleeping”, or on an iron that says “Do not iron clothes while wearing”…well, maybe we could all use a little smartening up.

Sometimes the dummies books are helpful, sometimes not. I once bought the book “Financial Planning for Dummies.” When I finished reading it, Lori asked me “what did you learn from the book?” My reply? “Hire someone else to do it.” Apparently, I am too dumb for the dummies book.

The same thing is true of these reality home improvement shows. One that I’ve become hooked on in the last three months is “Flip this House.” Maybe you’ve seen it. A real estate investment company will purchase a run down, gross or desolate home at a rock bottom price, and then over an amazingly short amount of time, anywhere from 3 to 7 days, will completely renovate the home, and then will sell it for a much higher price, earning a ridiculous profit. Of course, the fun begins when, after buying the house, they discover some other major problem with the it…something minor like…the foundation is sinking…as I’m watching the show, my internal monologue saying something like “Ha! I knew it…they never saw this coming…there is no way they’ll recover from this!” But of course, they always figure out a way to solve the problem and make their sale.

Lori just rolls her eyes at me. The amount I know about home renovation wouldn’t fill 15 seconds of a tv show.

The problem with self-help books or do-it-yourself guides is that in real life everything is so much messier. It is never as simple as the books or TV shows make it.

The good news is that the “Anything for Dummies” books, and these home renovation shows, remind us is that human beings are perennially optimistic. We figure we will eventually get it--whether it's how to ride atwo-wheeler, drive a car, get a job, pay the bills, be a good spouse,raise some kids.

The bad news is...though we may be optimistic, there are things that we simply cannot do alone. Books and TV shows can only go so far. We need help. Human beings are communal creatures. We need companionship, advice, input. We need help. It’s how we’re wired. Even those of us who are “I” for introverts on the Myers-briggs scale, need to be around people and to be in community. It is how God created us to be.

In today's Gospel text, from the Book of Luke, Jesus answers a lawyer's "how to" question. "How to..." inherit eternal life. It is a trick question: If Jesus answers in a way that violates the law, he can be arrested. But Jesus’ answer of “Love God and Love your neighbor” trumps the lawyer. So the lawyer comes back with another: “Well then, who is my neighbor?”

In his answer, Jesus is giving as basic an understanding of God as there is in all of scriptures. Jesus offers as his answer the "Good Samaritan" parable. In one story Jesus demonstrates how unflinching and unbounded human love can bewhen we allow 3 loves: loving God, loving one-self, and loving your neighbor to be woven together and fill the soul to overflowing. The parable of the Good Samaritan is, quite simply, “God for Dummies.”

In this "God for Dummies" story, Jesus is raising the bar for the Jewish people and ultimately, for all of us. Jesus’ “God for Dummies” parable is powerful: it allows for no margin of safety and no holding back. Jesus is telling us that God is to be loved "with all"...

...with all your heart,
...with all your soul,
…with all your strength,
...and with all your mind.

Now, a quick word about each of these:
With all your...heart: You can't just feel for God with your emotions. But to be obedient to God your being must tremble with a heart felt faith. The quest for eternal life isn't just a journey laid out according to some litany of laws. This is a loving relationship. We have a God who loves us and asks for our love in return. One theologian describes this by saying that we know we are in love with God when God’s heart and ours beat in sync.

With all your...soul: You can't just wishfully long for God with your immortal soul. But our world doesn’t pay much attention to the soul. After all, we've got a busy schedule, a stressful job, a long “to-do” list. The Psalmist knew how deep the soul's craving for the holy could be. The 42nd Psalm begins with the words:

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.My soul thirsts for God, for the loving God. (Psalm 42:1-2)

As Christians, we recognize that our soul longs for something more…for the presence and life that comes from being in the presence of God.

With all your...strength: You can't just muscle your way through life.
But neither can you serve God only with your words. Your "strengths" arethose special gifts God has give to you alone. Your gift of strengthis intended for heavy use. Are you physically strong? Build homes for the homeless. Are you good at comforting? Offer your time as a counselor to the troubled. Do you love to share knowledge? Become a teacher. Do you feel music through your fingers even when they are opening envelopes?Perform or produce music for the world. Whatever your gift, whateveryour strength, flex it. Tone it. Use it.

And finally, with all your...mind: You can't just avoid the "real" world by living in your mind, no matter how smart you may be. Love of God must interact with every thought you think, every idea you entertain, every discipline you study, every judgment you make. Every "life of the mind," must draw its energy and insight from God’s love.

None of these four should exist in a vacuum…alone. When heart, soul, strength, and mind work together in symmetry, the whole of life is richer, deeper, fuller. To love God with every facet of your being isn’t just works. It enables you to experience God’s love. It is a manifestation of God’s grace.

Jesus gave us the Good Samaritan parable to show that love of God, by itself is not enough. God calls us to turn that love outward in radical ways. In the parable, only grace, the love that is shown by God and then is shared by the Samaritan saves the injured Jewish man. The Good Samaritan parable tells of love extended to one who is different from you…from your family, your circle of comfort.

According to Jesus, to love our neighbor is to live outside ourselves…it is to care for those we might not want to care for…it is to live lives of compassion…it is to put ourselves and our resources on the line…

The Good Samaritan cares for the wounded man by using up some ofhis own traveling provisions. He takes the injured traveler to thenearest inn--although inns themselves could be quite dangerous places.He not only entrusts the unknown innkeeper with money to care for thehurt man, but tells the innkeeper to run a tab-putting himself atconsiderable monetary risk. All this for a man he can see is Jewish, abitter enemy. The Samaritan loved with his whole heart, soul, mind and strength. This is God-love; It is grace, turned outward

God does not just ask for our heart, or only our soul, or simply our mind, or exclusively our strength. God asks for our whole self. God asks this because God has already done this for us.
God loves you…each of you…which his whole heart…the heart that sacrificed his son for you.
God loves you with his whole soul…the soul that longs to be in relationship with you.
God loves you with his whole mind…the mind that thinks of you and knows you.
And God loves you with his whole strength…the strength that created this world for you, and then went to the cross and suffered for you.

What must we do to inherit eternal life? Not a hard question. Thelawyer already knew the answer. You already know the answer. LoveGod. Love your neighbor. But how to live the answer? Now that's another question.

We need to remember that Eternal life is more than a destination for our future, it is a lifestyle for today. And in this parable, Jesus calls his disciples…all of us…to live the gift of "Eternal Life" every day. You experience this every time you love God and your neighbors with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and all your mind, and every time you and I love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Erwin McManus, the pastor of Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, was ridingdown the highway with his wife Kim and little girl Mariah. Suddenlyhis wife turned to their daughter and said, "Mariah, I love you topieces." Whereupon Mariah responded, "Mommy, I love you whole."

How do we inherit eternal life? Remember that God loves you whole. God makes you whole. And God enables you to love Him, and to love others whole. This, my friends, is God-for-Dummies.

Amen.