From the Pastor's Pen

Dear Friends, I encourage you to take a look at the Good Samaritan story sometime this week. It’s in Luke 10:25-37. As we read this story and think about Jesus we might come to realize that Jesus is really radical. Think about it for a moment. Jesus doesn’t pass by anyone on the road. Jesus dines with the tax collectors. He heals on the Sabbath. He touches the unclean lepers and hemorrhaging women, and He walks into death to bring new life. And for that we can be very grateful. Because that means Jesus won’t even pass by us – His followers who easily speak our commitment to discipleship, but often struggle to live it as we too pass by those lying on the side of the road. Jesus is radical. The Gospel is radical. And we are invited into that radical story to dream of a different kind of kingdom. Let’s make our dreams of a different kind of kingdom bigger. Let’s strive to have open, respectful conversations with people who are on the other end of the political and religious spectrum from you. Engage in community work to empower those in poverty. Learn Spanish. Pray for those who get your blood pressure up. Work toward reconciliation for broken relationships caused by others and caused by you. If those of you who are passionate about what’s happening at the border or about what’s happening to children within the U.S. act, then we’re that much closer to the reality of God’s kingdom on earth. If those of you who are passionate about making a difference in policy or those who are passionate about being on the frontlines of eradicating hunger and poverty act, then we’re that much closer to the reality of God’s kingdom on earth. If you’re concerned about the elderly in our society or our teenagers or any kind of justice issue, then act. And if through any of that action relationships are built with those who are the other, the alienated, or even the enemy, then we’re that much closer to the reality of God’s kingdom on earth. And we are that much closer to understanding who our neighbor really is. “What shall we do to inherit eternal life” is the question in the Good Samaritan story?  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 neighbor as yourself. This is not an easy command to say the least. We will probably continue to fail along the way. Try anyway. Keep offering glimpses of the kingdom here on earth to one another. For the sake of the radical Gospel, for the sake of the one lying at the side of the road, and for your sake…Go and do likewise. Pastor Sally Williams St. John’s Lutheran Church Prairie du Sac