Sermon Quotes: "Extending the Borders of Our Neighborhood"
“There is a political or social dimension to Christianity which is simply inescapable. But, Christians should think through all things-including the nature of social or political reality-in explicitly scriptural categories.” Brad Green
“A Samaritan was just about the last person that anyone in Israel would expect to stop and help. In centuries past the Samaritans had defied God’s law by intermarrying with the Assyrians. Over time they had developed their own version of the Torah and set up their own center for worship. Thus, as far as the Jews were concerned, the Samaritans were half-breed heretics. By the time of Christ, there was a settled animosity between the two people groups.” Phil Ryken
“For Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” John 4:9
“For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20
“We were not his neighbors nor he ours. But he chose by the incarnation to come where we were; and in spite of the fact that human beings hounded him to a cross, he rescued us at his own expense, and has paid in advance the cost of completing our redemption and of perfecting us for unimaginable glory.” David Gooding
“The old scriptural language showed so sharp a wisdom when it spoke, not of one’s duty towards humanity, but one’s duty towards one’s neighbor. The duty towards humanity may often take the form of some choice which is personal or even pleasurable…But we have to love our neighbor because he is there-a much more alarming reason for a much more serious operation. He is the sample of humanity which is actually given us.” G.K. Chesterton
“One often hears that the task of dealing with pain in the world is so vast that we do not know where to begin or how we can even hope to make a dent in what needs to be done…Being a neighbor does not require meeting every need of which I become aware, but of becoming one piece of a large puzzle that helps meaningfully in a specific context.” Darrell Bock
“Jesus choice of a Samaritan is significant, since Jews disliked Samaritans and would not have seen them as their neighbors. In effect Jesus says, ‘Neighbors can come from surprising places.’ There is an ethnic point, then, in the racial choice of this character.”
“When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.” Luke 9:51-56
“And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” Luke 9:5
“Clearly for Luke the Samaritans play an important role in his theology, especially regarding the expansion of the gospel.” Daniel Hays
“…in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8
“The relationship between Whites and Blacks in America, even within the Church, is remarkably similar to that between Jews and Samaritans of the first century: one that has historically been characterized by prejudicial animosity and distrust, with clear boundaries delineating ‘them’ from ‘us’. The Good Samaritan story, especially when placed within the overall theology of Luke-Acts, likewise destabilizes our inherited ‘Black-White’ worldview, and challenges us to move beyond the ‘us-them’ mentality of our culture to an ‘us-us, in Christ’ unity that demolishes the ethnic boundaries of our society.” Daniel Hays
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