First Congregational Church of Wauwatosa
“God for Dummies”
Rev. Bill Trump
August 18, 2013

Do you recognize this? Even though you might not be able to read the title, we all recognize the familiar cover of the series of “Books for Dummies.” The title of this book is one I couldn’t resist; it’s “Golden Retrievers for Dummies.”

When I was first learning to use a computer, I latched on to “WordPerfect for Dummies.” Then, there was a whole series of books that took the hard-to-understand documentation of the computer software and translated it into simple terms which the average person could understand. This self-help book series helped many of “us” learn to use the computer.

This morning we want to move beyond self-help and talk about “God for Dummies.”

The problem with self-help books, or do-it-yourself guides, is that in real life, everything just seems so much messier. The ones that strike home for me are the remodel-it-yourself programs on the Home and Garden Channel. A couple re-does their bathroom in the course of a half-hour broadcast. But when you or I take out the grout from our badly-in-need-of remodeling bathrooms, the nuclear-powered-mildew growing behind it rips out the entire sub-wall as well.

The good news is that human beings are basically optimistic. We figure we will eventually get it — whether it’s how to ride a two-wheeler, drive a car, do a job, pay the bills, be a good spouse, raise some kids, and be an asset to our community.

The bad news is . . . we’re wrong. We need help. We can’t do it on our own. Human beings are communal creatures. We need companionship, advice, and input. We need help.

We humans are also spiritual creatures, created a little lower than the angels, and filled with longings and leanings that drive us beyond the simple subsistence of food, shelter, and even community. Our souls thirst for something more.

In today’s Luke text, Jesus answers a lawyer’s “how to” question. “How to...” inherit eternal life and “how to...” tell who is my neighbor?

Jesus offers, as his answer, the “good Samaritan” parable. In one story, Jesus demonstrates how unbounded human love can be when individuals allow loving God, loving self, and loving neighbor to run together and fill the soul to overflowing. The Good Samaritan parable and the coupling of the two commandments come as close to a “God for Dummies” section as you will find in the New Testament.

“God for dummies” allows for no margin of safety, no holding back, in loving god. God is to be loved “with all”...

...With all your heart,
...With all your soul,
...With all your strength,
...And with all your mind.

Let me comment on 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 heartfelt faith. The quest for eternal life isn’t just a journey laid out according to some litany of laws. It's a dance whose step-by-step progression is kept steady by a heartbeat that throbs in sync with God’s heart.

With all your...soul:
You can’t just wishfully “long” for God with your immortal soul. But this world makes it far too easy to discount the yearnings of the spirit. After all, we’ve got a busy schedule, a stressful job, and a houseful of kids. The psalmist knew how deep the souls’ craving for the divine could be:

“As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the loving God.”

The cry of the soul must be loud enough to wake you from dreary daily-ness.

With all your...strength:
You can’t just muscle your way through life. But neither can you serve God only with your lips. Your “strength” is those special gifts, which God has given to you alone. Your gift of strength is intended to get heavy use.

Are you physically strong? Build homes for the homeless. Are you good at comforting others? Offer your life or 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, whatever your strength, flex it. Tone it. Pump it up.

With all your...mind:
You can’t just avoid the “real” world by living in your mind, no matter how well furnished and occupied it may be.

But God-love must interact with every thought you think, every idea you entertain, every discipline you study, every judgment you make. The intellectual life must draw its energy and insight from God-love.

When heart, soul, strength, and mind work together in symmetry and symphony, the whole of life is richer, deeper, and fuller. To love god with every facet of your being enables you to experience god-love. The difference isn’t one of quantity or degree. The difference is one of kind. It's an entirely different species of love and a kind-of-life –– one that doesn’t consider any limitations or exceptions.

Jesus gave us the Good Samaritan parable to show that shema-love doesn’t go far enough. Only the God-love of Samaritan love goes far enough. The Good Samaritan parable tells of love extended to one who is outside your “tribe,” your family, your circle of comfort.

Even more, the Good Samaritan shows a love for the out-and-out enemy of your tribe, your family, and your way of life.

And even more than that, the “Good Samaritan” parable goes into extraordinary detail to recount all the life-saving, neighbor-loving risks we are to take for those who aren’t one of us and don’t even like us. Just by stopping to offer aid the Samaritan puts himself at risk. The evidence testifying to the risk of violent robbers is lying on the road, bleeding.

But the Good Samaritan cares for the wounded man by using up some of his own traveling provisions. He takes the injured traveler to the nearest inn — although inns themselves could be quite dangerous places. He not only entrusts the unknown innkeeper with money to care for the hurt man, but also tells the innkeeper to run a tab –– putting him at considerable monetary risk. All this for a man he can see is Jewish, a bitter enemy. Such is God-love.

What must we do to inherit eternal life? Not a hard question. The lawyer already knows the answer. You already know the answer. Love God. Love your neighbor.

But to live the answer? Now that’s another question. And Jesus answers that question with the Good Samaritan parable, a “God for Dummies” guide for all who know the right answer, but needs to be taken slowly –– through what it means, step-by-step, to live that answer.

Want eternal life?

Remember this: eternal life isn't just an eternity. Jesus calls his disciples to live “eternal life” every day. And you can experience “eternal life” a little more every time you love with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength, and all your mind, and every time we succeed in loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

God loves us. God makes us whole. And God enables us to love others whole. That’s “God-for-Dummies.” Take it with you wherever you go.

Amen.