The 4 Gs of Life

 

In the coming weeks, we will dwell on two of Luke’s most important parables ~ the Good Samaritan and Prodigal Son (or I will suggest that the whole family is prodigal, which can mean lavish or outlandish or even wasteful.  They put the “fun” in dysfunction.  More on this in a few weeks).  These parables are a gospel within a gospel ~ these short stories summarize the good news of God’s realm within the wider narrative of God’s story that is the whole Bible.  But if you don’t want to read Genesis to Revelation, starting with the Good Samaritan is a perfect place to park yourself for a few weeks.  I invite you to read the parable in Luke 10:25-37 two or three times, jotting down what you notice. 

 

The parable begins with Jesus and a lawyer are having a conversation about faith.  Which makes me wonder, who do you talk about faith with?  Who are the people in your life with whom you share your doubts, questions, and insights?  If you are looking for a place and space, I recommend our Wayless Way Book club as one place such conversations are happening.  It is important to note that this lawyer isn’t like Perry Mason, but someone who had studied the six hundred plus laws of Judaism.  The lawyer knew these laws like the back of his hand.  The lawyer stands up to ask Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life.  Usually we hear that phrase, “eternal life” and think of that place in the sweet by and by.  But if you follow the thread of the whole conversation, Jesus doesn’t start talking about a particular prayer you need to pray or a set of believes you must confess to get into heaven.  The parable is about someone showing mercy or another translation is showing loving kindness (which connects back to Micah 6:6-8) here and now on earth.  The fancy theological terms here are orthodoxy and orthopraxy.  Orthodoxy is what you believe, and orthopraxy is how you put flesh, breath, and life upon those beliefs.  It is not just that we say God is loving kindness, we seek to let that truth feed and fuel how we live our life each day ~ which is what the Samaritan does.  Perhaps it is more appropriate for us to hear the lawyer’s question not as how do I get my golden ticket to the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory in the sky, but how do I live fully, authentically, and flourish right here and now?  This is a question that people have asked for centuries, all the way back to Aristotle.  How do we not just survive, but thrive?  What does human flourishing feel like, look like, sound like for you?

 

The lawyer’s question is our question still to this day about meaning and purpose and how to plan the day.  As E.B. White says, “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world.  This makes it hard to plan the day.”  Each day, this day, we have choices on how we show up, where we show up, when we show up, and what we say or do as we show up.  If you think there are too many choices of cereal at your local grocery store, there are even more endless combinations of how to be human in the world right now.  The lawyer’s question is our question, how do I live fully right now?

 

Jesus, as Jesus often does, asks a question in response to the lawyer’s question.  Jesus doesn’t preach a sermon or have the crowd say a creed or even do an altar call.  Nope.  He asks the lawyer, who has studied the law backwards and forwards, what do you read?  Or a more fun way to read this and translate Jesus’ question is, how do you read?  Wait.  Don’t miss this.  Jesus might be asking a comprehension question ~ what do you read ~ as in recite/spit out the information you have ingested.  Or Jesus might be asking a deeper question about how we are reading in the first place.  This brings me to four ways we “see” the world.  We can Glance, Glare, Gnaw, or Gaze ~ the four Gs of seeing.  Right off, you know I am not just talking here about physical sight.  I am talking about how we interact and interpret this beautifully broken world.  Tomorrow, I will offer descriptions on each of these four words, but today, play with your definitions of glance, glare, gnaw, and gaze are.  How and when do you find yourself in each of these states of seeing, pay attention to your life for it is where God shows up this day.  Amen.