Doing What We Can

This is the message given in the Oahe Manor Communion service on Thursday, July 11, 2013.  The Bible verses are Luke 10:25-37.

You know, it strikes me that most projects involve two basic things.  The first one is know what to do.  The second one is actually doing it.

Those things are both important, of course, but a lot of times, the second one is harder than the first one.  It seems to me that there are a lot of times when we know what the right thing to do is.  We just really don't want to do it.

That brings me to the story of the Good Samaritan that we just read.  We're told that an expert in the law came up to Jesus.  He asks Jesus “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus basically says, “Well, you're the expert in the law.  What does the law say?”  And the man gives him a textbook-perfect answer.  “Love the Lord your God with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

And Jesus says, “See?  You've got the first part covered.  You know what to do.  So now comes the second part.  Go do it.”

But again, it's that second part that always causes the problem.  This guy really does not want to go do it.  It's too hard.  It seems like it's asking too much.  So, he tries to come up with a reason for not doing it.  As the verses say, he wanted to justify himself.  So, he asks, “But who is my neighbor.”

Now, that's thinking just like an expert in the law, right?  Always trying to get out of things on a technicality.  And, of course, Jesus does not let him do it.  That's when Jesus goes on to tell the story of the Good Samaritan.

You know, this story of the Good Samaritan is not just a nice story, the way we sometimes think of it.  If we take this story seriously, it's a very challenging story.

We've been conditioned to think of the two who did not stop, the priest and the Levite, as the bad guys in this story.  But are they, really?  I mean, think about this story from their point of view.  They're walking down the road, minding their own business.  They see this guy on the side of the road.   They don't know him.  They don't know anything about him.  They don't know how he comes to be there or what's happened to him.   They're busy people with things to do.  It's not their fault this guy got beaten up.  It's nothing to do with them.  They really don't have the time to stop and help him..  Besides, this is a really dangerous area.  If they stop, what happened to this guy might happen to them, too.

You see, they have all these reasons to not treat this man as their neighbor.  And they're not just making those reasons up.  They're good reasons.  They're logical.  They make sense.  If someone heard about what they'd done—or, more accurately, not done—no one would've thought badly of them for it.  They would've been able to justify themselves.

How many times do we do that?  We see a situation in which somebody needs help.  We probably know, somewhere deep down, that we should help.  But we think, well, I don't know this person.  I don't know how they came to be in this situation or what's happened to them.  I have things to do.  It's not my fault this person got into trouble.  It's nothing to do with me.  I really don't have time to stop and help.  I'll just mind my own business.

We want to identify with the Samaritan.  We want to think we'd be the one who stopped and helped.  We want to think we'd be the one who'd go the extra mile, who'd do a lot more than what's expected of us.

That's what we want to do.  But the truth is that, a lot more of the time, we're the priest or the Levite.  We're the one who does not help, and who comes up with all kinds of “good reasons” for not helping.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, but what can I do?”  I get that.  I know you cannot do all the things you used to do.  If you could, you would not be here.  I know you do not have the energy or physical ability to do the things you used to do.  Some days, it's probably all you can do to get out of bed and get dressed.  In fact, I know some of you can no longer even do that for yourselves.  And while I cannot say I know how that feels, I know it has to be really frustrating.  So you hear a message like this, and you think, “Yeah, it's easy for him to say.  If I could be out there helping people, I would.  But I cannot do that any more.”

Like I said, I get that.  But here's the thing.  God does not ask us to do everything.  What God asks us is to do everything we can.  And everyone can do something.  No matter what your condition is, you can do something.  You can smile at people.  You can listen to people who need to talk.  You can give a compliment to somebody.

You know, sometimes, when I'm having a bad day, just having someone smile at me and ask how I'm doing means more to me than anything.  Just knowing somebody cares can be so important.  We all need people who care about us.  And sometimes, we need to be the person who cares about somebody else.  Little things like that can mean an incredible amount.

God never allows us to retire from being Christians.  No matter what our age is, and no matter what our state of health is, we're still supposed to be like the Samaritan.  We're still not allowed to come up with “good reasons” for not helping.  We still need to do whatever we can do to help others.


You cannot do everything.  You cannot do what you used to do.  That's okay.  You don't have to.  Just do what you can.  When we do, God will do the rest.