“The Third Dimension of Change”

Sermon by Rev. Dr. Stephen Poos-Benson

August 22, 2010

Luke 10:25-37

Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”

He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

“Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

“A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

“The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

It is good to be back. I did a lot of fun things on my vacation. Yesterday was a big day in the Poos-Benson household. I moved my daughter, Kelsey, to Regis University. The house was very quiet last night and this morning. There’s a lot of change going on in my person life. Is change going on in your personal life?

I want to ask you a question: Do you think people can change? Do you think people can fundamentally change? Do you think that businesses can change? Can churches change? Can organizations change? I believe that change can happen. I’m one of those hopeful people that believe that with enough work and insight, there can be transformational change but it has to happen to the third dimension. It’s so important that we talk about change here at Columbine United Church because we are so much in the midst of change.

When Carol came and talked with me about an idea for this sermon series about a month ago, I said this is something we must do because we are in the throes of change. It starts next Sunday, as it will be Laurene’s last Sunday. September 1^st is her last day here at Columbine United Church. We knew that both and Carol and Laurene’s positions were interim positions and that means their tenure here is coming to an end. There’s a Search Committee that is being formed to look for a Youth Minister. Carol’s position will end about the beginning of Advent and a Search Committee is already interviewing candidates from across the United States for this position.

It’s hard, it’s sad. We have become attached to these two people. Even my job is temporary. My position is called a Stated Supply, which, in the Presbyterian Church, is temporary. At any moment, any given year, the Presbytery could change my status. The easy thing would be to say good-bye, we’ll have a little cake, here’s a card and thank you very much. Then hire the next person and continue.

If churches go through changes like this and don’t address it, don’t talk about it—then they sweep a lot of the problems that are present within the congregation right under the rug. Then when the new person comes, they resurface. So one of the most important things that we can do as a congregation is to take some time and to think about what it means to go through a time of change.

Two Sundays ago, Laurene started with a prelude sermon about what it means to live by faith. One of the things that really struck me about that sermon was when she heard God speak to her in the midst of her transition. Laurene, trust yourself. When life feels so chaotic, one of the most important things that we forget to do is to trust that we have the gifts and the skills and the abilities to be successful—to thrive in the midst of change.

Last week, Carol preached about what it means to be in change by living outside the box, by thinking creatively and by allowing our lives to be fertile ground for change.

Today I’m preaching about changing the Third Dimension because I believe when we change in the Third Dimension, it’s where we hit that time of trans-formation. I’ve chosen the parable of the Good Samaritan to talk about what it means to have a First, Second and Third Dimension type of change. I’m going to trust that basically you understand what this parable is all about. I’m going to try to bring you to a different understanding of what I see going on in this parable and how it can push us into a Third Dimension of change.

Change in the First Dimension is when we have to change our plans. The Samaritan was on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. We don’t know why he was going to Jericho. I think he wanted to stay in Jerusalem to watch the local football game but his wife needed olives for dinner and so she sent him on the journey to Jericho!! He was torn. He was caught. He wanted to stay but his wife wanted him to go. Suddenly, plans shifted and changed. He had to make a decision and he decided to do as his wife asked. That’s a First Dimension change. When our lives are going one way and suddenly, because of circumstances, they change. Change in the First Dimension is often a nuisance---you’re commuting to work and suddenly there are “cone zones” everywhere and you have to find a new way to get to work. You miss a plane, you miss a connecting flight and suddenly your plans are interrupted and you have to be creative and you have to think about something new to do. You go to church and the crazy pastor wants to make changes with the Sunday morning worship schedule during the summertime and you are in such a worship groove for the past 50 years of doing the same thing every Sunday.

What’s really interesting to me is that a lot of people refuse to make changes in the First Dimension. They get frustrated; they don’t like to change their plans! They don’t want to go to Jericho. They want to stay in Jerusalem. They have commuted that way their entire life. Their itinerary says they have to catch this flight! They sit down and they refuse, which is unfortunate because I have found when you are willing to go with life’s detours, all kinds of wonderful things happen. You meet wonderful people, you engage new ideas, and you learn new things about yourself.

Because we have made changes to the summer schedule and included Adult Education, I have learned a lot about you as a congregation. Change on the First Dimension can be a lot of fun. It helps us be pliable instead of being brittle. We need to engage change on the First Dimension.

Change in the Second Dimension is where we are really forced or invited or challenged to change our attitudes about people and about ourselves. We’re forced to confront our stereotypes about people or ideas or groups of people. Change in the Second Dimension invites us to cross boundaries that we would usually never cross.

The Samaritan, on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho, as he’s walking, sees an Israelite in the ditch. He doesn’t know anything about the Priest or the Levite because they were further down the road. From his perspective, he sees an Israelite who is his enemy. Actually, the Samaritan is open to a conversation but it is the Israelite who doesn’t want to have anything to do with the Samaritan. The Israelite doesn’t want to talk or have any communication with the Samaritan but the Samaritan can’t just bring himself to walk by. He stops, picks up the man, bandages his wounds, takes him to the inn, pays for his well-being, leaves money, offers to pay more later for any extra care.

That is change in the Second Dimension. This is why, I think, Jesus calls this Samaritan a “Good Samaritan” because rarely do we engage change in the Second Dimension. You know birds of a feather flock together. We live where we live because we want to surround ourselves with people that are like us. Every city in the United States is mapped out this way—enclaves of different groups. There’s an Italian neighborhood, Chinese. Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic neighbor-hoods.

There’s a new initiative at the Denver Presbytery that is trying to build cross-cultural communities where people of different ethnicities can come together and celebrate and worship together. I love that idea because we stay away from each other; we’re afraid of each other. We’re afraid of the homeless, we’re afraid of young people, we’re afraid of college-age people and it’s this fear that keeps us separated. There was something inside the Samaritan that said I have to do something!

As Christians, as children of God, because we are in a relationship with God, it pushes us to cross those boundaries, to figure out how to break those boundaries. That is why Jesus says ultimately if you want to fulfill all of the teachings of the scriptures, if you want to go beyond loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, you will actually love your neighbor as yourself. That is why he is the “Good Samaritan.”

How are we being Good Samaritans here at Columbine? I love the fact that we are doing several things. We are feeding 15,000 people. We are caring and loving one another—we have prayer lists and concern lists. I’ve heard people talk about Columbine as a church that “does people well”. We are Good Samaritans and I am proud of that but I believe we are called to go beyond being the Good Samaritan and be transformed. That is change in the Third Dimension.

Here’s change in the Third Dimension. Listening about the Samaritan going from Jerusalem to Jericho to buy olives for his wife, what if he had to keep on buying olives for his wife and he kept on traveling down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and every single time he did it, he saw someone who was beat up and in the ditch. The second time he took someone to the inn and paid for his care, would he be a Good Samaritan? Of course he would. What about the third weekend when he saw someone in the ditch, bandaged his wounds, took him to the inn and paid for his care? Is he a Good Samaritan? Yes, of course! What about the 4^th time it happens and he pays for it and he has a large bill. Is he a Good Samaritan? Yes, he’s almost a saint! He’s a model citizen! Don’t you think about the 5^th time that he is the Good Samaritan, don’t you want him to wake up and say: Why is this road so dangerous that people keep getting beat up?

Shafer’s Crossing out where I live is one of the most dangerous intersections in Jefferson County. It has taken many deaths for the county to finally ask why is this intersection so dangerous. They have finally engaged a whole remodel of the intersection because so many people have been killed.

At some point, I want to say that the Good Samaritan becomes stupid! He’s naïve! There’s a bigger problem than picking people up and taking them to a hotel and getting them fixed. This Samaritan starts getting together with other people on the road and they form a group called the Good Sam Club. They get organized to keep the bandits at bay. They begin to find out that a bandit has a family and has been ostracized by the Israelite society. The only way they can make a living is by beating up people on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho. The Good Sam Club begins to realize that’s not right either. They get the bandits together and tell them they will be hired as porters. The income will help support their families and will create a school for their kids. Suddenly, they aren’t bandits anymore—they are people. Suddenly they have a sense of community and the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is no longer a dangerous route but it’s a popular route and everybody is making money because it’s one of the safest roads in Jerusalem because they have all come together and they have been transformed. That is change on the Third Dimension.

I believe that is what we are called to do. Jesus was constantly challenging people to change in the Third Dimension. He asked a lame man: Do you want to get well? To a woman caught in the act of adultery, he said to her: Where are they that condemn you? To the disciples, he said: Who do you say that I am? He wasn’t satisfied with a first level of change where they talked about what everybody else said about Jesus. He wanted to know what they said. Change on the Third Dimension.

Change on the Third Dimension is hard to do. Change on the Third Dimension means that we have to take a mirror and look at ourselves. We have to look at whom we are and how we are going to participate. How we are going to use our gifts and skills and abilities to go beyond the First and Second level of change? That’s why we are having a class called Just Faith. Just Faith talks about how we take our Christian faith to the Third Dimension.

We have some complicated issues in our society: Immigration, poverty, and GLBT issues. We, as a culture, deal with change on a First and Second Dimension. Take immigration—First Dimension change is to build a bigger wall. Second Dimension change—minister to the immigrants while they are here. Third Dimension change—what is causing people in their hometowns to be so desperate that they are willing to cross the deserts to get here? That’s what the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures called doing justice. God expected us to do that type of justice.

Just think about changes that affect us at Columbine United Church. Change on the First Level would be: Two people go, two new people come in. We hire them, we write the checks, they go do ministry. Change on the First Dimension. That’s good. But is it really enough? Will that transform us? No, I don’t think it does. We need to go to change at least on the Second Dimension.

Change on the Second Dimension says that we look at our kids like maybe some of them are in the ditch. Some of us are used to walking by our kids. Change in the Second Dimension says that they aren’t the Youth Minister but that we are the Youth Minister; we are the Children’s Minister. These people are just coming to empower us in our work. Change in the Second Dimension means that we are actually going to work in the Sunday Schools, work with the Youth Group, and learn the kids’ names. We are going to put up with them when they are wiggly and crying in church. We’re going to pray for them, we are going to love them; we are going to surround them with Sunday School programs. That’s change in the Second Dimension.

Ultimately, I think we need to go beyond change in the Second Dimension with our young people and talk about change in the Third Dimension. Here’s Third Dimensional change when it comes to our kids. Why does Jefferson County have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation? How come there are hundreds of homeless teenagers in Jefferson County?

When we are able to engage those kinds of questions and ask what is it about who we are and our lifestyle and the communities that we create that put our young people at risk where they are willing to kill themselves? When we put our collective heads together and we do what the Samaritan did with the other people who were traveling the road and they got to know the bandits and they provided programs—that’s when we are transformed! That’s what I believe we are called to do.

Change in the Third Dimension in your personal life is so profound that if you are thinking about changing yourself as an individual, you will think about change in the Third Dimension. Here’s an example that I see all the time: How to lose weight. First Dimension change: I want to lose weight. I think I’m going to walk from Jerusalem to Jericho. That will shed a few pounds and so I walk.

Go to the Second level: I need to have an exercise program. I need to learn about nutrition. I need to change the way I shop. I need to be committed and dedicated and so you engage the change on a second level. If you only do that kind of change, you take weight off, you put weight on, you take weight off, you put weight on and you yo-yo.

To deal with this on the Third Level, to transform, you ask yourself why am I addicted to certain foods? Why have I wrestled with health issues my entire life? What do I really feel about myself as being a child of God and my body as being the temple of the Holy Spirit? The Third Level of change invites you to pick up a mirror and shine it right at myself and say: Who am I? Who am I as a child of God? Transformation can come when we engage life on the Third Dimension.

I love this quote: “Life is change, growth is optional. Choose wisely!”

Amen.