With our senior pastor out of town for training, we enjoyed worshiping with Rev. Shawn Maze and some of his family this past Sunday, June 11. He preached from Luke 10:25-37 on a familiar passage with familiar themes: As he put it, our hearts need reminding of what our heads may already know. What Scripture teaches--to love God and to love our neighbor--is not hard to understand; the hard part is doing and following those commands. The Good Samaritan story's characters of a priest and Levite were a powerful example to Jesus' audience, and it's a powerful story for us as well. Both the priest and the Levite had "excuses" for not showing compassion. That kind of "loophole thinking" prevents the doing that God expects us to do. Shawn reminded us that every act of love comes with a sacrifice, which is the heart of the Gospel in that Jesus' act of love was the ultimate sacrifice on the cross.
