He preached that day on the story of the Samaritan woman who met Jesus one day as she was drawing water from a well. He talked about how her satisfaction in life was important to Jesus, even though she was a woman, even though she was a Samaritan, even though she was (by the standards of her society) an adulteress, and even though she was an outcast to her own people.
He preached about how it was a concern of God’s that we find satisfaction in life, and he drew our attention to the 55th chapter of Isaiah, which says:
Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!Jesus cares about that Samaritan woman’s satisfaction in life. God cares about your satisfaction in life. God wants all people to find satisfaction.
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
That’s what James Forbes said, but he wasn’t done yet. He then said that the secret to satisfaction was to understand that your satisfaction is directly connected to and dependent upon your neighbor’s satisfaction. That’s just the way God designed the universe. The satisfaction of one is dependent upon and connected to the satisfaction of all.
That is precisely the point God makes in today’s scripture from the 49th chapter of Isaiah. There, God speaks through the prophet to the nation of Israel, which sees itself as God’s servant. There, God says: “It is not enough that you take care of your own people. It is not enough that you restore your own nation. You are a light to all nations, so that my salvation becomes global.”
In scripture, “salvation” doesn’t always mean what we today think it means. The way scripture uses the word “salvation,” it means healing. It means wholeness. It means satisfaction.
In scripture, “salvation” speaks of one’s present situation as much as – if not more than – it does of one’s future hope. To be saved is to live a life of wholeness. It is to find satisfaction in one’s life. It is to be rich in the things that matter.
Israel is a light to all nations, so that God’s salvation becomes global. Israel is a light to all nations, so that healing, wholeness, and satisfaction may reach to the end of the earth.
God calls upon us to think of the world that exists beyond our home, beyond our neighborhood, beyond our nation. God calls upon us to recognize how interrelated we all are.
A few years before he was elected president, Barack Obama said something quite profound for someone in politics. He said:
We are connected as one people. If there’s a child on the south side of Chicago who can’t read, that matters to me, even if it’s not my child. If there’s a senior citizen somewhere who can’t pay for her prescription and has to choose between medicine and the rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it’s not my grandmother. If there’s an Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties. It’s that fundamental belief – I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper – that makes this country work.How well Obama’s leadership as president reflects the truth he so eloquently spoke of, I’ll leave for the pundits and historians to decide; but the message is sound: your satisfaction, your salvation in life is dependent on that of your neighbor.
Martin Luther King, Jr., who our nation honors this weekend, understood this truth as well as any person in history. He understood that all people are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I think he understood this better than the original authors of those words. He understood that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. He understood that salvation, healing, wholeness, must be global, or they will not be complete.
In his work for equal rights, he knew that he was acting on behalf of freedom for whites as well as blacks, knowing that neither could be free until all were free; neither could live life to the fullest, experience complete satisfaction and wholeness, until all people were able to do so. He saw those who perpetuated the sins of racism and prejudice as victims of their own fear and hatred, and sought to create a better nation for all Americans.
But knowing that God’s desire for salvation is that it become global, King didn’t limit his concern to those within our nation’s borders. His concern extended to all of God’s children, recognizing that the salvation, healing, and wholeness of people around the world was connected to the salvation, healing and wholeness of people in America.
In an age of Vietnam, this was an even harder sell than his message of racial equality, but his confidence in the truth of God’s word would not allow him to keep quiet.
So he criticized the war in Vietnam, even though he was told that doing so might jeopardize support for his message of racial equality. To him, the two issues were the same: they were both about allowing all people the right and opportunity to live lives of wholeness.
“Bombs in Vietnam,” he said, “also explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.”
On another occasion, King spoke about the importance of securing the welfare of all people, not just one’s own. He said:
Our only hope today lies in our ability to … go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism and militarism…. Our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.
The call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men.”
And then King emphasized, as he did on so many other occasions, the importance of love as the foundation for all we are called to do, making sure that his hearers did not confuse biblical love with mere greeting card sentimentality. Speaking of love, he said:
This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.
King said that love for others – especially those of other lands – is what makes a nation great. “A great nation,” he said, “is a compassionate nation.”
King insisted that “a genuine program on the part of the wealthy nations to make prosperity a reality for the poor nations will in the final analysis enlarge the prosperity of all.” In other words, your nation’s satisfaction and welfare is dependent upon the satisfaction and welfare of other nations.
I’ve often thought of this issue in terms of a gated community. More and more, you see those gated communities being built; people living in a neighborhood surrounded by walls, with a gate at the entrance, and possibly even a security guard. These communities are built on the assumption that walling oneself off from those on the outside will improve the security, satisfaction, and happiness of those on the inside.
In some ways, though, it seems to me that a gated community becomes a prison of one’s own making. The walls are built out of fear – fear of what’s outside those walls, a fear that keeps one from wanting to venture outside those walls.
The walls also work to further emphasize the disparity between those who are inside and those who are outside. The fear that built those walls is made worse because of the walls, even though the hope in building them was that fear would be erased. The more walls that are built, the more those on the outside want to get in, and the more those on the inside live in fear.
We have become a nation of walls. The more walls we build, the more we separate ourselves from those on the outside. The more walls we build, the more those on the outside want to get in – most of them wanting just to see or experience what’s on the inside, but a few of them wanting to do us harm. The more walls we build, the more we live in fear of what’s on the outside.
The kingdom of God – the kingdom for which we pray every Sunday, the kingdom which we promise to help build on earth as it is in heaven – is not a kingdom of walls. The kingdom of God is not a kingdom divided into “us” and “them.” The kingdom of God is not a kingdom of fear.
In the kingdom of God, we work to ensure that all people are, in fact, able to enjoy their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In the kingdom of God, it is understood that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. It is understood that a lack of prosperity anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere. It is understood that the welfare of one depends on the welfare of all.
In the kingdom of God, we recognize that bombs that drop in other countries also explode at home, destroying the hopes and possibilities for a decent America. At the same time, we recognize that working to improve the conditions of people around the world will in fact improve conditions at home.
That is, in fact, how God designed the universe. Your satisfaction is directly connected to and dependent upon your neighbor’s satisfaction.
The command to love your neighbor – whoever or wherever that neighbor may be – is not just some hoop God expects you to jump through. It is the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. It is the path to living the life God wants for you: a life of blessing, a life of satisfaction, a life of wholeness.
In the kingdom of God, it is not enough that you care for your own people. It is not enough that you restore your own nation. You are a light to all nations, so that God’s salvation becomes global, reaching to the end of the earth.
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