I was speaking with Brenda's cousin awhile back, and she told me about a car buying experience she'd had recently.

She had the car all picked out, and had spoken to the dealer several times. She'd been quoted a certain price, and given certain terms, and had been told what were promised to be all the costs. This particular car was difficult to find, as they are very popular.

When she got to the dealer, and got with the 'closer', she was told a completely different story. Several more charges for shipping, handling, dealer's fees, etc. were added on. Even the base price was greatly different from what she'd been told over the phone, even though she had called several times and had a couple confirmations.

She broke off the deal and fortunately found another one just like it elsewhere. All she wanted to know was 'What's it really going to cost me?"

A couple of paragraphs before our Gospel lesson today, Jesus has just been sharing the cost of being his disciple. The young lawyer was interested in that same question. How much is this Kingdom going to cost?

Or you might rephrase the question, taking into account Luke's little comment, "He wanted to justify himself..." Perhaps we could say he wanted to know what was the bottom line. How much would it cost. This is one of the very few times that the Gospels enter into the discussion of works righteousness versus Justification by faith.

And what we see here is our old human nature, played here by the lawyer. Our old nature, our Old Adam/Eve loves the Law. Our Old Nature is the natural human being before Christ comes into that life and begins to create a new Nature. Our Old Nature loves the rules and the religiosity of works that the law gives us, and we make into a ladder to try to climb.

If we're on a ladder, we can see how much better we are than all those who don't quite measure up. But, most of all, if we're on a ladder, It's our climb. We stay in control. It's our salvation. It's our climb. Like in Frank Sinatra's old song, "we've done it our way," we like to claim.

And, if we think it's up to us to earn our way into the kingdom, and we've got a nice set of rules to try to follow, then we can make real sure that we're not doing more than we need, we're not doing more than the minimum, not any more than the other guy, and, we're not giving away too much precious control.

Doesn't that sound like Old Adam? Give me the bottom price. I'll pay it if I have to, but don't ask for more.

As a small child, I always used to enjoy sitting and listening to one my dad's cousins. Peter had a great laugh, a brilliant mind, and was always the life of the party. He always told great funny stories, and paid a lot of attention to us kids. He was always my favorite relative. Today, having worked a lot with people with the same problem, I also know that Peter was an alcoholic. When I was in college, Peter went through a bad relapse in his drinking. At several points he ended up in the hospital with serious internal bleeding, caused by the chronic abuse. He was near death, although he was only in his fifties. Peter also claimed to be an agnostic.

I stopped at the hospital to see him one day during one of these bouts. In the conversation, I shared that I was sensing a call to go into seminary. Sick as he was, Peter sat up in bed, and said, "Roland, you're not going to make any money that way. That's not what all the rich guys do. They go out and make all the money they can, and they make it any way they can. Then, when they get rich, they've got plenty of time to get religion. But at your age, you've got to look out for number one. That's the way it works. Get rich now, get religion later."

Peter had it all figured out. But six months later, Peter was dead.

He had heard of the Kingdom, in fact I tried to share some more with him that day, but he brushed it off. But he had it all figured out. Like the lawyer in our story, he had looked for the bottom line, and had understood it to be like fire insurance you could buy when you began to smell smoke, so to speak. Old Adam is only going to come along kicking and screaming. Old Adam wants to do things his way.

Old Adam kicks and screams against doing God’s will the way my Aunt Avis went to school the first day. Some time around 1911, my father's family was living in Montgomery, Alabama. It came September, and it was time for my Aunt Avis to head off to Public School for her first day of Kindergarten. Now, to say Avis was a fairly willful child is sort of like saying the Winter Carnival week is fairly cool.

As her older brother, my dad, and his older sister brought her to school. Cutting through some open land, Avis decided she didn’t want to go to her first day of school. So, she simply sat down. She was not going to go to school, pretty white lace dress, lunch pail and all. So she just sat down in a large mud puddle. Realizing the futility of their coaxing, they responded with what they had to do. They simply dragged her a few blocks to school- in the bright red Alabama clay. Avis was not about to joyfully enter into public education. Period.

Old Adam/Eve are just as stubborn. Just as good at playing self-serving, yet self-defeating games. Sadly, as far as I know, Peter kept up his strategy to the end.

But Jesus won't have any part in such a game. In fact, fact he destroys the game.

He tells a story about a 'Good Samaritan'. That was a catchy phrase, sort of like his 'Good Shepherd', or jumbo shrimp, or Army Intelligence. Remember, we call that an 'oxymoron', two words linked which mean opposites. They had never heard of a 'good' Samaritan. The Jews hated the Samaritans. 'Good' Samaritan; what did he mean?

He tells the story. You know it, so I won't repeat. And he knocks the ladder right out from under the lawyer. Anyone in need was his neighbor. Jesus said that everyone in need was his neighbor- even the most hated.

But how? Can this one man care for the entire world? Come on, Jesus! Get real! Only God could do that!

But that's the story. If the lawyer would seek to do just enough, so that he could save himself, then he's gotta be like God. Nothing else will be enough. Jesus knows his heart, and knocks his game off the table. Jesus calls him to radical discipleship- servanthood!

Now, we've heard enough about Old Adam/Eve. That's enough about our old nature. God’s Spirit produces a new nature in you. That new nature, New Adam/Eve, loves God and delights in his will. New Adam/Eve doesn't get sucked into the game. New Adam doesn't do good works to impress anybody or try to earn anything from God. New Adam loves God, lives in the freedom of the Gospel, and that joyfully empowers you to serve.

See, that's the difference here. And that's the call:

--A call to obedience in freedom and joy.

--A call to discipleship that's radical, above and beyond the call of duty, to the call of joy.

See, New Adam hears this text in a whole different light. For freedom Christ has set you free! You've been freed to serve in boldness and love. That's the great paradox, isn't it, that only in being Christ's servant, can you truly be free! And only to the degree that you are enslaved to him, do you receive true freedom.

We hear Jesus' call, "Go and do likewise".

Now, three parts of the sermon are over, but today you get a bonus fourth section! We've heard about the lawyer, and how he's like old Adam/Eve. Then we've quickly heard about the call to joy that believers hear in these same words–

Now, if I were to say this sermon is about "Ministry in the Neighborhood" you might think that I'd be talking about our Phillips neighborhood. Looking at our text, that would seem appropriate. Certainly, one does not need to go very far in this neighborhood, any time of the day, any day of the week, to find someone hurting. Sometimes sick, homeless people even stop for naps on our grass. Daily, people stop by the Office here, looking for food, shelter, or sometimes enough money for some alcohol or drugs to ease their pain inside. We don't give money away for those things, but we do try to lovingly help all who stop in, the best we're able.

Now, I commend you for your commitment of love and funds to this neighborhood these many years. The needs here are the worst in the state, because the needs have all been dumped here. Yet, we in our little way, have faithfully served, and Lord willing, will faithfully serve here for many years more. But if Hennepin County, with all its resources and Federal dollars can't solve the problems here, why try? And secondly, when's enough enough already?

Now, there Old Adam stuck his head in. Did you hear him? We're called to faithfully serve here as we can, faithfully telling the story and passing out glasses of cool water until Jesus returns to say, 'Well done, good and faithful servants!'

But does serving in this neighborhood automatically mean that you are fulfilling this call? Does membership in St. Paul's, and even faithful giving, mean that you've personally done enough? Have you fulfilled Jesus' words, "Go, and do likewise!"? Did you hear Old Adam/Eve stick their two cents' worth in their? There isn't an 'enough', only the call to faithfulness. Only the call to love. We can't do enough to earn anything--our call is simply to faithfulness in joy. Servanthood in freedom.

No, you have a greater call than "What's enough?" Who's my neighbor?" Because you carry Jesus with you day by day. So that gives you a joyful, freeing ministry to everyone around. That includes the people who work with you; That includes the people who live in your highrise. That includes the people on the bus, and in the stores where you shop. But do you hear?

The call to be that Samaritan, to seek out the burdens and carry them-- it isn't law, it isn't a task--it's Gospel in action– there’s not an ‘enough’- there’s freedom. We’re not acting according to obligation; we’re not trying fulfill a certain level of demand- we’re simply freed to love and serve. Love is the only principle- even that’s not a demand, it’s a radical promise. You’re called to love as Jesus loved. That’s a radical call, a revolutionary, self-giving call. It goes far beyond any obligation. It’s life as a disciple.

When Dick Denny's bomber was shot down behind enemy lines in WWII–he met up with underground-- a group dedicated to working to foul up the enemy and set the captives free. You've been set free to be a member of the 'Jesus underground'. You’re an undercover agent, day by day, in the enemy's territory, working to set others free.

On the other hand, some Christians are so good at working underground, that nobody would ever guess that they're Christians. That's not what I'm suggesting.`

What I'm saying, is that Jesus' good news for you is that you've been called to be a Samaritan on patrol where ever you go. You've been called to neighborhood ministry, not just here, around church, but all around. That's what you were ordained into at Baptism, and that's your call as a servant of the most High.

More good news, he's going to empower you to fulfill that ministry as well. But keep your eyes open. Set your sights high enough. If we come to Jesus and say, how much is enough, nothing will do. If we say, Lord, I love you, use me, then all heaven will break loose! Realize how big your neighborhood is. And then you'll be joyfully set free to serve in joy.

Invitation: Come to dedicate self; open eyes to find the wounded. Amen.