If you are here every week, you aren't doing it right

I've been thinking today about the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10.

Most of us know the story. A man is attacked, beaten, and left half dead on the side of the road. Along comes a priest who sees the man and keeps walking. Next comes a Levite (the tribe of Levi were set apart by God for priestly duties) who also sees the man and keeps walking. It isn't until a Samaritan comes by that anyone stops to help the beaten man. A Samaritan of all people! (The Jews, whom Jesus was preaching to, despised the Samaritans.)

Jesus tells this parable after "an expert in the law" wants to know how to inherit eternal life. He tells Jesus that the law says to serve God first, and to love your neighbor. But he wants to know who his neighbor is.

I started thinking about this parable during our Super-Bowl-at-Church experience Sunday. (Yes, I sometimes daydream about Luke while the pastor is preaching on Daniel!)

As the media team turned off the Super Bowl and turned on the worship band, and as we all reflected on worshiping God not football, I reminded myself not to fall into legalism. Not to be the "expert in the law" who sees everything as black-and-white.

Because sometimes serving God will mean being there for church at 7 p.m. on the dot, with my phone left in the car and my hands raised high. And sometimes it will mean saying no to everything else in order to have my 5 minutes of prayer or Bible reading.

BUT.

I once heard someone preaching on this parable say that the priest and the Levite who didn't stop for the injured man were on their way to church. They couldn't stop and help someone in need because they didn't want to be late for church!

I don't want to be that girl. The one who refuses to see her neighbor in need because she HAS to read her Bible RIGHT NOW or HAS to be at church RIGHT NOW or HAS to pray RIGHT NOW.

That isn't serving God. That is serving the law.

Imagine if a homeless man on the street had stopped me outside the church and asked if I knew the score of the game. Would it be more God-honoring for me to say, "I can't talk right now. I can't be late for church." Or would God prefer I see the man, really see him, pull out my phone and watch with him the last two minutes of the game, and miss the opening worship song in order to celebrate (or mourn) with my "neighbor"?

At another church we regularly attend, the pastor is famous for saying, "If you are here every week, you aren't doing it right." He has tapped in to our tendency toward legalism and knows our need to be reminded that the church isn't "in here", it is "out there".