We Are Society, pt. 1—A Living Expression

“It is resurrection (not progress, not evolution, not enlightenment), a call from heaven to us: “Rise up! You are dead, but I will give you life.” —Karl Barth

Society Church exists to be a expression of our God for Sacramento.

Luke 10:25-26 NIV
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

Luke 10:27 NIV
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

Luke 10:29 NIV
 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Luke 10:30 NIV
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.

Luke 10:31-32 NIV

A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

“The trilogy ‘priests, Levites, and people’ are common in postexilic texts (1 Chron. 28:21; 2 Chron. 34:30; 35:2–3, 8, 18; Ezra 2:70; 7:7, 13; 8:15; 9:1; 10:5, 18–22, 25–43; Neh. 7:73; 8:13; 9:38; 10:28; 11:3, 20; cf. 1QS II, 11, 19–21), and this is what first-century Jews would have expected.” —Commentary on the NT Use of the OT

Luke 10:33 NLT
Then a despised Samaritan came along and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.

Σπλαγχνίζομαι (v.) – splanknizomé
“feel compassion for, have pity on, have one’s heart go out to someone.”

“Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” —Henri Nouwen

Luke 10:34 NIV
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

Hosea 6:1-6 NIV
Come, let us return to the Lord… he will heal us… he will bandage our wounds… He will come to us as surely as the arrival of dawn…

Jesus is our Good

Luke 10:35 NIV
The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members”​ —William Temple

Society Church exists to be a living expression of our loving for Sacramento.

“The Church must be forever building, and always decaying, and always being restored.” — T.S. Eliot

Luke 10:36-37 NIV
Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

1 John 4:19 NIV
We love because he first loved us.