Proper
X+C
10 July AD 2016 The Reverend Robert R.M. Bagwell+
We just prayed these words: “O Lord,
mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that
they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have
grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Is that not a Christian dilemma? How do we live out our lives as followers of
Jesus?
This is not a question that the
average High School counselor asks, but this is not an occupational question
but a vocational question. To what are you and me called? Today the operative question is “who is my
neighbor”? Christians are in a strange
position versus the non-Christian. Jesus
gives us commandments over things that the world thinks are optional. We are to
be miracles in the world. What we call “miracles” the Bible calls “signs.” We know that we may be the only Jesus than anyone in the world sees,
so let us keep that in mind as we live each day.
This story begins with a scribe
or as the story puts it, a lawyer. For
us today, the Bible is not the Law, but a story of God’s work in the
world. For the pious Jew, keeping the
law was everything.
The scholar of the Law of God was
“testing” Jesus, more likely trying to trip Jesus up and show everyone Jesus
was not as smart as the man thought Jesus thought he was.
He asks Jesus how to get to heaven. Jesus, especially when challenged, often
answers a question with a question. “You tell Me,” he says. He answers with
what we know as the great commandment.
To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all
your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. AWho
is my neighbor?@ Ever ask that question? ConsciouslyCI
mean. SubconsciouslyCwe ask it oftenCperhaps
even constantly.
When God gave the Israelites the
command to love your neighbor in Leviticus 19:18, the Israelites felt confident
that they knew who that wasCfellow
IsraelitesCof
course. They were tribes; all somehow
related through their ancestorsCthe
12 sons of Jacob.
Who do we think our neighbor
is? I=ve
lived in so-called Aneighborhoods@ where I knew absolutely no one. No one spoke to one another. Neighbor apparently referred to a geographic
distanceCbut is
this impersonal arrangement what a neighbor is?
How do you define it?
This gentleman
seems to be in his own high regard and is approaching Jesus to apparently show
Jesus he's not as 'smart' as the lawyer thinks that Jesus thinks he is! Strangely enough, Jesus lets the man answer
his own question by responding to a question WITH a question. Don't you hate
that! A pastor once asked a rabbi,
"Why in the Hebrew tradition does the teacher always answer a question
with a question?" He answered. "I don't know. Do we always do
that?"
But as all
things with our Lord, he knows how to take the opportunity of a teachable
moment. He tells the story of the Good Samaritan as we have come to know it as
we have grown up in the Church. What we
may not have realized is some of the subtleties of this story. There was a bit of selectivity in the Jewish
observance venue of Jesus' day that Jesus had no problem pointing out by again
letting the listener answer his own question.
But here comes
that selectivity. They only read in
practice, the earlier part of that chapter and left out the uncomfortable part
that came a few verses later: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.
The foreigner residing among you must be
treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in
Egypt. I am the Lord your God." (Lev 19:33
& 34)
Not content to leave well enough alone apparently, the doctor of the
law says: "but who is my neighbor?"
Jesus begins what we call the parable, (or literally story beside a
story) of the "Good Samaritan".
A man was going
down the 17 mile stretch from Jerusalem to Jericho. In that short distanceCthrough a very barren and arid terrainCthe ground drops 3000 feet. It is an ideal place for robbers to hide and
ambush travelers. As fate would have it, robbers attacked him and stole his
clothing and beat himCleaving
him to die. Now is when this gets
interesting.
A priest happens
byCthen a LeviteCa
liturgist, a professional charged with the maintenance of the Temple
worship. They both go way over to the
other side of the road. What is wrong with this picture? This is somewhat a
scandalCsurely
these religious men should have done something!
I know…excuse! Even today we can always come up with one of those for
something we don't particularly want to do!
“I don’t want to get involved.” Perhaps they were afraid that the
robbers were still near. Perhaps they thought the man was already dead and to
touch him would make them ritually uncleanCso
they would be unable to serve in the Temple.
A Samaritan
comes by. They must have thought:
"a who?" "What?" Now
this must have been quite a jolt. Jesus
always seems to have a Ajolt@ in his stories; a cosmic reversal; an
unexpected twist! It must have taken Atemerity@
for Jesus to put a Samaritan in the story!
The Jews felt about the Samaritans like the Jews feel even today about
Nazis and other "groups" pitted against other "groups" seem
to feel about each other: avoidance, distaste, dislike or even unbridled
hatred!
The Samaritans
were a half breed peopleCJews
left in the land during the Babylonian captivity, after the destruction of
Jerusalem and the First Temple. They had
intermarried with the Assyrians from years earlier. They had opposed the rebuilding of the Jewish
Temple and said they were the only legitimate heirs to Jewish worship. They had their own Temple on Mount Gerizim.
Jews considered them as detestable heretics, apostates who denied the faith.
The Samaritan
heretic, the one generally treated despicably by the Jew, takes care of the
Jewish manCdisinfects
his wounds and takes him to an inn and leaves about two month=s rent with a promise of more if it is
needed. And Jesus asks Awho was neighbor to the man?@
The lawyer replies, and you
can almost see him gritting his teeth trying to get the words out: Athe man who showed mercy.@
You can almost hear the people thinking: "is it
getting warm out here?" Is Jesus
hitting a bit close to home for both us and them?
The lawyer had
really been askingCWho is not
my neighbor? What are the limits to
my responsibility? That is a question each person who believes in Christ must
ask constantly. It would be nice if we
could choose to be neighbor to the people who we like and who could do us some
good! But that would make us no
different from every other person born into the world without God=s love in them. Jesus calls us to love people we don=t like and people it is of no earthly advantage to know. Indeed, it is the contrast between erosCthe love that demands its own interest
and agape the love that is generous in its interest toward others. But love, true love is not some weak
sentiment. Song of Solomon (8:6) says Alove
is as strong as death@
(NIV) It is able to conquer all other things.
Love is the Christian miracle. It
is our vocation. We are the lovers of God who are called to love the non-lovers
into the kingdom of God.
Sometimes that is tough love. Parents often have to administer tough love. It is very hard on the parent, but is for the ultimate good of the child, although the child may kick and scream at the penalty of his or her actions and say horrid things to the one painfully loving them. Even harder with another adult! A question we must ask ourselves isCAwith whom do we identify in the story?@ I mean REALLY? I think we should be conscious that we are at least in one sense Samaritans. We have by our lives denied the faith in thought, word and deed and yet... In spite of our birth right to be sinners, Jesus has redeemed us and made us Agood sinners@...@good Samaritans@. He has done a miracle in us, with us and through us. In our baptismal covenant we pledge our determination to love neighbor, and to strive for justice and peace among all people respecting the dignity of every human being but honestlyCdo we not often walk on the other side afraid to dirty our hands? Do we need to justify ourselves? Who are the Samaritans in YOUR LIFE? Whom do we feel Ajustified@ in despising, rejecting, pre-judging? When do we side with the priest and the Levite? With anyone different from us? Someone we feel treated us unjustly or a friend unjustly? How can we be God’s miracles, when the miracle He wants to do with us is stopped by US?
Everyone is neighbor for the
Christian. The question is will we be
neighbor! Martin Luther King Jr said.: "The first question which the
priest and Levite asked was "If I stop help this man, what will happen to
me?" But…the Good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop
to help this man, what will happen to him?" The collect petitioned
God that we might know and
understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power
faithfully to accomplish them; … Do we really want that? If so, we are called to
be a living miracle for others.
If God=s love flows through us, is in usCit must be acted out in the love of neighbor. In I John 4:19-21 we readCAWe
love because he first loved us. If
anyone says, AI
love God,@ yet
hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom
he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this
command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.@ O
God, let that sign and miracle be realized in us, through Jesus, your Son, our maker,
defender, redeemer and friend.
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment