“The Church of the Good Samaritan”
Pastor Akiko Van Antwerpen Luke 10:25-37 Today’s scripture passage is a well-known parable, something that our friends of different faiths, or of no faith, tend to know. Somewhere in between Jerusalem and Jericho, a man was left half-dead after being beaten and stripped bare by robbers. A priest, a Levite (which was another type of religious figure) and a Samaritan, all come across the man in this desperate situation, but it’s only the Samaritan who stops, goes to the dying man, and rescues him. The text says that the Priest, Levite, and Samaritan all saw the dying man, but the Priest and Levite passed by on the other side of the road after they saw him. They didn’t just walk around him, but went deliberately out of their way to cross the road as to avoid him. For these religious Jews of course, this might make some sense. For Jews like this, in that time, touching blood, or a body which was either dead or nearly dead, was absolutely forbidden under Jewish purity laws. As God’s people, they were not supposed to touch something like this; something unclean. On the other hand, this Samaritan man was the one to come near to this man. Of course, as a Samaritan, he was probably not a follower of Jewish law, so he was likely not afraid of contaminating himself. Still, in those days, this region was not an entirely safe place to travel; the road was narrow and rocky, with sharp turns and steep cliffs, which made it a great location for robbers. It wasn’t unusual for robbers to either use, or fake, injured men as a way of tricking people into these areas to trap them. Even without Jewish law on his mind, helping the man wasn’t a very safe idea! The Scripture says that the Samaritan man went to this dying man because he was moved by pity. This “pity” feeling can mean a lot. In some other translations, like the KJV for instance, the word “pity” is actually replaced with the word “compassion”. This is because the original word in Greek, which we translate as “pity” in English, refers to a sort of compassion that is experienced bodily, like a deep empathy; a gut feeling. So this “gut feeling” moved the Samaritan man to action. This Samaritan bandaged the man’s wounds, poured oil and wine on his injuries, placed the man on his own animal, brought him to an inn, took care of him, and even paid for his stay. If we just hear the story, or quickly skim through it, it can be easy to dismiss the significance of these actions, so let’s just slow down and listen to what these verses are really saying. This Samaritan man completely changed his travel plans. Rather than using the items he had packed to care for himself, he instead shared it with this man who was desperately in need of help. To the Samaritan, the needs of this man dying in front of him were bigger than any of his own needs; bigger than his own plans, and bigger than the uses he had already intended. Earlier in today’s text, a lawyer asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” This question comes from a lawyer, a student of Jewish law; yet another religious figure who was trying to figure out just how far he really needed to go in terms of loving his neighbor. Of course, he knew, as we all do, that loving the neighbor was important; it’s among the greatest and first of all commandments and laws after all. But, just as he had studied all the other laws, he wanted to know exactly what loving the neighbor looked like. What limits did it have? Where would it stop? In this we can see the lawyer trying to love his neighbor on his own terms. The lawyer asks, “Teacher, who is my neighbor?” MY neighbor. A possessive thing; something owned, like an object. To this man, the neighbor wasn’t a real person, but an object whose only use was as a tool to follow God’s commandment. The Priest and the Levite were of the same mind, it seems. They saw the dying man, but passed to the other side. To them, this man was not their neighbor. Their own flock of people, the people they associated with at temple; these must be their neighbors. This man beaten along the road wasn’t one of these; in fact, he was an obstacle to them; he was an obstacle to the purity and holiness they felt God calling them to maintain. Jesus’ answer to the lawyer’s question of “who is my neighbor?” highlights the key point that our love and care for people should never have boundaries or limits. They need not to be specific people or groups, because whoever it is that you happen to encounter in your daily life, as all these men did; those people are your neighbors. Jesus asks the lawyer, “Which of these three, meaning the priest, levite and Samaritan, do you think was a neighbor to the man?” In Jesus’ eyes, all three of these people had an equal claim to being this man’s neighbor. They all observed the man, and witnessed how much he was suffering, and they had the chance to feel for his pain and respond with love. But it was only the Samaritan who truly saw the man, realized that he was this man’s neighbor, and acted with his compassion and pity. This question of “who are our neighbors,” is the question we often ask ourselves . Since we are called to love our neighbors, we naturally want this to be a category we can clearly define. We want to know who is and is not our neighbor; ‘ But actually we don’t have to know who is and is not our neighbor. We don’t have to go out and search, because our neighbors are on the same road that we are on right here, right now. They are with us, in front of us, in front of our own eyes. Since the beginning of this coronavirus pandemic, the way we live our daily lives has been changed significantly. We obviously are spending less time in close physical proximity with people, but what we lose in physical connection, we seem to gain in the intensity of relationships. Thanks to technology, we are able to maintain neighborly relationships, just like in the past, without risking the spread of the virus. For example, our church council and pastoral team met by Zoom for a check in just this past week! Technology has made it possible for us to spend more time with our neighbors, to learn about them, and become part of their lives in ways that physical proximity by itself can’t allow for. The word “neighbor” used in today’s passage is the same “neighbor” that we find in God’s commandment to love your neighbor. The word in Greek refers to people whom we happen to meet, regardless of their nationality or religious belief. So, loving our neighbors means loving whoever it is we happen to meet (either in person or online), or whoever else we might come into contact with in other ways too.. And when we meet these people near and far and learn about their stories, we recognize that we are their neighbors. We don’t have to go out searching for the right people to help, because just like the Samaritan, we are called to see all people, and their pain, as being just as real as we are. We are called to care for them just as the Samaritan did, by being the people who are present, and by using whatever we have to help, even in our own small ways. The Samaritan didn’t have to go out of his way to get supplies, or to find resources to help this beaten and dying man. In fact, among his belongings, he seemed to have everything he needed to care for him; bandages, oil, wine, a traveling animal, the location of an inn, even money. He used what he had to help; he didn’t need anything special to be “ready” to help. Sometimes we don’t show such love to our neighbors because loving our neighbors feels like such a big idea. We’re just small, sinful, individuals, and we can think that love for other people is such a great and overwhelming concept. We think that we just don’t have enough to offer for our neighbors and, as a result, we don’t always want to try. But I believe this text is calling us to look within ourselves. Look deeply, and look closer, because I believe we have exactly what it takes to help someone, even in just a little way. It might involve working up a little courage to call someone you happen to be thinking about today, and to asking them if they need anything. It might be buying a few extra things at the grocery store, because you know your elderly neighbor could really use it. Sometimes instead of giving or getting things, loving neighbors can involve giving up something for the sake of others. We can give up our comfort, our plans, our own routines or schedules, for the safety of others, just as the Samaritan man did. We can buy less, so that those who really need things have better access to them. We can change the way we use public transportation or go shopping, so that those who need to use these things at certain times can use them with the necessary physical distance. We can give up our own fun plans for the safety of all those who are vulnerable to the coronavirus, such as the elderly, or those with chronic diseases or preexisting conditions. Other times, we might find that whatever our neighbor needs is something we don’t have. When that’s the case, we can just ask around, like the Samaritan did. He didn’t have an inn of his own, or anything like that, and he sure couldn’t stick around to help out, as much as he might like. He needed other people around him to help too. So he simply asked. He reached out to the people around him. This week, at church I happened to learn about the need for face masks. Unfortunately I did not have any myself, but I asked the other Pastors, and Pastor Claudia had extra one, so she shared her masks to those who were in need. We also were able to have one of our church members start to sew more masks for those who are in need. See this is just the one example of the beauty of the church. We have the gifts and resources in and among us to identify people in need, go to them, and to help them, so long as we work together creatively and collaboratively. So, given that the way we meet neighbors has changed due to this virus situation, I believe that this is the message for us today, I would encourage us to be attentive to the neighbors we have been given in this season of our lives. Look closer, look closely. Who is a neighbor to you? Our neighbors might be children, if school closures have us spending much more time with them. Certainly that’s my case right now! Our neighbors could be custodians or cleaners, retail workers, or other people working to operate, clean, and sanitize the places we go. Or, we might happen to hear about people online or on TV who are suffering, losing their precious livelihoods, or even their lives, due to the spread of this coronavirus. Everyone, sick or healthy, enemy or friend/family, wealthy executive or retail worker, regardless of nationality and ethnicity, everyone is our neighbor, no matter where or how our paths cross. And the act of loving them, difficult as it might be for us to do, involves taking physical distance as a neighborly, loving act, we can do not because we want to, but because it saves and protects their lives. Friends, let us pay attention to those people along the way who we are called to be neighbors to. They are here, among us and in front of us in our lives, and their needs are sitting before us, waiting to be seen. And once we see their needs, let’s not go to the other side of the road, Let’s bring their needs up off the road, bring them to church, and share them together. So, in this time of uncertainty and difficulty, let’s be church of good Samaritans, giving of ourselves as we go to take good and loving care of our neighbors together. May God be with us. Amen.
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