Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 10:25-37
I can say this because he is not here today--but my father only knows one joke. Telling jokes has never been part of the family heritage, none of us tell jokes very well. I don't know we can't seem to get the timing right and probably more importantly we just don't seem to be able to remember them. But my Father has one joke that apparently he found so funny that he has remembered it. So he drags that joke out at every opportunity he has. I'm sure you've heard it--probably from him. A priest a rabbi and a pastor are having lunch together and they get into a deep discussion of when life begins. Life begins at conception the priest says, life begins at birth the rabbi says no the pastor says life begins when the kids leave home and the dog dies says the pastor. It's really okay, you don't have to laugh. It's an old joke and I'm certain you've heard it before.
Preaching on this parable today kind of reminds me of telling that old joke. I'm sure you've all heard this one before; again and again and again. It's well known not only in churches but in the culture as well. How many hospitals are named Good Samaritan, how many social service agencies--heck there's even a law named for this parable. Even so, I did read that in a survey of the American public those who knew this parable went down from 55% of the population in 1965 to 43% in 1999. Being that it is the middle of July and you are in church today I trust that you are in the percentage that knows this parable. So a priest a Levite and a Samaritan are going down the road--well you know the story.
At first blush the point of the story seems pretty obvious "Help people who need it" and we need not complicate that simple and straight forward message for that may indeed be enough, but it is also true that this parable is set in the context of another incident that deserves its own attention. The parable of the Good Samaritan is occasioned by the question of lawyer attempting to "test" Jesus. In other words it appears he is not so much trying to grapple with his questions of eternal life as he is trying to find points of view with which he might disagree. As so often happens, Jesus answers a question with a question. "What is written in the law?" The man responds quoting Leviticus and Deuteronomy and Jesus commends him. But the lawyer "wanting to justify himself" comes back with another question, "And who is my neighbor?" which is the thing that instigates Jesus telling of the story in the first place.
Now it seems to me that there is something very subtle but very interesting going on here.
The lawyer asks, "Who is my neighbor?" And Jesus ends the parable by asking "who is the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?
No doubt the lawyer saw himself as we all tend to do as the one who is walking along the road, cheerfully self possessed and self assured. We're on top of the world; we've got great health, money in our pocket and independence. Jesus challenges the lawyer and us to put ourselves in the place of the naked, bloodied half dead man at the side of the road. Jesus asks the question "Who was neighbor to the man who'd been robbed?"
It's hard I know, we don't like to see ourselves as vulnerable or needy. We don't like to consider how quickly the tables could be turned so that we are not the ones giving the help but rather are the ones in need of receiving help. And yet it is the understanding that this vulnerable needy person could be me that sparks in us a true sense of compassion. At heart there is no difference between the lawyer, the Samaritan r the needy man. They are all children of God who need each other.
I remember making a hospital call on a man who had been a judge. Truth to tell he more or less fit the stereotype of what you'd expect of a judge. He was used to getting respect, he was used to having his own way about things, to directing others and here he was in the hospital at the mercy of other people. Well when I visited him he began his tirade about the food and the doctors who had no time to talk and the nurses who didn't answer his call button quickly enough and then in came the housekeeper and he stopped mid sentence. Pastor this is Mrs. Jones. Do you know she and I have grandchildren the same age? Now I don't know what exactly Mrs. Jones had done but I suspect that at a point where our judge friend had felt most afraid, most ill and most vulnerable Mrs. Jones was most compassionate.
Jesus asks the lawyer, "which of these three .was a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?" And the lawyer answers "The one who showed mercy." By answering that question he answers his own, who is my neighbor?"
If the hated Samaritan acted toward the Jew as neighbor, then the whole question of where to draw the line between neighbor and alien breaks down. God's kingdom breaks in when the barriers of wealth, prestige, ethnicity, country, religion, age are eliminated and we respond to need.
Jesus concludes his encounter with the lawyer by saying, "Go and do likewise." The World Hunger appeal this year has chosen those words for their theme. Now I think in years past the church has gotten a bad wrap for being colonialistic and paternalistic to those they would help. The stereotype is the western missionaries who came and made the natives all wear European undergarments and clothes. While that probably is an unfair stereotype even for that time it certainly isn't true today. The Lutheran churches stated goal is "accompaniment". Accompaniment--that is to walk with, to walk beside, those to whom we would show mercy. ELCA critics would point to how many fewer American missionaries we are "sending out" but that is because we are spending more money to fund schools and seminaries and training programs to allow people in their own culture to be educated and trained so they might work in their own countries.
Indeed that is exactly how our World Hunger Fund works. We team up with people and agencies who know the culture and the people to bring the greatest relief. Who is my neighbor? Our World Hunger Appeal teamed up with Amextra (Mexican Association for Rural and Urban Transformation) to respond to the economic struggles of the more than 100,000 people left in the wake of Hurricane Stan in 2005 that hit Mexico and Central America. Who is my neighbor? Lutheran World Relief restocked with essential medications the warehouse of The Christian Health Association of Liberia. This organization represents five hospitals in and 39 clinics. These hospitals and clinics serve approximately 40 percent of the population of war torn Liberia. Who is my neighbor? Just so our World Hunger Appeal partners with The Refugee Ministry of St. Andrews United Church in Cairo Egypt to offer 700 adult and 170 child refugees from the Sudan residing in Egypt educational and Vocational Training. Who is my neighbor? And so an ELCA World Hunger program in Chile trained and certified Rosa to be a health promoter leading workshops in the community on sanitation, AIDS awareness and domestic violence. These stories are repeated countless times in 37 countries of the world irrespective of borders, wealth, ethnic background, age or religion. Who is my neighbor? The one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said "Go and Do Likewise."
Amen