Who is our Neighbor?
By Caroline Dean
July 21, 2013
Luke 10: 25-37
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The Parable of the Good Samaritan: Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.
‘Teacher,' he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?' He said to him,
‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?' He answered, ‘You shall
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 your neighbour
as yourself.' And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this,
and you will live.'
But wanting to justify himself, he asked
Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?' Jesus replied, ‘A
man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of
robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he
passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place
and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling
came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him
and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him
on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day
he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of
him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which
of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to
the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?' He said, ‘The one who showed
him mercy.' Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.'
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t us pray: Loving God open our hearts and our imaginations that we might receive your love this day and that we might be open to the love of our neighbor, the love that heals and binds our wounds. Grant us your spirit, grant us faith and courage this day we pray by the power of your spirit and in the name of your Son – Amen.
“Who is my neighbor? Who is OUR
neighbor?”
“Who does God charge me to take care of and
have mercy on?”
If we are honest this question also
holds another question inside of it…on the underside of the question “who is
our neighbor” is the question “who isn't our neighbor?”
“Who is someone else's
responsibility?” Because surely we can't take care of everyone –
“Where is the
loophole in God's ‘love your neighbor' commandment because we certainly
can't handle loving everyone!” It would
be absurd and overwhelming – right?!
So “who is our neighbor?” “who isn't our neighbor?” Jesus answers both of these questions with a story – a story about a man
that we have to come know as the “Good Samaritan.”
In order to get to know our friend
the Good Samaritan let's pause for a second and imagine a Good Samaritan in today's
context. So close your eyes, clear your
mind, and when I say “Good Samaritan” what comes to mind? Ill give you a few
seconds . . . what comes to mind when I say “Good Samaritan?”
Okay now open your eyes and let me
guess - raise your hand if you saw a do-gooder helping someone who had car
trouble on a highway or a person helping a stranger in some unusual
circumstance. That's right! That is our cultural association!
So with this image, this story, the
answer is simple albeit overwhelming – everyone
is our neighbor! And that message is
still beautiful
But Jesus doesn't stop at “everyone
is our neighbor” – instead he tells a story and this story puts a twist on the
idea that everyone is our neighbor. In
the story of the Good Samaritan there are actually some particular neighbors that
get more emphasis. And this story is
provocative and shocking for the original audience in Jesus' day – this story
shatters their image of neighbor and it should shatter ours as well.
So who is this Good Samaritan? From the Israelites perspective, Samaritans
worshipped the God of Israel in all of the wrong ways. They worship in the wrong place on a
mountaintop – you see it was anathema to worship God outside of the temple, and
Samaritans had all the wrong rituals and scriptures. They were posers, claiming the “true faith”
and desecrating it in the eyes of the Israelites. And therefore the Israelites hated the
Samaritans and vice versa – they were indoctrinated to avoid each other and to
assume the worst about each other in order to preserve their own
traditions.
So the “good Samaritan” is an
oxymoron. It's like saying the “good
terrorist” or the story of the “good criminal.” When the Good Samaritan comes up to the guy in the ditch, we should
expect him to rob him, to kick him when he's down, even spit in his face. It is shocking and even offensive that the
Samaritan is juxtaposed with the priest and Levite and the Samaritan is
revealed as the selfless hero. The ones
that are most likely to resonate with this guy pass by and the one who is
taught to hate him stops to care for him. It is like a terrorist falling upon a
wounded American soldier, it is like a Palestinian having mercy on an
Israeli. It is like a KKK member tending
the wounds of an African American stranger. It is shocking and baffling and unheard of…
And here is the implication – not
only are we supposed to love everyone and help strangers – we are especially
called to love those folks we are wired to misunderstand, to hold at a
distance, and yes sometimes to hate.
These are the people who don't belong
– the one that's not supposed to be walking in your neighborhood. They are not supposed to be in relationship
with you much less in proximity to your kids.
Think of all the ways we divide up
ourselves: Politics, religion, race,
languages, cultures, sexual orientations, able bodied & disabled,
institutionalized and “free,” poor and rich –
And here Jesus is saying – find the
one on the other side of the boundary and love them, and tend to their wounds,
let them tend to you – and that is how you see Christ in our world today – in
the least of these. Because there is
something mysterious about those friendships – something that saves us – that
centers us – something that reminds us of our vulnerability and of our need for
each other and for God.
So last Sunday the Good Samaritan
story was the gospel lectionary reading for worship– and to clarify the
lectionary is a schedule of scriptures that some churches follow throughout the
year to give them a wide exposure to scriptures and to connect with other
churches in worship… And so this was the text read across the country all over
the world – and this was the text that we meditated on as a church – and this
text moves me and calls out to me because this is the text that we pastors
preached on the day after the final verdict in Trevon
Martin's case.
And Trevon Martin and the Good Samaritan both beckon to us
today asking “who is our neighbor?” And perhaps more importantly “who
is not our neighbor”
Is Trevon
Martin our neighbor? Is George Zimmerman
our neighbor?
Two strangers meet on a road. Two strangers who have been indoctrinated to
fear each other – do these strangers tend each other's wounds or are they
wounded by each other?
Two strangers meet on the
road. One stranger receives the other in
radical selflessness, risking his own life for someone he has been taught to
hate or does the stranger get caught up in a frenzy of “self defense” that
ruins his own life and the lives of many others. Sometimes we defend and protect ourselves “to
death.” Two strangers meet on a road and
they break open the lies of stereotypes and they now operate in a world that
has shifted a bit from hate to openness and love. Or two strangers who meet on the road – and
they play out in one insane moment the original sin of our country – captivity
to racial fear and violence. Two strangers meet on the road and one man's life
is saved. Two strangers meet on the road
and another boy's life is taken.
And the tragic moment of Trevon Martin's death evokes
grief and fear and yet it also teaches us how much we need the love of the Good
Samaritan. We need God's love
in the Good Samaritan to remind us how to love despite malignant boundaries and
misunderstandings. We need the Good
Samaritan to heal us when we try to demonize people we don't understand like Trevon Martin OR George Zimmerman – who's sins are actually
very human and who fear and violence live in all of us in some way. We need the Good Samaritan to pull us out of
the ditch and teach us how to love even when it involves a lot of risk.
So I wonder – who is our
neighbor? And how can we reach out, to
those who are our “un-neighbors?” Jesus says that our neighbor is the person
that we think is our “un-neighbor” – the one person or group of people that we
can't quite imagine being in our space, growing up with our children.
Who are these people? They are people who are caught up in the pain
and violence of terrorism, people who live in prisons, nursing homes, mental
institutions, people who are differently abled, people who suffer from mental
illness, people who immigrate here legally or illegally, people who are poor,
homeless, people who you don't want living next door for whatever reason! Because of their politics, religion, race,
sexual orientation – you name it!
Now – we are going to close with a
meditation – and in this meditation I want us to again draw upon our sacred
imagination and imagine our “un-neighbors” – the one who doesn't belong in your
neighborhood, and this question stings “Who isn't here in our church today and
on most Sundays? Who are we missing –
what neighbors do we need to reach out to?”
How can we reach out – what can you
practically do – what can WE practically do – do draw the “un-neighbor” close –
to love with the love of Christ?
And I always cringe when I want to
preach a message like this because – our neighborhoods and our churches have
become so segregated in new ways. We
have roads and boundaries that divide the wealthy and the poor, the institutionalized
and the able bodied and able minded, black and white and now Hispanic and other
immigrant communities. And we need to
de-segregate!
And so I wanted to leave some time
of meditation at the end of this sermon for the spirit to inspire us – “who is
your un-neighbor” and how can we as a community be healed by friendships with
the “Good Samaritans” in our midst. Maybe that involves jumping on some of our service teams – the homefirst team, the Nica/RISE
team, or maybe it means starting another team of service for another
marginalized community – maybe we need to take a harder look at what
opportunities there are in our local neighborhoods…
We will meditate for a few minutes
in silent prayer and then I will close with a video –
So go now in courage and faith – may you allow
the love of the Good Samaritan to heal you and to draw you in to life to the
fullest – And now may God bless you and keep you, may God's face shine upon you
and be gracious unto you – may God lift up the divine countenance among you and
give you peace –Amen.
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Here is the link to the video:
http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/everybody-matters
