“Neighborly Acts.”
This is simply one of the core parables of Christianity. This is simply one of the core teachings of our faith. This wonderful story about the Good Samaritan.
The story is framed by the initial question of the man: who is my neighbor? … and the final sentence to him and us: Go and do likewise.
Everything in between is just us making things so complicated, political, judgmental, and debatable when everything in fact is so easy, so simple: Go and do likewise!
Often when I talk to parents at baptisms, at confirmation, or a young soon-to-be-married couple, I listen to the statement: “I would call myself a Christian in the Good Samaritan sense: we have a responsibility to each other as Jesus said. But…. (there is always a but isn’t there?) … when it comes to believing in a distant God of creation, his mercy and the resurrection of Jesus and eternal life, I am not so sure… I stick to the Good Samaritan.”
That is what we might call Cultural Christianity, Secular Christianity, or Christianity Light, and it is an attitude I often meet. And it is profoundly good that so many people do know the story and know about the responsibility of being a good neighbor. But…. (there is always a but is not there) there is so much more to say about Christianity and the parable of the Good Samaritan.
It is all about perspective!
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s final sermon, as he prepared to demonstrate with sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968, - he was preaching over this same parable in Luke 10.
MLK noted that the priest and the Levite, both esteemed well-educated people asked themselves as they were walking the road: “If I stop t help this man, what will happen to ME?”
But MLK continued “But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to HIM?”
The Good Samaritan, Jesus, and Christianity change the perspective from me to him, her, or they. If I do not act, what will happen not to me but to my neighbor, that is a question.
Too many times power, prestige, privilege, and politics seem to distance themselves from the simple responsibility to others.
But Jesus and later MLK reveal the truth and reverses the perspective. We are not absolved or excused or our responsibility to act, but on the contrary always, daily, called to act, as our neighbor, and their life, their happiness, their safety, their existence, and their hope are determined by our actions. And most importantly: so is ours too. We are depending and relying on others to be our neighbors, our good Samaritans.
Try to listen to the story with a changed perspective: we often imagine that we are in the role of the Samaritan, who stops and helps – but we are the ones left in the ditch, depending on help?
Last Sunday I talked bout Mr. Rogers and his invitation: “Would you be my neighbor?” and his consistent, persistent call to a more gentle, humble, and kind approach to our neighbors.
It is a beautiful day in this neighborhood
A beautiful day for a neighbor
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
2. It is a neighborly day in this beautiful wood
A neighborly day for a beauty
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you
I have always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you
3. So let us make the most of this beautiful day
Since we are together, we might as well say
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Won't you please
Please won't you be my neighbor?
When we are in the ditch, when we need help, when we are alone, when we are hurt, when we are lost, - Who is My Neighbor?
Just as we as educated, reasonable, practical adults might think that Mr. Rogers’s song and his entire universe were so naïve, so childish, so simple, - how often have we not made this simple profound parable much more complicated and oh so political by not listening to the simple radical call and just consistently keep asking our questions: but who is my neighbor, who am I supposed to help, who needs help, who is entitled to help, worthy of help… who do I think is worthy to be my neighbor?
To ask “Who is my neighbor?” is a polite way of asking, “Who is not my neighbor?” or “Who does not deserve my love?” or “Whose lack of food or shelter can I ignore?”, “Who deserves to be left in the ditch because they had it coming,” or “Whom I can hate?”
The answer Jesus gives is, “No one.” Everyone deserves to be embraced as my neighbor knew or stranger, Jews or gentile, male or female, young or old, —every one.
Why… because God says so!
SLIDE 21 When Jesus says: Go and Do Likewise… we are asked to go and be a good neighbor, but also to live in a beautiful neighborhood with those we need and depend on. Go, and do likewise… go and live as vulnerable, dependable, and open as the man left in the ditch.
That is exactly what the parable about the Good Samaritan can teach us besides ethics and good morals, - it teaches us to accept that we are depending on each other, that we are relying on others, that we carry each other, and that we are carried.
The parable awakens our gratitude for all the surprising, unexpected goodness we meet in life. We have all been carried and we have all been blessed by the goodness and presence of others. And that is where we find God. The bountiful mercy of God who likes the good Samaritan surprises us through life with unexpected goodness, life-changing kindness, and remarkable humility. Life often surprises us. Goodness often surprises us.
How do I inherit eternal life? What is the meaning of life?
Only y when we as the Samaritan and the man in the ditch recognize that we are depending on each other, that we are handed to each other, and our lives are in the hands of others. Which calls for love and gratitude.
So, there is nothing like a Good Samaritan-like faith or a Christianity light – everything about faith, hope, and love is embedded in this wonderful parable: about the simplicity of faith.
As Jesus sends us into life with the simple words to Go and do likewise… we are also sent by the perspective of Mr. Rogers’s simple refrain:
3. So let us make the most of this beautiful day
Since we are together, we might as well say
Would you be mine?
Could you be mine?
Won't you be my neighbor?
Amen.