Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Lectionary 15C   Proper 10C
July 11, 2010
Texts:  Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Psalm 25:1-10; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37

Who is my neighbor??

What does this question mean,
When it asks not about who I should be neighborly toward,
But rather, who acts as a neighbor to me??

The answer takes on an unexpected twist,
When the person who acts as a neighbor to us,
Is someone totally unexpected,
Someone, we normally wouldn’t give a second glance to,
Unless it was a look of disgust.

Early this week I caught an on-line news clip
In which the hero was actually referred to as a Good Samaritan.

Employees of Meti-Inc.
Came to work Tuesday morning,
Following a devastating storm,
Which had ripped through their community
In the vicinity of San Antonio, Texas.

Their company’s flag pole had been torn out of the ground,
And they assumed the flag had blown away.

However, when they looked in the entryway
They found their flag neatly folded in a traditional flag fold,
And placed in a safe place.

After examining their video surveillance camera,
They found a picture of someone, standing in the rain and wind,
Carefully folding the flag and safely securing it.

With a little searching,
Employees of the company found the man
Who had rescued their flag.

Gustus Bozart,
A homeless man who lived in the back
Of a nearby vacant warehouse,
Had seen the flag pole blow over.

In the middle of the storm,
He went over,
Rescued the flag
And neatly folded it.

In the video clip,
The news reporter asked him why he bothered.

Gustus Bozart, a homeless man
Talked about how much his country means to him,
And why he has respect for its flag.

When the company spokeswoman referred to Gustus
As a Good Samaritan,
Her usage of the term was truly Biblical.

Like the hero in the story Jesus tells in the Gospel of Luke,
This homeless man, cum hero,
Was someone considered to be a second or third class citizen,
Someone who would usually be invisible.

The hero, a toothless homeless man,
Was someone we would normally think of as a social pariah.

When Jesus answered the lawyer’s question,
“Who is my neighbor?”
With a parable,
The hero of his story
Was someone that his Jewish listeners
Would have regarded with disgust. 

For about 800 years,
Jews living in the southern part of Judah,
Regarded Samaritans, their northern neighbors,
As second class citizens.

These folks, left behind,
After Assyria invaded the northern kingdom of Israel,
Had intermarried with other neighbors
And no longer followed strict Hebrew traditions. 

Jews regarded Samaritans
In much the same way that many Americans regard
Homeless people, illegal aliens and Muslims.

When Jesus told this story,
A bystander might have heard the crowd gasp
When it became clear that the Samaritan was going to be the hero.

To get a sense of their disgust,
Try to hear the story
That we call the Good Samaritan,
Pretending that you are the person lying in the ditch,
Robbed, beaten up and left for dead.

I wonder what it would feel like to be barely conscious,
Lying in a ditch in pain,
And yet dimly aware that two people from my community,
A priest and a pastor,
People I thought that I could depend on,
Walked past me,
Without even checking to see if I needed help.

Then I wonder what it would feel like,
To see a Samaritan approaching, 
Someone that I was terrified of,
When I was in this particularly vulnerable condition.

I might be worried
That he would beat me up even further.

I might even feel disgusted
That this person,
Someone my family considered to be lowlife,
Was coming close to me.

What would it be like
To realize that it was this person,
The one I had thought as less than human
Was actually going to help me?

Would I feel relief at the rescue
Or fear of the rescuer?

I can imagine slipping in and out of consciousness because of the pain,
But realizing that this person was cleaning my wounds.

I think about what it would feel like
To look into his face,
While he lifted me onto his donkey,
And then settled me into the security of a bed at a nearby inn.
What would my reactions be?
Fear, thankfulness, gratefulness, wonder?

When we are the beneficiaries of neighborly action
From someone we have difficulty recognizing as a neighbor,
Our stereotypes are challenged,
And we often feel somewhat on edge. 

I had a reaction of this type,
While I was in seminary
And had to attend an Islamic service for a course that I was taking.

I opted to attend Friday noonday Muslim worship at Rollins chapel.

Susan and Michael Thomas gave me the name and phone number
Of the person who functioned as the Muslim cleric.

I have several good friends who are Muslim,
So I wasn’t afraid of Muslims,
And I knew enough about the Muslim faith to have respect for it.

But I was filled with trepidation
About how a cleric in a male dominated religion,
Would treat a female Christian seminary student.

When I called his office to explain the situation,
He offered an open invitation
For me to attend services,
Gave counsel on the appropriate attire,
And coached me on what to expect. 

After the noonday service which I attended,
I was astounded by his graciousness and hospitality,
When he invited me to join him for lunch.

His invitation challenged my stereotype about Muslim clerics.

During lunch, I asked him what it was like to be a Muslim in a Christian society.

His answer rocked another of my stereotypes,
When he told me he wished that he were living in a Christian society,
Rather than a society in which faith seemed to have little role.

From his outsider’s perspective,
He was able to capture in just a few words,
The challenges Christians face in today’s post-Christian society.
Although I was initially stunned by his comment,
As I have always considered the US to be a Christian country,
I have often remembered his words,
As I struggle to do ministry in this unchurched northern New England area.  

Going back to Luke’s Gospel,
It is important to remember that when Jesus tells a parable,
There are many layers to it,
And many purposes.

In the Gospel lesson today,
Jesus told the story of the Samaritan hero
In the context of pointed questioning by a lawyer,
Who first wanted to know how inherit eternal life,
And then challenged Jesus to tell him,
Who he had to be nice to,
In order to ensure his place in the hereafter.

Jesus’ story of a Samaritan first responder,
Was designed to challenge the listeners’
Narrow definitions of neighbor.

If Jesus were to tell the story in this church this morning,
He might make the hero
A homeless person, an Iraqi, or a Cuban boat person.

We, too, like the lawyer,
Would be challenged to re-think our definition
Of who is a neighbor to us.

Our answer might well be just like the lawyer’s
The neighbor is the one who shows compassion, mercy and pity.

The neighbor is the one who takes you home
When your car breaks down,
Even if he is driving a Lexus with MA tags. 

The neighbor is the one
Who bandages your arm in the emergency room
Even if she has an unpronounceable last name.

The neighbor is the one who drags you down the ski slope
In the sled, with your leg in a splint,
Even when he tells you he isn’t much of a church person.

Besides just one-upping the arrogant lawyer,
Why does Jesus make such a point of challenging stereotypes?

Jesus, himself, defied stereotypes.
He recruited fishermen and tax collectors as followers.
He ate with people no one else would look at.
He touched and healed the outcasts of society.

After Jesus was killed as a criminal,
Roman citizens wondered why Christians
Would continue to follow someone who had been crucified.

Because of Jesus’ life and death,
We know that God defies all the stereotypes,
Showing up in the least expected places,
The places where we would never expect to find God.

And why, might we ask,
Is Jesus so concerned about highlighting
Compassion shown by an outsider.

One way of looking at this parable
Is to realize that the mercy shown by the Samaritan
Is like the mercy God shows to us.

It is entirely undeserved,
And abundant beyond description. 

Not only does the Samaritan’s mercy mimic God’s,
But it shows us that God often uses
The most unexpected people
To have a positive impact on our lives.

The Good News for us in this multi-dimensional parable
Is that we do have a God
Who acts in ways that go beyond human boundaries and expectations,
And who shows us mercy that is every bit is as astounding
As that which the Samaritan showed for the wounded man.

And who is my neighbor?

My neighbor is the one God uses
To demonstrate the wideness of God’s own mercy
And the unexpected ways in which God reaches us. 

Amen