It’s not enough.
As Jesus has set his face to Jerusalem,
going to confront the religious leaders
and the empire,
it’s not enough for Jesus
to have given the right answer.
He’s been rejected in a Samaritan village
and the 72 have come back
able to heal in Jesus’ name
and even the demons submit to them.
Jesus’ fame is growing,
so a teacher wants to test him.
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
In the spirit of good rabbinical debate,
Jesus asks him what’s in the scripture.
The teacher answers
and Jesus says,
“Okay, so do that.”
But it’s not enough.
The teacher of the law,
knows that he’s like all of us.
He sins and falls short
of the glory of God
and he wants to wiggle out
of the ways he fails to keep the commandments.
“Okay,” he says.
“But who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replies with a parable,
which I remind us every summer
is a story
that is not a one-to-one comparison
of analogy or allegory.
Parables are expansive
and they capture a bigger picture
without being limited to the most obvious
or even least obvious
readings.
It’s no accident
that the hero of the story we hear today
is a Samaritan
so soon after Jesus has been rejected
in a Samaritan village.
Jesus is hammering home for his disciples
that the way of salvation
is truly open to all people.
Even open to people
who have previously said no.
He’s also showing the disciples
that God can work through all people.
Even people who
we really wish God wouldn’t work through.
In the hierarchy of the Roman Empire
the Israelite territories
are already looked down on.
They’re a long way from Rome
and they have their own peculiar
religious beliefs and practices.
Then you have the Samaritans,
an offshoot group
that even the Jews consider heretics
because they worship on a different mountain
and only accept the first five books
of the Hebrew bible.
At the end of the parable,
when Jesus asks
“Which of these three,
do you think,
was a neighbor to the man
who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
The teacher of the law can’t even say
“the Samaritan.”
He can’t even acknowledge by name
that the kind of person he reviles
can have shown neighborly love.
Rather than this person being known by their identity
the teacher of the law
names them by their action.
The one who had mercy on him.
The one who had mercy
is the neighbor
to the man who fell among robbers.
Jesus tells this teacher of the law
and in recording and recounting it
the church tells us
to go and do likewise.
We know this parable,
its title “The Good Samaritan”
is scattered throughout
the English language.
For the teacher of the law, though,
there was no such thing
as a good Samaritan.
The closest parallels I was able to brainstorm this week
would be someone undocumented and an ICE agent
offering aid to one another.
Either direction.
Or a vibrant drag queen
or just trying to live trans person
and the person raging against children’s library books
that happen to have queer characters in them
caring for one another
and insuring
that they be nursed to full life.
In the reign of God drawn near,
this is what being a neighbor is.
On the third,
in an opinion piece
for Religion News Service
Presiding Bishop Rowe wrote,
“Churches like ours,
protected by the First Amendment
and practiced in galvanizing people of goodwill,
may be some of the last institutions
capable of resisting this administration’s
overreach and recklessness.
To do so faithfully,
we must see beyond the limitations of our tradition
and respond not in partisan terms,
but as Christians
who seek to practice our faith fully
in a free and fair democracy.
“We did not seek this predicament,
but God calls us to place
the most vulnerable and marginalized
at the center of our common life,
and we must follow that command
regardless of the dictates
of any political party or earthly power.
We are now being faced with a series of choices
between the demands of the federal government
and the teachings of Jesus,
and that is no choice at all.”
This is the Good News
of Jesus the resurrected Christ
who has defeated death
and calls us to love everyone
even the gestapo disappearing people
as our neighbor.
That doesn’t mean
in God’s reign drawn near
that bad actions get no consequences.
It means that God’s love is bigger
than any of our sins
and like the teacher seeking to justify himself
we all sin
and fall short of the glory of God.
At the same time, beloved,
Bishop Rowe could have been talking about us
when he talks about institutions
practiced in galvanizing people of good will.
If you like that part of the op ed
read the whole thing.
I’ve put it in the Facebook group.
If you like the whole thing,
share it to your Facebook page.
Whenever someone local someone likes or loves it,
message them.
Tell them,
“My congregation, St. Hilda St. Patrick
is practiced in galvanizing people of good will.
Will you come to church with me next Sunday?”
You could even offer to drive them
and get lunch with them afterward.
The workers in the yard yesterday
were galvanized people of good will
being literal good neighbors
as we care for our grounds
as part of a community.
Our sanctuary task force
has been holding up a mirror to us
presaging Bishop Rowe’s words as he says,
“We are now being faced with a series of choices
between the demands of the federal government
and the teachings of Jesus,
and that is no choice at all.”
In the parable of the Good Samaritan,
every person makes choices.
From taking a dangerous road
to robbing someone
to passing him by
to showing mercy.
As we are given choices between the demands of empire
and the teachings of Jesus
that is really no choice at all. Amen.