When I Needed a Neighbour Luke 10:25-37; July 10, 2016 By: Rev. Susan L. Genge (in partnership with God!)

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1 1 When I Needed a Neighbour Luke 10:25-37; July 10, 2016 By: Rev. Susan L. Genge (in partnership with God!) Prayer: Stop us now, Jesus, stop our racing thoughts and plans. Bring us quietly toward your will for us as we bow our hearts and minds in prayer, awaiting your word of truth, challenge and call. Amen. People were always making requests of Jesus. Heal me, Master. Explain what this means, Rabbi. Would you come to my home for supper, Teacher? In today s gospel, it was a teacher of the Mosaic Law who approached Jesus and asked for clarification on a religious question: What do I have to do to get to heaven? Jesus answered his question with a question: What does Moses law say about it? The lawyer correctly replied, Love God with your whole being and love your neighbour as yourself. Jesus commended him and said, Right! Do this and you ll live. But the lawyer challenged Jesus and asked, Define neighbour. Where can we draw the line on this neighbour thing? Exactly who do I have to be nice to? Was he hoping that Jesus would concur with the Mosaic law, which defined one s relatives and immediate community as neighbour? But Jesus widened the definition to include all people. He answered the lawyer by telling him a story that we know so well- the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We re familiar with the key characters- the victim who d been beaten, robbed, stripped and left for dead, the priest and Levite who walked past the victim, and the Samaritan who stopped to help the victim. Here s a contemporary retelling of the story. There was once a man who was travelling along a highway. He had car trouble and had to pull over to the side of the road. He didn t have his cell phone because he had left it charging on the kitchen table. Well, it wasn t long before a car stopped. But the driver of the car didn t look like he had helping in mind. He beat up the man, stole his wallet, slashed his tires, and set his car on fire. Then he left him.

2 2 As the beaten man lay beside the road, a car came by. The driver slowed down to take a look. The driver was a minister, but instead of stopping to help, she changed lanes and re-engaged her cruise control. She had a council meeting to attend and people hated it when she was late. Then a salesman drove by. He too, slowed down to take a look, but then sped on by. He had promised his boss he would be back in the office before everyone else left. Finally, a minivan pulled up and came to a stop. Inside was a young woman with two small children. She picked up her cell phone and called 911. Then she got out of the van and helped the weak and bleeding man into the front seat. She got out the first aid kit she and her spouse kept underneath the passenger seat and proceeded to clean the cuts on the man s face. Odd, isn t it, how the person you d least expect to stop and help, is the one who stopped to offer assistance. In Jesus parable it was the Samaritan, a member of a despised race, who set the example of neighbourliness. With whom do you most identify in Jesus parable? with the priest and Levite for whom the need to maintain ritual cleanliness or simply the human desire to remain uninvolved led to their decision to keep going; or with the beaten man, or with the Samaritan who stopped? He wasn t bound by tradition or cleansing laws & was able to help the person left to die on the side of the road. Maybe you identify with the victim, and have found yourself in the position of needing help from someone whom you dislike or consider inferior to yourself, like the politician you most disrespect, or like that neighbour who is the biggest you-know-what, who has abused his family, and been a substance abuser all his life, or like a person with an infectious disease, or like someone from a different religion, or like someone who smells and is long overdue for a bath. If you were a victim, how would you feel about being saved by one of these folks? How would you feel about being touched by them, or in debt to them? We get an idea of how shocking it would have been to Jesus listeners and to the lawyer, to hear that a Samaritan would be the one to act neighbourly and rescue a Jew.

3 3 Or do you identify with the priest and Levite in the parable? Am I the religious leader walking quickly past because I have so many hospital calls to make and people to visit? Am I the church member walking by because I have so many appointments to attend or project deadlines and submissions to make for my company or business? Do I walk on past my children s or grandchildren s activities and can t help my family with something because my work commitment takes priority? We re so often called to make difficult decisions. How do we decide where our presence is most needed? Are my needs more important than my neighbour s needs? Do I stay or do I go? On the screen is a picture of James B. Janknegt s contemporary painting entitled The Good Samaritan as YOU. The attackers are shown on a bike, fleeing the scene. The urgency of their departure is depicted in the attacker s beret seen flying in the air behind the bicycle. The victim is left on the ground, bleeding profusely. The ones walking past the victim are a church leader and a church member. The impact of the violence on the street is heightened by the stark contrast between the vicious assault in the front and the pastel coloured homes with manicured lawns in the back. But looking carefully, we notice who is not included in this scene. The artist intentionally doesn t include the Good Samaritan. It s an invitation for us to imagine ourselves in that role. Let us take the dare. Let us approach the scene and imagine ourselves as being neighbour to the one in need. Last Sunday during the announcements I made a request which had come to me from a United Church minister in London, Ontario. Would anyone in our congregation be available to go the Habitat for Humanity REstore in downtown Oshawa with a truck or minivan to pick up some furniture and deliver it to the north Oshawa apartment of two students who had just moved from his church in London to Oshawa? After worship four of you approached me and offered to pick up and deliver the furniture.

4 4 The job only required two people, so the next day, two of you went to the REstore, paid for the furniture, loaded it onto your truck, unloaded it at the students apartment and set it up for them. The grateful student thanked you, but he might just as well have said, When I needed a neighbour, you were there. Last week I spoke with a man whom I have known for a long time. He s not from any church, but I see him periodically at a group meeting he attends. Over the past year I have observed him becoming sicker and sicker with cirrhosis of the liver. It s not due to alcohol consumption, but to a genetic precondition which has caused his iron levels to spike and cause liver damage. In order to live, he needs a liver transplant. On June 19 five people, including his son, two grandsons and sister told him that they re planning to undergo medical tests to see if any of their livers are a compatible match for his. If so, any one of them will undergo the surgery to give part of their liver to him, so that he can live. Then they said, Happy Fathers Day. When I needed a neighbour, you were there. Tuesday, October 30, Glenn and I were on our first pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We were part of a bus group of other Christians exploring Israel & the Palestinian Territories. When our tour bus stopped at a public beach so that we could swim in the Dead Sea, we met two young Canadian Jews at the waterfront who were travelling on their own. They looked to be in their 20s or 30s. They had sold their house, rented a car, and were on a year-long trip around the world. They had already journeyed through Egypt and this was their third trip to Israel. While changing back into my clothes in the change room after swimming, I heard a young woman start crying and calling out, My passports are gone! My passports are gone! O my God, my passports are gone! I went to her and saw that it was the young Canadian Jewish woman who was crying and calling out. Then her partner came running from the men s change room to see what had happened. She had locked their two passports, their $2,000 US cash, their rental car keys, her purse and wallet with her credit card, health card, driver s license,

5 5 and clothes in a locker, and she had the locker key on a card around her wrist while swimming. When she returned to the change room after swimming, her locker was empty. She went into a state of panic, and ran out to the rental car, finding it unlocked, with no keys there, and her backpack gone. Her backpack had had her private notes and souvenir stamps from each country. The young couple was very agitated, panicky and angry. As I tried to console and reassure them, our Israeli tour guide advised them about what to do. By this time the rest of our tour group was back on our bus, and we had a prayer for the couple. We also collected a love offering from among all of us on the bus, and presented the couple with just over $500 US, which they didn t want to take. But we insisted and they eventually accepted the money. They came onto our bus. Taking the microphone, they each thanked us for our kindness, prayer and monetary gift. They said, God bless you. It was their way of saying, When we needed a neighbour, you were there. After we saw the police arrive and assist them, we departed on our way to Jerusalem. In Jesus parable, the actions of the Samaritan show us how to love our neighbours as ourselves. Our neighbour is anyone and everyone who needs our help, wherever and whenever they appear in our life- at the waterfront, on the street, at our front door, or through our television. In the parable the smart thing was to pass on by. The loving thing was to put oneself at risk and get involved. Our calling is to go and do likewise. Kingdom people act in love, a love that has no boundaries, and a love that expects no payback. Kingdom people go where there is hurt, brokenness, loneliness and human need. Doing God s work often has its costs, but the rewards are many. May God enable us to slow down, stop, stoop down, and serve, without counting the costs. Amen.

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