Proper 10C July 10, 2016 Amos 7:7-17 Psalm 82 Colossians 1:1-14 Luke 10:25-37 Go and do likewise. Go and do likewise. What on earth are we supposed to go and do? I ll be frank and honest. My heart is heavy and my spirit aches deeply. I was in Dallas this past week. We left Thursday morning; the sniper shootings happened later that evening, and somewhere on I-20, we learned about the many wounded and the deaths of Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith, and Lorne Ahrens. The shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile had already settled heavy on my heart. I have been unusually quiet the past few days. I am sad and heart-broken. While I have a lot swirling in my head, I am struggling to find the words to make sense of what we are experiencing. And then I hear: Go and do likewise. Go and do likewise, Jesus tells the lawyer. These final and parting words must have been like a punch to the gut. They are not words of comfort. They are words of challenge. So what exactly does the Samaritan do? We know the story. We ve just heard it. A man has been beaten, robbed, stripped, and left for dead. The first two people who come across him, a priest and a Levite, pass him by. They see him, but they ignore him. They go out of their way to avoid the situation. Maybe there is too much risk. Helping this man would put them in too vulnerable of a position. They don t see the wounded man as a neighbor. Instead they see him as a burden, or possibly, even as a threat. The Samaritan, though, reacts very differently to the discovery of the wounded man. The Samaritan sees the man in need. In seeing the man, the Samaritan then draws near. The Samaritan comes close. While the priest and Levite, in crossing over to the other side, create even more space between themselves and the man in the need, the Samaritan draws close, breaking down barriers and taking great risk.
It is a tremendous posture of vulnerability. It truly could be a trap. But on a more basic level, the Samaritan s vulnerability opens himself up to the pain, misery, and need of the wounded man. How often do we keep people at a distance simply because we don t want to bear their suffering? How often are we frightened simply by the pain and need of others? Finally, the Samaritan shows great compassion: tending wounds, giving shelter, and making sure the wounded man is cared for. Seeing is the first important step. Drawing near is vital once we have seen. But the true hinge point is compassion as action. When we see and draw near, we must do something. Compassion is empathy in action. On one level, Jesus is teaching the lawyer, and us, how to live according to God s ways. Jesus gives an example of Christ-like behavior: see, draw near, and have compassion. God sees us in our vulnerability and need, God draws near to us through Jesus, and God shows compassion through the cross and resurrection. 1 And this is kind of the basic level, traditional reading of the passage. And in this time of seeing anyone different than ourselves as a threat, this reading is very important. But there are also deeper levels to the story. When Jesus asks the lawyer, Which of these three was a neighbor? The lawyer replies, The one who showed him mercy. Did you hear that? Did you catch it? He couldn t even bring himself to say Samaritan. Jesus picks a Samaritan, an unclean, impure, outcast enemy, as the protagonist. Jesus uses an annoyingly disgusting nemesis as the epitome of mercy and grace. Jesus says to the lawyer: You who seek eternal life! If even a Samaritan can show mercy and be a good neighbor, can t you do this as well?!? 2 What s truly stunning about the Samaritan as the protagonist and exemplar is that Jesus chose an impure outcast to play his own role in the parable. I told you a few weeks ago, when Jesus starts telling stories he is opening up for us something about the nature and character of God. This is radical and powerful. This is the kind of stuff that turns the world upside down and inside out. To demonstrate how God relates to people and acts in the world, Jesus identifies himself with a rejected, impure outcast. What s more, Jesus does this after being turned away himself by a group of Samaritans! This is nuts, unexpected, shocking, and unheard of. And this is the nature of God: to show up where we least expect God to be.
From being born in squalor amongst livestock and laid in a dirty feeding trough, to demonstrating power through vulnerability and suffering on the cross, our God is the God of the unexpected. All of this was stirred up by a simple question in the midst of rabbinical banter: what must I do to inherit eternal life? Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love God with all that you are. Love your neighbor with all that you are. Love God. Love your neighbor. But the lawyer wanted to justify himself And who is my neighbor? In a conversation with a friend and family member during vacation, we talked about faith, religions, cultures, and more. In trying to explain the narrative arc of scripture, I commented that one of the main themes across all the crazy stories is this: problems arise when someone cares more about themselves, when they seek their own selfish ambition instead of being oriented towards concern and care of the other. From Cain and Abel, to Jacob and Esau, from David to Judas, selfish desires and justification create scenarios that cause harm to other people. And that s what Jesus is telling the lawyer. There is no self-justification. When we try to do that, we go down a path on which we struggle to recognize the presence of God in our neighbors. And then it becomes even harder, nearly impossible, to see the image of God in our enemies and adversaries. And that s what is tearing at my heart right now: the inability to see the image of God in someone different than oneself. I don t want black men getting shot at traffic stops. I don t want police officers being targeted and shot. I don t want kids getting shot at school. I don t want any of this. TV personality Trevor Noah said this on the Daily Show: If you re pro-black Lives Matter, you re assumed to be anti-police, and if you re propolice then you surely hate black people, when in reality, you can be pro-cop and problack, which is what we should all be. To be a supporter of #BlackLivesMatter does not negate that other lives matter, but instead, what #BlackLivesMatter does is raise awareness of the fact that African
Americans are incarcerated, brutalized, and killed at astronomically higher rates than any other demographic. If a house is on fire, the fire department doesn t say, Well, all houses are important. No, they respond to the house that is on fire. As a nation and culture, we have never fully reconciled our ugly history of slavery and racism. We will need to address that history if we are to truly heal. My family that I visited and stayed with in Dallas is this beautifully blended family: Black, Vietnamese, and White. It is a multicultural, multilingual home. Here are some notes from our conversations about the past few days: It seems like many people view all black men as dangerous and aggressive. Why? I m scared for my children. What do I tell them? How do I teach them to navigate the world? Heck, I m scared for myself! I have to be careful with everything I say or do, especially around police officers. If I was a white parent, I wouldn t let my kid hang out with and have black friends. They might get shot. [speaking to me] Were your parents nervous about you hanging out with me? And I fear for my friends and family who are police officers. Every day, every shift, every encounter has real risk involved. They are vulnerable on so many levels. My grandfather was a deputy warden at CCI prison in Columbia, SC. Even in retirement, acquaintances from work would come to visit him at home acquaintances with less than honorable intentions. Truly, greater love has no one than this: to lay one s life down for one s friends. It all scares me, to be honest. And I d love to dive deeper into conversation on these topics with you. Feel free to give me a holler or grab a cup of coffee together. Let s talk, learn, and pray together. Back to that ole Good Samaritan: he reminds us what the heart of God is and how God acts in the world. When we see, we are to draw close, and when we draw close, we must act with compassion. And that s the thing about the Good Samaritan, it s a story about mercy and love shown when hate would be expected. It s about mercy coming from unexpected places, unexpected people. Our salvation is often found in the hands of someone we least expect. Over the last few days, many voices have been shouting their opinions and thoughts on these difference scenarios. We will continue to have to sort through those voices: on tv, on the internet, in our homes, and in our own struggling and conflicted hearts.
I do want you to draw near and listen; particularly to a position you are not as familiar with. Reach out, clean and tend the wounds, and like the Good Samaritan, whatever the cost, be willing to take care of those in need. And know this, carry this with you: any voice that promotes hate is contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Any voice that dehumanizes a neighbor and justifies violence against a neighbor is in direct conflict with the Gospel. 3 Instead, help in creating a better story. Be a voice for goodness. Be one who shows mercy. For example, an encounter shared widely on Facebook: Natasha Howell, an African- American woman, entered a convenience store and noticed two white police officers (one younger and one older) talking to the clerk about the shootings that had taken place. They all looked at Howell and fell silent. As Howell approached the counter to pay, the older officer asked, How are you doing? Howell replied, Okay, and you? The officer looked at her with a strange look and asked, How are you really doing? Howell replied, I m tired! He said, Me too I guess it s not easy being either of us right now. Howell said, No, it s not. The officer embraced Howell. Howell had never seen that officer before. She says she doesn t know what moved him to talk to her. But they shared an absolutely beautifully powerful moment together. 4 That s mercy. Go and do likewise. The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. MLK, Jr. 1 http://www.davidlose.net/2016/07/pentecost-8-c-the-god-we-didnt-expect/ 2 ibid. 3 https://www.facebook.com/revpeterwgray/posts/10101238569778078 4 http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/07/10/lawrence-police-officer-stranger-viral-facebook-post/