Good Samaritan Week 2

 

Last week we explored and examined the 4 Gs of life (glance, glare, gawk, and glaze) as each word relates to the narrative of the Good Samaritan.  We let these words be a framework for how we read this powerful and profound parable.  You may want to return to the words of glance, glare, gawk, and gaze as you move about your days.  This week we are going to stick and stay with the Parable of the Good Samaritan because there is so much in this story that can sing to our faith these days.  In some ways, it is a Gospel with the Gospel, a summary of who Jesus is and what he is about.   This morning we will slowly savor this story.  My prayer is that each of us will awaken to and aware of which words/phrases leap off the page and land in your soul.  What questions and insights are provoked and evoked by these words:

 

Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life/find meaning/purpose/passion/joy in this life?”

(Pause ~ what questions do you have for Jesus today?)

 

He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”

(Pause ~ how are you reading the garden of your life today?  How are you reading others is it with a gaze, gawk, glare, or gaze that we pondered last week?)

 

He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

(Pause ~ how might you embrace and embody these words this day, this week?)

 

“Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

(Note ~ Jesus is clear here how to live life to its fullest!  Do we trust Jesus?  Does it seem too simple to love God from the top of our head to our pinkie toe ~ then let that love loose in the world?  Does the cynic who lives inside us want to sarcastically say, “Yeah that will work in an election year!”  Name the responses you have to this first part of the parable)

 

Looking for a loophole and to prove himself, the scholars/lawyer/fellow featherless biped asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

(Pause ~ name your neighbors next door, name the people you sit in the pew next to in worship, name those life is connected to the circle of your life.)

 

 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

(Pause ~ when have you found yourself in the ditch of life and witnessed others pass by?)

 

“A Samaritan/one of those people/our enemy who makes our flesh creep and crawl who we “other” traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

(Pause ~ let this climax of the parable disrupt the cultural scripts where we “other” people.  The ways we see others as monolithic and ourselves as complex).

 

“What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

(Note ~ the lawyer couldn’t even say the word, “Samaritan”.  When I hold the Bible close I hear a sneer and frustration dripping as through clinched teeth and a locked jaw and glare the lawyer/religious guy said, “The one who treated him kindly” ~ or with hesed in Hebrew or loving kindness.  What would it mean to show loving kindness to the very people who don’t think deserve and haven’t earned it?  Can we really go and do the same?)

 

May your life do more than read these words, let this story find a place in the story of your life embodying and embracing these words through your words/actions/and being today.  Go and do likewise.  Amen.