Sermon: Won't You Be a Neighbor

Luke 10:25-37

Won’t You Be a Neighbor

James Sledge                                                                                                   May 5, 2019

Perhaps you are familiar with the old, proverbial saying, “Charity begins at home.” Many assume it is from the Bible, but it’s not. Its first written appearance is in 1600s England, when the word “charity” was used somewhat differently than today.

In the old King James Bible, the Apostle Paul’s famous words on love instead speak of charity. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. And so the old proverb’s understanding of charity would  include “Christ-like love.”

Originally, the proverb spoke of how people learned to be loving and caring by witnessing such behavior at home. You could say much the same of other behaviors. A strong work ethic begins at home. Good citizenship begins at home. Love of learning begins at home, etc.

However, I typically hear the proverb used quite differently. “Why should our government send financial aid overseas when there are needy people here? Charity begins at home.” Here the proverb is taken to set limits on charity. Only after those close by are cared for should it be extended to others.

I take it that the lawyer who questions Jesus in our gospel reading would have used the proverb in this latter fashion. He’s concerned with rules and limits. “What must I do…?”  He’s is an expert in the Law of Moses, so he knows the answer, easily providing appropriate scriptures. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus is happy to confirm that this is indeed the correct answer, adding, “Do this, and you will live.” But the lawyer is a “charity begins and ends at home” sort, and so he wants Jesus to clarify the boundaries, the limits. “And who is my neighbor?”

If I have to love my neighbor, I want to know where the neighborhood ends. Is it people who live on my street? Is it my religious group or church? Is it people of my race? Is it citizens of my country? Where can I stop, Jesus?

Jesus doesn’t really answer the question, but he does tell a famous story. It’s a somewhat troubling parable about what happens to a man who’s been robbed and left for dead, although some of its more troubling aspects get lost in translation and its familiarity.

It starts off simply enough. Some guy was “going down” the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. “Going down” the road is a key element. Down is the only way you can go from Jerusalem to Jericho, or from Jerusalem to anywhere for that matter. One always goes up to Jerusalem and down from it, never the other way round.

Along the way, this guy is robbed and beaten severely. If someone does not stop to help, he may well die. Fortunately, the road is well travelled, and before long a priest and then a Levite come down the road, down being the operative word. This parable sometimes gets cast as conflict between religious obligation and the duty to care for one in need. Becoming religiously unclean through contact with the fellow might render priest and Levite unable to perform their duties. Except, they are going down from Jerusalem, finished with their duties.

If we want to update the parable, a priest coming home from Mass and a pastor from church pass by on the other side of the road. We might expect better from religious leaders, but priest and Levite must think this fellow beyond the circle of neighbors they’re obliged to help. I can imagine lots of reasons why they might think this, but the scripture is silent.

Then a Samaritan happens by. This would not seem to bode well. Jews in Jesus’ day had little use for Samaritans on both religious and racial grounds. Unlike with the priest and Levite, there are no obvious, modern day counterparts, but some Americans might view a Somali Muslim similarly. By that I mean that some Americans would want to put Muslim Somali refugees outside the circle of those they must love as they love themselves.

Some might think the same of a transgender person, or a family fleeing violence in Honduras. And it might help you get the original sense of the parable if you substitute the Samaritan with someone from the group you find easiest to dislike or exclude.

And so this Samaritan, or your substitute, this person the lawyer likely thought outside the neighborhood boundaries, ends up rescuing the robbery victim, and then some. He goes above and beyond, treating him like a beloved member of his own family.

And then Jesus returns to the lawyer’s question, well sort of. The lawyer asked, “And who is my neighbor?” but Jesus inverts it. Who, Jesus asks, “was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The answer is obvious. “The one who showed him mercy.”

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All too often, religion, and life in general, becomes transactional. What must I do in order to get what I want? Whether I want salvation, a ticket to heaven, spiritual bliss, happiness, or something else, what are the requirements? How good must I be? How kind? How hard do I have to work?

But Jesus rejects transactional religion. Who is my neighbor? Whom must I love? Jesus’ answer: be a neighbor to whoever needs one.

Imagine about how different the world would be, imagine how different history would be, if people actually went with Jesus on this one. Imagine how different my and your lives would be if we learned to see all people as those who might need us to be their neighbor.

Over a long period of study and discernment, the leadership of this congregation has developed a new missional mandate, along with new mission priorities and structures to support these. During this spring (with a break for Palm/Passion Sunday and Easter) the sermon and a presentation from various church leaders highlights one facet of this Renew process and its new structures. This means we are not following the usual lectionary scripture readings. Today’s focus is on Mercy Ministry, one of the new ministry teams of our new structure.