tas forse ke ees. eee ee
; November 7, 1971 Se ) a.

stand about the Bible. Rather, it was what he understood very clearly that
bothered him most. Those are precisely my sentiments about our New Testament 3
Lesson this morning. Anyone with am ounce of commnin sonse ought not < think
too deeply about the Parable of the dead Banari tain, favorite though it bo. It 9
is dangerous. It is threatening. I+t forces = to some reflections about our
selves that are more comfortably ignored.

Let mo spell it out in very personal terms. As is the case with most
ministers, I have the occasion to confront people who are the rejects of ieee
society with some regularity. The drifters, the unemployed, the mobile
glocholios- the ones society used to call bums. They come to churches, because U
they know that churches are in the business of helping people. They come in
broken down care, or by foot in someone's giveaway bluc senge suit, several

sizes. too large. They come with elaborate, well rehearsed stories of tragedy

and misfortune. They stop by the church office and they want help - not cavidey

bf counseling or prayer - but five dollars, ten dollars or twenty dollars. They
want it because they are hungry, borke, sick, or out of gas, or thoy need a
drink, although that is not often said. ind my method of handling the situ-
ation is to refer them to Lincoln Community Centcr or the Salvation Army: I
4 7 am sometimes disturbed by the fact that they've intcerupted the business of
j i the office: and my goal is to get them on their way as quickly possible.
ex I can't be bothered with them: if I took the time to get involved I might
miss lunch, or the afternoon mecting. Besides, what could I do after I found —
out who this person really is - and really needs? So I make areferral and
salve my conscience with all those neat little rationalisation we carry
around in our minds for just sack emergencies — among thom the fact that this

rules gives money to Lincoln Center for this kind ‘of situation. t got Lat

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- innocuous Sunday School story about a certain man on the road from Jerusalem

to Jericho. |
IT understand that story all too well, and I wish I didn't. Prudent men

ought to ignore the Parable of the Good Samaritan, if at all possible.
We've been thinking about love recently, that special kind of love God

has for us. We began a month ago, on World Commmion Sunday, and thought

about the idea thet God's love for us is a gift, and that it gives us our only

dignity, our worth, our manhood. We proceeded to think about love in terms
of God's acceptance and forgiveness, and the fact that we are 0.K. in his
sight. ie thought about Jennifer and Oliver in "Love Story” and the profound
wrongness of the suggestion that "Love means never having to say you're sorry."
We thought about Mary Magdalene in the context of "Josus Christ Superstar" and
the redceming power of love she experienced. le looked. at the prodigal son
and reflected on the fact that God's love for us has "No strings attached."

Implicit in all of it was the idea that God's seston love for men, is
a ae reality in men's relationships with each other. The love of God, lived
in Jesus Christ, has become a waved for our lives. knowing God's love; exper-
iencing his forgivenss and acceptance of us; we dsuddenly find ourselves in a
new situation — suddenly terribly free to extend that love to all those we
encounter. The progression is from self to others. From personal salvation
to my brother's need. Cut of the theology of God's love an ethic emerges.
That is where we are this morning - thinking now about the personal implica-
tions of God's love — the personal obligation one assumes when he calls him-
self a disciple of Jesus Christ. 5o let's go back and look carefully at this
dangerous little story that is really better left alone.

I% started innocently enough. A lawyer came to Jesus to talk a little

theology. "Teacher," he asked, "what mist I do to receive eternal life?"

Now, the man was an scdeidiontibal lawyer, responsible for knowing and mE

; i
‘

interpreting the Jewish law. He knew the proper ‘answer to his question, and

road with lets of hair-pin curves and great boulders and lime stone caves in

Luke reveals his real motivation which was to trap Jesus in his own rhetoric.
But Jesus responded by asking another question: "What do the scriptures say?
How do you interpret?" The lawyer knew the book — "You must love the Lord
your God, with all your heart, soul, strength and wiz: and your neighbor as RS
yourself." And Jesus said, Wastes "Correct. Do it." =

But now the lawyer,)who had come to set a trap, was in a trap himself.

He had asked a rhetorical question. A question, the answer to which was per
fectly obvious. He had come on the offensive: Jesus had put him on the defen—
sive. Desperately he needed to save face, to demonstrate his own intellectual

| \
acumen. §0 he asked another question — a good Philadelphia lawyer type questinn rah

"But, who is my neighbor?"

The story Jesus told answers that question: it says who the neighbor is.
But it does something else as well: it defines, not only who he is — but how
to love him. It moves from the academic to the practical,,and having heard ©
the story we not only possess a new definition of neighbor, but also a new —
definition of love.

Think again about the story. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho drops
3,000 feet in twenty miles. It is still there: it is still af Sockercua
the surrounding hills. It's still a good place for an ambush — and there is’
still a place on that road called "Bloody Pass". If you were a highway bandit
in the first century, there was no better place to practice your trade than
the Jericho Road. |

So a certain man discovered, who was robbed, stripped of his clothes,
beaten and left to die - a Jew, a man of the Covenant People of God. Two
significant men passed him by: a pricst and levite, both religious officials:
both, men who ment the law and #2 certain of their resulting righteousness:
both, I feel, very normal men in dete Sen onse to Sh taste, How could

Ved know that the man wasn't a decoy ees redding era hiding ina pereres :

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eave. Besides, what could they do for him - all they could expect to get out = ~
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of it was 2 bloody robe-and dirty hands. They would be late for their meeting ) ae

in Jericho, which someone has suggested might have been to discuss the worsen-
ing situation on this important link*between the two cities. So — with good,
sound reasons — they did what a lot of us would do in similar circumstances ~ :
they walked on by. :
Inter - the Samaritan - despised half—breed, hated member of inferior race,
unclean outcast. He stopped and bound up the wounds, and put the injured Jew
on his own beast, and transported him to an inn where he personally took care
of him. Hext day he left money for further care, and netonctel the innkeeper
to do well by the mm —- that he, Samaritan -— would be back to pay the bill.
That's a bit excessive, don't you agree? That's’ a little impractical and
extravagant and imprudent. It's one thing to help a little bit - but this -
this is too much! \
Let's consider the implications. Pirst, the parable seas us from thecloay
to ethics: from discussions of God's love - to a practical ak bautioris from
an academic’inquiry into the definition of neighbor - to a certain man lying
in a ditch. I think there is a certain reluctance in all of us to make that | ’ Ss
transition. There is saftey in talk; there is relative saftey in working
through the idea of love: thero's a whole lot of saftey in joining a group
to discuss the problem of poverty. It is not so safe, however, to help a per~
son who is, in fact, poor. Edward Huenemann, in an essay on Love and Justice, \

[Monday Morning, Nov. 1, 1971] observes that, "it is at the point of \practi-

cality that the Biblical understanding of love is often sacrificed. Wo one fs

would be so bold as to suggest that Christians ought not to be loving but

someone might question to what degree and in what way love should be more than

a pious sentimont." Huenemann goes on to point out that, "Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

after observing the trial of love in the crucible of concentration camps, tg ee

reasserted the Biblical emphasis on the conoreinmoss and viability of human love pe
“in such acts as a cup of cold water; a visit to the prison, a word in defense Wee

I = > oly \ pe

acte by which the life of the other was either preserved or denied."

of love in the heart ~ to the sweat and dirt at a"certain man." That's first,

The vaunted Greek concept of Democ racy was devised by and for aristreratic

‘edd
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: L Ph,

The Parable moves us - as it did the clever lawyer — from the general to

the specific, from the idea of love to the activity of loving, from the feeli

and once we've begun to think of love as a basic human activity, we discover ——
that it is defined for us in very osivavatant terms. We find that it is a
activity that goes on outside the limits of rules and regulations and even
outside the perimeter of common sense.
The Priest and Levite committed no crime in passing by. There was nothing —
in their law that required them to stop and render assistance. Likewise the F
Samaritan was not bound by a legal code to do what he did. He operated out-
side the law — he loved in a way that no law eda eek ereeteite: I think
that's essential. The problems of our own: society often boil down to a debate a
about the viability of legislating morality. In the heat of the Civil Rights —
controversy people often took solace in the observation that "you can't force
people to love each other." That's true — even though it wasn't and isn't
the point. In a society of law, people can be made to respect each other's
rights. Period. “But for tho Christian there is an added dilemma - after
equal opportunity has been extended, the Christian is clearly under the
imperative to love the poreor; to act lovingly in ways the law cannot even.
prescribe,
The Parable of the Good Samaritan points out the greatest flaw in human
systems of law and ethics, namely that they es devised by a group of men for
application within that group, but not without. The ancient law of Israel

was meant for relationships between Israelites. "Thou shalt not kill" meant —

"thou shalt not kill a fellow Jew'' and had little to do with the Moabites-

men and had little to do with women and slaves, and nothing todo with =|

Barbarians. te are terribly vulnerable here. Our own aystem p ts

murder but allows My Lai and saturation sotiingi of Cambotti

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tection, although he should have done that too.

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Quite by accident I happened upon a Dick Cavette rerun “the ioe re Bo
evening ‘and heard a Lieutenant Coloncl saiving this very issue. He is an | ;
authentic war hero, decorated 41 times in three conflicts - and simply in- ia
sisted that army regulations and American law be enforced in the treatment of

VEetnamese people. ifter witnessing a Vietnamese mother have her throat cut

while her infant was suffocated he reported the incident = and soon found him-

self behind a degk in Georgia and in deep trouble. lle are vulnerable here — .
especially in a world that makes men into statistics and rate military suc-

cesses in terms of body counts. or the parable insists on a common humanity ~ Gy

and a love extended to all men regardless of their color or political affiliations. pe

Last Sunday our children participated in an effort based on love as an (ze
activity which is extended to anyone in need - a beautiful activity. ind once
again our children were subjected to verbal abuse - as they collected for in

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UNICEF ~ from people who aren't about to help a Cuban child or a Chinese child ae

—_

or a Yugoslavian child. We are vulncrable here, for the love Jesus was talk-

ing about is based on one premise, alone — the need of a fellow man.

Furthermore it was a personal love. The Good Samaritan didn't call an

ambulance. He didn't confine his coneern to-lobbying for better police pro- cee

His love was a personal

activity. He bound up wounds and got his robe bloody and his hands apis 3

You know, it's terribly tempting to love my fellow man at a distance ~ +6
work for better laws and a more human socicty and leave it go at that. But aa :
it isn't enough, according to this disturbing little story. Love that is pe

genuine gets expressed whenever a need is confronted = and the form that love 1 ih :

takes is dictated by the need itself.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to that kind of love. Not Ree

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_just in the dramatic man - lying-by-the-road situations; for, realistically, \ tran
= open i

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that situation may never happen to BB. ‘But we do confront hurting, bosaing
every aa We ae, mentions aoneiy saat -

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poople an = we

strained: we do confront opsht thos at tim pint af oPane Keone surgery
A week, and concern about the loss of employment. And sometimes all ‘that i
required is to love by listening and saying "I care and I hurt with you.” —

Sometimes love means nothing more than spending twonty minutes rather than

1f

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two, with a person whose burden is too heavy to carry alone. In many de
every day, that road-side drama is replayed in our lives: and love domande
that wo never walk by. as .
Love — the love defined by Josus Christ is a apéndthri tt: when it comes oa
into play it is extravagant and goes beyond the dictates of prudence and
propricty. We've been thinking in this Parish about Stewardship -— the annual
necessity in order to facilitate our fiscal life for another year. We've
been talking about percentages and budgets and the question, “How mich shall
m I give." But the real issue for those who would walk in the way of our Lord
is not "how much", but how do I ie about giving all? How do I live my life
for the sake of Jesus Christ ‘ah my fellow man who needs me? That's the

/ real, and perhaps the only issue, in Christian Stewardship.
rhs For we are called to lay it all on the line — to give all = to bee in;
| a | everything we do ~ spendthrifts - for the sake of our Lord. .
Ls Jesus asked: "\ihich of these three seems to nme been a neighbor. .?"
| and the lawyer answered, "The one who was kind to him." Jesus replied, *You —
eS go, then, and do the same."
te 3 When we do that, we love, and we are privileged to usher in a little —
i bit of God's Kingdom on Barth. |
i : coat Amen. ae
ex. Father, forgive us for walking by people in need: people far away -
b: people in owr own community - but also people whose needs we know ond chose

to igmore. Give us grace to love without counting the cost, im the namo of ==

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