Proper 10C / Ordinary 15C / Pentecost +7 July 15, 2007
Luke 10:25-37 http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=51365308
for my mindmanager map: study of this passage click on the thumbnail
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| Life eternal |
Constantly we are seeing things. I do not mean hallucinating, although that could also be true. Our culture is one dominated by images, in the 50’s Television became the honored guest at our fragmented and individualized dinner tables. The family gathered around the TV set to eat and watch at the same time, it was a powerful narcotic. My grandmother used to curse and talk to Fidel Castro every time she saw him, luckily she only met him via TV, otherwise who knows what the consequences could have been.
Nowadays we see images constantly, at work, at home, in church, in leisure, during travel, in the gym and even now on our phones. images, fast changing and abundant, are ever present during every waking moment of our lives. Now we can see far away places, we can find out about the latest piece of news almost when it happens, we can explore both the bottom of the seas and the depth of our bodies.
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.......
I notice an increasing viewing fatigue of sorts, the constant hitting of images has numbed our attention. The first dramatic images by Brian Stewart from the famine in Ethiopia in 1984-1985 hit the airwaves on Nov 1rst 1984, by July 1985 a massive fundraising effort was afoot, Geldof with Live Aid and We are the People raised over 200 million dollars alone and the world mobilized to help. Nowadays, crisis after crisis take place and I do not see the same kind of response. when he saw him, he passed by on the other side
when he saw him, he passed by on the other side
Not around the world, but sometimes right here, on our backyard, we have horrific cases of neglect and abuse. How many children are abused, either sexually or physically by parents, relatives, clergy, teachers, close family friends and in plain sight we refuse to see the tell tale signs of such. How many time we have refused to believe, even parents to their own children. We are so bombarded with images that we are losing the ability to really see, paradoxically for having too much to see. In Denver, Colorado a 7-year-old boy who weighed 34 pounds when he died of starvation was locked inside a closet for days at a time without food, water or access to a toilet. Here in our city, more than once we see images of neglect and abuse, taking place in the eyes of overworked social workers.
when he saw him, passed by on the other side.
This is a difficult passage due to preachers heavy traffic. It is also a passage that has been very idealized and have found currency in our daily conversation. Good Samaritan invokes a very precise image of helping strangers. A sort of Pollyanna kind of charity to the point of losing all its "teeth". It is interesting that similar processes have taken place in our culture with for instances Christmas. But I digress.
when he saw him, passed by on the other side.
This was no innocent seeker questioning, but rather a cleaver ploy to embarrass Jesus in public. The reputation of a rabbi and his income depended on these rhetorical battles. Word-of-mouth was the only advertising tool. Defeating a rabbi was an opportunity to earn reputation, honor. To lose face, to be shamed, was to admit one's own ignorance, since fast answers and logical-traps were not just part of the verbal arsenal but also veritable signs of one's own erudition.
when he saw him, passed by on the other side.
The narrative is divided in three parts. Part A The lawyer's trap. Part B Jesus trap. Part C Application. The question was about what was necessary to access life eternal. The question was not inane, it was part of heated political controversy between parties, since the Sadducee, allies of the Roman occupants, were interested in the now and here while the pharisees, the opposition ultra-orthodox party, believed that life will continue after death. At stake was the soul of the Jewish people and every party battled each other and sometimes themselves.
when he saw him, passed by on the other side.
The quote the lawyer gives to Jesus as answer as per Jesus request is straight from the text of the Law, Deuteronomy and Leviticus specifically, which was considered even before Jesus as summary of all the Law and the Prophets. In order to enter into life eternal (which makes me think that the lawyer perhaps was a Pharisee and not a Sadducee) he quotes such summary. Jesus respond to the lawyer like a master to a disciple: well done and then waits.
The lawyer, perhaps frustrated that he did get him this time, he poses a more tricky question. One that involves interpretation. The question who is your neighbour was not clear for 1rst century Israel as it was perhaps when they all live in tents in the desert. Urban life with its concomitant human density creates paradoxically considerable distrust. Jewish rabbinical tradition tells us that where ever the text is silent, there is room for interpretation.
Part B. Jesus responds with a stereotyped story, a moral fable, in this case a well crafted logical trap and returns with a question to the lawyer who is then the neighbour. That story had only one answer, yet the lawyer refuses to name the character who becomes not the Samaritan but "The one who showed him mercy".
when he saw him, he was moved with pity.
The Samaritans were descendants of a mixed population, occupying the land after the conquest by Assyria in 722 B.C. The enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans was real, long and deadly. So, for Jesus to tell a story that characterized the Samaritan rather than the priest or Levite as the one who proved to be a good neighbor must have been to its first audience a shocking turn in the story, shattering their categories of who are and who are not the people of God.
when he saw him, he was moved with pity.
What do I get today in New York City, on a hot summer Sunday morning out of this. Do I take the homeless home? Do I give money to beggars and junkies? Do I defend someone being attacked in the subway? I think the answer rest deeper in both text and life. I take for granted that you and I will try as humanely possible to help in all sorts of situations that living may bring and I refuse to give you a recipe of what to do. Just remember that love for neighbour is balanced by love for self. That is is Jesus golden rule.
when he saw him, he was moved with pity.
Fred Craddock put it succinctly, "Having right answers does not mean knowing God. Students can make a four-point in the Bible and still miss the point"
Barbara Crafton tells us - Almost everyone thinks that faith involves believing the right thing. Jesus' questioner was a lawyer, one who made his living by defining his terms. He must have thought that faith was like everything else in his life, a matter of getting it right: the right answer, the right conduct, the right opinion. Tell me what's right. I want to know.
But no. It turns out that faith not a secret code of rightness that will unlock the treasure of eternal life. It turns out that faith is a relationship with God and with the world, and that the name of this relationship is love. Again, a lawyer would be frustrated here: Well, what is love? A feeling? An obligation? A decision? He would need some specificity, he felt, in order to understand.
No further explanation was forthcoming. Instead, a story: a man is in serious need of help, and a stranger whose people are at odds with the injured man's people helps him, when his own religious authorities won't. The two are brought together in the story for a moment and then we hear no more -- nothing about eternity, no angels, no voices complimenting the Samaritan on his good behavior. He goes on his way with a promise to come and finish his good work, if need be.
It turns out there's no secret code, no hidden key. There's no need of one: eternal life isn't locked. Anybody can live as a lover of God and neighbor, just by walking out his front door and looking around at what needs to be done. And then doing the first thing that presents itself. And then another. And another. As many as you want -- they're all your neighbors. And the Christ who lives in you also lives in each of them.
when he saw him, he was moved with pity
At the end of the day, we are not going to know God by studying texts, as important as they are, God will not be prisoner of lines of ink on a piece of paper, a popular thought in America, only really available since the invention of the movable types in the 14Th century and the increase in literacy in the following centuries. God always comes to us in lives lived. Embody in persons and their stories, following the paradigm of Jesus, who never wrote anything save for a few scribbles in the sand. But went around nevertheless be profoundly human and as such being very God healing the sick, feeding the hungry, speaking truth
In Nanjing, in 1938, one man stood boldly for the Chinese. John Rabe in Nanjing. The Rape of Nanjing was a horrific massacre in which 300,000 Chinese were brutally tortured and murdered and 20,000 women were raped by the Japanese army. But an equal number were saved through the Nanking Safety Zone. A Presbyterian missionary in Nanjing, W. Plumer Mills, instigated the zone, copying a plan that was begun in Shanghai. Rabe had lived and raised a family in Nanjing for 30 years, and he had no desire to flee as the Japanese occupation approached. The Japanese allowed him to stay, and through his efforts of defiance and bravery he helped to rescue 300,000 Chinese from the Japanese brutality. Author Irish Chang called him the Oskar Schindler of China. Rabe was not only German but the head of the Nazi party in Nanjing.
when he saw him, he was moved with pity
Who is my neighbour?
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