I think most of us sitting here this morning would agree that we have some very big problems facing us as a country right now. Health care, the deficit, school funding, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, care for the mentally ill, gun control are just a few issues that come immediately to my mind. And I think most of us here this morning would agree that we are having some problems trying to work together to find answers to these many pressing issues. We are a deeply divided country. And when I hear discussions about how to solve any of these issues, what I most often hear is a "me, me, me conversation." How will this reform or this initiative effect me? Cut the deficit but don't cut my social security. Don't raise taxes, but make sure that I have Medicare when my time comes. Don't work on health care reform, but make sure my premiums don't go up. Fix the potholes in my street but cut my taxes. Improve education, but cut the education budget. Put those diagnosed with a mental illness on a federal registry, but don't ask me to register my gun--that would be an invasion of my privacy. We Americans know our rights well. We are often willing to compromise someone else's rights, but if we feel ours are violated we are quick to quote from the Constitution or Bill of Rights to support our individual cause. Very rarely do I hear anyone today speaking about the rights of others. Very rarely today do I hear conversations about our responsibilities to one another.
To me this is what the parable of the Good Samaritan is all about. It is all about our responsibility to one another. This parable is a truly shocking story, like most of the parables Jesus tells. You can be pretty certain that in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus tells a parable he is not trying to make the listeners feel good about themselves. In Luke, Jesus' parables almost always contain a lesson that we really don't want to hear. The parable of the good Samaritan is no exception.
We have a lawyer who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. This man is concerned about himself. He wants Jesus to tell him how to take care of himself even in the next life. Jesus doesn't tell him how to do this. Instead Jesus tells him how to take care of others. Jesus tells him to set aside his own needs and concerns and to focus on the needs and concerns of the vulnerable and the needy. And Jesus does this through a very simple yet brilliant story.
In this story we have four main characters: A victim, a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. We don't know much about the victim except that he was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and he was set upon by thieves who robbed him and left him for dead. Then the priest and the Levite enter in. They don't stop to help the victim because presumably they looked at the victim, the man left for dead, and asked themselves, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" They could have answered this question in several different ways. Perhaps they thought they might put themselves in danger. Maybe they feared that the thieves were still around and might attack them. Maybe they were concerned that by stopping they would be late for whatever important duty awaited them in Jericho. Or maybe they didn't stop because they were worried that exposing themselves to the bodily fluids of the injured man would keep them from performing their religious duties in the Temple. Whatever their reasons, it is clear from the story that they concluded that it would not be in their best interest to stop and help this dying man, and they hurried on by. And then comes the Samaritan, that race of people hated by all Jewish people, and the Samaritan was moved with pity and stopped and cared for the dying man. One has to think that the Samaritan must have asked himself a different question. He didn't say to himself, "What will happen to me if I stop to help this man?" The Samaritan asked himself, "What will happen to this man, if I don't stop to help him?" It may seem like a subtle difference, but the question you ask yourself when you are faced with a person in need, makes all the difference in the world.
45 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech in Memphis Tennessee the night before he was assassinated. He was wrestling with some of these same questions. He was trying to explain to those gathered before him why he had become involved with a local dispute involving Memphis sanitation workers. As historian Taylor Branch tells the story, the local residents didn't like the sanitation workers' practice of sitting outside their trucks on the street to eat their lunch. As a result, the workers were made to eat their lunch while sitting in the cab of the truck. Unfortunately the cab would only accommodate two people and each truck had a crew of four. One lunchtime, two workers in one crew climbed into the compactor on the back of the truck in order to eat their sandwiches out of the view of the residents of Memphis. Something went wrong with the electrical system and the two workers were crushed to death. A strike resulted and Martin Luther King Jr. became involved (from a sermon by Richard Lischer,www.faithandleadership.com/sermons-the-view-the-ditch).
In his speech, King suggested to the crowd that asking themselves, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job?" was not the right question. He said to the crowd that instead what they need to ask themselves was this, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" (Martin Luther King, Jr. from his I've Been to the Mountaintop sermon preached on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee). He challenged those gathered to listen that day to look at the question of self-interest, just as Jesus challenged his audience 2000 years ago to look at that very same question, and I challenge all of us here this morning to do the same.
Instead of asking ourselves, "What will happen to me if we provide benefits to the poor? What will happen to me if we make it so that all Americans can have health care? What will happen to me if we increase funding for education? What will happen to me if we provide food stamps to the hungry?" what if we asked ourselves, "What will happen to the poor if they are not cared for?" I suspect that we would see the world very differently from this perspective and our actions would change.
We are a country of great paradox. We have the ability to rise up above individual self-interest to do great things. At our best we are a land of great opportunity, optimism, freedom and innovation. At our worst we are a land caught up in rampant individualism where individual rights become an idol and we forget that we are connected with every other person in this country, and therefore are responsible to one another. As Christians, it is our task, our duty to remind ourselves and others of that responsibility to our fellow human beings. As Christians it is our duty to ask the question, "What will happen to the vulnerable, the poor, the sick, the widowed, the orphaned if they are not cared for?" It is our duty to move beyond self-interest to the interest of others.
I leave you with the words of Martin Luther King, Jr from his very last speech:
"Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you" (Martin Luther King, Jr. from his I've Been to the Mountaintop sermon preached on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee).
Amen.
To me this is what the parable of the Good Samaritan is all about. It is all about our responsibility to one another. This parable is a truly shocking story, like most of the parables Jesus tells. You can be pretty certain that in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus tells a parable he is not trying to make the listeners feel good about themselves. In Luke, Jesus' parables almost always contain a lesson that we really don't want to hear. The parable of the good Samaritan is no exception.
We have a lawyer who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. This man is concerned about himself. He wants Jesus to tell him how to take care of himself even in the next life. Jesus doesn't tell him how to do this. Instead Jesus tells him how to take care of others. Jesus tells him to set aside his own needs and concerns and to focus on the needs and concerns of the vulnerable and the needy. And Jesus does this through a very simple yet brilliant story.
In this story we have four main characters: A victim, a priest, a Levite, and a Samaritan. We don't know much about the victim except that he was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and he was set upon by thieves who robbed him and left him for dead. Then the priest and the Levite enter in. They don't stop to help the victim because presumably they looked at the victim, the man left for dead, and asked themselves, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" They could have answered this question in several different ways. Perhaps they thought they might put themselves in danger. Maybe they feared that the thieves were still around and might attack them. Maybe they were concerned that by stopping they would be late for whatever important duty awaited them in Jericho. Or maybe they didn't stop because they were worried that exposing themselves to the bodily fluids of the injured man would keep them from performing their religious duties in the Temple. Whatever their reasons, it is clear from the story that they concluded that it would not be in their best interest to stop and help this dying man, and they hurried on by. And then comes the Samaritan, that race of people hated by all Jewish people, and the Samaritan was moved with pity and stopped and cared for the dying man. One has to think that the Samaritan must have asked himself a different question. He didn't say to himself, "What will happen to me if I stop to help this man?" The Samaritan asked himself, "What will happen to this man, if I don't stop to help him?" It may seem like a subtle difference, but the question you ask yourself when you are faced with a person in need, makes all the difference in the world.
45 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech in Memphis Tennessee the night before he was assassinated. He was wrestling with some of these same questions. He was trying to explain to those gathered before him why he had become involved with a local dispute involving Memphis sanitation workers. As historian Taylor Branch tells the story, the local residents didn't like the sanitation workers' practice of sitting outside their trucks on the street to eat their lunch. As a result, the workers were made to eat their lunch while sitting in the cab of the truck. Unfortunately the cab would only accommodate two people and each truck had a crew of four. One lunchtime, two workers in one crew climbed into the compactor on the back of the truck in order to eat their sandwiches out of the view of the residents of Memphis. Something went wrong with the electrical system and the two workers were crushed to death. A strike resulted and Martin Luther King Jr. became involved (from a sermon by Richard Lischer,www.faithandleadership.com/sermons-the-view-the-ditch).
In his speech, King suggested to the crowd that asking themselves, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job?" was not the right question. He said to the crowd that instead what they need to ask themselves was this, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" (Martin Luther King, Jr. from his I've Been to the Mountaintop sermon preached on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee). He challenged those gathered to listen that day to look at the question of self-interest, just as Jesus challenged his audience 2000 years ago to look at that very same question, and I challenge all of us here this morning to do the same.
Instead of asking ourselves, "What will happen to me if we provide benefits to the poor? What will happen to me if we make it so that all Americans can have health care? What will happen to me if we increase funding for education? What will happen to me if we provide food stamps to the hungry?" what if we asked ourselves, "What will happen to the poor if they are not cared for?" I suspect that we would see the world very differently from this perspective and our actions would change.
We are a country of great paradox. We have the ability to rise up above individual self-interest to do great things. At our best we are a land of great opportunity, optimism, freedom and innovation. At our worst we are a land caught up in rampant individualism where individual rights become an idol and we forget that we are connected with every other person in this country, and therefore are responsible to one another. As Christians, it is our task, our duty to remind ourselves and others of that responsibility to our fellow human beings. As Christians it is our duty to ask the question, "What will happen to the vulnerable, the poor, the sick, the widowed, the orphaned if they are not cared for?" It is our duty to move beyond self-interest to the interest of others.
I leave you with the words of Martin Luther King, Jr from his very last speech:
"Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you" (Martin Luther King, Jr. from his I've Been to the Mountaintop sermon preached on April 3, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee).
Amen.