St. Mark's Episcopal Church
Bay City, Texas
Proper 10, Year C
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Amos 7:7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37
For the
people of Israel back in the first century, about the worst thing you could be
was a non-Jew. It’s not as though all
non-Jews were utterly hated or thought of as less than human, but consider
this. If you were Jewish and then gave
up your faith in God, you were considered dead.
Life itself was diminished if you were not a Jew.
So, you had Gentiles, all non-Jews,
who didn’t have this life in them that the Jews did, and then you had
Samaritans. Samaritans were a religious
sect that traced their roots to Abraham but which believed that they, and not
the Jews, were the true followers of God through Torah. Samaritans believed that they were the
righteous descendants of Abraham and that the Jews were the unrighteous descendants.
Jews may not have been particularly
fond of Gentiles or at least not thought as highly of them as of other Jews,
but Samaritans were held with the utmost contempt. It’s not surprising that they were
contemptuous of a group which said, “yes you believe in God, but your way of
following God and your beliefs about God are dead wrong.” You could liken it to the struggles and even
wars between Protestants and Catholics during the height of struggles between
those two groups.
So, when Jesus called the Samaritan
a neighbor in the story he told, the importance of his statement can hardly be
overstated. Neighbors were considered to
be the people of Israel. In Leviticus 19,
there are verses which what it means to love one’s neighbor. “You shall not defraud
your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the
wages of a laborer until morning. You
shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind;” I love
that we need that last part. Don’t trip
blind people. Don’t make fun of deaf
people. It’s rather funny that we would
need God-given laws telling us such seemingly obvious things, and yet, if we’re
honest and if we look at human history and the actions of people around us and
even at our own actions, we know that we do need such seemingly obvious laws.
But I
digress. Leviticus goes on to say, “you
shall fear your God: I am the Lord. You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be
partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your
neighbor. You shall not go around as a
slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your
neighbor: I am the Lord.
You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove
your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge
against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am
the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:13-18)
That
last sentence seems to be equating “your people” with “your neighbor.” “You shall not take vengeance or bear a
grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as
yourself: I am the Lord.”
So, love your neighbor as yourself could be understood as “love all
Israelites as yourself.” Remember, if
you were no longer a Jew, you were considered dead. So, to love your neighbor as yourself was
probably not understood as love any old person who lives near you, but “love
your Israelite brother or sister as yourself.”
So, when
Jesus told the story of the Samaritan who helped out this beaten and robbed
man, contrasting the Samaritan with two upstanding Israelites who did not help
the beaten and robbed man, Jesus declared the Samaritan to be a neighbor to the
man, and the two Israelites not to be neighbors to the man. Was Jesus declaring the Samaritan to be more
of a Jew even than the Jewish priest and the Levite? Was Jesus declaring the Jewish priest and
Levite to be dead, no longer truly Jews because of their actions, while
declaring the non-Jew Samaritan to be truly alive because of his actions?
I don’t
know, but it’s certainly worth pondering.
I believe James, the brother of Jesus, author of the letter from James
might agree with the assessment that the Samaritan, by his actions was, at
least in the moment, more alive and more Jewish than either the priest or
Levite. “Faith without works, is dead,”
James wrote. “Show me your faith apart
from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.” (James 2:18) Notice, in the story Jesus told, the
Samaritan’s faith hadn’t changed. The
Samaritan still believed Israel was wrong, and yet when he saw a man in need,
he helped him. The two upstanding Jews who
had all the right beliefs did not help him.
Perhaps by
calling the Samarian a neighbor rather than the priest and Levite, Jesus was saying
that despite his beliefs, the Samaritan was more of a Jew than the priest or
the Levite. In either case, Jesus’
command after the story and lesson was quite clear. “Go and do likewise.”
When we
gather here on Sundays, or anytime we gather together, I feel such love, the
love that we have one for another. We
are neighbors because we share life together in Jesus and we share love for one
another through that life and joy we share in Jesus. We could generally call each other up and ask
for help with something, and the response would likely be, well that’s a Saint
Markan, I’m going to go help.
We also
have relationships formed and a common identity which gives us some trust of
each other. Even if we haven’t met
someone from St. Mark’s, they don’t feel like a total stranger because we share
a common life and identity. We’re
neighbors. Jesus then commends us to go
and treat others as though they are neighbors too. Go and live out your faith, treating others
as though they were your neighbors, even if they are one of your enemies. Go and treat others as though they were St.
Markans, even if you’re not particularly fond of them.
Go, Jesus
said, and live our your faith, truly loving your neighbor as yourself. Go, and treat people as you would treat any
St. Markan, regardless of what they believe.
Hold no contempt for those you believe are deeply wrong and misguided,
but love them as a neighbor, as one of your own. Regardless of who they are or from where they
come:
You
shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep
for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a
stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. You
shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or
defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among
your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord. You shall not hate
in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will
incur guilt yourself. You shall not take
vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your
neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:13-18) Amen.
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