NEIGHBOURS - MORE THAN AN AUSSIE SOAP! LUKE 10: 25 - 37
It was during the war in the former Yugoslavia. A reporter covering the violence in Sarajevo saw a young girl fall to the ground, hit by a sniper’s bullet. He threw down his pen and paper and ran to a man who was holding the stricken child. Seeing the gravity of the situation, the journalist guided the man and child into his car and then sped off in the direction of the hospital.
As they drove through the streets, the man holding the girl called out, “Hurry, my friend, my child s still alive.” Moments later he called out again, “Hurry, my friend my child is still breathing.” A little later with a voice that betrayed some desperation, he called out again, “Hurry, my friend, my child is still warm.”
Alas, by the time they reached the hospital, the child had died. As the two men sat together, the man who had held the child turned to the reporter and said, “Now comes a terrible task. I must go and tell her father what has happened.”
The journalist looked at the man with shock before saying, “But I thought she was your child.”
“No” replied the man “but aren’t they all our children?”
A 20th Century story that reminds us of our interconnectedness with one another, a message that is at the heart of the parable that Jesus told about the Good Samaritan.
Let us just for a moment look to the background of this parable. Jesus has been asked for the way to eternal life. He has reminded the man of the Old Testament Law. The man when asked what is in the Law, answers with words taken from the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, words in other Gospels attributed to Jesus but in Luke’s Gospel receiving the assent of Jesus - namely to love God with heart, soul, strength and mind - and also to love one’s neighbour as oneself. These are accepted by Jesus as summarising the Law and encompassing its spirit. In short, the follower of Christ is called to love God with all his or her being and for that to be expressed in the love of others. In a sense the two go together for the ways of God are ways of love and kindness.
I remember years ago hearing of a story in which a man arrived at a church to be warmly greeted at the door. Ignoring the warmth of the greeting, he muttered angrily, “ I came to Church to worship God, not to socialise with the likes of you!” In a real sense he had missed the point for the worship of God is not just expressed in as it were addressing the one who is on high. Surely it is also horizontal in its direction being directed to God whom we meet through what the Quakers call the ‘Divine Spark’ which is to be found in others whom we encounter.
But back to the story that Jesus told. The man wanted to know more and so we find him asking Jesus who is his neighbour. And at that Jesus tells this well known story. It is about a reckless traveller going on what then and even into the 20th Century was a dangerous journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was a journey which stretched for some 20 miles with a descent from 2,300 feet above sea level to 1,300 feet below sea level. It was rocky and full of sharp turnings which made it a happy hunting ground for brigands. So notorious was the road that in the 5th Century Jerome tells us that it was known as “The Bloody Way.” Only a fool would dare to travel it alone and it was about such a fool that Jesus tells his story about. Nobody listening would be remotely surprised to hear that this man received a good going over. After all he had earned it with his stupidity.
But the story moves on to look at those who later came down the road. The first such people were a priest and a levite, good respectable religious men. But for their own reasons, as they see the battered man, they decide that he is not their responsibility and so pass by on the other side. But then comes a third man, a Samaritan! I wonder if there was a groan from Jesus’ listeners at this. After all they would have seen Samaritans as the enemy. Five centuries of animosity between Jew and Samaritan had taken place and there was in the lifetime of Jesus, no sign of historic handshakes or the likes. The Samaritan had no reason to care for a battered Jew but there we find the rub! For amazingly the Samaritan far from administering another kicking actually administers first aid to the wounded man before taking him to an inn and paying for his convalescence there. The Samaritan, unlike the beaten man’s own people, emerges as the true neighbour of the battered Jew.
Sometimes now, we tame this story into being a rather nice story but I am sure that most of those who first heard Jesus tell it, heard it through clenched teeth because this was a story that challenged their prejudices and suggested that even those whom they most despised were the people whom the command, “Love your neighbour” brought them into contact with.
And heard truly today, it continues to be a story with the power to shock and discomfort. For its essential message is that our responsibilities are not simply to “Me and Mine” but to those whom we decidedly see as “Other.” Oh, I know that none of us gets worked up about the small community of Samaritans that still exists in the Middle East but I wonder if we too see some people whose beliefs, lifestyle or place of background discomfort us as being beyond the pale. Well, this parable challenges us to examine our points of prejudice and to see that those we find it hardest to see as our neighbours, are precisely that, just as us, children of God. And so, this parable rebukes us should we be tempted to dehumanise others in our hearts and challenges us to see in neighbourliness not the sickly niceness of the Australian soap, but a calling to work for fair play for those unjustly treated in life even when at times they are in part the architects of their misfortunes.
But how far does all of this go? Let me tell you about Michael Weisser a prominent Jew who moved to Lincoln in Nebraska USA. As he and his wife were unpacking, they received a phone call telling them they would be sorry to have moved there. Soon they received hate mail purporting to come from the Klu Klux Klan with sick racist and anti semitic pictures. The police when contacted, advised that it probably came from Larry Trapp who was the leading Klansman in that state. They warned that he had a history of violence, making explosives which were used against the Klan’s victims. Indeed they had reason to believe that he was plotting to blow up the synagogue that Weisser was called to lead.
Now Trapp despite all of this was confined to a wheel chair as a result of lat stage diabetes. So when he began a race hate TV series on a cable channel, Weisser rang his hotline phone number and reminded him that under his hero Hitler’s laws, Trapp would have been amongst the first victims.
Over time, Weisser continued to phone the hotline. One day, Trapp picked it up and responded aggressively in the end demanding to know why Weisser kept ringing. At that moment Weisser remembered a suggestion from his wife and so responded, “ Well I was thinking you might need a hand with something, and I wondered if I could help. I know you’re in a wheel chair and I thought maybe I could take you to the grocery store or something.”
Trapp gave a sort of gruff thanks. Weisser continued with the calls and eventually Trapp admitted that he was having to do some thinking. But in no time Trapp was back with the same old hate filled rants. Next time when they spoke there was a row and Trapp admitted that he found it hard to get out of his old ways. The next evening, however, he phoned Weisser and told him he wanted to give up his old ways. That night they met and amid many a tear embraced.
Ultimately, Trapp left all his racist organisations and wrote many a letter of apology. When his health deteriorated further, he moved in with the Weissers and Mrs Weisser gave up her job to nurse him. He even converted to Judaism.
Larry Trapp, a man who fro childhood experienced the violence of his own father had met his own Good Samaritan and been changed by the experience.
Most of us cannot imagine going as far as Michael Weisser. Yet there is no greater need to day than that we show value to those who are other than us. It is only commonsense for as Martin Luther King observed,
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Yes, in our world of diversity, we need to recognise that all who hurt are indeed our children.
This morning as we look to God who reconciles the world to himself, may we take seriously, the call of God made flesh that we should seek reconciliation and real love in a world where we all are NEIGHBOURS!
This sermon was preached at a service of baptism at Bideford Methodist Church on October 30th 2005 as the second in a series of 3 sermons from 'Parables of Jesus.'
As they drove through the streets, the man holding the girl called out, “Hurry, my friend, my child s still alive.” Moments later he called out again, “Hurry, my friend my child is still breathing.” A little later with a voice that betrayed some desperation, he called out again, “Hurry, my friend, my child is still warm.”
Alas, by the time they reached the hospital, the child had died. As the two men sat together, the man who had held the child turned to the reporter and said, “Now comes a terrible task. I must go and tell her father what has happened.”
The journalist looked at the man with shock before saying, “But I thought she was your child.”
“No” replied the man “but aren’t they all our children?”
A 20th Century story that reminds us of our interconnectedness with one another, a message that is at the heart of the parable that Jesus told about the Good Samaritan.
Let us just for a moment look to the background of this parable. Jesus has been asked for the way to eternal life. He has reminded the man of the Old Testament Law. The man when asked what is in the Law, answers with words taken from the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus, words in other Gospels attributed to Jesus but in Luke’s Gospel receiving the assent of Jesus - namely to love God with heart, soul, strength and mind - and also to love one’s neighbour as oneself. These are accepted by Jesus as summarising the Law and encompassing its spirit. In short, the follower of Christ is called to love God with all his or her being and for that to be expressed in the love of others. In a sense the two go together for the ways of God are ways of love and kindness.
I remember years ago hearing of a story in which a man arrived at a church to be warmly greeted at the door. Ignoring the warmth of the greeting, he muttered angrily, “ I came to Church to worship God, not to socialise with the likes of you!” In a real sense he had missed the point for the worship of God is not just expressed in as it were addressing the one who is on high. Surely it is also horizontal in its direction being directed to God whom we meet through what the Quakers call the ‘Divine Spark’ which is to be found in others whom we encounter.
But back to the story that Jesus told. The man wanted to know more and so we find him asking Jesus who is his neighbour. And at that Jesus tells this well known story. It is about a reckless traveller going on what then and even into the 20th Century was a dangerous journey from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was a journey which stretched for some 20 miles with a descent from 2,300 feet above sea level to 1,300 feet below sea level. It was rocky and full of sharp turnings which made it a happy hunting ground for brigands. So notorious was the road that in the 5th Century Jerome tells us that it was known as “The Bloody Way.” Only a fool would dare to travel it alone and it was about such a fool that Jesus tells his story about. Nobody listening would be remotely surprised to hear that this man received a good going over. After all he had earned it with his stupidity.
But the story moves on to look at those who later came down the road. The first such people were a priest and a levite, good respectable religious men. But for their own reasons, as they see the battered man, they decide that he is not their responsibility and so pass by on the other side. But then comes a third man, a Samaritan! I wonder if there was a groan from Jesus’ listeners at this. After all they would have seen Samaritans as the enemy. Five centuries of animosity between Jew and Samaritan had taken place and there was in the lifetime of Jesus, no sign of historic handshakes or the likes. The Samaritan had no reason to care for a battered Jew but there we find the rub! For amazingly the Samaritan far from administering another kicking actually administers first aid to the wounded man before taking him to an inn and paying for his convalescence there. The Samaritan, unlike the beaten man’s own people, emerges as the true neighbour of the battered Jew.
Sometimes now, we tame this story into being a rather nice story but I am sure that most of those who first heard Jesus tell it, heard it through clenched teeth because this was a story that challenged their prejudices and suggested that even those whom they most despised were the people whom the command, “Love your neighbour” brought them into contact with.
And heard truly today, it continues to be a story with the power to shock and discomfort. For its essential message is that our responsibilities are not simply to “Me and Mine” but to those whom we decidedly see as “Other.” Oh, I know that none of us gets worked up about the small community of Samaritans that still exists in the Middle East but I wonder if we too see some people whose beliefs, lifestyle or place of background discomfort us as being beyond the pale. Well, this parable challenges us to examine our points of prejudice and to see that those we find it hardest to see as our neighbours, are precisely that, just as us, children of God. And so, this parable rebukes us should we be tempted to dehumanise others in our hearts and challenges us to see in neighbourliness not the sickly niceness of the Australian soap, but a calling to work for fair play for those unjustly treated in life even when at times they are in part the architects of their misfortunes.
But how far does all of this go? Let me tell you about Michael Weisser a prominent Jew who moved to Lincoln in Nebraska USA. As he and his wife were unpacking, they received a phone call telling them they would be sorry to have moved there. Soon they received hate mail purporting to come from the Klu Klux Klan with sick racist and anti semitic pictures. The police when contacted, advised that it probably came from Larry Trapp who was the leading Klansman in that state. They warned that he had a history of violence, making explosives which were used against the Klan’s victims. Indeed they had reason to believe that he was plotting to blow up the synagogue that Weisser was called to lead.
Now Trapp despite all of this was confined to a wheel chair as a result of lat stage diabetes. So when he began a race hate TV series on a cable channel, Weisser rang his hotline phone number and reminded him that under his hero Hitler’s laws, Trapp would have been amongst the first victims.
Over time, Weisser continued to phone the hotline. One day, Trapp picked it up and responded aggressively in the end demanding to know why Weisser kept ringing. At that moment Weisser remembered a suggestion from his wife and so responded, “ Well I was thinking you might need a hand with something, and I wondered if I could help. I know you’re in a wheel chair and I thought maybe I could take you to the grocery store or something.”
Trapp gave a sort of gruff thanks. Weisser continued with the calls and eventually Trapp admitted that he was having to do some thinking. But in no time Trapp was back with the same old hate filled rants. Next time when they spoke there was a row and Trapp admitted that he found it hard to get out of his old ways. The next evening, however, he phoned Weisser and told him he wanted to give up his old ways. That night they met and amid many a tear embraced.
Ultimately, Trapp left all his racist organisations and wrote many a letter of apology. When his health deteriorated further, he moved in with the Weissers and Mrs Weisser gave up her job to nurse him. He even converted to Judaism.
Larry Trapp, a man who fro childhood experienced the violence of his own father had met his own Good Samaritan and been changed by the experience.
Most of us cannot imagine going as far as Michael Weisser. Yet there is no greater need to day than that we show value to those who are other than us. It is only commonsense for as Martin Luther King observed,
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
Yes, in our world of diversity, we need to recognise that all who hurt are indeed our children.
This morning as we look to God who reconciles the world to himself, may we take seriously, the call of God made flesh that we should seek reconciliation and real love in a world where we all are NEIGHBOURS!
This sermon was preached at a service of baptism at Bideford Methodist Church on October 30th 2005 as the second in a series of 3 sermons from 'Parables of Jesus.'
posted by Rev Paul Martin at 1:21 AM
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