Sermon - 7-13-25

If I were a betting person....I would wager a large amount of money that the sermons considered at the end of this past week, are not the sermons considered at the beginning of this past week.  Nine preachers out of ten, I’d wager, would have preached this week’s parable of the Good Samaritan as a morality tale. And, frankly, I think that’s just fine. It does, after all, reflect a profound example of how we are to treat each other, regarding a “neighbor” not merely as someone who is close to us or looks like us or believes like us, but rather anyone who is in need. Given the political and cultural tone of society, and human inclination to perceive anyone different as something of a threat, even at the beginning of the week, it would have been a good message to preach and to hear...

But this is not the sermon I was working on earlier in the week...because I am called to preach the good news of Jesus Christ...and speak truth to the reality of the world in which we live… which frankly, the best, most generous description I can come up with for the world these days is troubled.  This sermon may be uncomfortable to hear...it's uncomfortable to preach...but Jesus did not die so that we might be comfortable...Jesus died so that we might have abundant life, that we might learn to love the Lord our God and our neighbor, that we might know what it truly means to show mercy to another child of God...that we might be willing to get down and dirty in the ditch, like the Samaritan,  and share that abundant life...

The end of the gospel reading is key... 'Go and do likewise'  the good Samaritan sees the person in the ditch, draws near to him and has compassion for that person...  We could all stand to do the same... and a note here....when I say we, I am not meaning only the people right here in this room, but society in general...so please know that I am not trying to single anyone out, and I am also trying to convict myself as much as anyone else. 

We need to see our neighbors much more clearly than ever before...and by neighbor, I mean every single person on this planet...We don't get to pick and chose who our neighbors are, because everyone is... and especially the people you, I, we, are leery of or question if they deserve to be noticed, or the ones you know will cause you a headache if you take the time to acknowledge their presence...

Too many men and women in the ditch have died... too many people we have ignored have had their lives tragically cut short...too many people have to worry about what will happen to them because of the color of their skin, or the gender of the people they love...too many police officers, and other emergency personnel have to wonder if they are going to make it home because of their job. 

As much as I would like to imagine myself as the good Samaritan or a few times I feel like even the person in the ditch, far, far, far too easily I comfortably take on the roll of the priest or the Levite.   I wonder how many times I have looked into that ditch, saw a person lying there, and chose to keep right on going...far too many times to count if I am honest...and I would wager the same for all of you.

For you see, that is part of our privilege...we can ignore whatever is lying in the ditch because like the priest and the Levite, if we help, we will not be able to do what we planned...or we will be late for our job, or we don't have the skills to help or we think someone else will be along soon to help...or it's simply not our problem, and we shouldn't get involved. All of that may be true, but it is my supposition that when we ignore that person in the ditch, we are ignoring our brother or sister...when we ignore that person in the ditch, we are saying whatever happened to them is tragic, and perhaps even wrong, but there is nothing we can do about it. 

When we ignore that person in the ditch we avoid being vulnerable to being hurt ourselves...because often times that pain and anguish is simply overwhelming...and perhaps that's the key...the priest and the Levite, ignored the man in the ditch because ultimately, they didn't want to deal with the turmoil of emotions and life going on within themselves...  and look where that has gotten us...It seems more and more the news is filled with tragic, horrific events...Ones that make me heartsick...and ones that will all too soon be forgotten by most of us, unt