IN YOUR FACE
Jesus said the first commandment is this: Shema Yisrael, Adonai elehenu, Adonai echod, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second commandment is this: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
You may be seated.
A beloved parable: ”The Good Samaritan”, a Bible story for children to color pictures in Sunday School, I did it myself as a child. We have a beloved parable, and we have it wrong.
Over the centuries there has been a lot of art visualizing the parable.
And there is the story of folks visiting the Holy Land, and one day the tourbus stopped in front of the ruins of an ancient building and the tour guide stood up and announced, “This was the inn where the Good Samaritan took the stranger who was set upon by robbers and left for dead.” And someone on the bus scoffed, “That was just a story, a parable Jesus told, it did not really happen”. To which the unfazed tour guide said “Well, if it had really happened, this would have been the inn”.
Jesus dealt in short stories, parables, which were confrontations. Maybe while I’m speaking you will finally hear, see, perceive, realize, understand what he’s talking about in this parable, that Jesus is talking to you. That he’s not praising the Good Samaritan, he’s holding him up as a contrast with you, the listeners, the smug lawyer, the upstanding citizens who pass by on the other side of the road.
I will tell you that, as an Old Testament fan, my inclination this morning was and is to preach from Amos, Amos, who prophesied “you yourself shall die in an unclean land,” (and sure enough, here we are), Amos, one of the four eighth century prophets of doom, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos and Micah, each an unlikely character who prophesied against evil government for its inhumanity and its shading of truth and its lust for power and glory; and each prophet prophesied against the people and culture for their greed and hatefulness and prejudice and ungodly certainty of their own righteousness, over against the love of God and love of neighbor.
I might prefer Amos, but only once in three years does the lectionary come across the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a story of a man hated simply for what he is, hated because he is Other, hated because he is not “one of us”, in the story a good and righteous man, let us say a Muslim or a Democrat who came along and did a good thing simply because it was the right thing for a decent human being to do, and suddenly the light comes on in our dimly lit, self-certain head that Jesus is chastising us, turning our own "Personal Gospel" garbage cans upside down and dumping them out so we and all the world can see prejudice and hate for the filth it is, that those we hate are as good as we are, that Truth about Others is the opposite of everything we think and have been taught in our culture and have always “known”.
A parable is a roundabout way of making a point, and the point of this parable is that “what you’ve always known for certain” is the opposite of God’s Truth. Which is that the people you most despise are better than you always thought, and indeed may be more human and more godly than you.
If you think this is a cute and beloved little children’s Sunday School Bible story and you come out of it feeling good about the Good Samaritan, “Oh what a nice man, I’ll be like that” you’ve utterly missed it. Because Jesus does not mean for you to find yourself in the Good Samaritan; he’s telling the story to you, the listener, about you, the listener, at you, the listener; where the listener is the worshiper in the pew, and the temple priest, and the Levite; and the lawyer who wants to justify himself but who still does not get it. The parable is a sharp comeuppance. The point of Jesus story is not to go out and be the Good Samaritan as some editor* (who himself did not have sense enough to understand the parable) has “corrected and improved” Luke and Jesus by adding to end it “Who was neighbor?” and “Go and do likewise”: Jesus does not explain and moralize his parables, he tells the story, drops it in your lap, and lets it explode in your face.
The story is not about the Good Samaritan, the story is about ignorance and evil prejudice against other people. The point of the story is that you are dead wrong in what you think and say and believe about those who are not like you, those you hate, despise, rail against in your heart and in your mind and on social media as queers and libs and homos and Latinos and illegal immigrants and radical Islamists and pro-life and pro-choice and I won’t say the N-word that is filthier from the mouth than the F-word and the S-word; when I was growing up in polite Southern society it used to be delicately, “the darkies”, as in Stephen Foster, “it’s summer, the darkies are gay”.
Jesus did not come to soothe and comfort and assure (to descend into Modalism, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job!). Jesus came with fire and a sword, Jesus came against everyone who hates and against everyone who is certain against those who are not like you. The Good Samaritan is in your face, told at you. Jesus is talking to each person who hates, and who knows himself Greater than and Better than, and Whiter than, and Straighter than, and more righteous than, and his/her religion and politics and race and social class True and all others false and less. The parable is about “What is Truth?” when Truth is looking you in the face and telling you the story, and you cannot see, hear, perceive, realize, understand.
The parable is not affirming. The story is not about the Good Samaritan. The story is about you, the listener. The story is to everyone who is certain that others are wrong and you are right. And the Good Samaritan is not you, the Good Samaritan is everyone you hate, every person and group of people you cannot stand because they are “Other”.
Amos, Jesus, and Luke: the gospel of the Lord.
+++++++++++++++
Sermon in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida, Sunday, July 14, 2019. The Rev Tom Weller. Text: Luke 10:25-37
* "some editor", possibly the same editor or editors who "corrected" and "improved" and "completed" the Gospel according to Mark by adding all the material after Mark's intentionally startling ending at Mark 16:8a
You may be seated.
A beloved parable: ”The Good Samaritan”, a Bible story for children to color pictures in Sunday School, I did it myself as a child. We have a beloved parable, and we have it wrong.
Over the centuries there has been a lot of art visualizing the parable.
And there is the story of folks visiting the Holy Land, and one day the tourbus stopped in front of the ruins of an ancient building and the tour guide stood up and announced, “This was the inn where the Good Samaritan took the stranger who was set upon by robbers and left for dead.” And someone on the bus scoffed, “That was just a story, a parable Jesus told, it did not really happen”. To which the unfazed tour guide said “Well, if it had really happened, this would have been the inn”.
Jesus dealt in short stories, parables, which were confrontations. Maybe while I’m speaking you will finally hear, see, perceive, realize, understand what he’s talking about in this parable, that Jesus is talking to you. That he’s not praising the Good Samaritan, he’s holding him up as a contrast with you, the listeners, the smug lawyer, the upstanding citizens who pass by on the other side of the road.
I will tell you that, as an Old Testament fan, my inclination this morning was and is to preach from Amos, Amos, who prophesied “you yourself shall die in an unclean land,” (and sure enough, here we are), Amos, one of the four eighth century prophets of doom, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos and Micah, each an unlikely character who prophesied against evil government for its inhumanity and its shading of truth and its lust for power and glory; and each prophet prophesied against the people and culture for their greed and hatefulness and prejudice and ungodly certainty of their own righteousness, over against the love of God and love of neighbor.
I might prefer Amos, but only once in three years does the lectionary come across the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a story of a man hated simply for what he is, hated because he is Other, hated because he is not “one of us”, in the story a good and righteous man, let us say a Muslim or a Democrat who came along and did a good thing simply because it was the right thing for a decent human being to do, and suddenly the light comes on in our dimly lit, self-certain head that Jesus is chastising us, turning our own "Personal Gospel" garbage cans upside down and dumping them out so we and all the world can see prejudice and hate for the filth it is, that those we hate are as good as we are, that Truth about Others is the opposite of everything we think and have been taught in our culture and have always “known”.
A parable is a roundabout way of making a point, and the point of this parable is that “what you’ve always known for certain” is the opposite of God’s Truth. Which is that the people you most despise are better than you always thought, and indeed may be more human and more godly than you.
If you think this is a cute and beloved little children’s Sunday School Bible story and you come out of it feeling good about the Good Samaritan, “Oh what a nice man, I’ll be like that” you’ve utterly missed it. Because Jesus does not mean for you to find yourself in the Good Samaritan; he’s telling the story to you, the listener, about you, the listener, at you, the listener; where the listener is the worshiper in the pew, and the temple priest, and the Levite; and the lawyer who wants to justify himself but who still does not get it. The parable is a sharp comeuppance. The point of Jesus story is not to go out and be the Good Samaritan as some editor* (who himself did not have sense enough to understand the parable) has “corrected and improved” Luke and Jesus by adding to end it “Who was neighbor?” and “Go and do likewise”: Jesus does not explain and moralize his parables, he tells the story, drops it in your lap, and lets it explode in your face.
The story is not about the Good Samaritan, the story is about ignorance and evil prejudice against other people. The point of the story is that you are dead wrong in what you think and say and believe about those who are not like you, those you hate, despise, rail against in your heart and in your mind and on social media as queers and libs and homos and Latinos and illegal immigrants and radical Islamists and pro-life and pro-choice and I won’t say the N-word that is filthier from the mouth than the F-word and the S-word; when I was growing up in polite Southern society it used to be delicately, “the darkies”, as in Stephen Foster, “it’s summer, the darkies are gay”.
Jesus did not come to soothe and comfort and assure (to descend into Modalism, that’s the Holy Spirit’s job!). Jesus came with fire and a sword, Jesus came against everyone who hates and against everyone who is certain against those who are not like you. The Good Samaritan is in your face, told at you. Jesus is talking to each person who hates, and who knows himself Greater than and Better than, and Whiter than, and Straighter than, and more righteous than, and his/her religion and politics and race and social class True and all others false and less. The parable is about “What is Truth?” when Truth is looking you in the face and telling you the story, and you cannot see, hear, perceive, realize, understand.
The parable is not affirming. The story is not about the Good Samaritan. The story is about you, the listener. The story is to everyone who is certain that others are wrong and you are right. And the Good Samaritan is not you, the Good Samaritan is everyone you hate, every person and group of people you cannot stand because they are “Other”.
Amos, Jesus, and Luke: the gospel of the Lord.
+++++++++++++++
Sermon in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida, Sunday, July 14, 2019. The Rev Tom Weller. Text: Luke 10:25-37
* "some editor", possibly the same editor or editors who "corrected" and "improved" and "completed" the Gospel according to Mark by adding all the material after Mark's intentionally startling ending at Mark 16:8a