Won't You Be My Neighbor?

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you. We can never thank you enough for all the gifts you give us. You gave us Jesus, and you gave us the Holy Spirit when he left. So we have his spirit with us all the time. You gave us your word in the Bible, your promises, your history, your very presence every day. We can speak and pray with you and thank you for your blessings. We ask that you will open our ears today as we listen to the words you gave us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. The scripture today is from Luke the 10th, chapter 25 to 37. The Good Samaritan. Just then, a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? What do you read there? The man answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, and Jesus said, you have given the right answer. Do this and you will live. But wanting to justify himself, the man asked jesus, and who is my neighbor? Jesus replied, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed on by the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him, and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, take care of him, and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend. Now, which of these Jesus said, do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? And the man said, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, God, and do likewise. This is the word of the Lord. [00:02:51] Speaker B: Good morning. When I saw today's lectionary passage, I did a little fist pump. Yes, love your neighbor. It felt so timely. Like, this is what we've been trying to say all along, right? This is what we saw after the Eaton fire and after the Palisades fire. We saw so many people in our communities treat each other like neighbors. We saw it in the protests recently, not just in Pasadena or in La but across the US as we considered those who are immigrants our neighbors, and we loved them. And when I read this passage, I was armed and ready to preach against those who don't get it, who fail to love their neighbor. I looked for modern day priests and Levites, you know, the ones who follow God but pass by neighbors in need. Then I kept reading the passage and I felt convicted. When we read Scripture, if all we find is problems with other people and not ourselves, we're missing the point. If all we find is problems with other people and not ourselves, we're missing the point. After all, isn't that why Jesus told us, why are you trying to get the speck out of your neighbor's eye when there's a plane in your own? I used to think this parable was mainly about the contrast between the priests and the Levite and the Samaritan, that it was a call to stop being like the religious people who claimed to follow God but ignored their neighbor, be like the Samaritan who helped. But the more I sat with the story, the more I realize that Jesus never tells us why the priest or the Levite passed by. He doesn't focus on them at all. They're like a side point. This story isn't about why people fail to love or who fails to love. It's about what love looks like when it shows up in even the most shocking circumstances. The real contrast and focus of this story is between the lawyer who wants to limit the love of a neighbor to a particular neighbor, and the Samaritan who showed limitless love to whoever was in front of him. See, when the lawyer came to Jesus to ask him, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus turns it back, what is written in the law. And given that he's a lawyer and an expert in the law, he had the right answer. Love God and love your neighbor. But then the lawyer presses, who then is my neighbor wanting to justify himself? I think he wanted to hear Jesus or expected Jesus to say, well, this person's your neighbor and this person's not. Because Jewish law had a lot to say about how we should treat our neighbor. It was actually very clear and it was very compassionate. But the Israelite community considered neighbors to be those who were in the Israelite community. Definitely not Gentiles and definitely not Samaritans. So in typical Jesus fashion, in response to the lawyer's question, he doesn't answer. He gives a story and he shifts the focus. He turns who is my neighbor into am I being a neighbor? And so we Read. A man is attacked and left half dead. And you'll notice Jesus doesn't tell us anything about this man. He may as well be John Doe. We don't know any identifying features of this man. It's essentially a fill in the blank, is attacked because his identity doesn't matter. There's nothing about who this man is or could be that would disqualify him or qualify him to receive the care that he will receive. So we see the priest, he sees the man, passes by the Levite sees the man and passes by. And it's surprising, yes, because we expect those who are religious leaders, those who express the love of God and love of neighbor, to then show it. But it's also not entirely unexpected. Jesus doesn't give us any motivations about why the priest or the Levite passed by this man. And there are a lot of theories that scholars have debated about why they might have chosen, what, what valid reason they might have had to pass by. And they don't always stand up. And I don't think it really matters because there's always reasons that we have not to help, even for the most religious. And if we're honest, even for us, I mean, there's even a bystander effect. The idea is that when an individual is surrounded by a bunch of other people and there's somebody in danger, that individual is actually less likely to help because we assume that somebody else will do it. It's why, actually, if any of you have been trained in first aid, one of the first things they teach you is point somebody out and tell them specifically to call 911. Because when people say somebody call 911, everybody assumes somebody else is going to do it. We all have our reason. Or sometimes the bystander effect comes into play because we freeze. We're afraid of how we're going to be perceived, or we're afraid we're going to do it wrong. What if we cause more damage? And funnily enough, that's actually why we have laws called Good Samaritan laws to encourage people to act because your rights are protected in case you do do something wrong. The reality is we've all crossed the street to avoid someone in need. In fact, some of us might even have driven past a homeless person this morning on the way to church. We all have our reasons, whether good or not. But what is most shocking and borderline offensive about this passage is that the next character to enter the scene is a Samaritan because of how well known this passage is. This parable when we hear the word Samaritan, we think good. It's like an automatic association. It's common vernacular for us. If you want to talk about somebody who gives of themselves to somebody in need without expecting anything in return, you call them. You say they're being a good Samaritan. We're so used to that association. We have those laws that I talked about. But in Jesus time, to use a Samaritan as an example of something good would have landed like a punch in the gut. You see, the Samaritans and the Jews had a deep animosity towards each other and a hostile history. They shared common ancestry and religious roots, but they differed significantly over their beliefs. The Samaritans only accepted the first five books of what we now call the Old Testament. And they believed that the true place of worship was Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem. Samaritans believed that Jews had corrupted the faith by adding books like the prophets to the Holy Scripture and by moving the center of worship to Jerusalem. And so for Jews, Samaritans were heretics. They were ethnically impure. In fact, just a chapter before this parable in Luke, the disciples visited a Samaritan village. But the Samaritans rejected Jesus and the disciples. And so the disciples responded in kind, asking Jesus, lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them? You don't say that about somebody you moderately dislike. That's intense. But that's how bad it was. They disparaged the Samaritans wrongly and maybe even rightly, they had their reasons. And so it was shocking that of all people, that this kind of person would be the one to be moved with compassion, to show what it means to be a neighbor. One whose definition of neighbor proved to be limitless, one who showed mercy. I don't want to just tell you this parable, though. This morning, I want you to feel it. I want you to feel it how the lawyer would have felt it. And so let me try to retell it. Today, an immigrant is attacked in downtown la. A pastor sees him and moves to the other side of the road. A church elder walks past, sees the man, and he too passes by. Then a man in a maga hat sees the man and moves toward him with compassion. He helps. He binds the man's wounds. He drives him to the hospital and pays for his care. Or you can flip it, the man in the maga hat is the one attacked. And the person who stops, the one who helps is the immigrant. Doesn't that make you uncomfortable? This Parable was meant to make us uncomfortable because we are like the lawyer. Jesus deliberately chose an enemy of the Jews to be the neighbor. He chose someone who was clearly on the other team to show that the call to love your neighbor as yourself is not limited to one group. It is so limitless that it includes, yes, even your enemy. We all have these deeply held tendencies to divide the world into ever smaller circles of insiders and outsiders, friends and enemies, Democrat and Republican, poor or rich, citizen or immigrant, queer or straight, not neurodivergent or neurotypical. We use these labels to help us define who is our neighbor that we are called to love. But as James says, mercy triumphs over judgment. And Jesus, the only one actually capable of executing any kind of righteous judgment, chose mercy. He showed us that mercy is offered to those that we least expect and those we most want to resist. You might remember the woman caught in adultery. Jesus refused to throw the stone. Or maybe you remember Zacchaeus, the tax collector, the one who profited off the people. Jesus showed him mercy. Or the thief on the cross. Jesus showed him mercy. He didn't ignore the sin, but he interrupted the cycle of judgment with love and mercy for the heart of God, who we love with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind is full, full of mercy and compassion, is willing to forgive, to restore and welcome even the undeserving. For we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We often want justice on our terms. We want fairness. We want punishment and exclusion when it's deserved. But justice on our terms limits our definition of neighbor to those who deserve it. And if that were true, we wouldn't be a part of it. For Jesus, the definition of neighbor is limitless because none of us deserve it and he loves us anyway. The lawyer asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? Jesus did not respond with a list of who qualifies. He challenged the lawyer to be the neighbor to whoever is in front of him, including people who offend us, who challenge us, who disagree with us. It wasn't about the Samaritan being the hero. It was about making the shocking choice to love anyway. And I'll admit to you, this is one of the hardest sermons I've ever preached. I want exceptions. Even as I was preparing this sermon, I kept thinking about, but what about this person? Them too, like it's bad. Have you seen what they've done? You seen what they said? Did you see what they tweeted? But when I look at Jesus. [00:18:19] Speaker A: I. [00:18:20] Speaker B: Can'T find Exceptions, Just love, just mercy. So what do we do? How the heck do we do that? I think we change our perspective. Instead of using our convictions to exclude people, we consider how might we hold those convictions while still loving people? It is choosing to love someone whose needs, fears, beliefs or even way of life we don't understand or agree with. Jesus did not compromise truth, but he also did not withhold love. So how? I think it starts with curiosity. In the infamous show TED Lasso, he offers these simple words of be curious, not judgmental. I think about that line a lot. I think about how many people will say something or do something and I just bemoan, I just don't get it. How could they do that? How could they say that? How could they think that? I don't understand. Yeah, I don't. And how do we understand? We get curious. We ask questions. I think about our 4 year old son Levi, who is heavily now in the why stage. You know when you're driving along and why this and you give an answer and why and why, you start realizing you don't even know much at all. It's exhausting and it's also really beautiful because that curiosity comes from a place of love. It comes from this deep desire for him to understand. Because he wants to see the world the way I see it. He wants to get why I see things the way I do. And that, my friends, is where neighbourly love begins. We ask questions and we get curious. And even when the answers are not what we like or what we believe we love anyway, it is as it was for the Samaritan, uncomfortable, costly and boundary breaking. Neighborly love interrupts the cycle of judgment and exclusion with mercy. It is the only kind of love of the kingdom of heaven. And I truly believe it is the only kind of love that actually changes the world we live in. But you don't have to start with the whole world. Start with one. Ask yourself this morning, is there someone that I have written off that God might be asking me to see again with compassion? Can I be a safe, loving presence to someone who challenges my beliefs and assumptions? Can I get curious? The lawyer asked who is my neighbor? Jesus asked who was the neighbor to the man, the one who showed mercy. Go and do likewise. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.