Neighbourliness – loving and being loved and all that
Geoff Vidal	11 Jul 2010

Old Testament	AMOS 7:7-17 PSALM 82
New Testament	COLOSSIANS 1:1-14
Gospel	LUKE 10:25-37

If Jesus was here on the Gold Coast now, could you imagine a crowd gathered around him at a meeting? Most of us would be just listening (too under confident to speak) but some bold people would ask questions. They would ask things like “Jesus, what do we need to do about global warming? Jesus, what do we have to do to protect our grandchildren ?” And Jesus, how can we stop the fighting in Afghanistan and Palestine?” If Jesus responded to our questions in the same way that he answered questions people asked in the Gospels (and I am sure that he would), he would give us a simple answer (maybe illustrate it with a parable or a story) and we would probably be shocked and offended and angry at Jesus answers. And, just as happened in the Gospel stories, we would most likely go away not intending to follow Jesus advice. In Luke today, Jesus was asked by a clever and well educated person (a lawyer) “What must I do to inherit Eternal Life? Jesus responded by asking the lawyer a question which brought out the correct answer; “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength and your neighbour as your self” But the lawyer evidently felt foolish in front of the crowd. Maybe he was embarrassed thinking that he should have known the answer without Jesus help. So he begins a discussion on legalities, asking for definitions and details. He asks Jesus "And who is my neighbor?" People, whose motivation and sense of responsibility doesn’t come from a deep desire to do what is good but comes only from what the legalities are will always be seeking ways around the letter of the law. They want strict definitions so that they need go no further than the minimum requirements. Or they act in such a way as to get around the law, forcing the legislator to re-define it and politicians to draft more rules. So our laws become even more strict because of necessary precautions. So this lawyer, who no intention other than to test Jesus and justify himself, wants guidelines. Who is in, who is out? How much is enough? How little is not enough? Jesus answers with story of Good Samaritan. We all know it. Even kids know this story about stopping to help someone in trouble. We know that it goes without saying that, if you are out on a road in the bush, you stop to see if someone stopped beside the road needs help. We are appalled by stories of people in strife not being helped. And at sea it is critical that the nearest ship goes in aid of another ship in trouble. We understand that the neighbour I am asked to love as much as I love myself is the one who helps me. Well, let’s think about who helps me? Who helps you? Ultimately that’s God! We need to accept help from God or we’ll die by the side of the road. Now that requires us to see that we are robbed / battered; and to see that we need help from “The Neighbour” In other words, the correct question for us to ask is not “God, what should I do to inherit Eternal Life ?” but “God, what will YOU do for me so that I may inherit Eternal Life?” And God’s answer is JESUS! God helps us to love our neighbour because Jesus shows us how. In following Jesus we are guided and strengthened so that we are able to love our neighbour. But, in the parable, who are we? None of us would like to think that we are the Priest or the Levite who walks on by on the other side of the road. We really attempt to improve ourselves by changing from being a person who walks by to being a Good Samaritan But I think it’s very possible that we are the victim. We are robbed and battered. Our peace and prosperity has been affected by the clearing of forests and misuse of our precious water resources. Generations in the middle east have been robbed by the foolish decisions made after WW1 (the Balfour declaration to make boundaries in Iraq and Kuwait and Jordon ….etc) The robbers have left us half-dead on the road, but we have been found by the Good Samaritan who was passing by. You have had wine and oil poured upon you; you have received the Sacrament of Jesus …the Only-Begotten son of God in Baptism. In turning to Jesus, you have been lifted up and placed on his own ambulance donkey and you have been brought to the inn called “church”. This inn that looks a bit shabby and even a bit unfriendly at times; the inn called “church” that people standing outside often criticize (mostly unfairly …. often in ignorance …. but sometimes with justification) But, you are in the care of the Church. That is why you ask Mike or Julia or Jim or me to teach you things on Sundays. And it turns out eventually that all of us here in church are caregivers (so we support the ministry of SPACC and we provide Pastoral Care to our friends). So, in this story that Jesus told, the amazing thing is that we aren’t just the Good Samaritan that offers help; we are also the bleeding and robbed victim who is in need of help. And we are actually even more than being both the healer and the healed. We are the care giving innkeeper too. As we pray that we would have the generosity to be like Jesus, lifting up and caring for one another, we also need to pray for the humility to let ourselves be cared for. And remember that, in the story, the innkeeper was promised: “I will pay you back whatever more you spend, when I come through here on my return." When we assist someone, we are not even spending our own resources! Everything that we are using up in giving care is the Lord's! God has provided us with all the resources we now have. Those resources aren’t ours to keep for ourselves. We innkeepers have been given gifts from God to help those brought to our inn for us to care for. This is the big surprise. We aren’t just the do-gooding Samaritan, we are also the victim who is being lovingly cared for and we are the innkeeper who has been given resources to provide care for others. We are cheating God if we don’t use properly all the resources that have been entrusted to us. And if we do use those resources we can’t boast about it, because we are not giving away things that we really own anyway. But Jesus didn’t teach all this because it is fascinating and interesting and thought-provoking. Jesus wanted us to make an appropriate response. Jesus ended the story by having us think about the question …. “who is this neighbour you are to love as you love yourself?” Just as the lawyer in the story came out with the obvious answer, we all respond, “The neighbour to the man who was robbed has to be the one who was kind to him; the one who stopped and showed mercy”. So there it is! There is nothing else for us to do but to “go, then, and do the same”