5 Pentecost/Year C
July 14, 2019
Amos: 7:7-17; Psalm 82; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37
A beloved story…
Today’s gospel reading includes one of the most well-known parables in the bible to many of us sitting here this morning…It’s also a pretty well-known story to those who perhaps claim no church affiliation, or had no association with a faith community when they were growing up. It is one of many familiar teaching stories that Jesus shares to help others see for themselves…what Loving God and your neighbors looks like: Loving God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
I imagine many of us, sitting here today would have no trouble retelling this story with ease to others.
So, who needs another sermon on this passage...we all know the message and meaning of the story: The Samaritan, the compassionate one who stops to help the man who was robbed and beaten, the Samaritan, the one who shows mercy, and cares for the man who was left for dead, is the one who illustrates what it means to love your neighbor…and we discover…that “our neighbor” is really everyone we pass by…and of course, as the story ends…Jesus tells us to “Go, and do likewise.” We get it.
So, why? Why another sermon on a familiar gospel story? Why read or listen to the scriptures that you’ve probably heard well over 100 times in your lifetime?
Why? Because…the scriptures still have something to teach us…every time we encounter them…
The familiar stories still have so much to teach us, every time we encounter them…there is always something new we can take away from the story…from the scriptures…every time we pause to open up our hearts and minds to listen anew…and allow ourselves to look again, listen again, look a little closer, listen a little closer, look at them from a different angle or perspective, listen again to the words being spoken today…Because today is a new day…we are not the same person…who heard that familiar story last time…the context in which we are hearing the story today is different…the people, the community, the world, the blessings and challenges that are present in one’s lives today…have all changed…
I’m thinking of the children’s stories that I am currently reading and re-reading with my grandchildren and the children here in church. When I was a child, I noticed different things in the stories, than what I notice now. Even though the “story” is familiar…I am noticing new things in the details that I hadn’t noticed before…
In our first reading from Amos today, the Lord asks Amos, “What do you see?” In the beginning of our gospel reading today, Jesus asks the lawyer a question, “What do you read there?”
I wonder, if we could ask ourselves those same questions, every time we sat down to read or listen to the scriptures or a familiar story in the bible?
What do you see? What do you read there?
I wonder, if being intentional about looking for and listening for signs of what God is doing in our lives today…would help us pay attention to new details that reveal themselves to us…and discover something new that would inspire us to see our neighbors anew…and we would pray that we may know what things we ought to do, and be given the grace and power faithfully to accomplish them…
Let me give this a try…
When I read and re-read the familiar gospel story throughout the week…I kept those 2 questions in front of me….What do you see? What do you read there?
Those two questions…prompted me to wonder and ask more questions…
What is it about listening to familiar stories, that we are so quick to judge and zero in on the characters, who are portrayed as the ones Not doing the “right thing”…
What is it about listening to familiar stories which cause us to jump ahead to the ending that we already know, without paying closer attention to the details of the whole story…as we hear it today…
What is about listening to familiar stories, that draw our attention to the surface of the page – forgetting – that in this story – there was someone, a fellow human being, a neighbor, who was robbed, beaten, forgotten, passed by, and left for dead…why do we glance over that…
What is it about listening to familiar stories and thinking how wonderful “that Samaritan” did the right thing….he really was so kind, compassionate and caring…he really is a good example of what it means to love our neighbors as ourselves…
It is only fitting, that Jesus ends the story by telling the lawyer…Go, and do likewise…telling him to follow the example of the Samaritan…
But, what is it about listening to familiar stories and scriptures in the bible that we forget that Jesus is speaking to us today, too…when he says…Go, and do likewise…
Let me stop for a moment…and think about those 2 questions again, that I began with:
What do you see? What do you read there?
Right there on the page, I see…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
And who is my neighbor?
The neighbors I am thinking of today, are those like the man who was robbed and beaten in today’s story, the ones who are easily overlooked, the ones lying in the ditch, the ones we pass by every day, because they make us nervous, afraid, uncomfortable, and are an inconvenience…
The neighbors I am thinking of today, are the ones we judge and pass by, those struggling with addiction, or mental health issues…
The neighbors I am thinking of today are the ones who are afraid of their futures – their jobs, their healthcare, their education…
The neighbors I am thinking of today, are those who are fearful and being displaced because of fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes…
The neighbors I am thinking about today, are the mothers and fathers, the brothers and sisters, the grandparents, the aunts and the uncles…that are being separated from one another, from their children, the ones who are suffering, and being cast aside, passed by… hidden in plain sight…
If I could sum up, what’s rising to the surface for me today, in this familiar story, it would be the realization of so many forgotten neighbors, who are being passed by daily…we watch the daily news and are overwhelmed at the complexities of the issues and challenges before us…we don’t know what we can do or where to begin….
But, something else I see, once again, with new eyes today…in the example of the Samaritan who responded with love and compassion, is that it took one person, moved with pity, to stop and bring hope and healing to the life of another fellow human being…a person who matters to God….it took one person….to remind us…of our call to love our neighbor…a person who matters to God…and should matter to us, too…
Yes…one person…but imagine, how that one person, and another person, and another would add up…every time, each one of us answered the call to go and do likewise…Imagine if we payed attention to that detail too, of the familiar story and we were inspired to do the same…
In the re-reading and listening of this familiar story today, when we take a closer look at the world around us, indeed, we would see that there are already many people following the example of the Samaritan….reaching out in a variety of ways to love and help their neighbors…
But, as we heard in last week’s gospel reading…the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few…God can always use more helpers…
Fred Rogers, the one we know best from a long-running children’s show, Mr Roger’s Neighborhood…spent a lifetime teaching children and adults about being a good neighbor…
One of my favorite quotes attributed to him, has to do with focusing on the helpers that are out there…
He said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
So, yes…pay attention to the details of the people who are often passed over, discarded, and forgotten…but don’t stop there…look for the helpers…look to the ways you have seen God at work in the world around you, through the neighbors you meet and are called to serve…. go, and do likewise…
There’s always more to the story, no matter how many ways we look at it…no matter how many times we hear it… we are all called to be a part of it…the greatest story ever told… the old, old story…of Jesus and his love…
We all love a good story…don’t we?
Then let’s leave this place today….inspired by the hearing of this beloved old story, once again, and go…go out into the world, to share this beloved story with others…the story of Jesus and his love.
Closing Prayer/Hymn: Lift Every Voice and Sing II - #64 I Love To Tell the Story – JAZZ RENDITION
I love to tell the story
Of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory,
Of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story,
Because I know it's true;
It satisfies my longings
As nothing else would do.
I love to tell the story;
Twill be my theme in glory.
To tell the old, old story
Of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story,
For those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting
To hear it, like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory,
I sing the new, new song,
'Twill be the old, old story
That I have loved so long.
I love to tell the story;
Twill be my theme in glory.
To tell the old, old story
Of Jesus and His love.
Rev. Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska