Love Along the Roadside

Preached by Pastor Grant Lynn Ford at the Sunshine Cathedral at the 9:50 and 11:10 am services on Sunday, October 1, 2006.

The Written Word

The Light of Affirmation

The Phoenix Affirmations: # 5

The Path of Jesus is found where Christ’s followers uplift and celebrate the worth and integrity of all people as created in God’s very image and likeness. We…affirm that Christ’s Path includes treating people authentically rather than as mere categories or classes, challenging and inspiring all people to live according to their high identity.

Genesis 1:27, 31

²⁷So God created humans to be like God’s self. ³¹God looked at what God had done. All of it was very good!...

Luke 10: 25-37 (CEV)

²⁵An expert in the Law of Moses stood up and asked Jesus a question to see what he would say. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to have eternal life?”

²⁶Jesus answered, “What is written in the Scriptures? How do you understand them?”

²⁷The man replied, “The Scriptures say, `Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.’ They also say, `Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.’”

²⁸Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life.”

²⁹But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was talking about. So he asked Jesus, “Who are my neighbors?”

³⁰Jesus replied:

As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead.

³¹A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. ³²Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side. ³³A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him ³⁴and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. ³⁵The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, “Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return.” ³⁶Then Jesus asked, “Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?”

³⁷The teacher answered, “The one who showed pity.”

Jesus said, “Go and do the same!”

The Proclaimed Word

A man and wife were driving through the beautiful Welsh countryside one day when they came across a road sign that identified the town as having the longest town-name in the world. I can’t pronounce it, but it looks like this: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

The husband says the name and his wife laughs. “That’s not how you pronounce it,” she says and proceeds to say it herself. Her husband nearly crashes the car laughing and they start debating how to pronounce the name.

Well the debate soon becomes an argument and coming up to lunchtime they pull into a restaurant in the town whose name is the subject of the argument. As they’re settling their bill, the wife says to the cashier, “Excuse me, but would you mind settling an argument between my husband and me? Could you possibly pronounce the name of where we are, only please do it very, very slowly.”

The cashier leans forward and says “Buuuuuuurrrrrrrrrgggggeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr Kiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnngggggggg.”

If you’re ever in Wales you’ll surely not want to bypass this town. It’s really there, only they usually just call it “Llanfair P.G.”

The name means “St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave.” The townsfolk are very proud of their little town and its name. If you ask one of them to pronounce it, they’ll be happy to oblige.

Of course, it seems strange to think that a husband and wife would argue over the pronunciation of a name. But arguments start over the strangest things, and they can just ruin your day.

It had been one of those mornings for the priest—the Judæan priest, that is. He’d gotten off on the wrong foot and an argument with his wife ensued. So he was late getting to work, and began his walk from down near Jericho up to Jerusalem.

As he was rushing along, all of a sudden he saw something alongside the road. He looked closer and saw that it was a body. At least the man looked dead. He knew that if he stopped, if he touched absolutely anything, he would not be able to work. He had his religious duties, he was running late, and so he hurried on.

There was a Levite following right behind him. The Levite had just had an argument with his roommate. (You know, two Jewish bachelors living together to save on expenses?!) The roommate had complained, “You’re always working. Why don’t you take some time off so we can do something, go somewhere? We could take a little vacation to Galilee...”

The Levite pointed out, “You’re from the tribe of Judah; I’m from the tribe of Levi. It’s my job to work at the temple. I didn’t have a choice in who I was born to be, and neither did you. So don’t get upset; just let me be who I am.”

They made up, but it caused the Levite to be late, so he was hurrying, somewhat relieved to see that the priest was late, too.

He noticed that the priest hesitated and then went on. Then he saw the body, and knew that if he stopped, if he touched the blood that was everywhere, he’d not be allowed to do his religious duty. So he hurried after the priest.

This is where we begin to feel somewhat smug and superior. After all, we know that we would have stopped, just like the Good Samaritan did.

But let’s not forget that the priest and the Levite were only doing what was required of them. They were doing what they thought was right, following the rules.

It’s at this point that I’ve heard, “But you know how Jews are…” I admit that I don’t know, but I do know how easy it is to read anti-Semitism into the Gospel stories. We forget that Jesus was himself a Jew and that he would never have said anything to denigrate his own people, who he loved dearly. We need to remember that anti-Semitism is an egregious sin, the worst kind of racism, and can never be justified, not even by reading it into the Bible.

God forgive us when we have spoken ill of our fellow people of faith. God forgive us when treat people “as mere categories or classes”. God forgive us when we fail to challenge and inspire all people to live according to their high identity.”

Jesus wasn’t criticizing the priest and the Levite — we would say ‘deacon’ today — for doing their duty. They were clearly mandated to remain ritually clean if they were to serve in the Temple.

He was pointing out a very clear conflict within Halakhah, the Jewish way of living framed by the 613 mitzvot or laws that determine ritual purity. The whole concept of the mitzvah was based on ‘doing a good thing’, and indeed that’s exactly the expression used when somebody does something good or kind or generous today: it’s a mitzvah.

That’s where the Good Samaritan made the right choice, the mitzvah of love over the mitzvah of purity! As a Samaritan, he too had to weigh the need against the law. But the need, in his eyes, was greater. He demonstrated love along the roadside!

This business of ‘living in love’ and ‘loving our neighbor’ gets a bit messy. However, when even our most noble service and worship of God gets in the way of loving our neighbor, then love wins out if we are to be winners. It’s the teaching of the Torah, the only Bible Jesus ever knew. Leviticus 19:18 reads: “…love your neighbor as yourself.” And in the 34^th verse it says: “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love the stranger as yourself.”

Jesus wasn’t teaching anything new. He was telling them—and us—something known all along. I like the way our featured book, The Phoenix Affirmations, puts this affirmation: “…that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination…”

When we fail to live in the same love that surrounds us and caresses us, we fail life’s only true test. When we live in love by loving the person in need, then our humanity embraces our divinity, and we dance the arabesque of abundant living, the tango of triumph, the waltz that says: “Well done!”

Reach out your hand, right in front of you. Take a look; that’s God’s hand! Now feel your pulse. Feel that? That’s the heartbeat of God in you. That same pulse beats in the vein of your neighbor and every person on this planet. How can we wish harm of anyone who draws breath, breathing the same ruach, or wind, or breath of God, that we do? Can we do less than love the world that God loves, including us?

Mother Teresa tells us: “Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.”

So how do we love God in return? By loving the person who needs our love. And that’s the truth!