Year C
\u00a0Deuteronomy 30:9-14
\u00a0Psalm 25:1-9
\u00a0Colossians 1:1-14
\u00a0Luke 10:25-37<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good Samaritan laws\u2026 offer legal protection to people who assist those who are\u2026 or whom they believe to be\u2026 injured\u2026 ill\u2026 or otherwise incapacitated\u2026 and their purpose is to encourage people to help strangers in need\u2026 without fearing legal repercussions should they make some mistake in treatment\u2026 and every state has its own version of the Good Samaritan law\u2026 by contrast\u2026 a Duty to Rescue law\u2026 also somewhat variable… requires people to offer assistance\u2026 and may hold as liable\u2026 those who fail to do so\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So for example\u2026 in Alabama\u2026 protection under the Good Samaritan law is afforded only to rescuers who are medically trained… to public education employees\u2026 and to any lay person assisting a victim who is suffering from a cardiac arrest\u2026 so let’s say you live in Alabama and are not medically trained\u2026 one day you come across a car accident and remove the victim from the car\u2026 but in doing so\u2026 you further injure the victim\u2026 the Good Samaritan law in your state would not cover you\u2026 because you went beyond what was needed\u2026 on the other hand\u2026 if you live in Vermont\u2026 the Duty to Protect law is very different\u2026 it actually orders anyone\u2026 who comes across an accident\u2026 to help those in need\u2026 simply put\u2026 legal action can take place against someone for not helping\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And all Good Samaritan laws trace their origins back to today’s parable in Luke\u2026 and have ties to an account in Matthew 22:34-40 when a Pharisee\u2026 who’s also a lawyer\u2026 asks Jesus\u2026 Teacher\u2026 which commandment in the law is the greatest<\/em>\u2026 and to an account in Mark 12:28-34 when one of the scribes asks Jesus\u2026 Which commandment is the first of all<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In today’s parable\u2026 the lawyer responds to his own question about inheriting eternal life\u2026 with a two-part answer\u2026 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart\u2026 soul\u2026 strength\u2026 and mind\u2026 and love your neighbor as yourself<\/em>\u2026 while in Matthew and Mark\u2026 it’s Jesus\u2026 whose answer\u2026 ends with a similar exhortation about loving your neighbor yourself\u2026 but the lawyer couldn’t leave well enough alone\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s final sermon\u2026 as he prepared to demonstrate with sanitation workers in Memphis\u2026 he noted that the priest and Levite both ask themselves\u2026 If I stop to help this man\u2026 what will happen to me<\/u><\/em>\u2026 but when the Good Samaritan came by\u2026 he asks himself\u2026 If I don’t stop to help this man\u2026 what will happen to him<\/u><\/em>\u2026 but there’s a question within his question\u2026 If I don’t stop to help this man\u2026 what will happen to me<\/u><\/em>\u2026 what effect will it have on me\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n I ask you now to look at the image on your bulletin cover\u2026 David Gowler is Oxford College’s Pierce Chair of Religion at Emory University\u2026 and I share part of a reflection he wrote about Rembrandt’s etching\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The inn to which the Samaritan brings the wounded man\u2026 is in a state of disrepair\u2026 deep cracks appear in the outside wall\u2026 some of the boards on the railing of the steps are broken\u2026 and the wooden eaves are in the same shabby state\u2026 it is in this decaying and sometimes disturbing world \u2014 considering the unwarranted act of violence the wounded man has just suffered \u2014 that the Samaritan’s surprising act of mercy takes place\u2026 a place where everyday life continues as normal\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n A man gazes nonchalantly from a window as the wounded man is being helped down from the animal\u2026 a woman gets water from a nearby well\u2026 birds are in the tree above her\u2026 they really are there but are hard to see<\/em>\u2026 leaves drift down to earth\u2026 two chickens stand just in front of the well\u2026 and the woman pays no attention to the Samaritan’s act of kindness and mercy taking place just in front of her\u2026 and in the right front foreground\u2026 in a location nearest the viewer\u2026 a dog\u2026 with its back to us\u2026 defecates on the ground\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The centrality of the dog is striking\u2026 and the composition of the image leads viewers from the bottom right\u2026 where the dog performs a basic bodily function \u2014 up along a diagonal line to the left and back \u2014 where the Samaritan performs a selfless [ and perhaps ] basic act of mercy\u2026 and so why do we only see the back of the good Samaritan at a distance… but see the dog’s back so prominently\u2026 the provocative image of the dog seems designed\u2026 at least in part\u2026 to shock a polite audience\u2026 just as Jesus’ use of a compassionate and merciful enemy… a Samaritan\u2026 would have shocked his own initial audiences\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first\u2026 Professor Gowler thought that the presence of the dog conveyed the sole appearance of what is true and real\u2026 that is\u2026 what is profane\u2026 but he came to realize that it actually illustrates that life includes both the profane and the sacred\u2026 it’s just that the profane is more often in your face than the sacred is\u2026 and while this kind of focus can describe the human condition\u2026 it can also shed light on the various ways human beings respond to difficult circumstances\u2026 but to be clear\u2026 the parable does not focus on what should happen to the perpetrators of such injustices… whether individual or systemic\u2026 instead\u2026 it illustrates how we ought to treat the victims of such injustices… no matter who they are\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lawyer in today’s parable\u2026 knows better\u2026 answers Jesus’ question perfectly\u2026 but couldn’t leave well enough alone\u2026 and tries as hard as he can\u2026 to twist the law to his own advantage\u2026 a practice which continues with some lawyers to this day\u2026 to excuse himself from too broad a responsibility… and yet even after he hears Jesus’ parable\u2026 he knows precisely which of the three men had been a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers\u2026 the one who showed him mercy\u2026 and Jesus tells him to go and do likewise\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And it may also be worth asking\u2026 whether our reading from Deuteronomy catches us up short\u2026 because to paraphrase God’s words in vv. 11-14\u2026 What I’m asking of you today is easy\u2026 it’s not nearly as far removed as Heaven\u2026 and it’s not far beyond the sea\u2026 places you may wonder how to get to\u2026 and back from\u2026 because you know it\u2026 my Word is in your mouth\u2026 and in your heart<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And because the Greek word which refers to the Samaritan’s pity\u2026 more fully means to be moved to one’s bowels<\/em>\u2026 which may itself be something both sacred and profane\u2026 for the bowels were thought in the ancient world\u2026 to be the seat of love and pity\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n For centuries\u2026 this parable became for most interpreters\u2026 an allegory of the Christian view of salvation\u2026 in which the man\u2026 who symbolizes Adam<\/em>\u2026 is attacked by hostile forces in the world\u2026 the thieves\u2026 who represent Satan<\/em>\u2026 and is saved by Jesus\u2026 the true good Samaritan<\/em>\u2026 who restores sinful humanity… the wounded man<\/em>\u2026 to a right relationship with God in the church\u2026 represented by the inn<\/em>\u2026 but with this kind of interpretation\u2026 a parable by Jesus\u2026 has evolved into a parable about Jesus\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this parable offers us real hope\u2026 because it challenges us to reimagine ourselves\u2026 the world\u2026 our neighbors… and God\u2026 in radically different ways\u2026 in spite of what Michigan’s Duty to Rescue laws may or may not be\u2026 and to put that new perspective into concrete action in our daily lives\u2026 ] so there may be some things we can do\u2026 in addition to simply thinking and praying\u2026 to effect change where it is needed\u2026 to do things which benefit specific neighbors in concrete ways\u2026 but also things which improve the lives of entire populations in far-reaching and systemic ways\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And there’s a saying from the Talmud\u2026 which I believe applies to this Gospel lesson\u2026 it says\u2026 Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world\u2019s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work\u2026 but neither are you free to abandon it<\/em>\u2026 Holy God\u2026 make it so\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C\u00a0Deuteronomy 30:9-14\u00a0Psalm 25:1-9\u00a0Colossians 1:1-14\u00a0Luke 10:25-37 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Good Samaritan laws\u2026 offer legal protection to people who assist those who are\u2026 or whom they believe to be\u2026 injured\u2026 ill\u2026 or otherwise incapacitated\u2026 and their purpose is to encourage people to help strangers in need\u2026 without fearing legal repercussions should they make some mistake in treatment\u2026 and every state has its own version of the Good Samaritan law\u2026 by contrast\u2026 a Duty to Rescue law\u2026 also somewhat variable… requires people to offer assistance\u2026 and may hold as liable\u2026 those who fail to do so\u2026 So for example\u2026 in Alabama\u2026 protection under the Good Samaritan law is afforded only to rescuers who are medically trained… to public education employees\u2026 and to any lay person assisting a victim who is suffering from a cardiac arrest\u2026 so let’s say you live in Alabama and are not medically trained\u2026 one day you come across a car accident and remove the victim from the car\u2026 but in doing so\u2026 you further injure the victim\u2026 the Good Samaritan law in your state would not cover you\u2026 because you went beyond what was needed\u2026 on the other hand\u2026 if you live in Vermont\u2026 the Duty to Protect law is very different\u2026 it actually orders anyone\u2026 who comes across an accident\u2026 to help those in need\u2026 simply put\u2026 legal action can take place against someone for not helping\u2026 And all Good Samaritan laws trace their origins back to today’s parable in Luke\u2026 and have ties to an account in Matthew 22:34-40 when a Pharisee\u2026 who’s also a lawyer\u2026 asks Jesus\u2026 Teacher\u2026 which commandment in the law is the greatest\u2026 and to an account in Mark 12:28-34 when one of the scribes asks Jesus\u2026 Which commandment is the first of all\u2026 In today’s parable\u2026 the lawyer responds to his own question about inheriting eternal life\u2026 with a two-part answer\u2026 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart\u2026 soul\u2026 strength\u2026 and mind\u2026 and love your neighbor as yourself\u2026 while in Matthew and Mark\u2026 it’s Jesus\u2026 whose answer\u2026 ends with a similar exhortation about loving your neighbor yourself\u2026 but the lawyer couldn’t leave well enough alone\u2026 In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s final sermon\u2026 as he prepared to demonstrate with sanitation workers in Memphis\u2026 he noted that the priest and Levite both ask themselves\u2026 If I stop to help this man\u2026 what will happen to me\u2026 but when the Good Samaritan came by\u2026 he asks himself\u2026 If I don’t stop to help this man\u2026 what will happen to him\u2026 but there’s a question within his question\u2026 If I don’t stop to help this man\u2026 what will happen to me\u2026 what effect will it have on me\u2026 I ask you now to look at the image on your bulletin cover\u2026 David Gowler is Oxford College’s Pierce Chair of Religion at Emory University\u2026 and I share part of a reflection he wrote about Rembrandt’s etching\u2026 The inn to which the Samaritan brings the wounded man\u2026 is in a state of disrepair\u2026 deep cracks appear in the outside wall\u2026 some of the boards on the railing of the steps are broken\u2026 and the wooden eaves are in the same shabby state\u2026 it is in this decaying and sometimes disturbing world \u2014 considering the unwarranted act of violence the wounded man has just suffered \u2014 that the Samaritan’s surprising act of mercy takes place\u2026 a place where everyday life continues as normal\u2026 A man gazes nonchalantly from a window as the wounded man is being helped down from the animal\u2026 a woman gets water from a nearby well\u2026 birds are in the tree above her\u2026 they really are there but are hard to see\u2026 leaves drift down to earth\u2026 two chickens stand just in front of the well\u2026 and the woman pays no attention to the Samaritan’s act of kindness and mercy taking place just in front of her\u2026 and in the right front foreground\u2026 in a location nearest the viewer\u2026 a dog\u2026 with its back to us\u2026 defecates on the ground\u2026 The centrality of the dog is striking\u2026 and the composition of the image leads viewers from the bottom right\u2026 where the dog performs a basic bodily function \u2014 up along a diagonal line to the left and back \u2014 where the Samaritan performs a selfless [ and perhaps ] basic act of mercy\u2026 and so why do we only see the back of the good Samaritan at a distance… but see the dog’s back so prominently\u2026 the provocative image of the dog seems designed\u2026 at least in part\u2026 to shock a polite audience\u2026 just as Jesus’ use of a compassionate and merciful enemy… a Samaritan\u2026 would have shocked his own initial audiences\u2026 At first\u2026 Professor Gowler thought that the presence of the dog conveyed the sole appearance of what is true and real\u2026 that is\u2026 what is profane\u2026 but he came to realize that it actually illustrates that life includes both the profane and the sacred\u2026 it’s just that the profane is more often in your face than the sacred is\u2026 and while this kind of focus can describe the human condition\u2026 it can also shed light on the various ways human beings respond to difficult circumstances\u2026 but to be clear\u2026 the parable does not focus on what should happen to the perpetrators of such injustices… whether individual or systemic\u2026 instead\u2026 it illustrates how we ought to treat the victims of such injustices… no matter who they are\u2026 The lawyer in today’s parable\u2026 knows better\u2026 answers Jesus’ question perfectly\u2026 but couldn’t leave well enough alone\u2026 and tries as hard as he can\u2026 to twist the law to his own advantage\u2026 a practice which continues with some lawyers to this day\u2026 to excuse himself from too broad a responsibility… and yet even after he hears Jesus’ parable\u2026 he knows precisely which of the three men had been a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers\u2026 the one who showed him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1695,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[152,151,63],"class_list":["post-1694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","tag-effect-change","tag-good-samaritan","tag-love-your-neighbor-as-yourself"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/mid_00762400_001-e1657637125369.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1696,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions\/1696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}