The Service
I once read that the most holy moment in all of creation is the “wow” of a child. I’ve reflected on this in my life many times. I’ve experienced the “wow” of new discovery many times, and I would lean towards agreeing that there is something powerful and holy in the moment when we say “wow” and experience or understand the world in a new way.
Having said that, there is something delightfully appropriate in having the two readings we shared earlier, as part of our service. Today we’ve invited our Graduates to come and join us, and as part of our long standing tradition that we’ve observed – a tradition where we wish our grads well as they make the transition from one chapter of their lives to another.
Our reading about the demoniac at Gerasene, is NOT a comment on our grad class, but rather it is represents for me personally one of the stories that altered the course of my life as I moved through the transition of graduation. This story is very much a revisiting of a holy “wow” moment.
In the spring of 1988, I was privileged to be a participant on a study tour offered by the University of Toronto to Jordan, Egypt and Israel. For six weeks we toured the Holy Land and explored its religious, political, economic and environmental features. We met with Arabs and Israelis, Jews, Christians, and Muslims. For six weeks we traveled and studied all over that tiny corner of the world that garners more than its fair share of headlines. The entire trip was a holy “wow” filled with many many holy “wows”.
But one afternoon we stood on the top of a steep hill that overlooked the Sea of Galilea. Our tour guide began to recount the story from Luke that we shared a moment ago … He described Jesus and the disciples crossing the sea by boat and arriving at the foot of the hill where we stood. He pointed over the side of the hill to the location of a historic area of graves. He motioned to the brush in the other direction and indicated that if we stayed quiet we might catch a glimpse of the wild pigs who inhabited the area.
As he spoke he informed us that we were standing on the site of the only story from Jesus’ life that can be accurately pinpointed on a map. Using the clues of the text from Luke, there is ONLY one place on the entire eastern shore of The Sea of Galilea where this story could happen … one hill, one place with graves, one place with wild pigs that when startled will run into the water and drown because they can’t swim … one place where a story of Jesus can be marked on a map with 100% certainty.
I was awe struck … and that afternoon as we drove back from our time along the shore and in the Golan Heights to the east of where we stood, I was overcome with a sense of awe that lead me to WANT to study further the scriptures.
A fire was lit … a fire of learning … In that moment I knew that I wanted to do something – anything – with Scriptures and spend my life exploring and better understanding them … All because I stood on the top of a hill over looking the grey-green waters of the Sea of Galilea and heard – this is the place it happened … the only place it could have happened.
It was a holy “wow” that lit a fire and it was a fire that in time lead me back to the church and to the pulpit … it was a fire that in time lead me to embrace the United Church’s courageous stance on things like social justice, gay and lesbian rights, support of First Nations people and fair trade. It was a fire that continues to burn within me – each time I open the scriptures to prepare for Sunday Morning worship, or in my own devotions, I begin with a silent prayer – a hope – that something new will be revealed to me …
This is especially important in the reading and rereading of familiar Biblical stories. The stories I know well – the stories I’ve read a dozen times over my lifetime. I seek to reclaim the holy “wow” moment …
The story of the Demoniac at Gerasene is very familiar to me. For 17 years, I read and re-read the story thinking of that day in the Mediterranean sunshine learning about where it actually happened. I’ve preached on this story from that point of view several times.
Then in the fall of 2006, I attended the Rural Ministry Conference in Muenster Saskatchewan and listened as Cam Harding, a professor from Saskatoon laid out the story – this story – in a radical new way. He described both the story and the events contained within as an expression of defiance and rebellion against the Roman empire … the pigs, the name of the demons, all of it – every detail was in Cam’s view an expression of defiance by a rural faith community to a political and economic empire that REALLY didn’t care about anyone or anything but the profits it could extract from the rural areas … it was a holy “wow” in the fullest sense of the moment.
It was a radically new understanding of the text – it made a great deal of sense, and it was born of Cam’s research and companionship journey with farm families enduring and surviving farm bankruptcy. He ended his reflection by tying his interpretation of Luke to modern events gripping the churches of the prairies … and wondered if it wasn’t time for a little defiance on OUR parts …
The fire of learning intensified. I returned from Muenster more deeply committed to ministry in the rural setting. But more than that, my commitment turned to seeking to understand the Biblical texts and our common faith as something that can speak to the situation on the prairies today … we can no longer be bound by the way things were or have been. Now is the time for radical actions, radical ways of being church, radical ways of living out our faith.
Living outside the box.
Now instead of standing idly by and shaking our heads as our rural areas depopulate and our churches struggle and multi-nationals expand their control over everything … our faith … our understanding of scriptures … our way of being church requires, and I would dare to say – demands that we revision what Church is to speak and live words of hope to the world around us – to ourselves, our family, our neighbours, our communities …
The familiar must become a means of understanding the world in bold new ways … the old stories must inspire us to new ways of seeing the world around us …
Such is the spirit of Graduation … before us is not a continuation of the way things are and have been … before us today – before our grad class – is potential and possibility … in the coming days you will, and you must, test your wings … In the coming days and weeks it is about being like Elijah and finding the presence of God, our higher power, the holy – whatever terms we are most comfortable with – finding that presence in the world around us and letting it work in and through us … the task of the graduates is to experience the holy “wows” that are ALL around us … and to share those moments with all of us …
Graduation is the moment in time when collectively we commit to tomorrow being better than today … Graduation is the moment when we feel inside ourselves the fire of learning that will never be extinguished, and that continues to glow and burn within us … Graduation is the moment in time when we stand poised before potential and possibility … Tomorrow is a new day – it is unwritten and unfettered … It can not be what yesterday has been – it can not be what today is … it must be what it can be …
New experiences, new understandings, new ways of seeing and living in the world are before ALL of us … today as we send the Graduating Class of 2007 into the world with our blessings and our prayers, our task is to follow them by continuing our learning and our experiencing the holy wow in everything we do …
And undergirding it all is the realization that like Elijah in the cave – sometimes the holy is found in the most unexpected of places … it will NOT be found where we expect it – it will be found where God wants it to be found … Go into the world today and search it out …
May it be so … thanks be to God …
Let us pray:
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Sermon for JUne 17th 2007
This sermon is a dialogue ... But it is NOT your usual dialogue between two people.
One of the people is a flesh and blood person, the other person is ... well, Joey is a puppet ... For far too long, my puppet voices have been silenced. This week, as part of the Sunda School lead Worship Service, Joey decided it was time to return ...
The following is our conversation ... it was fun ... Joey promises he'll be back !!
Joey: Church is boring.
Shawn: Boring? Why is it boring?
It has music, there are lots of people, we eat a fair bit, we talk about important stuff. How can you say Church is boring?
Joey: Yeah, but it is still booooooorrrrrrrrring!!!
Where’s the good music? The choir is great and nice and everything, but …
Shawn: Joey. The choir works really hard …
Joey: I know they do. But it’s not MY kind of music.
I like Rock’n’Roll baby … Rock’n’Roll !!
Shawn: Speaking of Rock’n’Roll, you wouldn’t know where
my MP3 player might be, would you?
Joey: (too quickly, averting his gaze) Nope. Haven’t seen it.
Shawn: So … you like Rock music and the Choir’s music
isn’t your thing. There’s really nothing wrong with Choir music … Besides that, there are lots of people around you can visit with.
Joey: How many of them, besides you, want to be friends
with a puppet?? When I talk to them they just start laughing, then they look away … I see it … trust me on this one …
Shawn: Okay … what about the food. We eat together once
in awhile. Like today – we’re having a BBQ down at the park …
Joey, what’s boring around here?? If it’s not the people,
or the music, or the food, the only think left is the preach…
Joey: Is it raining outside? Would you look at that, I think it’s
raining outside? Don’t you ??
Shawn: JOEY !!
Joey: I think it’s raining outside …
Shawn: Joey, are you saying my preaching is boring?Joey: (pause) NO. I think you just said that …
Shawn: Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Joey: You’re welcome.
Shawn (pause): Well, you have to admit that today hasn’t
been boring …
Joey: Yea, instead of preaching, you’re sitting in front of
everyone talking to a puppet !!! (laughing)
Shawn: You have to admit that today hasn’t been boring –
the kids – the laughter – it’s been kind of exciting and unpredictable even.
Joey: Yeah, it’s been kind of fun.
Shawn: And I’m not even preaching …
Joey: Yeah, today is a banner day isn’t it ??
Shawn: Is my preaching THAT bad??
Joey: Oh, your preaching is okay for what it is. Don’t be so
hard on yourself …
Shawn: For what it is?? What does that mean ??
Joey: Did you know you’re bald?
Shawn: Joey!!
Joey: What?? … You are …
Shawn: Joey. Stop trying to avoid this. You brought this up.
Joey: I’m not trying to avoid anything, but man you ARE bald
and sometimes there’s a glare …
Shawn: Can you forget about my head …
Joey: Not likely …
Shawn: Joey. Can we talk about why the church is boring
and not talk about my head, or my preaching …
Joey: Hey, you keep bringing this up …
Shawn: (deep breath) SO. Church is boring?
Joey: Not always. But sometimes.
Shawn: What do you mean, ‘not always’?
Joey: Well, it’s kind of like the story that ……… just read.
The woman in the story was crying and washing Jesus’ feet and then, dried them with her hair.
That was just a cool story.
Shawn: It was a cool story. In Jesus’ day a woman touching
your feet like that was forbidden, and anointing or cleaning them like she did was completely unheard of. The authorities of the day including Simon the host, were HORRIFIED.
Joey: Horrified? What does horrified mean??
Shawn: Disgusted. Outraged. Mad. Ticked off … take your
pick …
Joey: They were horrified because a girl touched Jesus’ feet?
It was Jesus who should have been ticked off, not Simon … I mean, a girl touching his feet – YUCK !!!
Shawn: Well, the religious authorities of Jesus time went
way beyond just “YUCK”. They didn’t like much of what Jesus said or what he was about. They didn’t like what he was doing with, or who he was hanging out with, and so they got really mad.
Joey: Mad?
Shawn: Mad. Mad enough to kill him …
Joey: WOW !!! They got mad enough to kill him because he
let some girl touch his feet … that’s harsh.
Shawn: Well, that wasn’t the only reason why. There’s more
to the story than just a girl touching his feet …
Joey: WHAT??? She didn’t try to hug or kiss him did she??
Eeeewwww …
Shawn: No, no. Jesus did OTHER things that made the
Church people of his time mad. He hung out with the wrong kind of people. He tried to change how they worshipped at the temple (their church) He wanted them to talk about God in a different way. He got children and women and others involved in what he was doing … he was radical … and he offended a lot of people by the way he did things …
Joey: Wow … he sounds kind of cool …
Shawn: He was.
Joey: And they killed him for that??
Shawn: Yeah … they did. And we can learn about it at
church … here we can learn about how much Jesus rocked the boat …
Joey: OH !! Is that when he walked on water?
Did he rock the boat so much that he fell out and had to walk home?
Shawn: Not quite. He rocked the boat by trying to do things
in new ways that were just too different for the people, and they got mad.
Joey: OH. Like kids leading worship … what kind of crazy
thing is that??
Shawn: Yes, Joey, kind of like kids leading worship …
Joey: Talking about everyone being included in God’s
love …
Shawn: Maybe …
Joey: Like using Rock’n’Roll in Church …
Shawn: Maybe … Jesus had an idea about HOW things
could be if we really let the Spirit work through us and around us … But too often people get worried and get angry when things change too much, and …
Joey: They killed him.
Shawn: Yup. They killed him.,
Joey: Huh … That woman who washed Jesus’ feet was
smart …
Shawn: Why?
Joey: Because she wanted to honour Jesus, and when she
did he told her that God loved her too …
Shawn: You’re right … That’s the WHOLE point of the
story … the point of Jesus’ ministry … the point of the church … all of it …
Joey: (mouth open) That we should wash each other’s feet?
Shawn: No. That we are ALL loved by God …
unconditionally and with out limits or restrictions …
Joey: Wow !! That’s cool …
Shawn: Very Cool. But too often, we lose sight of that, and
we forget to make that our ONLY priority.
Joey: Our only priority? What does that mean?
Shawn: That we worry about, and get all worked up over silly
things …
Joey: Like boring preaching?
Shawn: (deep breath) Yeah, like boring preaching … The
point is though – that God wants everyone to feel included and welcome …
Joey: But sometimes we’re like Simon and we get all upset
and mad instead.
Shawn: Exactly.
Joey: I bet that makes God sad, because when that happens
in church and school or anywhere, it makes me very sad …
Shawn: You’re pretty smart …
Joey: for a puppet ??
Shawn: No. You’re pretty smart period.
Thanks Joey, this has been kind of fun …
Joey: sure beats you preaching …
Shawn: Thanks ….
Let us pray …
One of the people is a flesh and blood person, the other person is ... well, Joey is a puppet ... For far too long, my puppet voices have been silenced. This week, as part of the Sunda School lead Worship Service, Joey decided it was time to return ...
The following is our conversation ... it was fun ... Joey promises he'll be back !!
Joey: Church is boring.
Shawn: Boring? Why is it boring?
It has music, there are lots of people, we eat a fair bit, we talk about important stuff. How can you say Church is boring?
Joey: Yeah, but it is still booooooorrrrrrrrring!!!
Where’s the good music? The choir is great and nice and everything, but …
Shawn: Joey. The choir works really hard …
Joey: I know they do. But it’s not MY kind of music.
I like Rock’n’Roll baby … Rock’n’Roll !!
Shawn: Speaking of Rock’n’Roll, you wouldn’t know where
my MP3 player might be, would you?
Joey: (too quickly, averting his gaze) Nope. Haven’t seen it.
Shawn: So … you like Rock music and the Choir’s music
isn’t your thing. There’s really nothing wrong with Choir music … Besides that, there are lots of people around you can visit with.
Joey: How many of them, besides you, want to be friends
with a puppet?? When I talk to them they just start laughing, then they look away … I see it … trust me on this one …
Shawn: Okay … what about the food. We eat together once
in awhile. Like today – we’re having a BBQ down at the park …
Joey, what’s boring around here?? If it’s not the people,
or the music, or the food, the only think left is the preach…
Joey: Is it raining outside? Would you look at that, I think it’s
raining outside? Don’t you ??
Shawn: JOEY !!
Joey: I think it’s raining outside …
Shawn: Joey, are you saying my preaching is boring?Joey: (pause) NO. I think you just said that …
Shawn: Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Joey: You’re welcome.
Shawn (pause): Well, you have to admit that today hasn’t
been boring …
Joey: Yea, instead of preaching, you’re sitting in front of
everyone talking to a puppet !!! (laughing)
Shawn: You have to admit that today hasn’t been boring –
the kids – the laughter – it’s been kind of exciting and unpredictable even.
Joey: Yeah, it’s been kind of fun.
Shawn: And I’m not even preaching …
Joey: Yeah, today is a banner day isn’t it ??
Shawn: Is my preaching THAT bad??
Joey: Oh, your preaching is okay for what it is. Don’t be so
hard on yourself …
Shawn: For what it is?? What does that mean ??
Joey: Did you know you’re bald?
Shawn: Joey!!
Joey: What?? … You are …
Shawn: Joey. Stop trying to avoid this. You brought this up.
Joey: I’m not trying to avoid anything, but man you ARE bald
and sometimes there’s a glare …
Shawn: Can you forget about my head …
Joey: Not likely …
Shawn: Joey. Can we talk about why the church is boring
and not talk about my head, or my preaching …
Joey: Hey, you keep bringing this up …
Shawn: (deep breath) SO. Church is boring?
Joey: Not always. But sometimes.
Shawn: What do you mean, ‘not always’?
Joey: Well, it’s kind of like the story that ……… just read.
The woman in the story was crying and washing Jesus’ feet and then, dried them with her hair.
That was just a cool story.
Shawn: It was a cool story. In Jesus’ day a woman touching
your feet like that was forbidden, and anointing or cleaning them like she did was completely unheard of. The authorities of the day including Simon the host, were HORRIFIED.
Joey: Horrified? What does horrified mean??
Shawn: Disgusted. Outraged. Mad. Ticked off … take your
pick …
Joey: They were horrified because a girl touched Jesus’ feet?
It was Jesus who should have been ticked off, not Simon … I mean, a girl touching his feet – YUCK !!!
Shawn: Well, the religious authorities of Jesus time went
way beyond just “YUCK”. They didn’t like much of what Jesus said or what he was about. They didn’t like what he was doing with, or who he was hanging out with, and so they got really mad.
Joey: Mad?
Shawn: Mad. Mad enough to kill him …
Joey: WOW !!! They got mad enough to kill him because he
let some girl touch his feet … that’s harsh.
Shawn: Well, that wasn’t the only reason why. There’s more
to the story than just a girl touching his feet …
Joey: WHAT??? She didn’t try to hug or kiss him did she??
Eeeewwww …
Shawn: No, no. Jesus did OTHER things that made the
Church people of his time mad. He hung out with the wrong kind of people. He tried to change how they worshipped at the temple (their church) He wanted them to talk about God in a different way. He got children and women and others involved in what he was doing … he was radical … and he offended a lot of people by the way he did things …
Joey: Wow … he sounds kind of cool …
Shawn: He was.
Joey: And they killed him for that??
Shawn: Yeah … they did. And we can learn about it at
church … here we can learn about how much Jesus rocked the boat …
Joey: OH !! Is that when he walked on water?
Did he rock the boat so much that he fell out and had to walk home?
Shawn: Not quite. He rocked the boat by trying to do things
in new ways that were just too different for the people, and they got mad.
Joey: OH. Like kids leading worship … what kind of crazy
thing is that??
Shawn: Yes, Joey, kind of like kids leading worship …
Joey: Talking about everyone being included in God’s
love …
Shawn: Maybe …
Joey: Like using Rock’n’Roll in Church …
Shawn: Maybe … Jesus had an idea about HOW things
could be if we really let the Spirit work through us and around us … But too often people get worried and get angry when things change too much, and …
Joey: They killed him.
Shawn: Yup. They killed him.,
Joey: Huh … That woman who washed Jesus’ feet was
smart …
Shawn: Why?
Joey: Because she wanted to honour Jesus, and when she
did he told her that God loved her too …
Shawn: You’re right … That’s the WHOLE point of the
story … the point of Jesus’ ministry … the point of the church … all of it …
Joey: (mouth open) That we should wash each other’s feet?
Shawn: No. That we are ALL loved by God …
unconditionally and with out limits or restrictions …
Joey: Wow !! That’s cool …
Shawn: Very Cool. But too often, we lose sight of that, and
we forget to make that our ONLY priority.
Joey: Our only priority? What does that mean?
Shawn: That we worry about, and get all worked up over silly
things …
Joey: Like boring preaching?
Shawn: (deep breath) Yeah, like boring preaching … The
point is though – that God wants everyone to feel included and welcome …
Joey: But sometimes we’re like Simon and we get all upset
and mad instead.
Shawn: Exactly.
Joey: I bet that makes God sad, because when that happens
in church and school or anywhere, it makes me very sad …
Shawn: You’re pretty smart …
Joey: for a puppet ??
Shawn: No. You’re pretty smart period.
Thanks Joey, this has been kind of fun …
Joey: sure beats you preaching …
Shawn: Thanks ….
Let us pray …
Sermon for June 10th 2007
The Service on June 4th was lead by one of our Church Members ... I was away at the AGM of Conference ...
I’m not sure why, but this last week I’ve been thinking about, and encountering the story of the Good Samaritan quite frequently … I have a rule of thumb that when I encounter reference to a book more than three times in short order, I track it down and read it … I regard such things as a gift of the spirit.
So, this week, as I’ve encountered The Good Samaritan, I had to wonder why … As I read the reading of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and Jesus and the widow of Nain, I wondered even more …
The Good Samaritan story is a good story. It has all the elements one needs for high drama, but more than all of that – it has a powerful lesson about our expectations running hard aground on God’s expectations.
To remind you – the story of the Good Samaritan is a parable told by Jesus that is about a man who is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was in Jesus day a commonly traveled route – it was one of the main thoroughfares from the Jerusalem to Galilee in the north and Arabia in the east and the empires that lie in the modern countries of Syria and Jordan. It was traveled by many people – and along its path lurked many bandits who thought nothing of attacking you, beating you and leaving you for dead …
So in this context Jesus posited his most powerful and enduring parable. A man was traveling along this road when he was attacked by thieves. The robbed hin, beat him severely and left him for dead by the side of the road …
Soon another traveler came along the road. It was a priest, perhaps on his way to work in the temple in Jerusalem. He paused briefly and saw the man, but moved to the other side of the road – perhaps he feared for his own safety, wondering if the wounded man was a decoy placed there to attract other travelers … he went on his journey and ignored the wounded man …
Next came a Levite. A Levite is another priestly man, a worker in the Temple, one who over sees the vast and complex operations of the enormous temple compound. A Levite is one of those who enforces, maintains and interprets the law. He saw the man and he too passed by on the other side of the road. He perhaps feared being rendered unclean, and thereby unable to perform his office when he arrived in Jerusalem. He had his career to consider after all. Someone else would stop and help this man …
The third traveler in Jesus’ story was a Samaritan. An outcast – an outsider – someone who doesn’t fit in and who doesn’t belong. He is the guy that if arrived at coffee tomorrow morning, everyone would stare at … people would move out of his way … if he dared to sit at your table, you would get up and move away …
Yet it was the Samaritan – the outsider – the out cast – the cast off, who stopped and helped the man. He tended his wounds on the side of the road then carried him to the next town where he placed him in the care of an innkeeper and promised to pay the bill when he next passed through town …
Jesus ended his parable asking the question – “Who was a neighbour to this man?”
The broader question becomes – how can we emulate the lesson of the Samaritan, and not only be like him, but recognize when we are like the priest and the Levite, but on a deeper level – recognize and do something about those moments when we would reject the Samaritans in our midst?
I can remember using the parable of the Good Samaritan with a group of High School Students at a Catholic High School in Kingston when I was a Theology Student. I asked them to put the story in a modern context and place real people in each place … The traveler was a man traveling from Kingston to Toronto. The priest was first cast as Father Brian the Oblate who served as chaplain to the school – then one of the boys said – “Oh come on, Father Brian wouldn’t walk past someone on the road … he’s be the first one to help …”
So the priest and the Levite became the Principal and the Teacher of the class … It took some time for the kids to find a person to be the Samaritan. They suggested the Korean store owner down the block, they suggested an turbaned immigrant, they ran through a long list of possibles until deciding it would be a leather clad Hell’s Angel biker.
What struck me was the way in which the kids were very aware of the outsiders in their own communities – the outcasts. The immigrants, the newcomers, the marginalized … with each choice they named the “isms” that operate so easily in our society.
By the end of the session – they got it. They really understood on a deep level the lesson of the Good Samaritan – not only are we called to be a neighbour to the wounded we find on the road, we are called to be a neighbour to the outsider and the cast offs amongst us too …
As I read our scripture stories today that class came back to me because they saw the NEED for the boundaries that divide humanity to not just fall, but to be actively removed. The stories of Elijah and Jesus are more than quaint stories. They are powerful moments where the status quo is not only challenged – the status quo gets dumped on its ear.
Elijah was housed, fed and hosted by a widow – a NON-JEWISH widow … Elijah was fed once by Ravens – the big black and ritually unclean and non-Kosher birds … and now he is being fed by a non-Jewish widow. This woman is a Samaritan in Elijah’s world, and yet here he is sitting at table with her sharing her meal and not only offering her the miracle of flour and oil lasting until the famine passes, he raises her son from the dead as well …
This is a story that causes us to say – “hey, what’s up with that??”
As a good Jew, we would want to call out – “what about us? We’re faithful? We’re good. We’re deserving. Why don’t we get some of that?”
Then we turn to the story of Jesus enacting a similar miracle in Nain, a village in the Galilean region. And we would ask the same questions … “what about me?”
These stories are NOT fair … They are not right … the outsiders get the blessings …
We could engage in theological gymnastics and say – “oh, if they are getting those kinds of blessings and are SO undeserving, think of the depth of blessings, WE THE GOOD PEOPLE, will get …” But that’s not the point.
The psalm reading we shared a moment ago speaks of God’s abundance in the many many blessings of Creation. It is a psalm that speaks words of praise for those many blessings …
That is the point … God’s love … God’s miracles … God’s compassion … God’s caring … God’s living presence is SO abundant and so vast, that EVERYONE is included and everyone is a recipient and everyone experiences these things AS GOD SEES FIT.
This about God’s blessings – not ours …
The challenge is for us to open our eyes, our hearts, our spirits and our lives to not only hear the words of these stories - but to live them. Two of God’s messengers – Elijah and Jesus, challenged the status quo by bestowing the blessing of LIFE in the face of death on the outcasts … God’s blessings are for ALL people, not just those we like and whose ways appeal to us …
The story of the good Samaritan challenges the status quo by condemning those who can’t move beyond their self interests, and by challenging us to be open to God’s work being enacted by the least likely, least expected and perhaps most reviled …
God’s blessings are there for all people in abundance … the challenge for us, is to lift our limits and our restrictions and let the spirit flow …
A flour jar that has no bottom … an oil jar that keeps flowing … life restored in the face of death … a kindly traveler … all of it are simply examples of where God’s love pours through in abundance … in the stories before us, the recipients were the unlikely and the unwanted … Such are the vagaries of God and God’s unending Grace …
The challenge for us is to let God’s Grace and love flow …
May we have the faith to wisdom to have it happen …
Thanks be to God … Let us pray …
I’m not sure why, but this last week I’ve been thinking about, and encountering the story of the Good Samaritan quite frequently … I have a rule of thumb that when I encounter reference to a book more than three times in short order, I track it down and read it … I regard such things as a gift of the spirit.
So, this week, as I’ve encountered The Good Samaritan, I had to wonder why … As I read the reading of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and Jesus and the widow of Nain, I wondered even more …
The Good Samaritan story is a good story. It has all the elements one needs for high drama, but more than all of that – it has a powerful lesson about our expectations running hard aground on God’s expectations.
To remind you – the story of the Good Samaritan is a parable told by Jesus that is about a man who is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was in Jesus day a commonly traveled route – it was one of the main thoroughfares from the Jerusalem to Galilee in the north and Arabia in the east and the empires that lie in the modern countries of Syria and Jordan. It was traveled by many people – and along its path lurked many bandits who thought nothing of attacking you, beating you and leaving you for dead …
So in this context Jesus posited his most powerful and enduring parable. A man was traveling along this road when he was attacked by thieves. The robbed hin, beat him severely and left him for dead by the side of the road …
Soon another traveler came along the road. It was a priest, perhaps on his way to work in the temple in Jerusalem. He paused briefly and saw the man, but moved to the other side of the road – perhaps he feared for his own safety, wondering if the wounded man was a decoy placed there to attract other travelers … he went on his journey and ignored the wounded man …
Next came a Levite. A Levite is another priestly man, a worker in the Temple, one who over sees the vast and complex operations of the enormous temple compound. A Levite is one of those who enforces, maintains and interprets the law. He saw the man and he too passed by on the other side of the road. He perhaps feared being rendered unclean, and thereby unable to perform his office when he arrived in Jerusalem. He had his career to consider after all. Someone else would stop and help this man …
The third traveler in Jesus’ story was a Samaritan. An outcast – an outsider – someone who doesn’t fit in and who doesn’t belong. He is the guy that if arrived at coffee tomorrow morning, everyone would stare at … people would move out of his way … if he dared to sit at your table, you would get up and move away …
Yet it was the Samaritan – the outsider – the out cast – the cast off, who stopped and helped the man. He tended his wounds on the side of the road then carried him to the next town where he placed him in the care of an innkeeper and promised to pay the bill when he next passed through town …
Jesus ended his parable asking the question – “Who was a neighbour to this man?”
The broader question becomes – how can we emulate the lesson of the Samaritan, and not only be like him, but recognize when we are like the priest and the Levite, but on a deeper level – recognize and do something about those moments when we would reject the Samaritans in our midst?
I can remember using the parable of the Good Samaritan with a group of High School Students at a Catholic High School in Kingston when I was a Theology Student. I asked them to put the story in a modern context and place real people in each place … The traveler was a man traveling from Kingston to Toronto. The priest was first cast as Father Brian the Oblate who served as chaplain to the school – then one of the boys said – “Oh come on, Father Brian wouldn’t walk past someone on the road … he’s be the first one to help …”
So the priest and the Levite became the Principal and the Teacher of the class … It took some time for the kids to find a person to be the Samaritan. They suggested the Korean store owner down the block, they suggested an turbaned immigrant, they ran through a long list of possibles until deciding it would be a leather clad Hell’s Angel biker.
What struck me was the way in which the kids were very aware of the outsiders in their own communities – the outcasts. The immigrants, the newcomers, the marginalized … with each choice they named the “isms” that operate so easily in our society.
By the end of the session – they got it. They really understood on a deep level the lesson of the Good Samaritan – not only are we called to be a neighbour to the wounded we find on the road, we are called to be a neighbour to the outsider and the cast offs amongst us too …
As I read our scripture stories today that class came back to me because they saw the NEED for the boundaries that divide humanity to not just fall, but to be actively removed. The stories of Elijah and Jesus are more than quaint stories. They are powerful moments where the status quo is not only challenged – the status quo gets dumped on its ear.
Elijah was housed, fed and hosted by a widow – a NON-JEWISH widow … Elijah was fed once by Ravens – the big black and ritually unclean and non-Kosher birds … and now he is being fed by a non-Jewish widow. This woman is a Samaritan in Elijah’s world, and yet here he is sitting at table with her sharing her meal and not only offering her the miracle of flour and oil lasting until the famine passes, he raises her son from the dead as well …
This is a story that causes us to say – “hey, what’s up with that??”
As a good Jew, we would want to call out – “what about us? We’re faithful? We’re good. We’re deserving. Why don’t we get some of that?”
Then we turn to the story of Jesus enacting a similar miracle in Nain, a village in the Galilean region. And we would ask the same questions … “what about me?”
These stories are NOT fair … They are not right … the outsiders get the blessings …
We could engage in theological gymnastics and say – “oh, if they are getting those kinds of blessings and are SO undeserving, think of the depth of blessings, WE THE GOOD PEOPLE, will get …” But that’s not the point.
The psalm reading we shared a moment ago speaks of God’s abundance in the many many blessings of Creation. It is a psalm that speaks words of praise for those many blessings …
That is the point … God’s love … God’s miracles … God’s compassion … God’s caring … God’s living presence is SO abundant and so vast, that EVERYONE is included and everyone is a recipient and everyone experiences these things AS GOD SEES FIT.
This about God’s blessings – not ours …
The challenge is for us to open our eyes, our hearts, our spirits and our lives to not only hear the words of these stories - but to live them. Two of God’s messengers – Elijah and Jesus, challenged the status quo by bestowing the blessing of LIFE in the face of death on the outcasts … God’s blessings are for ALL people, not just those we like and whose ways appeal to us …
The story of the good Samaritan challenges the status quo by condemning those who can’t move beyond their self interests, and by challenging us to be open to God’s work being enacted by the least likely, least expected and perhaps most reviled …
God’s blessings are there for all people in abundance … the challenge for us, is to lift our limits and our restrictions and let the spirit flow …
A flour jar that has no bottom … an oil jar that keeps flowing … life restored in the face of death … a kindly traveler … all of it are simply examples of where God’s love pours through in abundance … in the stories before us, the recipients were the unlikely and the unwanted … Such are the vagaries of God and God’s unending Grace …
The challenge for us is to let God’s Grace and love flow …
May we have the faith to wisdom to have it happen …
Thanks be to God … Let us pray …
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