What if it is Jesus in the ditch?

We can't tell for sure, and that is the way it is intended to be because that is how parables work. We can't tell for sure which character is intended to represent Jesus, and so let us consider that it is Jesus who is lying in that ditch, wounded and in need of life-saving help.

 What could we learn from that?

Clearly we aren't going to 'save' Jesus.  Clearly Jesus can 'save' himself if needed.  So why put the face of Jesus on that anonymous man in the ditch?

Perhaps so that whenever we look upon the wounded and abandoned people of our world we will see the face of Jesus.  Perhaps so when we encounter the lost, the lonely and the unwanted ones - especially the ones which will require some sacrificial giving on our part - we will see the face of Jesus, the wounded one.  Perhaps so we will begin to understand that to love God is to love that anonymous neighbor in need.  It is an understanding of the heart and not the head: we are reaching out not only in Jesus' name but we are reaching out to Jesus himself.

That's the way love works.  It generates deep compassion for those around us.  God's love for us in Jesus, the one who reached out to give us life and wholeness becomes the compassion with which we reach out to our neighbors.  The life Jesus gives us wells up into life-giving compassion for our neighbors in a never ending circle.  Love God - love neighbor - be loved by God - go love neighbor - love God.

One biblical author asks, How can you love the God you cannot see when you do not love the neighbor who is right there in front of your face? (clearly a paraphrase).

All this to come to the answer of the lawyer's question  Who is my neighbor?

The answer is Yes.

Looking up from a roadside ditch.......

At some point in every parable you have to decide which character you identify with.  A good interpretive approach is to move around in the story: be one character first, and then trade places and consider the story from another character's point of view. Today, we are going to lay down in that ditch (from the parable of the Good Samaritan Luke10) and consider the world and this story from that point of view.

It had been a nothing-unusual kind of day for this anonymous traveler, although the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was always a bit dangerous.  It was busy most days and so it was also a favorite of highway robbers.

That's how we ended up in the ditch: mugged, stripped, robbed.  Wounded and left without even our dignity, we now lay there and pray that someone ...anyone....will come to our aid.    We can hear the feet of passing travelers, yet they continue on.  Once, twice.  Without someone's help, we are lost.

Of all the things we know or think we know about this story, let me highlight what we don't know.  We don't know if the guy in the ditch was a Republican or a Democrat.  We don't know if he was a CEO or welfare recipient; whether he was a convicted felon or model citizen; whether he was straight or gay; whether he was a wife beater or in a happy and long marriage.  We don't know if he was brilliant or just barely literate; whether he was depressed or happy; whether he was a drug addict or in perfect health, whether he was a couch potato or a tri-athelete.  We don't know anything about this man in the ditch except this:  he was a person in desperate need of help.  It was life or death.  It was now or never.

So it wasn't politics or currying favor or identifying adequate credentials that led to a hand reaching out to that desperate, dying man.  It was compassion - the deep stirring of the heart which recognized a fellow human being abandoned by the world - that powered that act of mercy.  The wounds of the victim caused equal pain to the rescuer and he reached across the divide of 'all that my mother taught me' and gave life-saving aid.

I can only imagine the gratitude of the wounded man, but I imagine it as enormous, indescribable, and, truth be told, totally unexpected.  All that could be known about this wounded man was his wounded state and deep need....and apparently, that was enough for this unknown Samaritan.

Who reaches out to wounded people simply because they are in need?  Who is willing to do the hard work of bandaging and transporting him to an inn, nursing him for a couple days and then be willing to pay whatever it costs to bring him back to health?  Who cares that much?  Who can muster up that kind of compassion?  Who acts like that?

Jesus.  Want to know the breadth of God's love for God's creation?  Look at Jesus.  Want to know what kind of God has come to be among us?  Look at Jesus.  Want to know how God acts towards the anonymous,wounded people of this world?  Look at Jesus.

It is hard to tell what is more scandalous in this parable - that a hated Samaritan embarrassed observant Jews by living out the compassion of the Torah's teaching by loving the neighbor....

.....or that Jesus presents himself as a Samaritan: one of the hated ones; one of the unclean ones.
But the one, who in the end, poured out all he had and all he was for the sake of a wounded and dying humanity.

Love God, love your neighbor

The two great commandments: Love God, love your neighbor.  The lawyer who was questioning Jesus accurately stated the teaching of Torah, the law of the people of Israel.  Any child could have given the same answer.  The devil was in the details.  What does love of God look like?  How am I to love my neighbor?  How much?  How often?  To what degree?

And, in the end, Who counts as my neighbor?

That was what the lawyer wanted to know.  Define who my neighbor is and I will then go about 'loving' that person and thus fulfill my obligation to God.  [parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10]

Now, I am glad he was concerned about being in right relationship with God.  I don't think it is either fair or accurate to assume he was attempting to minimize the challenge of his commitment to following God nor to assign nefarious intent in his request for precision.  Not that there weren't darker intentions lurking behind all the questions:  we all have darker intentions, we all are looking for a way to ease our conscience, we all sin.  So let's not beat up on the lawyer.  He wanted to get it right.

But of course, you can't get the neighbor thing right if you don't get the 'love' part right, and love can be a slippery thing.  Love is a very deep well.  It is both cotton candy (very sweet, floating all over the place and sticking to everything) and as strong as steel.  Usually there are shared values, regard for the other's welfare, and a commitment to each other that defies outside forces.  It's about trust, respect and sacrifice.  Love is that which remains when all that is ephemeral disappears.  It is the hot core at the center of it all.

So, I think that we have a major problem before we even get to the neighbor question.  The demands of love are enormous and, truthfully, we don't act with love continually.  Sometimes the sacrifice that love demands is far greater than we are able or willing to give.  Yet, even as we cry out "I just can't!" we turn again and seek to 'love' again, giving it one more try.  Humans are inconsistent lovers.

Given the difficulty of love (whether it be God or neighbor) we move on to the difficulty of 'neighbor.'  Somehow we can convince ourselves that we 'love' God - deeply, consistently, with honesty.  This is easier because we don't run into God when we go to the market or pump our gas.  We don't have to talk to God before we have our morning coffee or at the water cooler at work (that isn't true, but that's a discussion for another day.)  Neighbors, however, are a much different subject.  We might love neighbors in the abstract, but people in the flesh are much harder to take.  With or without our morning coffee.

I understand the lawyer's desire to figure out who he is obligated to love as his neighbor.  Otherwise this whole 'love' thing could get out of hand; he needs some boundaries.  Who then is my neighbor?
It's one of those questions that if you have to ask, you don't understand what you are talking about.

And of course he doesn't understand what he is asking because we all live in a quid pro quo world and Jesus is talking about God's coming kingdom.  We live in a world where looking out for yourself, your family and then your friends is our primary focus and often more than we can handle.  We seek our advantage because, frankly, no one else will.  We separate some folks because we have about as much as we can handle here. The demands of providing are killing us now; we cannot be asked to provide for every other human being we encounter.

And he is right, of course.  We can't feed all the hungry or clothe all the teenagers or hire all the unemployed or find housing for all the homeless.  We can't do it all.  All of this 'loving' is killing us; there have to be limits.

Or maybe, it is all this 'not loving' that is killing us.  Maybe if there was a little more love in our relationships that man wouldn't have ended up in the ditch.  Perhaps he is left as good as dead because 'loving our neighbor' isn't a guiding principle for everyone.  We get another reminder of this as two - two! - apparently religious men see his plight and avoid responsibility by passing by on the other side - as far away from this 'neighbor' as they can get.

So now we are ready to hear how Jesus thinks about this, how God looks at this, and how God's heart responds to this Child of God lying in the mud by the road.

Be prepared for some sacrifice here.

Love God, love your neighbor

The two great commandments: Love God, love your neighbor.  The lawyer who was questioning Jesus accurately stated the teaching of Torah, the law of the people of Israel.  Any child could have given the same answer.  The devil was in the details.  What does love of God look like?  How am I to love my neighbor?  How much?  How often?  To what degree?

And, in the end, Who counts as my neighbor?

That was what the lawyer wanted to know.  Define who my neighbor is and I will then go about 'loving' that person and thus fulfill my obligation to God.  [parable of the Good Samaritan Luke 10]

Now, I am glad he was concerned about being in right relationship with God.  I don't think it is either fair or accurate to assume he was attempting to minimize the challenge of his commitment to following God nor to assign nefarious intent in his request for precision.  Not that there weren't darker intentions lurking behind all the questions:  we all have darker intentions, we all are looking for a way to ease our conscience, we all sin.  So let's not beat up on the lawyer.  He wanted to get it right.

But of course, you can't get the neighbor thing right if you don't get the 'love' part right, and love can be a slippery thing.  Love is a very deep well.  It is both cotton candy (very sweet, floating all over the place and sticking to everything) and as strong as steel.  Usually there are shared values, regard for the other's welfare, and a commitment to each other that defies outside forces.  It's about trust, respect and sacrifice.  Love is that which remains when all that is ephemeral disappears.  It is the hot core at the center of it all.

So, I think that we have a major problem before we even get to the neighbor question.  The demands of love are enormous and, truthfully, we don't act with love continually.  Sometimes the sacrifice that love demands is far greater than we are able or willing to give.  Yet, even as we cry out "I just can't!" we turn again and seek to 'love' again, giving it one more try.  Humans are inconsistent lovers.

Given the difficulty of love (whether it be God or neighbor) we move on to the difficulty of 'neighbor.'  Somehow we can convince ourselves that we 'love' God - deeply, consistently, with honesty.  This is easier because we don't run into God when we go to the market or pump our gas.  We don't have to talk to God before we have our morning coffee or at the water cooler at work (that isn't true, but that's a discussion for another day.)  Neighbors, however, are a much different subject.  We might love neighbors in the abstract, but people in the flesh are much harder to take.  With or without our morning coffee.

I understand the lawyer's desire to figure out who he is obligated to love as his neighbor.  Otherwise this whole 'love' thing could get out of hand; he needs some boundaries.  Who then is my neighbor?
It's one of those questions that if you have to ask, you don't understand what you are talking about.

And of course he doesn't understand what he is asking because we all live in a quid pro quo world and Jesus is talking about God's coming kingdom.  We live in a world where looking out for yourself, your family and then your friends is our primary focus and often more than we can handle.  We seek our advantage because, frankly, no one else will.  We separate some folks because we have about as much as we can handle here. The demands of providing are killing us now; we cannot be asked to provide for every other human being we encounter.

And he is right, of course.  We can't feed all the hungry or clothe all the teenagers or hire all the unemployed or find housing for all the homeless.  We can't do it all.  All of this 'loving' is killing us; there have to be limits.

Or maybe, it is all this 'not loving' that is killing us.  Maybe if there was a little more love in our relationships that man wouldn't have ended up in the ditch.  Perhaps he is left as good as dead because 'loving our neighbor' isn't a guiding principle for everyone.  We get another reminder of this as two - two! - apparently religious men see his plight and avoid responsibility by passing by on the other side - as far away from this 'neighbor' as they can get.

So now we are ready to hear how Jesus thinks about this, how God looks at this, and how God's heart responds to this Child of God lying in the mud by the road.

Be prepared for some sacrifice here.

A little help goes a long way.........

Atheists know  the point of the parable of the Good Samaritan, even if they have no idea that the original story is biblical or what exactly a Samaritan is.  For the record, a Good Samaritan is someone who goes out of her way to help someone she could just as easily ignore - a stranded motorist, an injured animal, anyone in need.  In many states, Good Samaritan laws protect a benevolent individual from liability when in the end, they weren't exactly the perfect help at all.

So we have some idea of what a Good Samaritan is, and since we Christians have some idea that we have a duty towards our neighbors, we expect that the point of the parable is our duty to be out there giving help to those in need.  And not just a little help, but extravagant help in dangerous situations and without regard to cost.

Thus is created a huge burden of conscience for many people of faith.  We are surrounded by people in need no matter where we live, which leads me to those folks who stand at the intersections of our major highways here in Syracuse with signs that read "A little help goes a long way...." If we choose to not help them out with some spare change or a sandwich, we usually drive away feeling at least a little guilty for doing nothing. Because we are supposed to, it is our duty, we are obligated.

So, with lightening speed, we manage to turn a parable of God's gracious mercy into a hammer of guilt.  We turn love and mercy into an obligation and God into a cosmic bean counter.  In this space where grace and mercy could bring life and healing, we have nothing because we know that we will not respond as the Samaritan did every time we come to the corner of 690 and Hiawatha Blvd.  We are left with only death: the death of our spirit and the hunger of the needy one.

So don't go there.  Don't start beating yourself up and making excuses and arguing with me from your desk computer.  We need to walk through this parable together and do it as people of faith, people who have come to know the power of life that is present in Jesus and available through the Holy Spirit.  The parables are not Aesop's Fables with a clearly stated moral at the end.  They are complex layered stories which are intended to challenge our thinking, provide a different point of view and lead us into a newer understanding of our complicated relationship with the Divine Creator.

A man was traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and he was robbed, stripped and thrown into a ditch, left for dead.  Probably not an unusual occurrence on that stretch of highway, and one of the main dangers of traveling alone.

Three men came upon this helpless victim in our story.  Two saw his plight yet chose to 'pass by on the other side.'  The third one stopped, gave aid, provided shelter and support until he was healed. It was an unheard of, extravagant act of kindness and has left people feeling guilty for hundreds of years.  Was that Jesus' intent?  Or was Jesus challenging us to see the world through different glasses, to shake off our egocentric thought process, to fully commit to God's point of view of love lived out in mercy and grace?  Are we being asked to see that stranger in the ditch with the same eyes that God sees us?

Just a few questions to get us started.  There is lots to talk about.  See you tomorrow.

Bishop Macholz: thinking about discipleship

Gospel: Luke 9:51-62

Jesus is unwavering in his commitment to his mission in Jerusalem and will not be swayed by pettiness. In a series of striking cases in point, he calls his disciples to a similar single-mindedness.

Second Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-25

For Paul, the freedom Christ gives is not permission to do whatever we want. It is the invitation to be what we could not be otherwise. The power and guidance of Christ's Holy Spirit produce a different kind of life, one marked by the fruit of this Holy Spirit.

You can't miss the call to follow and it's radical implications either in the first lesson or the Gospel to say nothing of Paul's letter to the Galatians, it is crystal clear. The call to discipleship is a call to follow in a new way, to let go of the past and to trust in God's guidance and direction. Thereby hangs the tale.

 

We are not good at letting go and trusting in others when push comes to shove. The song that always comes to mind is Sinatra's "My Way".  Perhaps we should write another one and entitle it "God's Way". What would that look like from your perspective?

 

If I did things God's way, how might that change my life? Would I be a better person? Would stewardship of all of life really begin to take hold? How would it affect my finances, my family life and my outlook on life? Would it influence me to deal with others from a much different perspective? Would I drive differently? Eat differently? Live differently?

 

There are a lot of questions to be answered and just as many more to be asked. Yet, they are questions we need to ask not only this day but each day for each day we are called to follow and discern the implications of what it all means.

 

When Jesus calls you to follow, what is your response? It's not always easy, is it? In fact, some days and at some times, it's just downright impossible. But thanks be to God, God keeps following us, encouraging us, uplifting us.  Maybe it's time to follow God's lead.

When was the last time........

......the demons drove you into the wild?


When was the last time..... life as you knew it stopped on a dime and you couldn't catch your breath and day after day you saw no way back to normal again?

When was the last time.......a hurt became a grudge became a quiet campaign (conducted in lower voices) to defame the source of your pain?

When was the last time.....a minor mishap became a explosion of emotion and energy that forced family and friends to duck behind some kind of shelter until the storm passed?

When was the last time....you watched as a friend moved from disappointment to fear to despair as they began to believe the voices in their heads telling them they had no worth?

There are forces in our world which want to deprive you of life.......the ease to breathe, to move among us, to walk with self-worth, to make plans for the future, to feel safe in your own body.  There are forces that will seep into our broken places and then drain us of the life that God has given us.

We have heard much in the news of the Stanford rape case.  When I read the victims letter I thought - ahhh, there are the demons at work.   I am not speaking of the man who assaulted her. That young woman spoke of her struggle against all that wanted to hold her prisoner in a place that is only dark and never light- a place of constant vigilance and fear, a place where she would forget who she was.  Rather, in the wake of that horrible experience, the victim was assaulted again and again by forces that would rob her of her future.  She has fought powerfully to find her way back to life again.  To live without fear and without hate.

I know, we modern people don't believe in demons or evil spirits, but I think that a little thought will lead us to see times when we 'just couldn't let it go' or times when 'somehow it got blown all out of proportion' or times when disappointment crushed us and made it hard to step forward again.

These are the times when our relationship with God becomes our lifeline.  It is exactly the time to remind ourselves that we are children of the Divine Creator; God knows our name and desires goodness for us.  It is exactly the time to be surrounded by others who are strong, who will say the name of Jesus and pray for our welfare.  It is exactly the time to eat bread and drink wine and be filled with our Lord's strength.

It is exactly the time to remember the day we call Good Friday when evil took hold of people's cowardice and fear and executed the one who brought healing into this world...the day evil thought it was in charge.

Then remember this.....'early in the morning on the first day of the week, the women brought spices so to anoint Jesus' body....'

but he was not there.

In the end, love wins.

Where the wild things are......

Almost anyone in the US who has read the literature of the youngest among us are familiar with Maurice Sendak's Where the  Wild Things Are.  Wonderfully illustrated, it congers up the vibrant  monsters that roam the imaginations of young minds. A little odd looking, a little frightening....but not too much. These wild things are manageable.

As we grow older, the monsters of our imagination are not so tame.  Hiding behind trees or under our beds, these monsters too come out as the darkness falls and we try to settle into some semblance of rest.  These monsters have names like 'sending my children to college' or 'the heart disease in my family' or 'making a fool of myself at work' or 'the dead space in my marriage.' These are the wild things of our imaginations: real possibilities in our frail lives. They rob us of peace.

They, however, are not demons.
Demons are evil.

Demons want death in all its forms and simply for the sake of the terror and pain that are possible.  They worm their way into our minds through our ear canals and take possession of the space where imagination begins and terror develops.  They squeeze in through our eyes and forever mar our vision of this world and its inhabitants.  They are absorbed through our skin and make their way into our hearts and slowly change human flesh into stone. The demons will drive us right out of our minds.

Like that guy in Gerasene, the naked one, raving and howling at the moon and living among the bones of the dead.  With strength that breaks open the strongest chains, these demons hold their victim captive, a prisoner in his own body.  These demons are powerful.....very powerful....and they strike fear into the hearts of all the villagers.  Luke 8.26ff

Yet, they are no match for Jesus, the Divine One, the power of life from the first cell to the last trumpet....and to the very last pig as well.  In the presence of the Creator, they are powerless.

I know that modern, enlightenment folk don't believe in demons.  Yet someone walked into an elementary school and shot 20 little children plus their teachers to death.  Someone walked into a nightclub at closing and methodically murdered 49 young people.  Tomorrow, someone will walk with evil and bring death into a new corner of this world.

Come Lord Jesus, quickly come.  We are killing ourselves here.

The need to divide

My daughter the math teacher might think I am finally getting around to discussing the importance of good arithmetic skills.  Not.

I am talking about dividing people.  Into groups.  Where some groups are better and some are not.  You can call those groups Us and Them. Good and Not Good.  Right and Wrong.  Straight and Gay.  Christian and All the Other People who are Wrong.  White and People of Color.

Can you see where I am going with this?  We have an inherent need to divide.  Learning theory teaches us that we use categories to help us organize information.  Creating categories is a critical step in the learning process because it enables us to manage and derive meaning from large quantities of information.  Dogs bark, love to jump into the water, are loyal, work in packs.  Cats meow, hate water, have a well practiced 'go away' look, and are loners.

God has categories as well; Jesus makes them known to us.  God's categories are these:  Those whom God loves in and through Jesus and...........Nobody.  The entire creation is in the Loved category.  No one is in the Not Loved category.

Certainly simplifies things.  I am loved.  You are loved. Everyone is loved.

If God can love each of us, perhaps we should be working harder to find a way to do the same.  The divisions just aren't helpful, or faithful either for that matter.

"For God so loved the world that God gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send Jesus ino the world to condemn the world but in order that the world may be saved through him."  John 3.16-7

We do it.  Without thinking.  We talk about Us and Them.  So this is the task before us, to see Them as Us:  loved by God through Jesus, and being called into authentic life through forgiveness.  Just like us.

Our love of long division serves no purpose of God.