Being A Neighbor In A World In Crisis
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
After the horrors of the first half of the twentieth century, many of us hoped that the human race had learned something and we had seen the end of genocide and massive atrocities. Then came Uganda, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo, North Korea --and now the Sudan. When will it ever end? What should or can Christians do about it? And is the subject itself too extreme or too morbid for a sermon?
David Leininger, our lead writer for this week's issue of The Immediate Word, relates the current and ongoing desperate situation in the Sudan to the Gospel reading assigned in the lectionary, the familiar Parable of the Good Samaritan. The question "Who is my neighbor?" becomes "To whom do I act as neighbor?" We can take pride in what our national churches and interchurch organizations have done in response to human misery. But can we, and our parishioners, respond also in other ways?
Team members Carter Shelley and George Murphy offer their own insights into the significance of the Good Samaritan for our time, George Reed provides worship resources, and Wes Runk offers a children's sermon related to the theme.
Being A Neighbor In A World In Crisis
Luke 10:25-37
Amos 7:7-17; Colossians 1:1-14
by David Leininger
The lectionaries this week present us with one of the most familiar stories in all of scripture, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Researcher Robert Wuthnow at Princeton found in a survey that 49 percent of the people interviewed said they would be able to tell the story of the Good Samaritan if asked to do so, 45 percent said they would not be able to, and 6 percent were unsure whether they could tell it or not. Among those who attended religious services every week, the proportion who thought they could tell the story rose to 69 percent (Acts of Compassion: Caring for Others and Helping Ourselves [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991], p. 161).
Needless to say, the news is full of opportunities for the creative homiletician to wax eloquent. There are always the random acts of kindness and compassion that local newspapers love to feature. On a wider scale, there is the war in Iraq, which has been justified to us as a "Good Samaritan" effort to free an oppressed people from an iron-handed dictator -- whether one agrees with that justification is another issue. Recently we have been hearing more and more from Darfur in western Sudan where hundreds of thousands of deaths have been a direct result of the ongoing conflict. It has now become the greatest humanitarian emergency in the world today.
For those who wish to relate this sad story to the appointed Gospel reading for July 11, the details are these. The tragedy began as a dispute between settled farmers and nomads moving cattle herds around in search of water and pasture. In the 1980s and 90s, these conflicts began to intensify, particularly with the influx of arms into the region. In early 2003, with the movement toward a final peace accord making advances in the south and with the perception of Darfur marginalization, two political and military resistance movements were formed. This conflict over the past year has erupted into a full-scale war between the resistance movements and the government of Sudan. Although the Sudanese Government disputes it, common understanding is that they have supported, armed, and motivated a group of Arab militia known as the Janjaweed to put down the rebellion. In a primarily Muslim region, this is a battle between Arabs and Black Africans. The Janjaweed have swept through the area, raping women, burning villages and food stores to the ground, destroying water sites, damaging crops, and killing thousands. More than a million people have taken flight and become displaced in the region. The word genocide is again being used.
Mindful of the terrible cost of not mounting an aggressive intervention in Rwanda ten years ago, many credible human rights groups are now calling for the use of force in this situation. In May the United Nations Security Council held a meeting on the crisis in Darfur. After listening to the heated dialogue and presentation of the situation, it was reported that "Right now church groups and humanitarian organizations are the ones who have firsthand information about what is actually happening in Darfur. The Government of Sudan has tried to block the access of outside groups so that it can hide its activities. Our organizations can break the silence" (reported by Jennifer Butler, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program's UN representative).
Since I happen to be Presbyterian (PCUSA), I am most familiar with the response of my own denomination; no doubt other mainline communions are responding and details will undoubtedly be available on their individual websites. Simply by way of illustration, I can report that Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is supporting the response to humanitarian needs in this region. $100,000 has been sent to support the response of ACT (Action by Churches Together) members in the region, the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). ACT is a global alliance of churches and their agencies responding to emergencies and disasters. PDA is a member of the alliance. This is one church's attempt to act in the "Good Samaritan" role.
If the preacher decides that the second reading, Colossians 1:1-14, will be the focus of the sermon, this kind of response to human need fits right in. After all, words like "Faith ... love ... hope ... bearing fruit" are used by the apostle in describing their fellowship. Pretty good church, I'd say, and one that no doubt would respond to critical need.
As an aside, if there are concerns about the mixture of pulpit and politics, all we need do is look at the Old Testament lesson for the week from Amos 7. The prophet sees doom and gloom for the nation under the current king and minces no words in proclaiming the message. Granted, he is invited to take his preaching elsewhere -- no surprise -- but his preaching remains faithful.
Back to the Gospel text: Whether or not the people in our pews could accurately retell Jesus' parable, the concept of the "Good Samaritan" is familiar enough to everyone. We name hospitals, churches, institutions of mercy, even legislation in his honor. People know a Good Samaritan when they see one -- Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, the anonymous trucker who stops to change a lady's flat tire on the interstate -- people know them, even if they could not relate the details of the story. So saying, let me insist that the details are important. There is more here than a simple reminder about our ethical obligation to assist people in need.
The story: Immediately we are introduced to a lawyer. He poses a question to Jesus as a "test": "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
In the typical fashion of the rabbis then and now, Jesus answers the question with one of his own: "What is written in the Law? What do you read there?"
The answer comes back, "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."
Good answer. And Jesus agrees. But now the lawyer does something that all of us do from time to time. In good lawyerly fashion, he looks for a loophole. "And who is my neighbor?" In other words, "Okay, Jesus, I understand I am supposed to care, but what are the limits of my caring? When can I quit?" And here Jesus tells his famous story.
The first person to whom we are introduced is the poor traveler. He had taken the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, which was notoriously dangerous. It descended nearly 3,300 feet in seventeen miles, running through narrow passes at points. The terrain offered easy hiding for the bandits who terrorized travelers. This unfortunate fellow had been stripped, beaten, and left for dead. A first-century mugging. One more random victim in a randomly violent world. Jesus' audience that day knew how easily it could happen. For that matter, with a quick glance at the newspaper or TV, Jesus' audience today knows just as well. While hearers then and now would sympathize with the poor fellow, we are not forced to identify with him because in a story that begins with a tragedy, helpers are sure to arrive. If we will identify with anyone, we will wait for our helper/hero.
Hallelujah! Who comes along but a priest! If anyone could be expected to stop and help it would be a priest. But wait. The priest is not only not coming over to help; he is passing by on the other side. No reason is given. Some have suggested that, as a priest, he could fear ritual defilement with a corpse, but truth is if a priest on a journey found a corpse, he had a duty to bury it (Alan Culpepper, in New Interpreters Bible, electronic edition [Nashville: Abingdon, 1996]). Perhaps it was fear. Those who beat the man in the ditch might be lying in wait to beat him as well. Perhaps it was simple revulsion. Have you ever come upon someone after a bloody accident? It is an ugly scene. "He passed by on the other side." Some hero!
No matter. Here comes a Levite, an "assistant" priest. The first one was an aberration. This one will come through. Right. As the text has it, "he came to the place and saw him, [and] passed by on the other side." Another hero!
Now what? By normal storytelling conventions, we can expect we are about to meet a third character who will break the pattern created by the first two. In the context of our current parable, the expected sequence would be a priest, a Levite, and then -- ta dah! -- our hero will be an ordinary Israelite who will come to the rescue even when the high muckety-mucks of the Temple fail to do so. The story would have an anti-clerical edge to it along with the reminder that love of God and neighbor are commanded, but a shot at the Holy Joe's would not be any big shock considering the difficulty Jesus regularly has with the religious establishment.
Enter character number three -- a Samaritan. The Good Samaritan! No! Nowhere in the Bible will we find the words "Good" and "Samaritan" next to each other. For those folks who first heard this story, the phrase "Good Samaritan" would have been an oxymoron anyway -- the only good Samaritan would have been a dead Samaritan. No hero here.
Why such depth of feeling? This Hatfield-McCoy hostility between Jews and Samaritans was hundreds of years old. It went back to the time of the division of the nation into the Northern and Southern kingdoms; Samaria came to be identified with the North; Judea, the South. Following the Northern Kingdom's fall to Assyria in 721 B.C., exiles from many nations settled Samaria, creating something of a melting pot, no longer purely Jewish. Move forward a hundred years or so. Now it is the turn of the Southern Kingdom to fall; this time the conqueror was Babylon and, as was the custom of the day, the people were carried off into exile to prevent any uprisings in the occupied territory. The few Jews left in Samaria were considered no threat in that regard, so they were left in Palestine. Seventy years passed, and the exiles were allowed to return. The Samaritans were ready to welcome them back, but the returnees would have none of it -- they had intermarried with Gentiles, making them "half-breeds." They had perverted the race. They had also perverted the religion. They looked to Mount Gerizim in their own land as the place to worship God, not Jerusalem. They interpreted the Torah differently than the southern Jews. By the time of Jesus, the animosity toward Samaritans was so great that some Jews would go miles out of their way to avoid even walking on Samaritan soil. The hatred between Jew and Samaritan in Jesus' day was at least as deep as the feeling Jews and Arabs have toward each other today.
Enough history (but it's necessary if we are to help our folks understand what is happening here) -- Simply stated, if Jesus were just trying to say we should help the helpless, supply the needs of the needy, he could have talked about the first and second men who passed by and the third one who stopped and cared for the half-dead guy in the ditch. If Jesus were also making a gibe against religious establishment, we would expect the third man to be a layman -- an ordinary Israelite -- in contrast to the professional clergy. If Jesus were illustrating the need to love our enemies, then the man in the ditch would have been a Samaritan who is cared for by a loving Israelite. Of course, that is not the way the story goes. I will deal with Why a Samaritan? in a moment.
The story. Just as the priest and the Levite, the Samaritan sees the man, but instead of distancing himself, he comes closer. As the text has it, "when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them [oil to keep them soft, wine to sterilize]. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii [two days' wages], gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' " It was neither an insignificant amount nor a lavish one -- but enough to do the job.
The story is over. Jesus has responded to the lawyer's question about the limits of neighborliness with his story and now turns the question back to the lawyer: "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
And the answer, "The one who had mercy on him." Amazing! The concept of a Good Samaritan is so distasteful that the lawyer cannot bring himself to even speak the name.
Move the story forward two millennia. Jesus goes to a Ku Klux Klan rally and is asked, "Who is my neighbor?" He responds by telling a parable: The Grand Master of the Klan crashes into a ditch only to be passed over by a bigoted white sheriff and a bigoted white minister. Finally, along comes a black sharecropper playing the part of the Good Samaritan. How do you think the hearers at the Klan meeting would respond when Jesus asked, "Which of the three proved to be a neighbor?"
"Good" and "black" together in the same sentence at a Klan rally? Such was the dilemma of those who first heard Jesus' story.
If Jesus were also making a gibe against clerics, we would expect the third man to be a layman -- an ordinary Jew -- in contrast to the professional clergy. It is likely that Jewish hearers would have anticipated the hero to be an ordinary Jew. If Jesus were illustrating the need to love our enemies, then the man in the ditch would have been a Samaritan who is cared for by a loving Israelite (Brian Stoffregen, via Ecunet, "Gospel Notes for Next Sunday"). Perhaps the answer to the question, "Why a Samaritan?" is that Jesus did not want his hearers to identify with this generous caregiver! As attractive and winsome is the behavior of this man, as much of a helper/hero as he obviously was, that would be the temptation. But no good Jew could do that. He would not want to be like the priest or Levite either, so the only character left with which to identify would be the man in the ditch.
Now Jesus concludes, "Go and do likewise."
Be the guy in the ditch? Perhaps that is not so far-fetched as we and our parishioners might think. Bernard Brandon Scott presents this approach most succinctly when he concludes: "The parable can be summarized as follows: to enter the kingdom one must get into the ditch and be served by one's mortal enemy" (Jesus, Symbol-Maker for the Kingdom [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981], p. 29). He expands a little later: "Grace comes to those who cannot resist, who have no other alternative than to accept it. To enter the parable's world, to get into the ditch, is to be so low that grace is the only alternative. The point may be so simple as this: only he who needs grace can receive grace" (p. 31).
We never hear whether this poor victim recovers, but the assumption must be that he does. That being the case, what would the effect have been on him that he had been rescued by a Samaritan? One would presume that it would forever color his view of Samaritans. For that matter, one would presume that it would forever color his view of the world's victims. There would be less callousness, less inclination to lay blame for getting into such a fix in the first place, less temptation to "pass by on the other side." If Jesus' story had gone on any longer, I would bet we would hear that this poor fellow, from that day forward, became a better neighbor to the rest of his world than he would have ever dreamed possible.
A simple conclusion to the sermon could be nothing more than a brief question: Has anyone ever helped you?
Team Comments
Carter Shelley responds: Dave, you've produced some powerful material this week and I especially appreciate your analogies between first- and twenty-first century language, such as "a first century mugging." You've supplied some helpful background on the current tragic situation in the Sudan and you've provided sharp insights into the Good Samaritan parable that heighten the power of its message for Christians. While many of us have "heard it all before" we haven't heard it quite this way.
I applaud the direction you've taken, but the situation in the Sudan is so dire and the Christians' history of addressing and preventing genocide so poor I would save your biblical reading and rhetorical strategy of placing us in the ditch for another day. Irrespective of our Christian labels -- conservative, liberal, Catholic, Pentecostal, Jesus Seminar proponents, or fundamentalists -- on a situation this bad we are all called to respond: protest! Letters, phone calls to senators and congressmen and women, emails, and so on. None of us can legitimately cross over to the other side of the road while people are slaughtered because of their skin color, their economic need, and their lack of options. How absurd and frustrating it has been this past week to listen to our Secretary of State, the UN, and other voices of the international community talk about the semantics of genocide. How awful that commas and semicolons and an official genocide "check list" are required before action can happen. The Sudan is not Iraq or Afghanistan. Thousands of troops are not needed. The conditions of the conflict are so primitive that decisive action by the UN and a small contingent of American and European troops would be sufficient to stop the bloodshed and make it possible to reroute the relief packages to the people who need them most. We American Christians are generous givers when an appeal is made directly to us. Dave has already cited the Presbyterian Church USA's generous response, but it isn't enough. Without international intervention ASAP, thousands more may die.
As we left the twentieth century behind in 2000, I'm sure many of us hoped and believed that the horrors of Stalin's purges, Hitler's Holocaust, and many other genocidal incursions relating to race, culture, and religion would be left behind. Yet this very day we heard news reports about the ongoing trial of Slobodan Milosevic, whose health is so bad he may die before a verdict occurs, thus preventing him from directly facing the consequences of his efforts to exterminate Muslims in the former Yugoslavia. We've read of remarkable and hopeful efforts being made in Rwanda to heal the hideous wounds of the thousands and thousands killed there ten years ago, and who knows if Saddam Hussein's own trial will include the details of his orders to gas the Kuwaitis in his region.
Will it never end?
There are several versions of the well-known statement attributed to the German anti-Nazi activist, Pastor Martin Niem ller (his family name can also be written without the umlaut as "Niemoeller"). The following is affirmed by someone who heard him speak at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, in 1959 (or 1960) to be what he actually said:
In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me --
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
The word genocide denotes "the deliberate and systematic destruction of a religious, racial, national, or cultural group." It became a word in human vocabulary after the Holocaust of World War II. If you want more concrete information and details about genocide, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., has a phenomenal collection of resources on genocide, and is an excellent place to start to locate resources and also groups working against genocide in 2004. website is: www.ushmm.org
For materials specific to the current crisis in the Sudan go to: www.ushmm.org/conscience/sudan/dafur/main.php
If your church members and you are like me, being called and inspired to a Christian response, works more effectively than guilt about inaction. Consequently, you may want to retell stories of brave and generous people who acted to save their neighbors. Take note of Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There, by Phillip Hallie. This book describes the way the people of Chambon in France protected their Jewish neighbors from arrest and the death camps in World War II (New York: Harper & Row, 1979).
Website resources: www.holocaust-heroes.com offers many accounts of people from different countries, religions, and cultures efforts to save lives.
Protestant Christians don't know much about Pope John XXIII before his radical work at Vatican II. Born in 1881 as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli the third of thirteen children in a peasant family in Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo. When he was ordained, in 1904, the church was fearful and inward-looking. In 1871, with the loss of the papal states to the modern nation of Italy and the restriction of Vatican sovereignty to its current borders, Pope Pius IX had proclaimed himself a "prisoner of the Vatican" and taken a defensive stance toward the modern world. In his decree Non expedit ("it is not expedient"), he had forbidden Italy's Catholics from taking any part in national politics. Pope Pius X (pope, 1903-1914) took this isolating trend further by undertaking a purge of "Modernists," especially biblical scholars who used modern textual criticism, driving many intellectuals from the church.
In the 1930s Roncalli was sent to Turkey to serve there when World War II broke out, and he devoted himself to the care of refugees, especially Jews. He obtained transit visas to Palestine for some; to others he issued baptismal certificates that would enable them to pass as Christians, with the understanding that no baptisms need be performed. Chaim Barlas of the Jewish Agency's Rescue Committee wrote: "to the few heroic deeds which were performed to rescue Jews belong the activities of the apostolic delegate, Monsignor Roncalli, who worked indefatigably on their behalf." Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Jerusalem wrote: "Through [Roncalli] thousands of Jews were rescued." www.mcs.drexel.edu/~gbrandal/Illum_html/JohnXXIII.html
"A Matter of Semantics" or "Semantics Matter" (title applied by Carter): The State Department estimates that the Arab militias have systematically attacked hundreds of black African villages in western Sudan and neighboring Chad, wiping out more than 300 of them. The marauders have destroyed crops, killed cattle, and poisoned water supplies, according to Richard A. Boucher, the department's spokesman.
Mr. Powell said legal experts were still studying whether to describe the onslaught in Darfur as an act of genocide. That distinction would compel the United States and other nations to intervene as signatories to the United Nations Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The treaty defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."
"We see indications and elements that would start to move you to a genocidal conclusion," Mr. Powell said.
The administration is currently describing the repression as ethnic cleansing. Mr. Powell reiterated the importance of taking action over parsing words. "We can find a label for it later," he said (The New York Times, June 24, 2004).
George Murphy responds: Before getting to the substance of this week's Gospel, a comment on its form may be worthwhile, although what I will say will be quite obvious to preachers: Jesus is telling a story.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus' answer to an important question: "Who is my neighbor?" Presumably he could have given some sort of theoretical answer to the question, but it would not have been as effective. Instead of just providing a general definition of neighborliness to which the lawyer might or might not agree, he answers in such a way as to bring the lawyer who asked the question to answer it. And when he does so, Jesus' reply is quite practical: "Go and do likewise."
What Jesus says here is a true answer to the question "Who is my neighbor?" -- one that is true in spite of the fact that it makes no difference at all whether the story of the man who fell among thieves on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho ever actually happened or not. It makes no difference to the truth and authority of Jesus' answer whether the facts of the story could be found on the Jericho police blotter or whether he just made the story up.
So what? That may be the response of many people in this instance, but with other texts a different reaction is likely. Does the truth of the message of the book of Jonah depend on whether the prophet Jonah was really swallowed by a great fish and converted the whole city of Nineveh with a proclamation of a few words? Does what Genesis 2 say about creation depend upon that being an accurate account of events that really took place early in earth's history?
The idea that many Christians have that a biblical passage must recount "history as it really was" in order to be true and authoritative is a major problem for understanding the Bible in today's world. Improving biblical literacy may not seem as urgent as encouraging Christians to recognize the scope of neighborhood, but in the long run it's essential that Christians have a deeper and more sophisticated view of scripture. In any case, dealing with the form of this week's Gospel and the issues of truth that it raises are another option for the preacher -- and sometimes during the summer a novel approach is welcome.
But on to the content of Jesus' story: The question that he pushes the lawyer to answer is, Who "was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" It's not precisely the question the lawyer asked originally, but it's close enough. The lawyer has to answer, "The one who showed him mercy." But being a neighbor is, or should be, a reciprocal relationship. If the Samaritan is neighbor to the injured man, the injured man is neighbor to the Samaritan. And that is the point Jesus is driving at when he says, "Go and do likewise." The lawyer is placed in the position of the Samaritan -- like it or not -- and the neighbor who is to be "done unto" is the injured man.
Sometimes the point of Jesus' parable is said to be that everyone is my neighbor. But that's not really what the story says. Jesus says nothing about the relationship of the Samaritan to injured or needy people in Jerusalem or Samaria or Alexandria. The one who is his neighbor is the person in need whom he actually encounters, the man lying by the side of the road. Certainly all the others are his potential neighbors, but the one he is immediately called to be a neighbor to is the one that he can help at the moment.
One way in which our situation differs from that of Jesus' hearers is that we know of people in need throughout the world. We can read about and see and hear them in the Sudan, or Iraq, or North Korea. Because of that, they present us with an immediate call to be neighbors in a way that wouldn't have been the case for people in far off lands in the first century. We can express our support for them, call for government action, and donate money on the Internet. At the same time, let's not forget the neighbors we encounter everyday in our own congregations and cities. The ones we're called to love as ourselves are not just those who are closest to us, but they are the ones, near or far, that we actually can express love for.
Related Illustrations
From David Leininger
In Robert Fulghum's book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (New York: Villard Books, 1989, pp. 153-155), he recounts the story of V. P. Menon, one of the significant political figures in India during that nation's struggle for independence from Britain. Unlike most of the leaders in the Independence movement, Menon was a self-made man. He was the oldest of twelve children, had quit school at thirteen and worked as a laborer, a coal miner, factory hand, merchant, and school teacher. He talked his way into a job as a clerk in the Indian administration that began a meteoric rise -- largely because of his integrity and brilliant skills in working with both Indian and British officials in a productive way.
In addition to his reputation as an efficient administrator, Menon was widely known for his personal charity. After he died, his daughter explained that when her father "arrived in Delhi to seek a job in government, all his possessions (including his money and ID) were stolen at the railroad station. He would have to return home on foot, defeated. In desperation he turned to an elderly Sikh, explained his troubles, and asked for a temporary loan of fifteen rupees to tide him over until he could get a job. The Sikh gave him the money. When Menon asked for his address so that he could repay the man, the Sikh said that Menon owed the debt to any stranger who came to him in need, as long as he lived. The help came from a stranger and had to be repaid to a stranger.
"Menon never forgot that debt: neither the gift of trust nor the fifteen rupees. His daughter said that the day before Menon died, a beggar came to the family home in Bangalore asking for help to buy new sandals, for his feet were covered with sores. Menon asked his daughter to take fifteen rupees out of his wallet to give to the man. It was Menon's last conscious act."
Fulghum continues, "On several occasions when I have thought about the story of the Good Samaritan, I have wondered about the rest of the story. What effect did the charity have on the man who was robbed and beaten and taken care of.... Did he remember the cruelty of the robbers and shape his life with that memory? Or did he remember the nameless generosity of the Samaritan and shape his life with that debt? What did he pass on to the strangers in his life, those in need he met?"
* * *
Several years ago, 75 million of us watched the last episode of Seinfeld. The focus of that show was that the four cast regulars, having been stopped accidentally in a small town, happened to observe a significantly overweight man being car-jacked. Rather than doing anything to help, they stand there and make jokes. Remember? When the police arrive moments later, they arrest the Seinfeld group under the town's new "Good Samaritan" law, which said that failure to render assistance when appropriate is a crime. The rest of the show is their trial in which, one after another, all the people they have offended over the preceding nine years on the air come back to testify against them for being insensitive, uncaring creeps. Guilty! Jerry gives his closing monologue from prison.
Worship Resources
by George Reed
OPENING
N.b.: All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music
Hymns
"God Of Grace And God Of Glory." Words: Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1930; music: John Hughes, 1907. Words by permission of Elinor Fosdick Downs. As found in UMH 577; Hymnal '82 594, 595; TNCH 436; CH 464.
"God Of Love And God Of Power." Words: Gerald H. Kennedy, ca. 1939; music: Joachim Neander, 1680. Public domain. As found in UMH 578.
"O Zion, Haste." Words: Mary A. Thompson, 1894; music: James Walch, 1875. Public domain. As found in UMH 573; Hymnal '82 539; TNNBH 422.
Songs
"As We Gather." Words and music: Mike Fay and Tom Coomes. (c) 1981 Coomesietunes. As found in CCB 12.
"From The Rising Of The Sun." Words and music: anon. Public domain. As found in CCB 4.
"How Majestic Is Your Name." Words and music: Michael W. Smith. (c) 1981 Meadowgreen Music. As found in CCB 21.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God is Just.
People: God grant that we may be just.
Leader: God is Compassion.
People: God grant that we may be compassionate.
Leader: God is with the poor and lowly.
People: God grant that we may raise the poor and lift the lowly.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God of justice, grant that we may join with you in lifting up the oppressed and rescuing the weak and needy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
O God of compassion, grant that we may be so filled with gratitude for your compassion to us that we are also filled with compassion for others, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
We come to worship you, O God of justice and compassion. We lift up your name and exalt you. Help us also in this time to align ourselves with you and your reign that we may be your symbols of justice and compassion in this world for which Jesus died. Amen.
Response Music
Hymns
"Where Cross The Crowded Ways Of Life." Words: Frank Mason North, 1903; music: William Gardiner's Sacred Melodies, 1815. Public domain. As found in UMH 427; Hymnal '82; TPH 408; TNCH 543; CH 665.
"Make Me A Captive, Lord." Words: George Matheson, 1890; music: George J. Elvey, 1868. Public domain. As found in UMH 421; TPH 378.
Songs
"People Need The Lord." Words: Greg Nelson and Phil McHugh; music: Greg Nelson and Phil McHugh; arr. by J. Michael Bryan. (c) 1983 Shepherd's Fold Music/River Oaks Music. As found in CCB 52.
"I Am Loved." Words: William J. Gaither and Gloria Gaither; music: William J. Gaither. (c) 1978 William J. Gaither. As found in CCB 80.
"Make Me A Servant." Words and music: Kelly Willard. 1982 Willing Heart Music. As found in CCB 90.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: The God of Jesus, the God of compassion and justice, asks us to search our hearts and to place our actions in the divine scale.
People: O God of compassion and justice who led our Lord to reach out to the despised and the lowly, we confess to you that we often choose our own good over the needs of others. We are more concerned with our comfort and status than in the injustice that is done to those who supply so many of the goods we take for granted. We shut our ears to the cries of the hurting and dying in our land and throughout the world. Forgive us and renew us in your image that we may act as those who bear your image and are filled with your Spirit. Amen.
Leader: Know that God is filled with compassion for all who seek to follow the way of Christ. He owns us as children even when we fail to act like God's family. In the name of God you are forgiven and sent out to live a new life in Christ. Amen.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We worship and adore you, God, for you out of the abundance of your love and compassion created us to share your presence. You gave us your own life and spirit. You made us in your own image that we might share your presence with all creation. You gave us creation to enjoy, share, and tend.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have not reflected your compassion and love as fully as you have intended. We have been selfish and self-centered. We have been concerned with our own standards and have used those not to make ourselves better but as a platform from which to look down on others. We are quick to align ourselves as your beloved while denying your love to others. Forgive us our sinful ways and turn our stony hearts to hearts that beat with your own compassion. So refill us with your Spirit that we may truly be your presence to this world.
We offer you prayers of thanksgiving for your generosity. In love you have given us beauty and life. In love you have given us your own Self. We find your love revealed in nature, in the love and care of family and friends, in the companionship of the church and, most of all, in Jesus the Christ.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
We are so surrounded by your love, O God, that we trust to your tender care those who are on our hearts. We have loved ones who are suffering in body, mind, and spirit. Our sisters and brothers are in need of healing and love. We know that many of your children are alone and hurting with no one to care or pray for them. Let our love and care join yours in reaching out to all in need.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father ...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
A Children's Sermon
By Wesley T. Runk
You Need All The Pieces
Text: v. 27 -- He answered, "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." Luke 10:25-37
Object: a jigsaw puzzle
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know what the word all means? (let them answer) Is it an important word? (let them answer) The word all means a lot and it is a very important word. Sometimes if you don't have it all, you don't have anything.
Let me show you what I mean. I brought along a jigsaw puzzle. It has a lot of pieces and it will take all of the pieces to make the whole puzzle. If one of the pieces is missing, the puzzle is ruined, and you cannot have a whole picture. I want you to know that there is one piece of the puzzle missing. Isn't that awful? (let them answer)
This is the way Jesus felt about the way that people should feel about God. When someone asked him how they should be toward God, he asked them what the Bible said. They knew what the Bible said, and so they repeated the words that they had heard so often. The Bible says that you should love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength. It did not say part of your mind or part of your soul or part of your heart or part of your strength. It just isn't like that. You have to give God "all" that you have if you want to give him anything.
Loving God is like making a puzzle. You have to do it all, you have to give it all, because that is the way that God wants it. Part of a puzzle is not good enough. If you put it all together and you were missing one part, you would search and search until you found the one piece that was missing, and then you would put it in and be very happy.
That is the way it is with loving God. If you are saving some of your love for something else instead of giving it to God, you will find that you are always looking for the part that you have not given him. You are looking and looking and looking for whatever is missing and keeping you from loving God. But, when you find what you have been hiding even from yourself, and you give it to God, then you are really happy. Give all of your love to God and you will know why Jesus taught us to do what he wanted us to do.
The word all is a very important word, and, if you do not believe me, then hide one piece of the next puzzle that you do and see how much you miss it. Find that piece and put it together, and then you will know why it is important to love God with all that you have to share.
* * *
The Immediate Word, July 11, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
David Leininger, our lead writer for this week's issue of The Immediate Word, relates the current and ongoing desperate situation in the Sudan to the Gospel reading assigned in the lectionary, the familiar Parable of the Good Samaritan. The question "Who is my neighbor?" becomes "To whom do I act as neighbor?" We can take pride in what our national churches and interchurch organizations have done in response to human misery. But can we, and our parishioners, respond also in other ways?
Team members Carter Shelley and George Murphy offer their own insights into the significance of the Good Samaritan for our time, George Reed provides worship resources, and Wes Runk offers a children's sermon related to the theme.
Being A Neighbor In A World In Crisis
Luke 10:25-37
Amos 7:7-17; Colossians 1:1-14
by David Leininger
The lectionaries this week present us with one of the most familiar stories in all of scripture, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Researcher Robert Wuthnow at Princeton found in a survey that 49 percent of the people interviewed said they would be able to tell the story of the Good Samaritan if asked to do so, 45 percent said they would not be able to, and 6 percent were unsure whether they could tell it or not. Among those who attended religious services every week, the proportion who thought they could tell the story rose to 69 percent (Acts of Compassion: Caring for Others and Helping Ourselves [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991], p. 161).
Needless to say, the news is full of opportunities for the creative homiletician to wax eloquent. There are always the random acts of kindness and compassion that local newspapers love to feature. On a wider scale, there is the war in Iraq, which has been justified to us as a "Good Samaritan" effort to free an oppressed people from an iron-handed dictator -- whether one agrees with that justification is another issue. Recently we have been hearing more and more from Darfur in western Sudan where hundreds of thousands of deaths have been a direct result of the ongoing conflict. It has now become the greatest humanitarian emergency in the world today.
For those who wish to relate this sad story to the appointed Gospel reading for July 11, the details are these. The tragedy began as a dispute between settled farmers and nomads moving cattle herds around in search of water and pasture. In the 1980s and 90s, these conflicts began to intensify, particularly with the influx of arms into the region. In early 2003, with the movement toward a final peace accord making advances in the south and with the perception of Darfur marginalization, two political and military resistance movements were formed. This conflict over the past year has erupted into a full-scale war between the resistance movements and the government of Sudan. Although the Sudanese Government disputes it, common understanding is that they have supported, armed, and motivated a group of Arab militia known as the Janjaweed to put down the rebellion. In a primarily Muslim region, this is a battle between Arabs and Black Africans. The Janjaweed have swept through the area, raping women, burning villages and food stores to the ground, destroying water sites, damaging crops, and killing thousands. More than a million people have taken flight and become displaced in the region. The word genocide is again being used.
Mindful of the terrible cost of not mounting an aggressive intervention in Rwanda ten years ago, many credible human rights groups are now calling for the use of force in this situation. In May the United Nations Security Council held a meeting on the crisis in Darfur. After listening to the heated dialogue and presentation of the situation, it was reported that "Right now church groups and humanitarian organizations are the ones who have firsthand information about what is actually happening in Darfur. The Government of Sudan has tried to block the access of outside groups so that it can hide its activities. Our organizations can break the silence" (reported by Jennifer Butler, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program's UN representative).
Since I happen to be Presbyterian (PCUSA), I am most familiar with the response of my own denomination; no doubt other mainline communions are responding and details will undoubtedly be available on their individual websites. Simply by way of illustration, I can report that Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is supporting the response to humanitarian needs in this region. $100,000 has been sent to support the response of ACT (Action by Churches Together) members in the region, the Sudan Council of Churches (SCC), and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). ACT is a global alliance of churches and their agencies responding to emergencies and disasters. PDA is a member of the alliance. This is one church's attempt to act in the "Good Samaritan" role.
If the preacher decides that the second reading, Colossians 1:1-14, will be the focus of the sermon, this kind of response to human need fits right in. After all, words like "Faith ... love ... hope ... bearing fruit" are used by the apostle in describing their fellowship. Pretty good church, I'd say, and one that no doubt would respond to critical need.
As an aside, if there are concerns about the mixture of pulpit and politics, all we need do is look at the Old Testament lesson for the week from Amos 7. The prophet sees doom and gloom for the nation under the current king and minces no words in proclaiming the message. Granted, he is invited to take his preaching elsewhere -- no surprise -- but his preaching remains faithful.
Back to the Gospel text: Whether or not the people in our pews could accurately retell Jesus' parable, the concept of the "Good Samaritan" is familiar enough to everyone. We name hospitals, churches, institutions of mercy, even legislation in his honor. People know a Good Samaritan when they see one -- Mother Teresa, Albert Schweitzer, the anonymous trucker who stops to change a lady's flat tire on the interstate -- people know them, even if they could not relate the details of the story. So saying, let me insist that the details are important. There is more here than a simple reminder about our ethical obligation to assist people in need.
The story: Immediately we are introduced to a lawyer. He poses a question to Jesus as a "test": "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
In the typical fashion of the rabbis then and now, Jesus answers the question with one of his own: "What is written in the Law? What do you read there?"
The answer comes back, "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."
Good answer. And Jesus agrees. But now the lawyer does something that all of us do from time to time. In good lawyerly fashion, he looks for a loophole. "And who is my neighbor?" In other words, "Okay, Jesus, I understand I am supposed to care, but what are the limits of my caring? When can I quit?" And here Jesus tells his famous story.
The first person to whom we are introduced is the poor traveler. He had taken the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, which was notoriously dangerous. It descended nearly 3,300 feet in seventeen miles, running through narrow passes at points. The terrain offered easy hiding for the bandits who terrorized travelers. This unfortunate fellow had been stripped, beaten, and left for dead. A first-century mugging. One more random victim in a randomly violent world. Jesus' audience that day knew how easily it could happen. For that matter, with a quick glance at the newspaper or TV, Jesus' audience today knows just as well. While hearers then and now would sympathize with the poor fellow, we are not forced to identify with him because in a story that begins with a tragedy, helpers are sure to arrive. If we will identify with anyone, we will wait for our helper/hero.
Hallelujah! Who comes along but a priest! If anyone could be expected to stop and help it would be a priest. But wait. The priest is not only not coming over to help; he is passing by on the other side. No reason is given. Some have suggested that, as a priest, he could fear ritual defilement with a corpse, but truth is if a priest on a journey found a corpse, he had a duty to bury it (Alan Culpepper, in New Interpreters Bible, electronic edition [Nashville: Abingdon, 1996]). Perhaps it was fear. Those who beat the man in the ditch might be lying in wait to beat him as well. Perhaps it was simple revulsion. Have you ever come upon someone after a bloody accident? It is an ugly scene. "He passed by on the other side." Some hero!
No matter. Here comes a Levite, an "assistant" priest. The first one was an aberration. This one will come through. Right. As the text has it, "he came to the place and saw him, [and] passed by on the other side." Another hero!
Now what? By normal storytelling conventions, we can expect we are about to meet a third character who will break the pattern created by the first two. In the context of our current parable, the expected sequence would be a priest, a Levite, and then -- ta dah! -- our hero will be an ordinary Israelite who will come to the rescue even when the high muckety-mucks of the Temple fail to do so. The story would have an anti-clerical edge to it along with the reminder that love of God and neighbor are commanded, but a shot at the Holy Joe's would not be any big shock considering the difficulty Jesus regularly has with the religious establishment.
Enter character number three -- a Samaritan. The Good Samaritan! No! Nowhere in the Bible will we find the words "Good" and "Samaritan" next to each other. For those folks who first heard this story, the phrase "Good Samaritan" would have been an oxymoron anyway -- the only good Samaritan would have been a dead Samaritan. No hero here.
Why such depth of feeling? This Hatfield-McCoy hostility between Jews and Samaritans was hundreds of years old. It went back to the time of the division of the nation into the Northern and Southern kingdoms; Samaria came to be identified with the North; Judea, the South. Following the Northern Kingdom's fall to Assyria in 721 B.C., exiles from many nations settled Samaria, creating something of a melting pot, no longer purely Jewish. Move forward a hundred years or so. Now it is the turn of the Southern Kingdom to fall; this time the conqueror was Babylon and, as was the custom of the day, the people were carried off into exile to prevent any uprisings in the occupied territory. The few Jews left in Samaria were considered no threat in that regard, so they were left in Palestine. Seventy years passed, and the exiles were allowed to return. The Samaritans were ready to welcome them back, but the returnees would have none of it -- they had intermarried with Gentiles, making them "half-breeds." They had perverted the race. They had also perverted the religion. They looked to Mount Gerizim in their own land as the place to worship God, not Jerusalem. They interpreted the Torah differently than the southern Jews. By the time of Jesus, the animosity toward Samaritans was so great that some Jews would go miles out of their way to avoid even walking on Samaritan soil. The hatred between Jew and Samaritan in Jesus' day was at least as deep as the feeling Jews and Arabs have toward each other today.
Enough history (but it's necessary if we are to help our folks understand what is happening here) -- Simply stated, if Jesus were just trying to say we should help the helpless, supply the needs of the needy, he could have talked about the first and second men who passed by and the third one who stopped and cared for the half-dead guy in the ditch. If Jesus were also making a gibe against religious establishment, we would expect the third man to be a layman -- an ordinary Israelite -- in contrast to the professional clergy. If Jesus were illustrating the need to love our enemies, then the man in the ditch would have been a Samaritan who is cared for by a loving Israelite. Of course, that is not the way the story goes. I will deal with Why a Samaritan? in a moment.
The story. Just as the priest and the Levite, the Samaritan sees the man, but instead of distancing himself, he comes closer. As the text has it, "when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them [oil to keep them soft, wine to sterilize]. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii [two days' wages], gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' " It was neither an insignificant amount nor a lavish one -- but enough to do the job.
The story is over. Jesus has responded to the lawyer's question about the limits of neighborliness with his story and now turns the question back to the lawyer: "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"
And the answer, "The one who had mercy on him." Amazing! The concept of a Good Samaritan is so distasteful that the lawyer cannot bring himself to even speak the name.
Move the story forward two millennia. Jesus goes to a Ku Klux Klan rally and is asked, "Who is my neighbor?" He responds by telling a parable: The Grand Master of the Klan crashes into a ditch only to be passed over by a bigoted white sheriff and a bigoted white minister. Finally, along comes a black sharecropper playing the part of the Good Samaritan. How do you think the hearers at the Klan meeting would respond when Jesus asked, "Which of the three proved to be a neighbor?"
"Good" and "black" together in the same sentence at a Klan rally? Such was the dilemma of those who first heard Jesus' story.
If Jesus were also making a gibe against clerics, we would expect the third man to be a layman -- an ordinary Jew -- in contrast to the professional clergy. It is likely that Jewish hearers would have anticipated the hero to be an ordinary Jew. If Jesus were illustrating the need to love our enemies, then the man in the ditch would have been a Samaritan who is cared for by a loving Israelite (Brian Stoffregen, via Ecunet, "Gospel Notes for Next Sunday"). Perhaps the answer to the question, "Why a Samaritan?" is that Jesus did not want his hearers to identify with this generous caregiver! As attractive and winsome is the behavior of this man, as much of a helper/hero as he obviously was, that would be the temptation. But no good Jew could do that. He would not want to be like the priest or Levite either, so the only character left with which to identify would be the man in the ditch.
Now Jesus concludes, "Go and do likewise."
Be the guy in the ditch? Perhaps that is not so far-fetched as we and our parishioners might think. Bernard Brandon Scott presents this approach most succinctly when he concludes: "The parable can be summarized as follows: to enter the kingdom one must get into the ditch and be served by one's mortal enemy" (Jesus, Symbol-Maker for the Kingdom [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981], p. 29). He expands a little later: "Grace comes to those who cannot resist, who have no other alternative than to accept it. To enter the parable's world, to get into the ditch, is to be so low that grace is the only alternative. The point may be so simple as this: only he who needs grace can receive grace" (p. 31).
We never hear whether this poor victim recovers, but the assumption must be that he does. That being the case, what would the effect have been on him that he had been rescued by a Samaritan? One would presume that it would forever color his view of Samaritans. For that matter, one would presume that it would forever color his view of the world's victims. There would be less callousness, less inclination to lay blame for getting into such a fix in the first place, less temptation to "pass by on the other side." If Jesus' story had gone on any longer, I would bet we would hear that this poor fellow, from that day forward, became a better neighbor to the rest of his world than he would have ever dreamed possible.
A simple conclusion to the sermon could be nothing more than a brief question: Has anyone ever helped you?
Team Comments
Carter Shelley responds: Dave, you've produced some powerful material this week and I especially appreciate your analogies between first- and twenty-first century language, such as "a first century mugging." You've supplied some helpful background on the current tragic situation in the Sudan and you've provided sharp insights into the Good Samaritan parable that heighten the power of its message for Christians. While many of us have "heard it all before" we haven't heard it quite this way.
I applaud the direction you've taken, but the situation in the Sudan is so dire and the Christians' history of addressing and preventing genocide so poor I would save your biblical reading and rhetorical strategy of placing us in the ditch for another day. Irrespective of our Christian labels -- conservative, liberal, Catholic, Pentecostal, Jesus Seminar proponents, or fundamentalists -- on a situation this bad we are all called to respond: protest! Letters, phone calls to senators and congressmen and women, emails, and so on. None of us can legitimately cross over to the other side of the road while people are slaughtered because of their skin color, their economic need, and their lack of options. How absurd and frustrating it has been this past week to listen to our Secretary of State, the UN, and other voices of the international community talk about the semantics of genocide. How awful that commas and semicolons and an official genocide "check list" are required before action can happen. The Sudan is not Iraq or Afghanistan. Thousands of troops are not needed. The conditions of the conflict are so primitive that decisive action by the UN and a small contingent of American and European troops would be sufficient to stop the bloodshed and make it possible to reroute the relief packages to the people who need them most. We American Christians are generous givers when an appeal is made directly to us. Dave has already cited the Presbyterian Church USA's generous response, but it isn't enough. Without international intervention ASAP, thousands more may die.
As we left the twentieth century behind in 2000, I'm sure many of us hoped and believed that the horrors of Stalin's purges, Hitler's Holocaust, and many other genocidal incursions relating to race, culture, and religion would be left behind. Yet this very day we heard news reports about the ongoing trial of Slobodan Milosevic, whose health is so bad he may die before a verdict occurs, thus preventing him from directly facing the consequences of his efforts to exterminate Muslims in the former Yugoslavia. We've read of remarkable and hopeful efforts being made in Rwanda to heal the hideous wounds of the thousands and thousands killed there ten years ago, and who knows if Saddam Hussein's own trial will include the details of his orders to gas the Kuwaitis in his region.
Will it never end?
There are several versions of the well-known statement attributed to the German anti-Nazi activist, Pastor Martin Niem ller (his family name can also be written without the umlaut as "Niemoeller"). The following is affirmed by someone who heard him speak at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, in 1959 (or 1960) to be what he actually said:
In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me --
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
The word genocide denotes "the deliberate and systematic destruction of a religious, racial, national, or cultural group." It became a word in human vocabulary after the Holocaust of World War II. If you want more concrete information and details about genocide, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., has a phenomenal collection of resources on genocide, and is an excellent place to start to locate resources and also groups working against genocide in 2004. website is: www.ushmm.org
For materials specific to the current crisis in the Sudan go to: www.ushmm.org/conscience/sudan/dafur/main.php
If your church members and you are like me, being called and inspired to a Christian response, works more effectively than guilt about inaction. Consequently, you may want to retell stories of brave and generous people who acted to save their neighbors. Take note of Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There, by Phillip Hallie. This book describes the way the people of Chambon in France protected their Jewish neighbors from arrest and the death camps in World War II (New York: Harper & Row, 1979).
Website resources: www.holocaust-heroes.com offers many accounts of people from different countries, religions, and cultures efforts to save lives.
Protestant Christians don't know much about Pope John XXIII before his radical work at Vatican II. Born in 1881 as Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli the third of thirteen children in a peasant family in Sotto il Monte, near Bergamo. When he was ordained, in 1904, the church was fearful and inward-looking. In 1871, with the loss of the papal states to the modern nation of Italy and the restriction of Vatican sovereignty to its current borders, Pope Pius IX had proclaimed himself a "prisoner of the Vatican" and taken a defensive stance toward the modern world. In his decree Non expedit ("it is not expedient"), he had forbidden Italy's Catholics from taking any part in national politics. Pope Pius X (pope, 1903-1914) took this isolating trend further by undertaking a purge of "Modernists," especially biblical scholars who used modern textual criticism, driving many intellectuals from the church.
In the 1930s Roncalli was sent to Turkey to serve there when World War II broke out, and he devoted himself to the care of refugees, especially Jews. He obtained transit visas to Palestine for some; to others he issued baptismal certificates that would enable them to pass as Christians, with the understanding that no baptisms need be performed. Chaim Barlas of the Jewish Agency's Rescue Committee wrote: "to the few heroic deeds which were performed to rescue Jews belong the activities of the apostolic delegate, Monsignor Roncalli, who worked indefatigably on their behalf." Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Jerusalem wrote: "Through [Roncalli] thousands of Jews were rescued." www.mcs.drexel.edu/~gbrandal/Illum_html/JohnXXIII.html
"A Matter of Semantics" or "Semantics Matter" (title applied by Carter): The State Department estimates that the Arab militias have systematically attacked hundreds of black African villages in western Sudan and neighboring Chad, wiping out more than 300 of them. The marauders have destroyed crops, killed cattle, and poisoned water supplies, according to Richard A. Boucher, the department's spokesman.
Mr. Powell said legal experts were still studying whether to describe the onslaught in Darfur as an act of genocide. That distinction would compel the United States and other nations to intervene as signatories to the United Nations Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The treaty defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."
"We see indications and elements that would start to move you to a genocidal conclusion," Mr. Powell said.
The administration is currently describing the repression as ethnic cleansing. Mr. Powell reiterated the importance of taking action over parsing words. "We can find a label for it later," he said (The New York Times, June 24, 2004).
George Murphy responds: Before getting to the substance of this week's Gospel, a comment on its form may be worthwhile, although what I will say will be quite obvious to preachers: Jesus is telling a story.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus' answer to an important question: "Who is my neighbor?" Presumably he could have given some sort of theoretical answer to the question, but it would not have been as effective. Instead of just providing a general definition of neighborliness to which the lawyer might or might not agree, he answers in such a way as to bring the lawyer who asked the question to answer it. And when he does so, Jesus' reply is quite practical: "Go and do likewise."
What Jesus says here is a true answer to the question "Who is my neighbor?" -- one that is true in spite of the fact that it makes no difference at all whether the story of the man who fell among thieves on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho ever actually happened or not. It makes no difference to the truth and authority of Jesus' answer whether the facts of the story could be found on the Jericho police blotter or whether he just made the story up.
So what? That may be the response of many people in this instance, but with other texts a different reaction is likely. Does the truth of the message of the book of Jonah depend on whether the prophet Jonah was really swallowed by a great fish and converted the whole city of Nineveh with a proclamation of a few words? Does what Genesis 2 say about creation depend upon that being an accurate account of events that really took place early in earth's history?
The idea that many Christians have that a biblical passage must recount "history as it really was" in order to be true and authoritative is a major problem for understanding the Bible in today's world. Improving biblical literacy may not seem as urgent as encouraging Christians to recognize the scope of neighborhood, but in the long run it's essential that Christians have a deeper and more sophisticated view of scripture. In any case, dealing with the form of this week's Gospel and the issues of truth that it raises are another option for the preacher -- and sometimes during the summer a novel approach is welcome.
But on to the content of Jesus' story: The question that he pushes the lawyer to answer is, Who "was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" It's not precisely the question the lawyer asked originally, but it's close enough. The lawyer has to answer, "The one who showed him mercy." But being a neighbor is, or should be, a reciprocal relationship. If the Samaritan is neighbor to the injured man, the injured man is neighbor to the Samaritan. And that is the point Jesus is driving at when he says, "Go and do likewise." The lawyer is placed in the position of the Samaritan -- like it or not -- and the neighbor who is to be "done unto" is the injured man.
Sometimes the point of Jesus' parable is said to be that everyone is my neighbor. But that's not really what the story says. Jesus says nothing about the relationship of the Samaritan to injured or needy people in Jerusalem or Samaria or Alexandria. The one who is his neighbor is the person in need whom he actually encounters, the man lying by the side of the road. Certainly all the others are his potential neighbors, but the one he is immediately called to be a neighbor to is the one that he can help at the moment.
One way in which our situation differs from that of Jesus' hearers is that we know of people in need throughout the world. We can read about and see and hear them in the Sudan, or Iraq, or North Korea. Because of that, they present us with an immediate call to be neighbors in a way that wouldn't have been the case for people in far off lands in the first century. We can express our support for them, call for government action, and donate money on the Internet. At the same time, let's not forget the neighbors we encounter everyday in our own congregations and cities. The ones we're called to love as ourselves are not just those who are closest to us, but they are the ones, near or far, that we actually can express love for.
Related Illustrations
From David Leininger
In Robert Fulghum's book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (New York: Villard Books, 1989, pp. 153-155), he recounts the story of V. P. Menon, one of the significant political figures in India during that nation's struggle for independence from Britain. Unlike most of the leaders in the Independence movement, Menon was a self-made man. He was the oldest of twelve children, had quit school at thirteen and worked as a laborer, a coal miner, factory hand, merchant, and school teacher. He talked his way into a job as a clerk in the Indian administration that began a meteoric rise -- largely because of his integrity and brilliant skills in working with both Indian and British officials in a productive way.
In addition to his reputation as an efficient administrator, Menon was widely known for his personal charity. After he died, his daughter explained that when her father "arrived in Delhi to seek a job in government, all his possessions (including his money and ID) were stolen at the railroad station. He would have to return home on foot, defeated. In desperation he turned to an elderly Sikh, explained his troubles, and asked for a temporary loan of fifteen rupees to tide him over until he could get a job. The Sikh gave him the money. When Menon asked for his address so that he could repay the man, the Sikh said that Menon owed the debt to any stranger who came to him in need, as long as he lived. The help came from a stranger and had to be repaid to a stranger.
"Menon never forgot that debt: neither the gift of trust nor the fifteen rupees. His daughter said that the day before Menon died, a beggar came to the family home in Bangalore asking for help to buy new sandals, for his feet were covered with sores. Menon asked his daughter to take fifteen rupees out of his wallet to give to the man. It was Menon's last conscious act."
Fulghum continues, "On several occasions when I have thought about the story of the Good Samaritan, I have wondered about the rest of the story. What effect did the charity have on the man who was robbed and beaten and taken care of.... Did he remember the cruelty of the robbers and shape his life with that memory? Or did he remember the nameless generosity of the Samaritan and shape his life with that debt? What did he pass on to the strangers in his life, those in need he met?"
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Several years ago, 75 million of us watched the last episode of Seinfeld. The focus of that show was that the four cast regulars, having been stopped accidentally in a small town, happened to observe a significantly overweight man being car-jacked. Rather than doing anything to help, they stand there and make jokes. Remember? When the police arrive moments later, they arrest the Seinfeld group under the town's new "Good Samaritan" law, which said that failure to render assistance when appropriate is a crime. The rest of the show is their trial in which, one after another, all the people they have offended over the preceding nine years on the air come back to testify against them for being insensitive, uncaring creeps. Guilty! Jerry gives his closing monologue from prison.
Worship Resources
by George Reed
OPENING
N.b.: All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.
Music
Hymns
"God Of Grace And God Of Glory." Words: Harry Emerson Fosdick, 1930; music: John Hughes, 1907. Words by permission of Elinor Fosdick Downs. As found in UMH 577; Hymnal '82 594, 595; TNCH 436; CH 464.
"God Of Love And God Of Power." Words: Gerald H. Kennedy, ca. 1939; music: Joachim Neander, 1680. Public domain. As found in UMH 578.
"O Zion, Haste." Words: Mary A. Thompson, 1894; music: James Walch, 1875. Public domain. As found in UMH 573; Hymnal '82 539; TNNBH 422.
Songs
"As We Gather." Words and music: Mike Fay and Tom Coomes. (c) 1981 Coomesietunes. As found in CCB 12.
"From The Rising Of The Sun." Words and music: anon. Public domain. As found in CCB 4.
"How Majestic Is Your Name." Words and music: Michael W. Smith. (c) 1981 Meadowgreen Music. As found in CCB 21.
CALL TO WORSHIP
Leader: God is Just.
People: God grant that we may be just.
Leader: God is Compassion.
People: God grant that we may be compassionate.
Leader: God is with the poor and lowly.
People: God grant that we may raise the poor and lift the lowly.
COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER
O God of justice, grant that we may join with you in lifting up the oppressed and rescuing the weak and needy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
O God of compassion, grant that we may be so filled with gratitude for your compassion to us that we are also filled with compassion for others, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
or
We come to worship you, O God of justice and compassion. We lift up your name and exalt you. Help us also in this time to align ourselves with you and your reign that we may be your symbols of justice and compassion in this world for which Jesus died. Amen.
Response Music
Hymns
"Where Cross The Crowded Ways Of Life." Words: Frank Mason North, 1903; music: William Gardiner's Sacred Melodies, 1815. Public domain. As found in UMH 427; Hymnal '82; TPH 408; TNCH 543; CH 665.
"Make Me A Captive, Lord." Words: George Matheson, 1890; music: George J. Elvey, 1868. Public domain. As found in UMH 421; TPH 378.
Songs
"People Need The Lord." Words: Greg Nelson and Phil McHugh; music: Greg Nelson and Phil McHugh; arr. by J. Michael Bryan. (c) 1983 Shepherd's Fold Music/River Oaks Music. As found in CCB 52.
"I Am Loved." Words: William J. Gaither and Gloria Gaither; music: William J. Gaither. (c) 1978 William J. Gaither. As found in CCB 80.
"Make Me A Servant." Words and music: Kelly Willard. 1982 Willing Heart Music. As found in CCB 90.
PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON
Leader: The God of Jesus, the God of compassion and justice, asks us to search our hearts and to place our actions in the divine scale.
People: O God of compassion and justice who led our Lord to reach out to the despised and the lowly, we confess to you that we often choose our own good over the needs of others. We are more concerned with our comfort and status than in the injustice that is done to those who supply so many of the goods we take for granted. We shut our ears to the cries of the hurting and dying in our land and throughout the world. Forgive us and renew us in your image that we may act as those who bear your image and are filled with your Spirit. Amen.
Leader: Know that God is filled with compassion for all who seek to follow the way of Christ. He owns us as children even when we fail to act like God's family. In the name of God you are forgiven and sent out to live a new life in Christ. Amen.
GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.
We worship and adore you, God, for you out of the abundance of your love and compassion created us to share your presence. You gave us your own life and spirit. You made us in your own image that we might share your presence with all creation. You gave us creation to enjoy, share, and tend.
(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)
We confess that we have not reflected your compassion and love as fully as you have intended. We have been selfish and self-centered. We have been concerned with our own standards and have used those not to make ourselves better but as a platform from which to look down on others. We are quick to align ourselves as your beloved while denying your love to others. Forgive us our sinful ways and turn our stony hearts to hearts that beat with your own compassion. So refill us with your Spirit that we may truly be your presence to this world.
We offer you prayers of thanksgiving for your generosity. In love you have given us beauty and life. In love you have given us your own Self. We find your love revealed in nature, in the love and care of family and friends, in the companionship of the church and, most of all, in Jesus the Christ.
(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)
We are so surrounded by your love, O God, that we trust to your tender care those who are on our hearts. We have loved ones who are suffering in body, mind, and spirit. Our sisters and brothers are in need of healing and love. We know that many of your children are alone and hurting with no one to care or pray for them. Let our love and care join yours in reaching out to all in need.
(Other petitions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father ...."
Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
A Children's Sermon
By Wesley T. Runk
You Need All The Pieces
Text: v. 27 -- He answered, "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." Luke 10:25-37
Object: a jigsaw puzzle
Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know what the word all means? (let them answer) Is it an important word? (let them answer) The word all means a lot and it is a very important word. Sometimes if you don't have it all, you don't have anything.
Let me show you what I mean. I brought along a jigsaw puzzle. It has a lot of pieces and it will take all of the pieces to make the whole puzzle. If one of the pieces is missing, the puzzle is ruined, and you cannot have a whole picture. I want you to know that there is one piece of the puzzle missing. Isn't that awful? (let them answer)
This is the way Jesus felt about the way that people should feel about God. When someone asked him how they should be toward God, he asked them what the Bible said. They knew what the Bible said, and so they repeated the words that they had heard so often. The Bible says that you should love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength. It did not say part of your mind or part of your soul or part of your heart or part of your strength. It just isn't like that. You have to give God "all" that you have if you want to give him anything.
Loving God is like making a puzzle. You have to do it all, you have to give it all, because that is the way that God wants it. Part of a puzzle is not good enough. If you put it all together and you were missing one part, you would search and search until you found the one piece that was missing, and then you would put it in and be very happy.
That is the way it is with loving God. If you are saving some of your love for something else instead of giving it to God, you will find that you are always looking for the part that you have not given him. You are looking and looking and looking for whatever is missing and keeping you from loving God. But, when you find what you have been hiding even from yourself, and you give it to God, then you are really happy. Give all of your love to God and you will know why Jesus taught us to do what he wanted us to do.
The word all is a very important word, and, if you do not believe me, then hide one piece of the next puzzle that you do and see how much you miss it. Find that piece and put it together, and then you will know why it is important to love God with all that you have to share.
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The Immediate Word, July 11, 2004, issue.
Copyright 2004 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
