Fences

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 10

July 14, 2013

Luke 10: 25-37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 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." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. 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, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Our gospel text today is probably the most well-known parable that Jesus told.  All of us know it well, all of us have heard it time and time again, all of us have studied it, and had Bible studies and devotions dedicated to it.  We hear it with ears that have been trained time and time again to see things in certain ways, to see ourselves and others in specific characters.  Sometimes when we know a story too well we stop listening to it.  There is always a battle within our minds and hearts when we encounter such a well-known passage to allow ourselves to be open, to allow God to show us something new, to allow God to work in us.

Most of the time we read this story as being a lesson that we should reach out to those who are in need, that our definition of who a neighbor is should be wide enough to include all, not just those who live in our locale, or look and think like us.  We add to the story by reminding ourselves that the aid the Samaritan gave was full and complete, he didn’t just feel sorry for him and bind his wounds, he cared for him until our traveler was well enough to go on.  Our aid, our compassion, should not be limited to reaching out at the moment of need, but being there through until the time for need is well and truly passed.  We all know those readings and interpretations; we’ve all studied this passage in the past, and may have studied it multiple times.  What more is there to learn?  Are there new perspectives that may be open to us, new ways for God to speak to us through this story?

The lawyer (more accurately translated as a teacher of the law) asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life.  It’s a question that if we are honest with ourselves is also a question many of us would ask.  We too want to know what we need to do to ensure our homecoming into heaven.  Jesus responds to the lawyer by asking him what he understood he needed to do based on the law.  The lawyer’s response pleases Jesus, "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."  Jesus tells him, that if he does this he will live, he will inherit eternal life.  Jesus doesn’t tell him that he also needs to go to temple a certain number of times a year, he doesn’t say he needs to go to a certain temple, he doesn’t say that he needs to be part of specific religious acts or experiences.  He is simply to live his life in love and devotion to God, and treat his neighbor as he would himself want to be treated.

But, it can’t be that easy.  There have to some restrictions on this, some guidelines to make it not so open.  For a good Jew, devout service to God was normal and expected, so the lawyer looks for his wiggle-room with the definition of neighbor.  If the identity of the neighbor was known, you could make sure you treated those people well, devote your energy to them, and not waste your time or energy on those ‘others.’    Jesus responds to him with this parable, and then stuns him with his question and statement following the parable.

This is not the only time in the Gospels that Samaritans are used as actors in Jesus’ ministry.  Samaritans were an easy example to use as they were a disliked, and excluded people.  They claimed to worship the same God as the Israelites, yet they spoke of Mt. Gerizim as the religious center, not the temple in Jerusalem.  They were Jews, yet not.  They were there for all to see, they lived out their religious differences right in front of the rest of the Jews, and took pride in their differentness.  Yet, Jesus does not use their differentness as a reason to exclude them; he uses their differentness as a lesson in how wide God’s love and mercy is.

If the Gospels were to be written today, if Jesus were to be telling this parable today, who would his Samaritan be, who would his wayward traveler be?  Illegal immigrants, people of Middle-Eastern descent or appearance (just think for a moment about this country’s reaction to these folk following 9/11), young people whose bodies are covered with tattoos or pierced with pieces of metal, single mothers, the unemployed and homeless, LGBT people?  Who would we pass by if we saw them in need?  Who are the travelers in our lives?  Do we have perspectives from our own religious understandings that may cause us to pause and react more slowly, if at all, when need is encountered in a traveler ‘like that?’

Our house is divided from our neighbor’s houses by a fence.  Now, in all reality the fence is there so that our dog can be let out at 5:30 in the morning without us having to stumble around in our robes and slippers, but it’s still a barrier.  Fences between houses separate more than yards.  They say, “This is mine, that is yours.”  “Keep out!”  I know when I was a kid and I had to jump the neighbor’s fence to get the runaway ball, I always felt like I was doing a bad thing.  We put up fences to keep things to ourselves, and to keep other things away.  Sometimes those fences are physical things, sometimes they may not be physical, but they aren’t any less real.  And whether we intend it or not, fences have an effect.

A few years ago I was visiting a friend.  They had a big beautiful house, and a big dog.  They had lived in the house with the dog for years, actually since the dog had been a puppy.  When I visited them they were in the process of doing a major landscaping job.  The fence that had surrounded their house forever had been removed the day before.  As I drove into their yard their big dog came bounding toward me, only to stop in the middle of the yard.  He stopped where the fence had been his entire life, he stopped where he had become used to stopping.  He had never gone further, he didn’t seem to realize he could go further (even though the fence was no longer there.)

So often we center ourselves on the question of, ‘who is our neighbor?’  After all, that is the question that the lawyer asked.  Then, we look at the example Jesus gave, the story of the Samaritan and the wounded traveler, and assume we have found the answer: everyone is our neighbor.  That is true, but there is more to it than that.  The lawyer asked ‘who’, Jesus answered with ‘how.’  Rather than focusing on the identity of who a neighbor is, Jesus turned the tables and said let’s see how a neighbor acts.  Let’s get rid of the labels, the identifiers, and instead focus on how we are or are not in relationship with one another as neighbors.

Jesus doesn’t say that the Samaritan is correct in his religious perspective regarding where God was to be worshipped, but he does use his giving of aid regardless of difference as a lesson on neighbors, and thus on eternal life.  It’s interesting to note that Jesus doesn’t ask the lawyer who did right by the law, but who showed mercy.  Mercy trumps law.  Jesus doesn’t say that the scribe or the Levite were wrong in their actions, he doesn’t pass judgment on them (other than to declare them less merciful than the Samaritan), their actions were within the law.

As Christians, we live our lives doing our best to follow and live by the model of Jesus.  We live our lives with understandings (sometimes personal and sometimes communal) of what is right or wrong.  Every day, we must make decisions about how we are going to live out our faith, where do we follow the letter of ‘the law’, and where do we follow something else.  What is it that guides us when we move away from the letter of the law?  Is it mercy, or something else?  Are there fences around our lives?  Who put them there?  Us, our families, our beliefs, our insecurities?  What would happen if we took down the fence?  What would happen if we opened a gate?  Who would come in?  What might leave?  Can neighbors have fences?    Can we follow the example of the Samaritan and go and do likewise?  Amen.