Saturday, July 10, 2004

Down The Same Old Road?     The question is, “Who is my neighbor?” Having gotten to the point where both Jesus and the Lawyer agree that eternal life or the life worth living, as one translator puts it, is all about your relations to God and neighbor and that those relations have a lot to do with each other, Jesus tells this story. Jesus places the lawyer and all of his listeners on the road to Jericho: not a sunny street, or at town hall meeting, or at the coffee shop or evening or afternoon circle. The question of “who is my neighbor and what is neighborliness?” gets answered on the road to Jericho: not any old road, mind you. Jesus picks the road that was notorious for its thieves and bandits and where it was most likely for folks to find themselves beaten up and robbed. It was where people were very likely to come upon the scene we see portrayed here. If you traveled the Jericho road often enough, sooner or later you are going to find yourself beaten and robbed. Sooner or later you are going to find yourself having to make the kind of decisions that faced the priest and the Levite in this story and that is a part of all our stories. What happens there is an indicator of whether we are leading the life worth living, at least according to Jesus. Things get settled and come clear on the road where people get mugged and robbed and cast aside.           It happens to us all. We get robbed and we come upon scenes that remind us that we are vulnerable and because we are at risk for the same fate and often we are not sure of what to do, we pass by on the other side. Life can look like a demolition derby some days - what do you do, how do you do it?           It can happen in so many ways. My mother towards the end of her 94 years of life felt like she had fallen in among robbers. It was a simple thing but the kind of thing that happens on the road to Jericho but it can leave you feeling out of it, half dead meaning only half alive as Jesus describes it. She lived long enough to have to struggle with all the changes that had come to the phone system and all the options they give you. She really didn’t want to hear about all the meaningless choices that were being offered to her. Making ordinary calls become a struggle and a hassle. When she got into trouble and she wanted to talk to a real live operator she didn’t want to hear for more options press one. It only reminded her of how many things had changed and robbed her of the kind of joyful anticipation that can come in calling friends. We are all on the road to Jericho where we can feel beaten up and reminded of our inadequacies. It can leave you pretty far from the life worth living. Sudden long-term illness can rob the conversations of their spontaneity. What do you say, how do you say it? Do you avoid it and try to pass on the other side of what seems to fill the road ahead in a relationship. People fall in among robbers and fall upon the folks who have been robbed. That is life on the road to Jericho. I often feel sorry for our American Presidents. You see the picture on the first day in office and then you see pictures taken at the end of their term. They sure look like they have fallen among folks that have stolen something from them - they look weary and guarded and defensive and if not half dead then only half alive at best. It happens on the road to Jericho. There are folks out there gunning for you. There are people who are ready to pounce on you and keep you afraid and keep your trust level down. I think of the teenagers who are exposed to an endless parade of messages to eat fast food and soda and candy and then are told by the same advertising agencies that they ought to look like the thin models that never seem to get fat. You can feel pretty bruised and beaten on the road to Jericho. When the politicians get done with you and you don’t know which way to turn or whom or what to believe, you can feel only half alive at best.           We usually tell this story as if it were a simple morality play - with the characters who wear white hats and those who were black hats - with the pretty obvious conclusion that we know going in that it was of course the Samaritan who proved that he was the real neighbor. However whenever we reduce Jesus’ stories to such easy to get truths we may be far off the mark. As morality play we know that when the priest and the Levite come on stage that we are supposed to hiss and boo: bad insensitive people, double triple shame. Clergy and their assistants, the best families, folk you ought to look up to in the community; they pass by on the other side. How could they?       I take another position. I am glad that the priest and the Levite passed on the other side. There are some people that ought to just keep moving because they might not be of any help at all. Warren Goldstein, William Sloane Coffin’s biographer, recounts when the great preacher and pastor found himself beaten and robbed of the life of his son who died in a Car accident in the midst of an ice storm. Preaching the following Sunday, he opened by evoking Alex the "day-brightener," who "enjoyed beating his old man at every game and in every race," who had now "beat his father to the grave." He then gratefully acknowledged the Hemingway quotation he had received among the "healing flood of letters": "The world breaks everyone, then some become strong at the broken places." His "own broken heart" was beginning to heal, "largely thanks to so many of you, my dear parishioners." Throughout the sermon he expressed his gratitude to Riversiders, hundreds of whom had come to his "rescue" and given him "what God gives all of us minimum protection, maximum support." But Coffin needed someplace to put his anger, too, so he criticized those would-be friends, especially ministers, who sent him the worst letters, proving “they knew their Bibles better than the human condition." After all, "while the words of the Bible are true, grief renders them unreal." That is why those who made no demands but simply brought food and flowers and held him, helped far more. He saved his real wrath, though, for an old friend (unidentified as such) who had made the mistake of implying that Alex's death was God's will This "should never be said," he told the congregation, as he described "swarming all over her," demanding to know if it was "the will of God that Alex never fixed that lousy windshield wiper of his, that he was probably driving too fast in such a storm, that he probably had had a couple of 'frosties' too many?" He confessed that "nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seemingly intelligent people to get it through their heads that God doesn't go around this world with his finger on triggers, his fist around knives, his hands on steering wheels." Quite the contrary: "My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break." This argument accounts for why clergy have been using this sermon in grief counseling ever since.           There are some people who ought to pass by on the other side for they bring nothing to the moment. I mentioned my sympathy for our presidents. I do feel for the current occupant of the White House. While I do not agree with him much of the time I am appalled at those who think that in this time the best thing to do is to make fun of hid accent and to mock his evident dyslexic struggles with words. Do those folks think that they increase the president’s ability to cry out in the midst of his wounds rather than act out his pain in less than the best ways? There are some folks that ought to pass by on the other side. Of course we wonder what to do but there are some people who come into such situations with all the answers and solutions in the world that just make us feel more incompetent and ashamed that we have fallen among robbers. It must have been our own fault in the first place. What was he doing on the road to Jericho in the first place? They ought to pass by on the other side.           According to Jesus the Good Samaritan is good because he brings three things to this moment. First he concentrated on the wounds. Oil and disinfect no judgment, or solutions or answers, or explanations but just deal with the wounds first. It is better to have people cry out than act out their wounded-ness. It is ok to be wounded, none of us avoid it, all of us are on the road to Jericho, and it will catch up with us. If you are not ready to deal with that then please pass by on the other side. At first it is oil and wine soothing and disinfecting. There is a soothing presence that says there is something that we can do about this and we can find it together. The wounds won’t leave you winding up on the outside looking in. Oil and wine soothe and prevent the wounds from getting infected with despair and hopelessness.           He next gets him to a safe house where the man who fell among robbers can recover. Sometimes, we don’t let people recover at their own pace. When people are suffering from burnout that is robbing them of life we don’t always make it easy for them to recover. Sometimes when people recover it means that we may have to face some hard truths in marriage or in church or family. Do we make it safe for people to recover? If not please pass by on the other side.           Finally, the Good Samaritan makes arrangements for the future.  This takes some courage and trust on the part of both the Samaritan and the Innkeeper. Who knows what happens next. But the future will be covered with a love that might have to deal with disappointment and will certainly have to deal with the reality that people have a habit of finding themselves beaten up and in ditches by the side of the road.  The future is not tied to any particular outcome but is open to dealing with whatever comes up. If you are not ready for this please pass by on the other side and don’t try and be helpful.           The Samaritan was a neighbor to the man because he went down the right road when folks were beaten up and helpless. He started with the wounds, provided a safe place for recovery, and was open to what ever the future might bring or not bring. Jesus said to the lawyer and to us all, “Go and do likewise.” You will be on the right road.               6:46:24 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 Craig MacCreary. Last update: 9/4/04; 3:46:19 PM.