Homily 604 – 20 APE
Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa
November 10, 2024
Epistle:  (200) Galatians 1:11-19
Gospel:  (53) Luke 10:25-37

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God.

I promise you I did not pick the Gospel reading for today.  The Church picked it hundreds of years ago.  The parable of the Good Samaritan does seem appropriate for our day, though.

We as a nation have experienced extreme division for the last 40 years or so.  It’s been much worse for the past 10.  Yet, for us in the Church, nothing has really changed in millennia – since the time Our Lord walked the earth.

There has always been, and always will be, divisions and strife and struggles for power and influence and wealth.  There was in Rome, in Byzantium, in the Ottoman Empire, the Mongol Empire, the Russian Empire, the British Empire, and even the Communist Empire, if we can call it that.

As far as I know, nowhere in creation, after the fall, have people existed in peace and harmony and contentment.  Why should we expect differently from us today?

OK, so what does that have to do with the Good Samaritan?

The message is to us, as followers of Christ, about how we are to live, regardless of the situation around us.  Regardless of our political views – left or right or sideways – we are expected to do these things ourselves.  Not the government, not even the Church.  For those who are perhaps on the left, we can’t defer to the government.  For those on the right, we can’t abandon our personal obligation to help.

When the 5,000 were fed, recall that Christ didn’t say, “OK, you’ve brought me the need, now I’ll take care of it.”  He said, “You feed them!”

Now the question asked by the onlookers was “who is my neighbor?”  Meaning who is the one I’m obligated to help?

The answer to that question is maybe difficult to hear, but true nonetheless.  Our neighbor, the one we are obligated to help, is the person we know about.  Their country of origin doesn’t matter, their religious affiliation doesn’t matter, their legal status doesn’t matter.  The only thing that matters is that they have a need that we can meet.

How do I arrive at this conclusion?

Well, as I read the story, first of all, the only thing that matters is the need.  And looking back to the Old Testament, the Mosaic law is replete with references to how we are supposed to treat not just our friends and family, but how we are to treat those who are not part of us, not part of our tribe.

The Old Testament refers to them as sojourners, or wanderers.  The Hebrew term is goor – and it is defined as a person, or group, is residing, either permanently or temporarily, in a community and place that is not primarily their own, and is dependent on the good will of that community for their continued existence.  The Greek word is παροικέω (pa-roi-ke-o).

We find several references to how these sojourners, or foreigners, are to be treated by the people of God.  Deuteronomy 27:19 says, “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’

Exodus 22:20 tells us that we shall not wrong or oppress a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.  In verses 22-23, Exodus goes on to say, “If you do mistreat them – meaning sojourners, widows, orphans – I (God) will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me, and My anger shall blaze forth and I will put you to the sword, and your own wives shall become widows and your children orphans.”

In Jeremiah, chapter 7 verses 5-7, we hear God say, “If you really mend your ways and your actions; if you execute justice between one party and another; if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan, and the widow; if you do not shed the blood of the innocent in this place; if you do not follow other gods, to your own hurt – then only will I let you dwell in this place, in the lad that I gave to your ancestors for all time.”

It is interesting also – side note – that Jeremiah also delivers God’s message in verses 9-10:  Will you steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, and sacrifice to Baal, and follow other gods whom you have not experienced, and then come and stand before Me in this House that bears My name and say, “We are safe”?—[Safe] to do all these abhorrent things!  Do you consider this House, which bears My name, to be a den of thieves? As for Me, I have been watching—declares GOD.”

That sounds familiar – Jesus may have referenced that before He chased the moneychangers out of the Temple.  So remember, God is watching us!

One more.  Deuteronomy 1:16:  I charged your magistrates at that time as follows, “Hear out your fellow Israelites, and decide justly between one party and the other—be it a fellow Israelite or a sojourner.”

Maybe you get the idea.  We can’t put any – any – prerequisites on who we are to help.  Our neighbor, the one we are obligated to help, is the one in need.

So what is the extent of the help?  Well, let’s go back to the Gospel account.  The Samaritan met every need he was able to meet.  The need, the first priority, was the health of the man, and then his recovery.  So, he bound and treated the wounds, and went to an inn, and the man stayed with him.

When he had to go, the Samaritan left some money with the innkeeper, and promised that if the care of this hurt man cost more, he would pay him on his return.

To quote Teddy Roosevelt:  Do what you can with what you have where you are.

And we do this because of the same reason the people of Israel did – because God saved us.  Because God is healing us.  The expectation for us is that we extend our assistance to others in need.  God works through us, to reach out to the world.  And this is what we will be judged on – Matthew 25 is explicitly clear about this.

God doesn’t simply bless us directly anymore.  Manna from heaven isn’t happening, as far as I know.  The blessings of God flow to us from and through others.

And then, we pass it on.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Glory to Jesus Christ.