MERCY AND POWER
Luke 10:25-37
7/10/16
Two weeks ago I talked about
“sentences”, moving ahead in our Christian faith. Last week I talked abut
“rewards.” This week I want to talk about mercy and power.
In today’s Gospel passage from Luke, Jesus tells the story of the man
who had fallen among thieves and was helped by a Samaritan. The story of the
Good Samaritan has found its way into our culture. Hospitals are named “The
Good Samaritan Hospital.” Usually such a hospital has as part of its mission
medical help to the less fortunate. We also have “Good Samaritan” laws, some of
which went into effect following the Kitty Genovese murder in New York City in
which the cries of the young woman were ignored. Now it is a crime to walk by
certain instances of obvious distress. In various states there are cars or
trucks that patrol the highways looking to give help to those whose car has
broken down or who have been in an accident. Those emergency vehicles are
called “Good Samaritan” trucks.
So this passage has been used over the
years to encourage the helping of others, charitable acts and good deeds.
It has also been used to beat up on
the clergy and the pious. Adherences to liturgical niceties, ritual proprieties
and things religious have been pillared in the stock of hypocrisy. So too those
who have been Bible thumpers and strict adherents to the Law and the prophets
(the Levites) have been disparaged.
This passage has also been used to
ridicule lawyers.
Indeed, it is a fascinating story. As
we noted two weeks ago, there was great enmity between the Jews and the
Samaritans. The Samaritans broke away from Israel following the divisions under
the kings who succeeded Solomon. The Samaritans kept the Law but rejected the
prophets. Their holy city was not Jerusalem. So the story is set in the context
of divisions, conflicting tribes and enmity.
As He was traveling, a lawyer asks
Jesus what one must do to inherit eternal life (in effect be saved). The lawyer
is “testing” Jesus. Jesus asks the lawyer what is written in the Law. He
answers from Deuteronomy, “thou shall
love the Lord your God…. and your neighbor….” “So do it!” Jesus replies. But
the Lawyer works in New York and replies, “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replies by telling the story of
The Good Samaritan. At the end of the story Jesus asks, who was the “neighbor”
to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” The lawyer answers, “the
one who showed mercy.” “Go and do likewise,” Jesus replies.
You probably have your own Good
Samaritan stories, but I am going to tell you my favorite one. My father-in-law, Paul, was
a gnarly old Irishman who had grown up in Hartford in the early twentieth
century. He used to deliver milk from horseback as a boy. Later he worked in
insurance for “the two Hartfords.” He could remember when factories posted
signs in their windows, “Irish need not apply.” Paul was a good Democrat,
Irishman and Catholic. Much to the chagrin of his wife and daughters, Paul was
also intolerant of Blacks. He hired Blacks, worked with Blacks and had Black
friends. Even so, sadly he was a bigot. Because of hard living Paul suffered
from emphysema and much of his latter years were spent battling lung
infections.
Well,
“It was a dark and stormy night.” Paul decided he needed a widget. So he drove
out to Sears at Corbin’s Corners in West Hartford. On the way back his old
Thunderbird stalled and died. Paul got out and tinkered under the hood, getting
soaked. Nothing worked. So he got back in the car. Another car pulled up behind
him. A big Black man came up to Paul’s window and said, “Can I help you?” “Car
won’t start,” Paul said. “Pop the hood,” replied the Black. They both fiddled
with the carburetor. Nothing worked. “You are soaked,” said the Black. “Get in
my car.” Reluctantly Paul got in the man’s car. “I’ll take you up to the gas
station and arrange for someone to come back and get your car,” volunteered the
stranger. After they did that, the Black said, “You are shivering. Wrap this
blanket around you. Where do you live? I’ll take you home.”
Meanwhile, back at the
homestead, my mother-in-law and her daughters worried where my father-in-law
was. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. They opened it. Standing there was
a tall Black man holding my father-in-law in his arms. “This man is very sick,”
he said. The Black came in, deposited Paul in a rocking chair, and said, “His
car stalled. He should go right to bed.” “Its upstairs,” my mother-in-law said.
He picked up Paul, carried him upstairs, dumped in his bed, came back down, and
left.
Ten days later the man
called and asked if Paul was all right! My mother-in-law never got the name of
this “good Samaritan” stranger. Paul never again said a prejudice word against
Blacks.
Some Early Church Fathers in
their interpretation of the story of The Good Samaritan suggest that the man
who fell among thieves was the Church and the Good Samaritan, the one who
showed mercy, was Jesus. Perhaps they were right. Of course the story
encourages charity and good works. Of course it judges the religious who are
too caught up in the structures of liturgy and purity. Of course it skewers the
lawyers and theologians who get lost in logical acrobatics and distinctions.
But I think the Patristic fathers were right when they identified the outcast
and despised one who shows mercy as having the presence of Christ. For it is
from Christ that you and I know real mercy and derive the power to do good things
and to witness in the world. We do see Christ in all persons. It is His mercy
and power that transcends all of the divisions and distinctions that separate
us from one another: age, race, money, and education. It transcends the
differences between immigrant and citizen, Baptist and Roman Catholic, Muslim
and Hindu, Shiite and Sunni, Christian and Jew.
It is Christ who stands at
the door, holding the poor and the hungry, the forsaken and the despairing, the
sinner and the lost and says, “This man is very sick.”
It is Christ who gives His
body and blood to us in the Eucharist and whose mercy and compassion enable us
to live in Him and He in us so that we can do His will.
Brothers and sisters, it is
our unity in Christ’s mercy that gives us the power to do acts of hospitality
and courage and to aid and anoint those whom Christ holds in His arms.
It is Christ who stands at
the door and calls us not only to proclaim but also to embrace the Gospel. To
embody the mercy and power of Christ has always been our calling as Christians,
yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Today’s
Collect summarizes our heartfelt prayer during this Pentecost season. O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of
your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what
things they ought to do, and also may have the grace and power faithfully to
accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. BCP p.231 -Fr. Gage-
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