Prayer of the Day
O Lord God, your mercy delights us and the world longs for your loving
care. hear the cries of everyone in need. Turn our hearts to love our
neighbours with the love of your Soon, Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord.
Amen

Gospel: Luke 10:25-37
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must
I do to inherit eternal life?” 26He said to him, “What is written in the law?
What do you read there?” 27He 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 neighbour as yourself.” 28And
he said to him “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will
live.” 29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my
neighbour?” 30Jesus 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. 31Now by chance a priest was
going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other
side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him,
passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while traveling came near
him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He 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.
35The 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.’ 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to
the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37He said, “The one who
showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.

“Bits and bobs”: Reflections on the Gospel Text
What do you suppose Jesus’ questioner did after Jesus told him to Go and
be radical in neighbourliness? Luke never tells us and maybe that’s by
design.

We so love the story of the Good Samaritan and have told it so often that
the real sting of the story has faded. Remember Jesus is speaking a
parables which are designed to transform more than they in-form. You
might remember hearing how the teacher Pastor Dan Erlander liked to
describe them….the story comes straight at you…and part of it sneaks into
the back of your mind and sits there…at some unknown moment the ‘truth
bomb’ detonates and you’re knocked off center; ripe for a transforming
moment.

The story comes at us straight; formulaic even. Man gets mugged. Two
righteous people pass by and we’re already expecting a third person to
arrive on scene. If the first two passersby were religious leaders, the third
person might be like a messiah or something.

And we get a Samaritan. A Samaritan? Really? Samaritans and Judeans
were sworn enemies and had been for centuries. The person mugged could
have died in the ditch if either person asked about racial or religious
identity. And there is the miracle. As it happens this particular Samaritan’s
care far exceeds First Aid and extends to providing for every need the
person attacked might have while convalescing.

So, Perry Mason, who is the helper in the story? The lawyer can’t even
bring himself to use the word “Samaritan”. It’s not hard to imagine this
person mumbling the response “the one who showed mercy”. Did the legal
scholar go and do likewise? Who knows. But the parable now sits in our
noggins too.

What might happen when its truth bomb detonates? Even as our church
met in convention this week, we re-examine where we’ve been wrong and
we start chipping away at the barriers we’ve often put in place—-the end
game that we treat each other as human and when we can help, we help.
Isn’t that the whole point of “do likewise?”….Both the Samaritan and the
person robbed and left for dead ignored race, religion or social standing—
one person gave help and the other accepted. That seems to be
neighbourliness encapsulated.