Humans being

Sermon for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Why are we so pleased 

with the Samaritan?

Why are we not so pleased 

with the priest and Levite?

We know that

the Samaritan acts

as a neighbour

to the man

more than either 

the priest and Levite

but is our condensation

of those two who didn't help

justified?

[PAUSE]

Notice that Our Lord

does not condemn

anyone.

He simply states that

it is the Samaritan

who is doing the work

of Eternal life.

It is the Samaritan

who is the example

of loving the neighbour.

It is the Samaritan

who realises that

he is a neighbour to the man.

It doesn't matter to him

whether this victim of highway robbery

is Jew, Gentile or Samaritan.

At this very moment,

one man is naked and bleeding

and the other is there,

right next to him.

At this moment,

the Samaritan ceases

to be a Samaritan

and becomes

a willing helper.

[PAUSE]

Maybe

the Priest could not cease 

to be a priest at that moment.

But the man does not need 

a sacrifice offered for him

at this moment.

Maybe 

the Levite could not cease

to be a Levite at that moment.

But if the man does not 

need a priest,

then he certainly does not need

a priest's assistant

to help him offer the sacrifice.

The man needs a neighbour.

The Samaritan is willing

to lay aside his identity

as a Samaritan to help this man.

The Samaritan is willing

to lay aside

all the cultural assumptions,

all the bad blood with the Jews,

all the expectations

of insult and injury

in order to see another human being

in need.

[PAUSE]

If the priest stops

trying to be a priest,

if the Levite stops

trying to be a Levite,

and concentrate

on being a neighbour

- concentrate on the fact

that they are right next to -

a man needing help

then they would be

better examples of 

people who love their neighbour

and

people who love God.

[PAUSE]

Often,

we try to narrow what we can do

by clinging to the person

we believe ourselves to be.

The opportunity

that God gives us 

to be a good neighbour

is an opportunity to see ourselves

as the people He wants us to be.

Any Christian bishop

knows that he is still a priest,

and any priest

knows that he is still a deacon,

and any deacon

knows that he is still a layman

with all the duties that being 

a Christian entails.

No Christian clergyman

is exempt 

from being a good neighbour.

But then

neither are you!