Fourth Sunday after Trinity
“Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”
Overview
I am guessing that we can all remember at least one sermon on the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37. Maybe it was a school assembly teaching us to be kind, maybe it was Margaret Thatcher’s famous take on how the Samaritan had amassed wealth under a free market economy, which allowed him to be generous with his charity, or even Martin Luther King’s reflection that whilst the Priest and the Levite had thought about what would happen to them if they stopped to help the man in need, only the Samaritan thought about what would happen to the man if he didn’t stop to help him. In my humble opinion all of them missed the point that Jesus is trying to make. The scholar asks Jesus a question: who is my neighbour? He put himself in the story as the subject and the neighbour as the object. Jesus replies: who was a neighbour to the man in need? He makes the scholar the object not the subject. We are the ones in need of a neighbour. We are the ones in danger. This story that Jesus tells is like the parable of the lost sheep: if we are the 99 who do not go in search of the lost sheep, we are the ones who are in fact lost. Our first reading also switches the point of view, Amos 7:7-17: Amos is an Israelite, he is supposed (according to those in power) to prophesy for Israel and against Israel’s enemies: what if, Amos asks, Israel is its own enemy? As ever, both scriptures criticize us for judging and for assuming that we are the ones who have the right to decide who is worthy of inclusion and who is not. It’s a hard lesson but still, as Jesus says: go and do likewise.
This week’s image from “Who is my neighbour? the global and personal challenge” edited by Richard Carter and Sam Wells. Pub. SPCK
FIRST READING
Amos 7:7-17
This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb-line.’ Then the Lord said,
‘See, I am setting a plumb-line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will never again pass them by;
the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’
Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very centre of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,
“Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.”’
And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’
Then Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycomore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me,
“Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”
‘Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.
You say, “Do not prophesy against Israel,
and do not preach against the house of Isaac.”
Therefore, thus says the Lord:
“Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,
and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,
and your land shall be parcelled out by line;
you yourself shall die in an unclean land,
and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”’
GOSPEL READING
Luke 10:25-37
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He 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.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ Jesus 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. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He 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. The 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.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’
