To Be A Neighbor

The Readings for Sunday, July 10, 2016

Click the image to listen to the sermon.

The Rev. Jessica E. Sexton

How do we inherit eternal life? Well according to the gospel, we must love God and love our neighbor to have eternal life. But who is our neighbor?

A lawyer who is trying to determine Jesus credentials attempts to test his knowledge of the Law of Moses with this very question. He has already proven that he knows the law but he wants to see if Jesus will answer the question correctly. And by correctly that would mean that Jesus’ understanding of a neighbor would have been a fellow Israelite.

The concept of a neighbor meant someone or a group of people that shared a similar purpose or interest that focused on feelings of the camaraderie, community and solidarity. For the Israelites they all shared a covenant with the God of Israel and this was characterized by them sharing land, language, blood, a common way of life, and worship. For the lawyer, a neighbor was someone who shared the same ethnicity, race, religious beliefs, land and language. A neighbor with someone who was the same; therefore, a neighbor was an Israelite.

Yet the lawyer's understanding of what it means to be a neighbor does not allow him to love God or love his neighbor. The lawyer’s perspective of neighbor is someone who is like him and this limits him from loving all people especially those who are different. And by not showing love to all people, the lawyer then does not fully love God. To love God is to show God's children love—by loving your neighbor, you love God.

Jesus tells him a parable to make him think about his own definition of a neighbor. Jesus tells the lawyer a story of a man who was returning from Jerusalem, who is most likely Jewish and worshipped at the Temple. This man is traveling a dangerous road between Jerusalem and Jericho and finds himself being robbed, stripped of his clothes, brutally beaten and left for dead. This image in the gospel reading is a horrifying picture of a man bloodied, beaten and left on the side of the road to die alone.  Jesus asks the lawyer who was a neighbor to the dying man?
 Was it the priest?

Jesus describes a priest traveling down the same road who was most likely coming from Jerusalem as well. And he passes by the man on the other side because if he touched the man who was bloody from the attack he would become ritually unclean. Also to touch a dead body that had not been ritually prepared was something that the priests knew he couldn't do.

Was it the Levite?

Another religious official, a Levite who works at the temple also passes by the man and most likely for the same reasons as the priest.

Jesus then tells the lawyer of a third person who comes upon the dying man and it’s a Samaritan. A Samaritan was a foreigner (who does not live in the same area as the Israelites), they don't share the same beliefs and they were known to not get along. Yet despite all the differences and negative history between Samaritans and Israelites, this Samaritan shows the dying man the greatest kindness and mercy.

The mercy that the Samaritan shows the dying man was not just bandaging his wounds or finding him shelter, but his acknowledgment of the man’s pain and honoring the sanctity of his life. What makes someone your neighbor is not just similar geographies or heritage but recognizing who is our neighbor by acknowledging their humanity. In the case of this parable, the Samaritan is a neighbor because he does not ignore the man's pain of near being death, or his rejection and neglect by those who pass by him. The Samaritan is a neighbor because he acknowledges human suffering.

We are not told much about the him but we do know that Samaritans were looked down upon, therefore we can suspect that he has his own story and experiences of neglect and rejection. The Samaritan and the dying man may come from different races, different lands, and different religious traditions but pain and hurt is universal.

Who is our neighbor?

This week has been painful, especially for the black community and the law enforcement community in our country. The loss of life has been horrific and has caused much divide. The killings of Alton sterling, Philando Castille, Lorne Ahrens, Michael Smith, Michael Krol, Patrick Zamarripa and Brent Thompson has left us hurt and grieving over the loss of innocent lives.

As neighbors, black and white, law enforcement and civilian, we grieve for the world we are living in, and wrestle together with how to confront our violent world with God’s commandment to love.  But in the midst of our sadness, grief and fear, the blessing is that we are not alone. We have one another and most importantly we have God.

I came across a post shared by a black woman named Natasha Howell.

She had gone into a convenient store to get a protein bar when she noted that there were two white police officers, one about her age and another several years older, and they were talking to a woman behind the counter about the shootings over the last few days. When they had noticed her they fell silent. She went about her business and when she came up to the register to pay  the oldest officer asked her how she was doing. And she replied "okay, and you?" She said that he gave her a strange look and then said “how are you really doing?” Natasha looked at the officer and said “I'm tired!” To which he replies, “me too. I guess it's not easy being either of us right now is it?" Natasha said, “no, it’s not.” It was then that they hugged each other and she began to cry. In her post she says “I had never seen that man before in my life. I have no idea why he was moved to talk to me. What I do know is that he and I shared a moment this morning that was absolutely beautiful. No judgments, no justifications, just two people sharing a moment."

This is what it means to be a neighbor. A neighbor is someone that shares in your pain—who grieves with you and hopes for better with you. There does not need to be any judgments or justifications, just two people being present and recognizing each other's pain, hurt and grief.

That's why God called us to love our neighbor because it is love and mercy that brings healing. Natasha and the officer show us that being a neighbor is not ignoring one's experiences or hurt but acknowledging it. That acknowledgment is mercy and it is love because when we acknowledge someone’s suffering we are saying that we see them as people, God’s people—human beings who hurt over the loss of life and fear violence.

That's why the Samaritans act of mercy changes the definition of the lawyer’s understanding of what it means to be a neighbor. A Neighbor became defined in this parable as someone who does not look at you based on a checklist of similarities but as a human being who in our differences loves, grieves, and hurts the same. The Samaritan did not look at the man and say well he’s an Israelite and we don’t get along so I can’t help him. No, the Samaritan sees a dying man. It did not matter who he was—it only mattered that he was hurting.

Let us be the Samaritan, let us look at one another during this time of violence and pain as human beings who are hurting together—that is what matters. Pain is universal. May we not walk past one another but with one another, side by side to bring peace and healing to this world. Amen.