I Want A Story With Me In It

Sermon-7 Pentecost-Proper 10-July 11, 2010
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
A man was once on a train going through the Alps for the first time. He sat staring out the window, transfixed by the glorious, white- peaked mountain view. He noticed a man sitting near him reading a detective novel. “How can you read with this view out the window?” In a bored voice the man replied, “I’ve taken this trip so often I have seen it all many times before.”
That’s how this story usually is for us-we’ve “seen it all many times before”, we don’t even look out the window. It’s known as_________, the parable of “the good Samaritan.” Even people who know nothing about Jesus, know this story. In a lot of cities in America there are hospitals named “Good Samaritan”. There’s the Good Sam Club. There are even "Good Samaritan Laws" in many states which are in place to protect those who serve or tend those who are ill. The intention of these laws is to reduce the hesitation of those who might seek to help one who is sick or injured, but is concerned with lawsuits or prosecution for unintentional injuries or deaths. It is so much a part of our culture-everyone knows that the good Samaritan is the epitome of helping others, right? One writer however, wrote, “there is still some blood left in this turnip.”
Let me see if I can give you a few new twists and turns in this story to make you look out the window. First, the gospel of Luke is the only gospel to have this story. In Mark, a scribe inquires, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ (Mark 12:28-34). In Matthew’s gospel, a lawyer/Pharisee asks Jesus, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ In Luke it’s a lawyer asking, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Usually the lawyer is portrayed as being either trying to trap Jesus or validate (justify) himself. That’s usually how we describe this man. But a minority opinion is that this man was sincere. He knew the law, he knew his scriptures, and he just wanted to be the right guy.
So, after some preliminary explanations, Jesus uses a parable. Parents, do you ever remember these words? Just before bedtime, the young child turns to you and says, "Tell me a story." "What kind of story would you like to hear?" we ask. "One with me in it", she replies.
And so, Jesus tells this story. First, “We are told that a "certain man" went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. The identity of the man is withheld, being nonessential. However, in all probability he was a Jew. Jericho was about 800 feet below sea level and Jerusalem was about 2, 500 feet above it; hence, Jericho was about 3, 300 feet lower than Jerusalem. The distance from Jerusalem to Jericho was (only) about seventeen miles, and because of its history with bandits and outlaws, it was known as "The Way of Blood." It was a steep hot drop of ¾ of a mile, a narrow treacherous road, with drop offs and dangerous caves on either side.
Now, as you listen to the story everyone is identified not by a name-but by a title-even the “lawyer” who comes to Jesus. There is the priest and the Levite. In 1st century Israel, there were lots of stories with priests and Levites-it was like saying “a big businessman, a politician, and a wall street trader walked into a bar”. It would have been no surprise to those listening that they walked by the man in the ditch. These were the guys traditionally too busy to see “the little people”. Everyone would have expected that. These were “categories” stereotypes-not real people. The twist in the story was “the Samaritan”. This was a different kind of category. This would have made all those listening, angry. Let me remind you of something.
I have been telling you the last few weeks that there was a key phrase that Luke the gospel write uses to describe Jesus’ trip from Galilee. Do you remember? Luke 9:51- “Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.” And do you remember what happened in the very next verse after that? 52And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53but they(the Samaritans) did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. 54When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them (the Samaritans)?’*
That’s what Jews thought of Samaritans-those are the people that you call down fire from heaven on! Jesus used a category in this parable that would have shocked everyone listening. And in this story the evil Samaritan, is not only the one who is “different”-he is extraordinarily kind. The question is, “why”? Why would this man who was seen as essentially less than human, be portrayed as the best?
There is a great story from many years ago. “A famous experiment was conducted with seminary students. Researchers gathered a group of ministry students in a classroom and told them that each of them had an assignment. Their assignment was to record a talk about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The thing was, the recordings were going to be done in a building on the other side of the campus, and because of a tight schedule, they needed to hurry to that building. Unbeknownst to the students, on the path to the other building the researchers had planted an actor to play the part of a man in distress, slumped in an alley, coughing and suffering. The students were going to make a presentation about the Good Samaritan. But what would happen, the researchers wondered, when they actually encountered a man in need? Almost all of them rushed past the hurting man. One student even stepped over the man's body as he hurried to teach about the Parable of the Good Samaritan!
Robert Wuthnow, a professor at Princeton University, once conducted some research about why some people are generous and compassionate, while others are not. He found out that for many compassionate people something had happened to them that impacted them greatly-and that they remembered [it].. Someone had acted with compassion toward them at a critical point , and this experience had transformed their lives.”
The story of the Good Samaritan was just that- a story, but Jesus was trying to show the young lawyer something about compassion, about eternal life. He was trying to get him to understand the two laws that the young man hung all the law upon-loving God, and loving his neighbor. The crucial part of the story was the question, “' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor”. Which of these three “categories” saw the man in the ditch as “human”? Which of these 3 people actually remembered a time when he , too, had been abandoned, stripped of dignity, left alone and hurting? Which of these 3 people remembered a time when he, also, was left for dead and needed saving? The Samaritan remembered a time when he had been dying in a ditch beside the road. And so he reached out to another, also.
And so Jesus asks the young lawyer, not about categories of people, but about the actions of people. (remember the young man asked “What must I do, to inherit eternal life?)” ' Which of these three, was a neighbor to the man …?’ And the lawyer replied "The one who showed him mercy." The one who remembered a time when compassion had been shown him. That’s the key. We will reach out, we will go beyond categories/stereotypes of people, we will become compassionate, when we remember that that is a person that we are seeing, when we recall a time when we were like them. One last story.
In the winter of 2006, in New York City. An African-American construction worker named Wesley Autrey was standing on a subway platform with his two young daughters, ages four and six, waiting on a train. Suddenly another man, a white man, on the platform, apparently suffering from a seizure, stumbled and fell off the platform down onto the subway tracks. Just at that moment the headlights of a rapidly approaching train appeared in the subway tunnel. Acting quickly, Autrey jumped down onto the tracks to rescue the stricken man by dragging him out of the way of the train. But he the train was coming too fast and there wasn't time to pull the man off the tracks. So Autrey pressed the man into the hollowed-out space between the rails and spread his own body over him to protect him as the train passed over the two of them. The train cleared Wesley by mere inches, close enough to leave grease marks on his knit cap. Immediately, Wesley Autrey became a national hero. People were deeply moved by his selflessness, and bravery. "The Subway Superman"-that's what the press called him, the "Harlem Hero." But the headline in one newspaper described Wesley Autrey. It read, "Good Samaritan Saves Man on Subway Tracks." The best part of the story is what Autrey did after the train rolled over him-
When the train came to a halt, Wesley called up to the frightened onlookers on the platform from under the train. "There are two little girls up there. Let them know their Daddy is OK."
Today’s gospel is an old old familiar story. The key is when we don’t see a category, but we remember a time when we were that person that we see, when we remember that we were in need, when we were hurting, when we felt like we were left alone, in the ditch, when we were the person we are looking at. As Jesus ends the story to the young lawyer he doesn’t tell him to become a Samaritan, or to change his category or his stereotypes of others.. He tells him to go out and be compassionate. This is how this story ends: "Go and do likewise."
"What kind of story would you like to hear?" we are asked. "One with me in it",