My Neighbour who is not my Neighbour? 17-06-2018

My Neighbour who is not my Neighbour?

Leviticus 19: 9 – 22;  Luke 10: 25 -37

Love your neighbour or is it being a good neighbour?

I was travelling on the open road on the way to take a service at Douglas – a rural community near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. It is an expansive arid region.  All of a sudden I saw a man lying next to his bicycle on the opposite shoulder of the road, as I flashed by at 120ks. My mind raced. As usual I was running close to my timeline. I didn’t have much extra time. I wondered for a moment and then I thought of Jesus’ story about the Good Samaritan. Yes, a priest passed by too busy to stop. I realised in a flash that being late for the service was nothing in the light of someone in need. I quickly pulled up my car and did a smart U-turn.  There were no other cars on the road. In fact I didn’t come across one that morning on the road. I drove back and pulled up. I got out and looked around wondering how I was going to handle whatever. I wondered if any others were around watching me. The man was very still, sort of half over his fallen bicycle. There was no blood and no signs of skid marks on the road.  He seemed to be sleeping. I gently touched the man and spoke to him. He stirred. He had been asleep. And he was annoyed with me for waking him up. He wasn’t in need of help. He just needed to sleep. Obviously he had a good time drinking and too drunk to ride fell off his bicycle. Fortunately he fell onto the shoulder of the road just off the tarmac. And I, the Good Samaritan, had woken him up. No Good Samaritan points for me this morning, I thought. I hurried on my way chuckling to myself.

In preparing for this sermon I realised I needed to clarify a few more things about love. I learnt some new things in my preparation. So how does Jesus’ famous Good Samaritan story help us understand who our neighbour is? 

Before we remind ourselves of Jesus’ story let me recall some responses from last Sunday’s sermon on the 1st of the two great commandments: loving God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength. I offered a longish list of loves of mine. In fact it was a short list really as I have many loves. I happened to mention in the list that I loved Donald Trump. There was a respectful gasp or two here at Leighmoor and a bit of a guffaw at Heatherton. From conversations that followed some obviously took my statement that I love Trump to mean that I liked him – I approved of him. I had deliberately added that ‘I loved Donald Trump’ to illustrate the Bible’s truth that love in its many expressions includes all people regardless of whether we know them, like them, or approve of them. The Christian’s love is like God’s love. It’s inclusive and unconditional. But what is Christian love? It is not about a strong affection for another. It is much more than that.

The story of the Good Samaritan is set in a context of entrapment. Jesus’ enemies want to trap him into saying something that would get him into trouble. We are told that a lawyer ‘stood up to test Jesus’ [Lk 10:25]. The lawyer asked Jesus who was his neighbour. The lawyer wanted Jesus to define who his neighbour was. Did you notice that Jesus didn’t answer the question? Jesus instead put a question to the lawyer. In fact that question confronts each one of us rather than defining who our neighbour is.

The story Jesus gives is about a man who is robbed, stripped of his clothes and left on the side of the road.  Along come two respectable citizens – a priest and religious expert.  They see the man and for a host of reasons, which are not given, walk past the man.  In fairness to them they faced issues of uncleanliness and safety. To touch a dead man meant that they would not be able to carry out their religious duties for a week. I faced a similar situation on the road to Douglass. My stopping that Sunday morning might have meant that I would be seriously late for leading worship that Sunday morning. I had two services that morning. There was also the issue of safety for those two religious people and for myself. The man lying on the side of the road may have been a decoy for thieves. These two religious men had genuine concerns. However they lacked compassion. But along comes a Samaritan. Now Samaritans were sort of half-caste Jews and their worship and beliefs were questionable to the Jews. Jesus seems to be making a double point here by using the Samaritan as an example of someone loving their neighbour.  

This Good Samaritan attended to a person he didn’t know. And the man being stripped of his clothes had been stripped of his status in society. Clothes were very much a symbol of social status in those days. So the Good Samaritan did not know him or know what status he had in society. He put gave him water, put him on his donkey and took him to the nearest inn. There he left the man under the care of the innkeeper and promised to pay the full bill on return. Evidently the Samaritan is a well known businessman.  He had credit. It is a great story, but it doesn’t identify who my neighbour is. And Jesus turns to the lawyer and asks, who was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? [Lk 10: 36]

The lawyer gets it and identifies who has been a good neighbour – the Samaritan. It isn’t rocket science. But this simple twisting of the question of who is my neighbour to who is a neighbour makes a profound point. Jesus doesn’t fall for the foolish answer of starting to provide a list of people who qualify for being a neighbour. The problem with any list is that is bound to be incomplete. What Jesus is concerned about is that the second great commandment is more about us having a loving heart that extends to anybody anywhere regardless of context, race or religion. Jesus shifts focus from who our neighbour is to us being a good neighbour to every person: friend and foe. That is why I can say that I love Donald Trump and I loved Osama bin Laden. I have learnt to love those who have been rude and extremely spiteful to me. It is not easy, but I am compelled to love all because God has loved me.

The writer of the 1st letter of John gets it when he says; Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.  And the writer adds, Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. [1 Jn 4:8 & 20]

That has been a helpful exercise for me. It has helped me distinguish more clearly the logic of the command to love our neighbour.  It is more about me having a loving and inclusive disposition. That is, if you’re anything like me, you too will have to learn and develop that neighbourly disposition. 

If we turn our minds back to that challenging reading from Leviticus 19:18 about ‘loving your neighbour as yourself’ we will expand our understanding of what loving our neighbour means. Leviticus 19 is an important passage.  I deliberately kept in that rather awful bit about a man promising to sell his slave-girl to another man. I kept that in because this illustrates the rough and rudeness of the culture. In the midst of such a harsh and rough culture – one could say a primitive culture – God’s command is being worked out.  To their credit they understood that to love one’s neighbour as one’s self involves compassionate justice for all.  Not about whether you like a person or not. 

The command in Leviticus 19:18 appears like a keystone in an archway of rules. There are regulations about meat and sacrifice that have as much to do with their health as worship.  Farmers are directed to leave the edges of their fields of grain for the poor and foreigners to come and glean.  Merchants are to have honest scales and wages are to be paid on time. The deaf, blind and aged are to be respected. Honesty in speech is required and gossip prohibited under this command. And there is a modicum of respect for slaves.  The call to love one’s neighbour is about wholesome, compassionate justice and well being for the community and all who come within the ambit of the community.  Leviticus 19:18 commands people to love their neighbour as themselves and it is significantly preceded by an injunction not to take revenge. Love here is a way of life. In other words to love your neighbour is not about inviting them around for a BBQ or sharing resources, its about a way of life that is loving, justice seeking, respect giving and building community. Loving our neighbour is about wanting them to have a fair go.

Loving our neighbour is also about loving yourself. You must treat yourself fairly and justly. You are to look after yourself, not at the expense of others, but in conjunction with others.

My fellow Christians there is no place in our hearts for unkindness, injustice and disrespect to those whom we might genuinely disapprove of, disagree with, who have offended us or who have wronged us. Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbour as we love ourselves is Christianity in a nutshell.  All the rest simply flows from this. 

 

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Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC:  17/06/2018

pcwhitaker@icloud.com

 / www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org