“I Am A Samaritan” – Sermon Proper 23
Sermon: “I Am A Samaritan”
Have you noticed that some preachers have a gift… of preaching the same thing over and over? Well… This is yet another Rian Adams sermon about compassion and mercy. But… Jesus preached it all the time too, so I’m in good company.
This reading seems direct: Jesus healed ten lepers, one returned to say thank you… Say thank you.
For the typical preacher, this is an underhanded softball pitch. It’s simple, preach about giving thanks and remind people to thank God and others. That’s a good sermon. I planned to preach that sermon again this morning…
I wanted us, the listeners, to play the role of the lepers. I wanted to talk about how we should say thank you for the forgiveness of sins, for the love of God, for the sacraments of the church, and for our families and friends… I even found a perfect story:
I heard about a man who worked for the postal service in Washington D.C. His job over the holidays was managing the letters addressed to Santa. That year they received hundreds of thousands of letters addressed to Santa Claus asking for toys, gifts, and money. But after Christmas, only one letter arrived that said thank you… A little boy wrote Santa to thank him for getting two gifts this year… it was his first time having two presents.
We need to be people of gratitude. We need to say thank you with our words and actions. But, this lesson goes a step beyond gratitude… it’s about compassion, and how compassion leads to mercy. There are a few lessons I want us to note:
Compassion loves those on the boundaries.
The Gospel says that Jesus was “in the region between Samaria and Galilee.” I’ve read that a dozen times, but I overlooked the metaphor.
Keep in mind that Jews didn’t go to Samaria. When traveling by foot from the north, to Jerusalem in the south, Jews would walk over ten miles out of the way so they would not defile their feet with Samaritan soil.
The Gospel writer described the animosity between Jews and Samaritans. He said the disciples wanted to call fire down from heaven on their trip through Samaria.
Well, that’s not the best example of Christian charity, and I do not recommend it when you visit the nation’s capital.
Yet we find Jesus “…in the region between Galilee and Samaria.” He was on the boundary of social systems, religious convictions, and political structures. The German theologian Detrick Bonhoeffer said, “Jesus meets us on the boundaries of our lives.”
Sometimes we want God to meet us in the places where we have it all together. It sounds like this, “When I get my life where I want it, then I’ll go to church.”
We’re scared to let God see the boundaries we struggle to define. There’s an anxiety to reveal the edges and the secrets of the self to God.
The “boundary” in this case was the ethnic prejudice between Jews and Samaritans. Geography informs theology: Jesus was preaching a message of reconciliation between two warring factions.
That should inform our factions.
But that message just keeps getting better when Luke introduced ten lepers.
I watched a play that included this parable. In the play, the ten lepers slowly entered the stage wrapped in bandages and burlap. They were part of a “leper colony.”
It was an accurate depiction of how these lepers lived. Society’s fear of their disease marginalized them. In the play, these men and women were talking among themselves as Jesus approached. They mumbled about him, but one leper screamed, “Master!”
Only one wondered if Jesus was the Messiah. The other nine were merely concerned about their healing. Was this the case? Who knows…
We do know that everyone in Palestine knew the name “Jesus.” The leper called Jesus “Master;” Luke only used the word “Master” when disciples address Jesus. Apparently, the Gospel writer was very comfortable putting a leper, on the fringes of society, in the category of “disciple.”
We should always be careful when we label people “non-Christian” just because they seem outside the normal boundaries.
Ultimately, Jesus healed them all. Then one of the cleansed lepers “sees” that Jesus healed him. Luke said that “Recovery of sight to the blind” was one of the main missions of Jesus.
The punchline is next: “And he was a Samaritan.” Not only is he an outsider because of his condition… but he’s an outsider because of his ethnicity.
Jesus always looked for the excuse to undermine “labeling” people based on their color, their beliefs, one moment in their life, or their “leprosy.”
Compassion guides the heart
In the play I attended, the real “aha” moment came at the conclusion. The Samaritan leper returned to Jesus, fell to his knees in thankfulness. The Jesus actor reached his hand down, lifted the man up, and said, “Go, and let mercy toward others be your guide.”
We certainly need thankfulness… but we also need compassion that welcomes those on the boundaries without judgement of their particular leprosy.
Compassion is a statement of character, but… it’s also an act of worship.
The Dalai Lama recently worked with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on a title called, “The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing
Jesus caused the leper to “see” the world through eyes of compassion… Until we see the face of Jesus in each person you encounter, we miss the Gospel.
Compassion brings mercy.
What stands out to me most is how compassion sees the self realistically. If we are honest enough to admit we need compassion from others because our lives are messy, it’s easier to show it. There’s no need to pretend that we “have it all together.” God knows, and Jesus said, “Come to me all who are burdened and I’ll give you rest.”
Humm…There is a story from the desert monastic tradition that speaks to our need for compassion. A brother committed a fault…a sin… and the council called him to a trial to see if he would remain part of the community.
The committee requested the wise and revered father Antony to officiate. But he refused and didn’t show up for the meeting. So they sent someone to bring him. When he arrived, he held a leaking jug with a water trail behind him.
“What is this, and why did you bring it to this hearing?” Fr. Antony said, “My sins are many, and they follow me like drops of water. I have compassion, and thus I choose mercy.”
Compassion will make us merciful people. I needed mercy, and I found it because compassion lives here.
I’ll leave you with the sermon title… “I… am a Samaritan”
Amen.
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