'Imagination and Action' by Rev. Allister Lane

10th July 2022

Luke 10:25-37

 This parable has to be one of the most well-known stories Jesus told

…maybe one of the most well-known stories – of all time.

Do you know how difficult this is for the Preacher…?

It’s like I’m going to stand here now and tell you about a member of your own family.

So, I need your help this morning, as we hear this well-known story,

…as we reflect on it for us today,

…the situations we are in,

…what God is saying to us.

I’ve titled this message ‘Imagination and Action’

This captures Jesus intentions in this passage

AND

How we might respond to this passage.

To understand the passage, it’s context and what Jesus is teaching,

there are two important questions asked in this passage:

Who is my neighbour? (Luke 10:29)

Who proved to be a neighbour? (Luke 10: 36)

Each question is asked by a different person, in a tussle of ideas, a contest.

A Lawyer (of the Jewish law) is keen to spark an argument to litigate ideas.

But for Jesus, it’s not just ideas that are of interest;

he wants to spark action.

·      The Lawyer asks a religious question

what must I do to inherit eternal life?

 – Jesus responds with a question about the Law

What is written in the law? What do you read there?

·      The Lawyer answers correctly

‘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.

– Jesus says

“do this, and you will live”

See how the Jesus’ teaching forces the theory back to action? “Do this!”

Jesus is not interested in unproductive words games. He wants commitments. Loving is his thing, and he knows there are plenty of ways of loving for those who are willing to commit.

·      Our friend the lawyer thinks he sees his opening. Action? Now that does open a whole can of worms.

So the lawyer rushes to respond to Jesus with another religious question (interested in theory)  “Ah! But who is my neighbour?” .

Is my neighbour the person next door?

Or someone from my neighbourhood?

Or those who are a righteous Jews?

Or maybe any Jew, whether good or bad? 

And then there is the question of dispensations: When dealing with the law of God, there are numerous exceptions, caveats that a sensible person must consider.

We see this debate go back-and-forth, and suddenly Jesus lifts situation by telling a story.

– Jesus tells a story –

Notice how the man who happens to be travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho, is not given a clear definition.

Jesus says “A certain man.”

He is not given a name or a race. Just “A certain man”.

The Priest and Levite (no personal names, just categories) see the victim but pass by without helping. They are in fact within their rights: they are  following the regulations for ritual purity;  they cannot risk touching a dead body. They put their version of godliness above human compassion. The Priest and Levite are in that dangerous territory where love of God is deemed more important than love of humanity. This attitude it is a tearing apart of what God has inextricably bound together.

Then arrives the villain: A fellow on a donkey comes by. He is a Samaritan- a mixed blood mongrel. One of those no-hopers who denied much of the Scriptures, kept their own heretical, sectarian beliefs.

We have come to associate ‘Samaritans’ as ‘Good Samaritans’;

The Samaritan is a secularised saint;

but, Samaritans were ‘villains’ in those days – heretics.

We need to recognise the racial tension in the historical/cultural context.

As Jesus told this story, I wonder how many good Jews in the listening crowd spat into the dust when the Samaritan was mentioned.

Yet it is this despised character who runs to the aid of the victim, tends his wounds, places him on his donkey and delivers the poor fellow to a hotel, where he pays for his upkeep.

He lives not legalistically but with the liberty of grace.

The robbers say- “Yours is mine if I can get it.”

The priest and Levite say “Mine is my own if I can keep it.”

The Samaritan says “Mine is yours of you need it.”    

Back to the drama of the contest between Jesus and the lawyer.

·      Jesus flips the order and asks a question to the Lawyer

“Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man…?”

The Lawyer replies: “The one who showed him mercy.’

As an aside…

Original question = who is my neighbour (that I am to love)

But then Jesus asks

“Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man?”

(Answer: the Samaritan)

The half-dead man is actually the ‘neighbour’ who is loved.  To answer the original question, we’d say the neighbour (the one to be loved) is the man in need.

But the Samaritan models ‘neighbourliness’

Jesus invites us to use our imagination to see Neighbourliness is two-way.

A neighbour is a person we can love.

A neighbour is also a person who shows love to us.

When the Lawyer answers Jesus’ question about neighbourliness saying “The one who showed him mercy” …

·      Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

The debate has played out, and Jesus grounds it in action.

Jesus looks for commitment, for action. 

In the whole encounter, Jesus has kept to the point of doing the right deed rather than trying to define the boundaries of love’s operation.

All that matters is that there is fellow human being in need.

To whom can I be a good neighbour as I travel the road of life? Will I be a person of grace, like the Samaritan?

The parable leaves doubt about its precise application, and thereby invites imagination.

Might we identify with the one in the ditch?

It’s not a story about a favoured fortunate helping the less fortunate. 

Perhaps we sense we might be at the mercy of the outsider – the ‘enemy’?

The Samaritan personifies and performs an ‘alien grace’ (Ian MacDonald) – it is the same disturbing grace evident in the activity of Jesus in the Gospel.

The Gospel: Jesus dies for us, taking away the debilitation effects of sin and pouring God’s love freely into our hearts.

Jesus shows us that God does not calculate his mercies.

God’s loving is like the sun and the rain which fall on good and bad alike.

Grace is unearned and unmeasured.

Grace is outflowing generosity.

Grace and imagination are central in the Kingdom – where action is the important consequence of hearts filled with dynamic love.

What action might we imagine with alien grace?

Our St John’s Vision – connecting to the people of the city

·      Live and share Christ’s hope for our world

·      Exploring and sharing the Gospel

·      create safe spaces to be, to belong

As I said at the start, this is about imagination and action.

Let me finish by saying something about ‘GENEROUS PRACTITIONERS’

Jesus was a generous practitioner.

His Samaritan character was a generous practitioner.

To morally erect people, who are proud of their own hard won goodness, it is a scandal that some outsiders are more gracious than they are.

What is more, for some of them it is offensive that God dares to be more gracious than they are. God has no right to be that forgiving and merciful!

Like the parable of the Prodigal Son, this good neighbour story is also about grace in action.

The Samaritan is the person of grace in the story.

Grace is a scandal to some, a foolishness to others, 

but to those who dare to accept it and share it, it is a liberty of spirit which makes life more like a celebration than a responsibility.

Christ’s generous practitioners are joyful characters.

So let’s rejoice!

Amen.