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The man in the Gospel reading asked Jesus: "Who is my neighbour?"
And Jesus responded by telling the story of the Good Samaritan.
"Who is my neighbour?"
Who is your neighbour?
Let's just take this question at its most basic, obvious form.
Who actually is your neighbour? Do you know them?
Some years ago a milkman phoned in to Surgery to say that he was concerned about one of my elderly patients.
Her curtains were still drawn, and there was no answer to the door bell.
Knowing that she was prone to stay in bed, and also very deaf, rather than interrupt a busy surgery to drive out the 5 miles to check on her, I decided to ring her neighbour, also a patient of mine.
"Would you mind popping round to Mrs Smith's to check if she is all right?" I asked.
"Mrs Smith? Who is Mrs Smith?" she replied.
"Ada Smith. You know! Your neighbour."
"Oh is that her name? The white haired lady? I don't know her at all. We've never met."
Now I know for a fact that those 2 ladies had been living next door to one another, their back doors just 10 yards apart, separated by a hedge, for at least 20 years.
But they did not know one another - not even by name!
Well, that day they met, and they became friends.
Who is your neighbour?
Are you building bridges of friendship - perhaps so that you will feel able to invite them to the J.John Carol Service this Christmas?
"Who is my neighbour?"
Jesus actually turned the man's question slightly.
Rather than answering the question "Who is my neighbour?" he answered the question: "Who should I be neighbour to?" At the end of the parable He asked: "Which of these men was a neighbour to the man who fell among robbers?"
So Jesus' answer to the question, "Who should you and I be a neighbour to?" is: "To anyone and everyone in need."
- Whether we like them or whether we don't.
- Whether they are "our type" or whether they are not.
- Whether it is convenient or whether it's not.
There is, Jesus says, no place for selectiveness. The Priest and the Levite in the parable were selective. They did not relate to the victim - he was not their type, nor their responsibility. Anyway, it would be dangerous to stop; it would put themselves at risk; they might get mugged themselves.
That road from Jerusalem to Jericho was then, and still is now, a very lonely and wild stretch of road. So, to use the word beloved of our new Prime Minister, they were "prudent", and passed by on the other side.
But the Samaritan - a man of a different religious group from the victim; a man who normally would have had no dealings with a Jew - he stopped, and "went to him". Note, "he went to him" - the very opposite of passing by on the other side. The Samaritan took the initiative.
He made the move.
He crossed the road.
He took the risk.
And then he did 2 things, and I would like us to take away this morning one word from each.
1) He poured oil and wine onto the man's wounds.
He cleaned them and dressed them.
He got his hands dirty and bloody.
And, note, he didn't "dab on" oil and wine.
He didn't "trickle on" a little oil and wine.
No, he poured it on.
"Poured". That is the first word.
He didn't stint.
His actions were not restrained, or sensible, or prudent.
He didn't keep an eye on how much oil and wine might be left for his own use. No, he poured it on.
It reminds us of the story of the woman anointing Jesus' feet with very expensive ointment. Reckless generosity. Overflowing liberality.
The Samaritan poured.
2) He paid.
He put the man on his own donkey, took him to the next pub along the road, and paid for his accommodation.
2 silver coins he paid - that is 2 full days' wages.
Enough to keep the man at the inn for several weeks.
And what is more he said to the innkeeper:
"Look after him, and I'll reimburse you for any extra expenses your incur when I next come this way."
No limits! An open cheque!
No cautionary financial ceiling!
"I will reimburse you for any extra expense."
In other words, "Spend what you have to. Give him whatever he needs. And I will pay."
Again, reckless generosity! The Samaritan poured and he paid.
And he did it for a complete stranger,
to whom he owed nothing
and whom he might never see again.
There was nothing in it for him.
There were no strings attached. No reward offered. No honour bestowed.
It was an act of sheer generosity.
Sheer generosity!
Pouring and paying, to a complete stranger.
Being a neighbour to someone we've never met before, and about whom we know nothing.
That could be said to be foolish.
Even irresponsible.
Perhaps the injured man in the ditch had asked for what he got.
Perhaps he was carrying money that invited robbers on that dangerous road.
Perhaps the Good Samaritan's actions were rash, and not the best use of his time and money.
Perhaps his trust in the man and in the innkeeper was foolish.
But they were clearly the actions and the response that Jesus approved of.
So what is Jesus teaching us in this parable?
Is it not that He wants us to be neighbours to anyone in need?
He wants us to pour compassion and to pay money, in an open-handed, open-hearted way.
We sometimes tend to be rather cautious, and rather selective, in who we are prepared to help, and to what causes we are prepared to contribute. We let our heads rule our hearts. We are prudent.
"I won't buy the Big Issue from that chap - he looks scruffy and shifty, and will probably spend it on drink."
"I'm not going to give any money to that cause - I'm not sure that they use it wisely.'
"I won't offer to do any shopping for my neighbour in case they take me for granted and make a regular habit of it."
And so, time and again, we are cautious, and sensible - and we pass by on the other side of the road.
One of the problems we face is that there are so many crying needs that we can't possibly respond to them all.
But we need to pray that God will lay on our hearts those needs He wants us to respond to.
We need to pray that our response will be from caring hearts, not from hard heads.
Take, for example, our Parish Share, paid to the diocese.
The PCC will, this week, have to make the hard decision as to whether we have to reduce what we pay in order to balance our budget - along with cuts in our own expenditure.
Because our income as a church is not enough to meet our outgoings.
Cutting the Parish Share is one way of dealing with the problem.
And that may mean one less vicar for some deprived parish in the Dudley area.
"Ah well!" we may say. "That's a shame! - but we don't know them. And after all it's the only prudent way to balance our books!"
Well, perhaps for this year it is - but what about next year, and the next?
Are we going to cut it again?
What about the way of neighbourliness?
The way of you and me pouring and paying more generously?
And take the chairs!
These chairs in the Priory, that you are so comfortably dozing in at the moment (!), are over 100 years old.
They are, of course, very uncomfortable, and too small (they were designed for Victorians), and they are beginning to fall apart.
We have talked about getting new chairs for 20 years, and we owe it to those who worship here, and who attend concerts, to stop talking and to do something!
But how? Well that's going to need some pouring and paying on our part, in order to have a church whose seating is worthy of God, and in line with our vision.
Then what about causes out there in the wide world?
Can I read part of an e-mail that came 10 days ago from Canon Andrew White, vicar of St George's, Baghdad - sent
Before he had to urgently leave Iraq for security reasons.
He wrote:
"Dear Friends, Greetings from Baghdad. Life here is as tragic and awful as usual. Yesterday was pretty awful, everything went wrong….
The crisis for all Iraqis is real, but for Christians it has never been this bad. I so wish that the Church would wake up to their need.
People often ask what they can do to help, and the fact is all we need is money to buy food. I do not need any more teddy bears - they are very nice, but they provide no help for the children. I do not need any more Bibles - we have more than enough. I do not forget my people looking at the Bibles and saying "We cannot eat Bibles!"
I still need money for food and rent. People need help with their rent, and what we can offer is very limited. There are still hundreds of Christians sleeping in the churches because they have been made to leave their homes.
27 of our people remain kidnapped; we have no money to get them back, so they will be killed.
I have paid all my own money, we have no more left. We just hope and trust that God will provide, and He does.
So things remain awful - but our people continue to praise God." |
Now if that doesn't touch our hearts I don't know what will.
Doesn't that inspire us to pour our energy, and time, and support into our fete in 2 weeks time - to raise money for the Christians of St George's Baghdad?
Surely that's the least we can do!
God lays on our hearts all sorts of needs.
Let's forget the caution, the prudence, the sensibleness of our heads
(which, let's face it, are often just excuses not to give)
and let's listen more to our hearts.
There are so many causes out there, lying bleeding in the ditch.
God will draw our attention to those He wants us to respond to.
Let's cross the road.
Let's get out the oil and wine and pour it in.
Let's dig deep in our pockets, and pay generously. Let's not be people with short arms and deep pockets,
But rather people with long arms and shallow pockets.
Last financial year our church had a deficit, and we had to draw on limited reserves.
This year will be the same.
So something has to be done.
We have 2 choices - we spend less
- or we give to the church more.
Which is it to be?
Less to mission and outreach?
Less to needy parts of our diocese?
Less on our own church agenda, on fulfilling our vision for the Priory?
Or do we give more, in a spirit of pouring and paying?
Jesus ended His parable: "Go and do likewise!" It couldn't be clearer than that. It's you and me He is talking to. Yes, us!
"Do likewise!" He says Are we listening? Do we care?
Go, and pour and pay! Be foolishly generous for Christ's sake - and we will never regret it.
David Webster
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