Good Samaritan Narrative (with sloths)

Date preached: July 10, 2022
RCL: Proper 10C
Text: Luke 10:25-37
Subject: Who is my neighbor?
Complement: My neighbor is the one to whom I come near
Exegetical Idea: Jesus turns loving neighbor on its head. Be the neighbor 
Homiletic Idea: Overcoming resistance to the demands of love
Purpose: Hearers will interact with the parable of the Good Samaritan. They will consider God’s love and their own resistance to love
Type: Narrative


Adam the Sloth was traveling down the hill from Jerusalem to Jericho. All of a sudden robbers jumped out from behind some rocks and grabbed him.  
Jesus was telling this story because the teacher of the law kind of ambushed him too. He was trying to pull one over on Jesus, trying to determine if Jesus was a good follower of the law or not.  He was trying to catch him out.  Was he one of them, or was he not one of them?
So he asked about what was the best part of the law. Jesus turned it back to him and asked him “how do you read it?”
The expert in the law started with the thing that defined being Israel, one of the special people of God. He knew from deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” 
Then from Leviticus “ ‘Do not try to get even. Do not hold anything against any of your people. Instead, love your neighbor as you love yourself. I am the Lord.”
Did you catch the context there? Do not hold anything against your people. 
 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your strength and with all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ ”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do that, and you will live.”
But the man wanted to make himself look good. So he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Adam the sloth was feeling lonely laying on the side of the road. He was far from his home, far from help and maybe he felt far from God. 
The church fathers saw in this story a picture of Adam going down from paradise to the world. That's why I called this sloth Adam. The robbers were the powers of darkness, and the wounds were the hurts of disobedience that Adam suffered. The consequence of sin. 
Sometimes in this world we feel lonely like Adam here. We look around and feel abandoned. We are wounded by a broken world. We hear stories on the news about people hurting and we feel it. The world is not how it should be. Can you think of a time when you felt like Adam here? Crushed and alone on a broken road?
Ah but here come some other people.  Adam’s people no less. A priest comes along the road. But he sees adam there bleeding and broken and passes by on the other side of the road. 
Perhaps being a priest in the line of Aaron, one of the lineage of prophets and workers of miracles, like Moses, he was too busy and important to stop?
A levite, a helper in the temple services comes along and sees Adam lying there.  Will he help his fellow Israelite? No he also tries to pass by as far away from him as he can get.
Maybe he is going to the temple to serve and doesn’t want to be ceremonially unclean? Maybe there is some other bit of the law that applies?
The church fathers saw here that neither the law or the prophets could fix what was wrong in the world.
Lets leave the priest and the levite up here for now and think about what stops us from coming near when the law of love would demand it. Is it fear? Busyness? Lack of energy? What keeps us away from each other?
But look now, we see another sloth coming down the road, and he is our clue to the question as to who is our neighbor. Uh Oh, this one isn’t one of Adam’s people.  He is a samaritan. Someone the Jewish people didn’t get along with very much. They stayed away from each other as a rule. 
But surprise he comes near. This reminds me of one of my favorite bits grover would do on sesame street. Near.  Far.
Did you know the word neighbor means literally the one near me?
Who does the samaritan remind you of? The church fathers thought he acted an awful lot like Jesus. Let that sink in, our God, our human God as Father Ken likes to say, came near us. He became like us so that he could be our neighbor. God sings like one of my heroes Mr. Rogers, won’t you please be my neighbor. Sit with that for a second hear God sing it to you. 
Would you be mine, could you be mine? Wont you be my neighbor?
What does Jesus the good samaritan do for Adam the sloth? He pours oil and wine on his wounds. Oil soothes, wine disinfects. He cures his wounds. He puts him on his own animal. The church fathers saw this as his own body, the animal flesh the incarnate God took up, and he brings him to an inn. A place of refuge, a homely house with people. Off the desolate and dangerous road. 
Jesus sees this broken and messed up world. He knows it is not yet as it should be. He would preach how that the Kingdom of Heaven was near. When he was telling the story the disciples ears perked up when he said the samaritan came near. They suspected the Kingdom was about to break into the story just as they had seen day after day. Jesus brought the kingdom near when he healed, when he cast out demons, when he fed the thousands with fish and bread or turned water into wine.
Jesus sees the mess we are in, but he is near! His kingdom is breaking in!  We have already had a taste, our wounds are bandaged, we are made whole we are brought into the fellowship of the Inn that is the church.
Think for a moment, what is your testimony? What has Jesus done for you? How have you experienced the gospel? How have you entered into the kingdom? Take a moment to thank him. 
Finally the next morning he comes to the inn keeper and gives him a deposit of two silver coins. Please take care of Adam the sloth here, and if you spend more than this on his care, I will repay you when I return. 
Now the church fathers saw in the innkeeper a picture of themselves. They felt the charge to care for people like them who had been found wounded and bleeding on lifes road. They were grateful for the deposit of the spirit and the image of God stamped in their lives. They were in awe that they could use those gifts to minister to each other and see the kingdom of God break into a wrong world. 
But who are they supposed to minister to?
Jesus asks at the end of the story: who was a neighbor to the man who was beaten?
He turns the question on its head. Not who is my neighbor, who acted as the neighbor. 
The expert in the law had no excuses left. He was supposed to be the neighbor, not just to his own people, not just to those who thought like he did, but to everyone. All those who bear the image of God, our human brothers and sisters.
So he replied, “I guess the one who showed him mercy.”
“Then go and do the same,” Jesus said.
But why don’t we? Why is it so hard sometimes.  Lets come back to these two little guys. There is a reason I chose to tell this story with sloths: Acedia
Augustine: God our Lord wished to be called our neighbor… He shows mercy to us because of his own goodness, while we sho mercy to one another because of God’s goondess. He has compassion on us so that we may enjoy him completely, while we have compassion on another that we may completely enjoy him;