Text: Luke 10:25-37
As most of you will be well aware by now, 2007 is a special anniversary year for this parish, an anniversary we share with the city of
Today, however, I want to acknowledge another anniversary, one of only 20 years, but nonetheless very significant. In 1987, the Rev’d Jim Wilcox, then Rector of St. Mary’s, along with his wife Astrid, founded Samaritan House Ministries. In the years since then, “Sam House” has become one of the most important helping agencies in this community. It is my privilege to serve this year as the Board Chair of Samaritan House, and to invite you to a public event to mark the occasion. This coming Saturday, July 21, there will be an open house at 630 Rosser, from 1 to 3 PM, followed by a service led by Jim and Astrid Wilcox.
It is an interesting coincidence that the Gospel for today is the parable from which Samaritan House takes its name. “The Good Samaritan” is one of those stories that are almost too familiar. “Everyone knows it”—or do they? On one level, there is a very simple message: the commandment to love God and love our neighbour should bear fruit in our readiness to help those in special need, regardless of the circumstance. It’s easy to point fingers at the priest and the Levite, blaming them for setting their own business ahead of the needs of person in grave danger.
What is can get missed is the story’s scandal—the breaking down of cultural and religious barriers. Jews and Samaritans did not deal with each other, each community harboring the belief that the other one was unclean in God’s eyes. Jesus’ listeners would have found this parable shocking, not just because a Jew accepted help from a Samaritan, but because a Samaritan deigned to help a Jew.
Jesus here challenges assumptions about the limits of God’s love—in particular for the lawyer questioning him, and in general for his whole audience.
The lawyer understands himself as one of God’s covenant people, and hence a deserving inheritor of eternal life. His question really has to do with making the process of inheritance a little more efficient—how can he “grease the wheels,” so to speak. His concept of God’s love is bounded by his understanding of who God’s people are—hence the question “Who is my neighbour?” If we can determine who the correct object of our love is, then we don’t have to waste any time on anyone else—certainly not on outsiders and marginal folk.
The story says that the question is wrong.
The story invites us to respond to human need wherever and whenever we encounter it. The story invites us to love the other, not because it will win us anything, but because the other is worthy of our respect and attention.
Samaritan House Ministries was founded on the understanding that all people are worthy of respect. Beginning with the Food Bank and extending into a variety of other programs, it has ministered to all who have come through its doors seeking help.
What does it take to walk into a Food Bank, or to knock on a church door for that matter, asking for the very basics of life—food, shelter, clothing?
By God’s grace, I have never been in such a situation, and I pray that I will never be. But I know that when you’re drowning, you don’t wait to see if the “right person” is there to help you: you cry out to anyone who can hear, and you grasp at any aid that is available. When you and your kids are hungry, all you ask is that someone give you food.
That has been Samaritan House Ministries’ reason for being—to hear the cry of those in need, and to respond without conditions or judgement. We believe that treating people with respect will be repaid with respect, and our experience bears out that belief.
Samaritan House is there to respond in Jesus’ name to those who are drowning in the turbulent waters of this life, supported by many volunteers, donations of food and funds, and a dedicated and skilled staff. We do not proselytize, but toss out lifelines. And Jesus is there in every toss.
As I meditated on this story, I was reminded of words by Leonard Cohen, from his song “Suzanne:”
And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said “All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them” [1]
I do believe that people in dire need see Jesus with special clarity, as they see the hand behind the hand that helps them—the hand of God, reaching out in love.
There is no limit to God’s love, on earth or in heaven. God pours himself out on his creation without condition or judgment, seeking only to call us back to wholeness of life. God sent his son to empty himself, and to give himself in love.
Jesus continues to call out to us from his “lonely wooden tower,” calling us to sail with him on the dangerous waters of life, hearing the cries of those around us who are beginning to sink and to drown. Let us rejoice in and share God’s boundless love, reaching out to all in need, as Jesus reaches out to every one of us.
I give thanks for the ministry of Samaritan House over the past twenty years, and for the support it has received from members of this congregation. May we continue to walk together in ministry.