Proper 10 – Who is not my neighbor?

Proper 10 – Who is not my neighbor?

Amos 7:7-17, Psalm 82, Deut. 30:9-14, Psalm 25:1-9, Col. 1:1-14, Luke 10:25-37

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Some years ago I was driving along the east shore of Ennis Lake in Montana. There’s a gravel road that runs past our little church in Jeffers where I was serving, and I think I was heading out to do a home visit on one of our elderly shut-ins. It was summertime and warm and I was just bumping along; I came around a shallow corner and saw a bicyclist walking her bike. 

She had on one of those bright red racing helmets cyclists like to wear, along with a nice sleek spandex racing suit – sort of looked out of place on the gravelly roads of the woodsy wilds of Western Montana.

I didn’t think too much of it; I slowed down and moved over to give her plenty of room and suddenly wondered if she had a flat tire or some other problem.

So I stopped and backed up to where she had come to a halt and asked if she was OK, or if she needed any help. She smiled, said she was fine, just stretching her legs, so I gave her a polite wave and continued on my way.

The question I want to ask you is, Why did I stop?

You’re probably going to say, “You’re a nice guy. She looked like she might need some help, and that’s what Christians do; we help people.”

You’re right, of course. I am a nice person and I do like being helpful. But there was something else going on. It wasn’t chivalry. As I passed her by, I knew the Gospel for that Sunday was the gospel lesson we just read a moment ago: The Parable of the Good Samaritan, and there was no way I was going to be like the priest in THAT story and pass by without at least asking if she needed help.

In other words, my ego put its thumb on the scale as I weighed whether I should pass on by and mind my own business, or stop and help!

The point is, as human beings, our motivations are always mixed. Most of the time we do the right thing simply because that’s mostly who we are and what we are. We know right from wrong. We pay our taxes. We pause and let others cut in line if they have two items to buy and we’ve got a grocery cart full. If someone says something really stupid or dumb we just let it go.

We may groan inside; we may have to bite our tongue, but we mostly don’t fight fire with fire unless the issue reaches that tipping point which kind of moves around a bit, but it’s there. We go along to get along and try not to make waves.

In many ways, we’re like the lawyer who comes up to Jesus and asks him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” 

Jesus says, “You know the Law. What does it say?”

He answered, "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 neighbor as yourself." 

And Jesus said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

We all know that, don’t we? We know we’re supposed to love God, love neighbor, love self. We also know there’s exceptions to the rule, don’t we? I mean, we’re not fools; we’re not naive. There are bad people out there who do bad things. Each of us has our own list of Public Enemy Number One. 

Yes Lord, I am called to love all people, but there are exceptions. Do we have time to write them all down?

We have our reasons for disliking some people; we have our reason for hating some people; we have our reasons for detesting some people. We’re like the lawyer who at least has the good sense to ask the question: Who is my neighbor? Aren’t there some people I can just box out of my life?

I can’t criticize the lawyer for asking the question. I need to take a moment and stand in his sandals and ask: Who am I trying to push far enough away that they are no longer my neighbor?

He’s not being bad; he’s really asking this question on behalf of all of us. Where can we draw the line? 

Jesus answers the question with a story. We know it so well we don’t even need to read it or hear it. The moment I say The Parable of the Good Samaritan, we jump right to the end – to the moral of the story: “Who proved to be neighbor? Go and do likewise.”

We don’t have a lot of time, but I’d like to unpack that a little while we’re here. The question is, Who is my neighbor? And Jesus introduces us to several characters, and along each step of the way we need to ask: Is this our neighbor.

There’s a man going down to Jericho. Is he our neighbor? We don’t know. At this point he is a complete stranger. We don’t know if he’s single or married, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, young or old. So we give this guy a question mark. We don’t actually know if he is a neighbor. At this point he’s not NOT a neighbor.

Then there is a band of bandits who attack the man, beat him half to death, steal his valuables, strip him naked, and run away. Are they neighbors? Of course not! 

Then there is the priest (and they were among the 1% by the way, among the wealthy elite of the day) who passes on by. Our victim is invisible to them. Are they neighbor? No, they’re certainly not acting neighborly or caring, so no.

Then there is the Levite, a temple worker who sees our victim; he draws near to look, to gawk, but not to touch, not to help, not to render aid. Is he a neighbor? No, once again we can see they’re not.

Then there is the Samaritan. Now remember, this is one you would rather be dead than have them touch you. We’re not talking about political or religious differences. 

We’re really talking about gut-churning, get your filthy ape paws off of me kind of animosity. But here’s the shocker: He undoes all the evil of the other three. He sees the victim. He draws near and touches him. He binds up the wounds, picks him up, lays him on his own beast and finishes the journey to Jericho where he pays for our victim’s continuing care.

Who proves to be neighbor?

The one who doesn’t abuse, beat, kill, maim, or hurt others; the one who doesn’t turn a blind eye, the one who dares to get involved, the one who chooses to see people, not walls. 

None of us is perfectly like that. There are times we hurt others. There are times we are blind to others. There are times we may be entertained to see what’s happening, but fail to act on what we see. And that’s the point. There are times we do NOT love God, neighbor, or self the way we know we should. 

Jesus invites us to reflect on that and give thanks that we have a God who chose not to kill us, turn a blind eye, or ignore us, but chose to kneel down with us, bind us up, and carry us all the way to our Jericho so that we can continue with our healing.

God chose to be our neighbor, in Christ, so it doesn’t matter who MY neighbor is, it matters that I BE a neighbor wherever I go, just like Jesus – In Jesus’ Name. Amen

Sermon delivered to Chandler Square, Anacortes, WA 07/13/2025

By the Rev. Keith Axberg, retired.