The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost - July 13, 2025 -Mr. John Lothrop, Lay Minister, St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church Guest Homilist

Summary

In this sermon, Mr. John Lothrop explores the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke's Gospel, examining the interaction between Jesus and the lawyer who asked about inheriting eternal life. Lothrop challenges us to recognize the difference between "being right and doing right," emphasizing Jesus' call to show compassion to all people regardless of background or circumstance, and to "go and do likewise" as the Samaritan did.

A reading from the Gospel of Luke 10:25-37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 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 he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, `Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." 

Artwork:  The Good Samaritan, by Rembrandt (1606-1669)

Transcript

Mr. John Lothrop, Lay Minister, St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church Guest Homilist:

Lord, you just may only your words be spoken in your words heard. Maybe some of you remember the voice of that trusted investigative reporter, Walter Cronkite, and that's the way it was. July 13th, 2025. Goodnight America. Trusted voices go a long way in determining what we are willing to believe. One reason Luke's gospel is so appealing to me is that because almost every time a reading comes from Luke, I get to reread the gospel's dedication to Theopolis that Luke puts together. He says this, since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those from the beginning who were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided after investigating everything carefully from the very first to write an orderly account for you most excellent theopolis so that you may know the truth concerning the things which you have been instructed to set the stage for today's reading. Luke, we need to step back a few verses and we learned that Jesus is wrapping up a private debriefing session with his 70 disciples whom he had sent to places he intends to visit to give those places advanced notice in Jesus's words that the kingdom of God has come near.

We don't know exactly where this private meeting was being held, maybe a courtyard, but a place where a person would be able to sit down since we're told just then a lawyer stood up and how loudly do you think our Lord would've to speak to address 70 people? Probably not in a whisper, probably loud enough for a lawyer sitting on a nearby porch step to hear our lawyer today would be a well-respected person in the community and when he ask Jesus, he's simply doing what he has been trained to do to know and apply the mosaic law.

We needn't be put off by that idea or the style of his testing. Jesus. It was and still is common in Jewish culture to test one another as a way of deepening both personal and corporate scriptural knowledge. We do the same thing in our own Bible studies. Testing has always been an integral part of all educational and training systems By addressing Jesus' teacher, our lawyer demonstrates a measure of difference towards Jesus. He values holy teaching, as did the psalmist writing some 500 years before Luke Gospel recognizes the Lord as teacher gracious and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he teaches sinners in his way. He guides the humble in doing right and teaches his way to the lowly. Now, just as we ought not be bothered by the lawyer's need to test, neither should we be put off by his theological question. What should I do to inherit internal life?

Which really doesn't sound so different than what Christians through the ages have wrestled with. When Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, what does he mean when Jesus answers the lawyer's question with his own question. He's not trying to rattle the attorney. This isn't some new argumentative device. Certainly the lawyer himself has employed it many times before. It's a way of searching for and hopefully finding common ground, a way of saying, tell me where are you coming from? And the lawyer does not respond defensively. He isn't taken aback by Jesus' question. It is a way of recognizing that now they're fully in dialogue with one another. A relationship is being developed. The lawyer is fully present with Jesus and Jesus is fully present with the lawyer. That's a very good place to be. Would you agree? But when Mr. Lawman responds, Jesus does not hesitate to agree with him. He tells him You are right, but then he says, there's a little tag end. Do this and you will live.

This is not Jesus having the last word, but rather it's him taking the teaching to the next level. There's a not so hidden read between the lines meaning here that says there is a difference between being right and doing right. There is a difference between being right and living rightly. I like being right and it's made all the more pleasurable by the fact that it happens infrequently. I'm regularly reminded of that fact when I reflect on a quote by author Louise Penney, which is inscribed on a bookmark. My wife gifted me with respect to four sayings that lead to wisdom. This from Ms. Penney's lead character Chief Inspector Gamache. I was wrong. I'm sorry. I don't know. I need help.

Now on the lighter side of the enjoyment of being right, a friend of mine recently emailed me a copy of a video clip of an interview with an 82-year-old man. The interviewer asks one question, what's your greatest achievement in life? To which the gentleman responds, winning an argument with my wife once in 1978, but back to our lawyer, what if he'd closed his mouth and just sat down after Jesus says, do this and you will live. What if he just left it at that? Would we have the parable of the good Samaritan? Thanks be to God. He didn't leave it at that. Instead he says these five little words, and who is my neighbor uttered according to Luke's account? In a mode of self-justification of self rightness, take another step back.

Who was the Lord's audience in the moment? They were his 70 disciples and the lawyer, almost certainly all Jewish men, and when they learned that the parables compassionate one is a hated Samaritan, it may have put their teeth on edge. Indeed, in response to Jesus' closing question about who the true neighbor was, our lawyer cannot even bring himself to say the word Samaritan and today we are his audience today, and so are all of those in churches around the world that followed this same lectionary? I have no idea, but I suspect that there are millions, maybe tens of millions who are hearing Jesus's parable today and how many people have heard this same parable which we acknowledge as the word of God over the past 2000 years, probably billions.

If Jesus were telling this parable today, who do you think he might say the true compassionate neighbor might be an Israeli to a Palestinian and God spirit? Maybe, but something along those lines we could be sure we do. Well, to bear in mind that Jesus' parable today isn't some pie in the sky story. It tells us how harsh the world can be and challenges us to bring healing into it. He tells us there are times when people are struck down by circumstances that are beyond their control and they are rendered helpless, completely unable to do for themselves. When we consider the beaten left for dead traveler on the road down from Jerusalem to Jericho, we can relate parts of the Guadalupe River Valley right now or the road down to Jericho.

Can we find ways to bind wounds and carry that broken heart? There are no doubt some who are so shaky that they cannot even bring themselves to pray. People just like you can we stand in their stead and pray for them to pray as if we are them. Now, sometimes I selfishly feel justified to think or say or to lay blame. Those people were in a position to help and they didn't shame on them. In truth though, my feeling that way is completely unjustified. What is really closer to the truth is that all I really see are the outward appearances. That because of my own biases and false assumptions, I shape into my own way of judgmental thinking. Rarely do I bother to learn what underlying circumstances people are dealing with in their lives that might keep them from lending a hand. Furthermore, it is entirely possible that some people are called not to act so that I might act.

I pray that I may be restrained from putting words into Jesus' mouth. I know that sometimes what Jesus doesn't say is just as important as what he does to me. It is worth considering. Does he offer any words of judgment or condemnation against the lawyer or against robbers or the priest or the Levite in the parable? So who are the lawyers, robbers, priests and Levites in our lives? When it comes down to it, the Lord is leading us, is teaching us to be moved with pity, to have compassion, to place another's wellbeing equal to or above our own. This way of being comes from within. If we say to ourselves or hear ourselves say, I've got a gut feeling about this, or if our hearts are crushed, it's time to pay close attention.

It's one aspect. One aspect of what it means to have been created in the image of God. All people, lawyers, disciples, listeners, broken hurt, half dead travelers, robbers who have left, people broken and hurt and half dead priests, Levites, Samaritans and Keepers, you, me, all people are created in God's image. Sometimes it surfaces in us and we come to a closer understanding of what mercy is. A friend of mine, Reverend Jim Nelson, has a practical way of applying the message to love God in our neighbor. He puts it this way, love God and do what you want, and he goes on to explain that. When we love God, then the do what you want will be what God wants done. It sounds easy, but it's not, and no one knows this better than Jesus, Walter in his trusted voice, and that's the way it was. There is though a more trusted voice, a more trusted, a most trusted voice who says, go and do. Likewise. God help us with the likewise.