Christ the King/ Epiphany Wilbraham, MA

Luke 10: 25-37

The Rev Dcn Michael Hamilton

July 13, 2025

Please pray that the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts may be pleasing and acceptable to God. Amen (pbs)

Who is my neighbor?

I read a story of a Palestinian teenager that was shot by an Israeli soldier during an uprising in the street. He was brought to Hadassah Hospital and while this is an Israeli hospital, Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem has traditionally provided extensive medical care to Palestinians, even during times of conflict. After two days, the boy died. The parents of the boy decided that he would be an organ donor and because of this, 6 people were gifted with life-changing organs with the stipulation that all donations would be given to Israeli patients. The mother explained that the son’s life would be honored if the recipients realized that a Palestinian heart beats like an Israeli heart, that Palestinian kidneys can purify an Israeli body and Palestinian eyes can see the difference between justice and injustice as well as anyone else.

This particular story is about as close to a modern-day Good Samaritan story that we can imagine, and we can feel the compassion of the parents in making sense of how to respond to such a tragic loss for them.

Who is my neighbor?

Sara Miles, Take this Bread; A Radical Conversion (New York: Ballantine: 2007), 283pp. 

Sara Miles describes herself as a blue-state, secular intellectual, a lesbian, and a left-wing journalist who developed habits of deep skepticism from covering revolutionary movements in Central America. Her grandparents on both sides were missionaries, but in reaction to that upbringing her parents were actively hostile to religion. So, it's a bit of an understatement that she also describes herself as a "very unlikely convert." But at the age of 46 Miles walked into Saint Gregory's Episcopal Church in San Francisco, partook of the Eucharist, and experienced a radical conversion.

Building upon her life experiences as a chef, her conversion through the Eucharist, passion for the poor, and the founding vision of St. Gregory's, Miles started a food pantry at her church that gave away free groceries (not meals) with no questions asked and no forms to fill out. Each week food for about 400 families was placed around the eucharistic altar. Such was the open communion and unconditional acceptance that she experienced at Saint Gregory's and intended to extend to anyone who was hungry. Through connections with the San Francisco Food Bank, and the generosity of unexpected donors, the miracle of the loaves multiplied, and Miles went on to jump start nine more food pantries around the city.

Who is my neighbor?

We have become desensitized to the rawness that Jesus was presenting to the lawyer. We run the words, ‘The Good Samaritan’ together as if it were one word and the effect is to miss the point that the exemplary piece of this story is that there existed a Good Samaritan. In Jewish culture at the time, all Samaritans were despised and most would agree there wasn’t a good one among them. Jesus specifically lists, the Priest, the Levite, (the cultural good guys from the home team…yeah!) and then the Samaritan (hiss, boo, spit). Notice that when Jesus asks the lawyer who was the neighbor to the man that was beaten, the lawyer doesn’t say “The Samaritan”, he says, ‘the one that showed mercy, or the one that showed kindness’ as a way to not acknowledge the possible “goodness” of this one Samaritan. Such was the animosity between Jews and Samaritans and precisely why Jesus framed the parable this way.

This parable is not about ‘how nice we are’, it’s a story about how “one of them” helped “one of us”. Today we might interchange the parable of the “Good Conservative”, “The Good Muslim”, “The Good illegal alien”, “The Good trans-person”, “The Good Liberal”, or “The Good ICE officer”. Pick whatever title from the list that you have difficulty with or add one of your own and imagine that they too are loved, treasured, and valued by God as a creation, no matter how we might feel about them at this moment.

The love of God, and who inherits the eternal life that the lawyer was inquiring about, is beyond our understanding or power to give or withhold from someone else. When Jesus asks the Lawyer what the Scripture says, the right response that the lawyer gives is really about how to be in right relationship with God rather than a to-do list of requirements. “You shall love the Lord our God with all your heart, mind, soul, and might and our neighbor as ourselves.” This is the proper relationship that we are called and invited into. Jesus responds, “Do this and you shall live.” Jesus’ comment is proscriptive of how we are to live as human beings in right relationship with God rather than how to win eternity as if it were a lottery with winners and

losers. We cannot buy residency in heaven with 5 million dollars; we cannot evict anyone else or step over another person in line because we are more worthy. Occupancy in Heaven is at the invitation of God, the sacrifice of Jesus, and the inspiration of the Spirit.

Who is my neighbor?

My neighbors are the people who are so poor that all they have is money.

My neighbors are anyone that my vote cancels out theirs.

My neighbors are people that take advantage of the system, the poor, and the disenfranchised.

My neighbors live differently than I do, believe differently than I do, and sin differently than I do.

My neighbor is anyone I devise a negative label to describe.

I believe that to be able to love our neighbor as ourselves is only possible if we first love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength because anything less than that, leaves us open to believing that our neighbor is less than, unworthy, or sub-human. In believing this, we elevate our own self-worth higher, and more God-like, than we have the right to. Love mercy and walk humbly with your God.

This week, please pray for my neighbor and I will for yours.

Amen.