Today's Readings:
Amos 7:7-17Psalm 82Colossians 1:1-14Luke 10:25-37
At the beginning of this month, my husband, Jeff, left his
post as the president of the Indianapolis Northeast Rotary Club. During his year as president, the board spent
time identifying a tag line for the club.
You know, one of those pithy statements that just might initiate a
follow-up question and spark a conversation.
To come up with their tag line, they evaluated the things
they do for Indianapolis, Lawrence, and the world. They do things like bus tables at Lucas Oil
to raise funds for their outreach programs.
Money is sent to help eradicate Polio across the globe, to build clean
water systems in places where gathering water can take half the day, and to
give scholarships to students in the Lawrence School District, particularly
those students who attend training at McKenzie.
They also have a partnership with St. Mary’s Early Learning Center where
volunteers read to students and build relationships with the community of
predominantly lower income families.
Board members put their heads together and came up with
this tag line: “We’re doing good stuff.”
And they do. Good
stuff. Good stuff that impacts people.
They also meet weekly for lunch and most of the time have a
speaker who will teach them or inform them about business, organization or
philanthropic endeavors. They create
partnerships that can be long-lasting.
They have members who have been a part of Rotary International for over
60 years.
This club is also an aging community of people. Many are retired folks who find it easiest to
support the mission of Rotary by writing a check. They took their turn and already did the
physical good work when they were younger.
There are also those who are physically able to do some of the that good
work out in the world, like volunteer at Lucas Oil or at St. Mary’s. All are invited to the Hillcrest Country
Club for lunch, to fellowship, learn and live out Rotary’s Four-Way Test, which
is recited at each meeting.
The test asks these four questions:
Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build good will and better
friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all
concerned?
With the answers to these questions,
the Northeast Rotary Club of Indianapolis finds that they really are “Doing
Good Stuff.”
These are people who are actively doing good stuff to make
the world a better place. They strive to
answer these questions with a resounding “yes!” not only with their words but
in their actions.
I believe that most of us strive to do good and be good in
the world. And yes, the reality is we
might not agree on what defines “good,” “true,” “fair,” and “beneficial.” Knowing this, I wonder, what makes someone “good?”
We like to qualify, quantify, and define people with words
like “good.” Take today’s Gospel. We call it the Parable of the Good
Samaritan. Why? Because the behavior of this man in this moment
in his life was good. He saw a person in
distress, he gave them first aid, kept them alive, put them on his donkey,
delivered them to what we might consider a hospital, and offered to pay for any
expenses incurred.
He did good stuff.
Does
that make him “good?”
On the other hand, the two religious men left the
individual on the side of the road, ignoring their need and walking not just
away, but avoiding getting near them because the religious men were ritually
clean for their duties of the day.
They left the individual to die.
Does
that make them “bad?”
We don’t even get to know about the place and the
caregivers where the injured person was left.
Those people are the real heroes of the story. They were the ones who brought the person
back to health, feeding and caring for the wounded for who knows how long.
They made the biggest positive impact
on this individual.
Does
that make them extra good?
“Goodness and “badness” are behaviors. And we’ve learned a lot in the past couple of
years about how behaviors do not define an individual, but behaviors can
impact relationships in good and not-so-good ways.
I think that’s important to point out, especially with a
story like this one, because all of us at some point in our lives has behaved
like any one of these characters. Even
the robbed and left for dead person.
Maybe not to that extreme, but I bet every one of us has been ignored or
set apart or set aside at some time in our lives.
Who we are in this story, in our own story, are complex, imperfect,
human beings. We are created by a loving
God. We are people who try to live the
best lives we can; treating others with dignity and respect, as best we can. And we have the best of intentions.
Unfortunately, we don’t always recognize that our
intentions create an impact on others. And
that impact can be construed in a variety of ways. We hope that people will give us the benefit
of the doubt, will ask us for clarity, or will forgive us when we fail.
The religious people who walk with a wide berth around the
wounded one have their own story. They
have their reasons for not helping. Their
intent was most likely focused on their ritual cleanliness or in maintaining
their schedule—in caring for the broader community. Their intent was not to harm or ignore. But the impact of their behavior is that a
wounded individual watched them walk past, as did, I suspect, others who also
did not stop to help. The fact that
these religious figures did not stop to help may have given others reason to
not stop. Their actions spoke loudly and
set an example for all around them.
They had reasons or excuses for their behavior that made
sense to them and to others. That they
did not behave in ways that visibly expressed compassion and care to the
injured person did not make them the Bad Religious People. Who knows?
Maybe they prayed for the person as they walked by? Perhaps they ran out of Kroger cards?
Yet, we call the one who helped the “Good” Samaritan. Doesn’t it make you wonder? Do we really want to use such language to
define personhood, when it really defines behavior or action?
There was a Samaritan, a person who did not worship the
same way the Jews worshiped, who went out of his way to help a stranger in
need. We take notice of his behavior
because how he is described, as a Samaritan, an outsider, shows compassion for
a fellow human.
It’s
funny. We don’t know who this injured
person is or what they believe. We don’t
know if they are strangers in this community.
We have no clue if they have family.
All we know is that this person has been beaten and robbed and left for
dead and the only person who was willing to take notice was a Samaritan…who we
call “Good,” because he did good stuff.
Jesus was asked by the lawyer, the person who wanted to
know what he needed to do to have eternal life, who knew the laws, who knew the
rules, who knew that all it really takes is to love God and love your neighbor,
asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
Jesus responded with a tale of all of us. We are all neighbors. We all behave in ways that are good and
not-so-good. But to be neighborly, to be
Christ-like to our neighbors takes something different.
It takes seeing others and recognizing their
need in this world. It takes doing
something to show care and concern. Because
they are beloved by God, too.
We all can make excuses and call them reasons. I do it, too.
But if
we are “doing good stuff” for the benefit of others, whether that’s eradicating
polio, building water systems, giving scholarships, reading to children, planting
a garden and giving away all the produce, giving toiletries to a school, or lifting
someone out of a real or proverbial ditch and taking care of their visible and
invisible wounds, then, we really are doing good stuff.
And
when we meet Jesus, we can honestly tell him when he asks if we behaved like
the Compassionate Samaritan in this story, that yes, yes, we did the same.
Let us
pray. God of all creation, you daily place
opportunities to show compassion, care, concern, and most of all, love. In big
ways, in small ways, help us recognize your call to us to make a difference in
the lives of others. Help us to see that
each person is created by you and deserves to be treated with dignity and
respect, no matter their circumstances.
Because we can and we are doing good stuff in this world in ways that
embrace all your children. Amen.
Note: The photo is of the poster located in the narthex at St. Alban's Episcopal Church, Indianapolis and comes to us from Kay Collier McLaughlin, PhD, as a result of her work with churches in transition, conflict and those working to develop effective leaders.