Read Luke 10: 25-37
I belong to a Buy Nothing group on Facebook, my area is Eastern Passage, Shearwater and Cole Harbour and I can’t belong to a group that exists outside of my own neighbourhood. From the website: The Buy Nothing Project was founded in 2013 with the mission to build community by connecting people through hyperlocal gifting, and reducing our impact on the environment. The Buy Nothing Project is the world’s biggest gift economy, being used in communities around the world, allowing neighbors to share freely with one another. What is a gift economy? It means everything shared on Buy Nothing is given freely, no money, no barter, no strings. Free. On Buy Nothing, you can post three things:
- GIFTS of items or services that others can use
- ASKS for things you could use
- GRATITUDES to show appreciation and thanks
- http://buynothingproject.org/
For instance, last summer I posted that we had some leftover paving bricks, when a woman responded that she would like them, we arranged a time when she would come over to get them. When she arrived, she brought me 2 dozen eggs from her chickens. Now, this is not expected in the group at all, but it was a nice gesture, and I have bought eggs from her when she has some to sell. It’s another strand of community connection that I’ve woven in my neighbourhood. It’s easy neighbourlyness… because most of my neighbours are like me…
The story we just heard and commented on is so familiar to us that we can scarcely hear it for the radical story that it was and is. As Debie Thomas writes in Journey With Jesus: By the time Jesus told this story, the enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans was ancient, entrenched, and bitter. The two groups disagreed about everything that mattered: how to honor God, how to interpret the Scriptures, and where to worship. They practiced their faith in separate temples, read different versions of the Torah, and avoided social contact with each other whenever possible. Truth be told, they hated each other’s guts. Though we’re inclined to love the Good Samaritan, Jesus’s choice to make him the hero of his story was nothing less than shocking to first century ears. https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/1023-go-and-do-likewise
While we are not likely to encounter someone laying bleeding and wounded on the road, those of us who live and/or work in this neighbourhood certainly encounter people who have no place to call home, or not enough food, or are choosing between food and rent or medication. And yet, we routinely pass on by. If you think that’s not the case, listen to this story:
A woman was living on social assistance and the ceiling in her apartment fell in because the neighbour upstairs fell asleep while the bath was running and the water overflowed into her apartment and she had to leave it and had nowhere to stay for the night. The woman had her daughter with her and her granddaughter were visiting from another city. The woman had to be out of her apartment for at least two nights and they had nowhere to stay. She called the tenancy board, but after pressing 1 for this and 2 for something else and on hold for what seemed like hours, was told that unless her lease said that her landlord had to put her up in a hotel, and of course it did not, they couldn’t help her. The woman called the local women’s shelter, their voice mailbox was full.
The woman, even though she was atheist, because she had been hurt and marginalized by religion, in desperation called a church. Initially it seemed like she was going to get help, the minister was calm and understanding, for they too had been at their wits end financially at times in their life. But as arrangements got complicated and the minister was required to leave their credit card on file at a local motel to guarantee that all charges and damages would be covered, the minister became fearful and suspicious and regretfully said they could not help. And so there was no mercy… And there was no kindness… And there was no neighbourlyness.
If this story had been rewritten as a modern parable, the women would have received help. But she did not. Unlike the Samaritan, who said, ‘Take care of him,’ to the innkeeper, ‘and when I come back this way, I will pay you whatever else you spend on him.’” The minister’s fear of financial loss was too great.
So, who is the Samaritan in today’s world? Listen to an updated version… that might help you realize just how radical the ‘Good Samaritan’ was to Jesus’ original audience.
One day, a legal expert stood up to test Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus replied, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”
The expert answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself.”
“You’ve answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this, and you will live.”
But the expert, wanting to justify himself, asked, “And who is my neighbour?”
So Jesus told this story:
A trans woman was walking home late one night when she was attacked by a group of men. They beat her, stole her purse, and left her lying on the sidewalk, bruised and barely conscious. A progressive activist came by, saw her, and hesitated. He had just been posting online about justice and equality, but stopping now might put him in danger—or at the very least, make him late. So he crossed the street and kept going.
Next, a pastor known for preaching about inclusion and love walked by. She saw the woman, but fear crept into her heart. What if the attackers were still nearby? What if stopping made her vulnerable too? She sighed, said a quiet prayer, and hurried along.
Then, a man wearing a Make America Great Again hat drove by in his pickup truck. He spotted the woman on the ground.
Everything about her—the way she was dressed, her make-up, was different from his world. And yet, something in him refused to turn away. He pulled over, grabbed a first-aid kit from his truck, and knelt beside her. Gently, he cleaned her wounds and wrapped her arm in a bandage. Then, he helped her into his truck and drove her to a nearby clinic. When the receptionist seemed hesitant, he said, “She needs help. I’ll cover the cost.” The next day, he checked in to make sure she was okay and even left extra money at the clinic, saying, “If she needs anything else, let me know.”
Jesus looked at the legal expert and asked, “Which of these three was a neighbour to the woman who was attacked?”
The expert swallowed hard and muttered, “The one who showed her mercy.”
Jesus nodded. “Go and do likewise.”
My friends, that’s just how shocking a ‘good Samaritan’ would have been to Jesus’s listeners. None of us are all good or all bad. Tempting as it would be to believe that… we each hold seeds of both… and God is in between those spaces. This story, and this Lent, we are encouraged to look beyond false binaries… and dig into the messy middle…
Thanks be to God for the challenge and opportunity of hearing old stories with fresh ears, amen.
March 9, 2025 – SJ
Everything In Between
© Catherine MacDonald 2025
Photo by nour tayeh on Unsplash
St. James United Church Dartmouth 