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The Good Samaritan

by Vicar Lisa Rygiel

Some of you may be familiar with Nada Bolz-Weber. She is a pastor, author, blogger, and my Relator with the Rocky Mountain Synod. I love her ability to connect with people of all walks of life. She published the sermon below which was preached at New Beginnings Worshipping Community inside the Denver Women’s Prison. It connected with me, and I wanted to share as we continue to journey on through this chilly January.

The story of the Good Samaritan is what we call a parable -– a story Jesus made up to make a point. But from what I hear, if you are visiting the Holy Land local tour guides are happy, for the right price, to show you the “exact spot” where the Good Samaritan helped the man found beaten by thieves. Many a gullible Christian has shelled out good money for this “authentic” Holy Land experience before remembering that the Good Samaritan was a parable.

But it’s one of the biggies…along with The Prodigal Son, this parable of a beaten and robbed man being shown kindness by a Samaritan is engrained in the cultural memory of even those who have never stepped foot into a church. There are laws named after it. Long-term care facilities are named after it. Even a Boy Scout merit badge is named after it. And as happy as I am that at least some of the Bible is part of our cultural mythology, it can be hard to hear the real power of The Good Samaritan if we’re already so sure we know the story. Like for instance, the way we call it the parable of the Good Samaritan, like that’s his first name even though he is never called that in the text.

It’s especially hard to hear what this parable might offer us when we think we already know the so-called moral of the story, which, of course is “it’s good to be helpful”.

But I started to wonder this week if maybe the teachings of Jesus have just a little more to them than say, a flimsy moralism learned from “a very special episode of Saved by The Bell”. Maybe, just maybe this parable has more to it than the Samaritan was good so we should be good to inherit eternal life.

Because if anyone was saved in this story it was not the one who managed to do the right thing. The one who was actually saved in this parable was the one who couldn’t manage to do ANYTHING because he was half dead in a ditch. I’m fairly certain that the man who lay robbed and beaten in the ditch was not laying there attempting to be good enough to be saved… and when the nice religious people passed him by not willing to get their hands dirty or their schedules delayed, the man in the ditch laid there helpless while a Samaritan lovingly cared for his wounds and covered his bills.

That is a rough position to be in, receiving mercy from your enemy.

I mean, imagine being on the street and someone beats the crud out of you and steals your wallet and phone. And you’re in so much pain you cannot move. Then you see someone who used to be your roomie, and she just walks on by. Then you see me, and I literally do nothing but cross to the other side of the street. And then imagine whoever the worst person possible is to you: a Republican, or a Muslim, or an Evangelical, or a Trans person, or a snitch or a cop – whoever it is that you would least like to have help you, and they stop and gently bandage your head with their own scarf and put you in their car not even caring that you’re bleeding and they take you to the ER and give the front desk their credit card so that you don’t even have to pay for it.

Okay, now at this point how important is their political party, or gang affiliation, or sexual orientation to you? Not at all right? Because when things are that bad, and we are in that much need none of that matters anymore. And I ask you, if it doesn’t matter then does it really matter now? I mean really?

And yet in our sin we hold on to so much garbage about other people. And they hold on to so much garbage about us. But God’s mercy is not bound to our garbage opinions. Thank God.

So, was the man in the ditch’s salvation dependent on him in any way whatsoever? No. Because if we go back and look, Jesus told this parable not in response to the lawyer’s question what must I do to inherit eternal life? But to the question, who is my neighbor? The parable of the Good Samaritan is not Jesus telling us to be good so we can be saved, it’s about Jesus telling us that sometimes people who we are sure are the farthest thing from good are the one’s God sends to save our sorry asses. And sometimes we are the ones who get to show kindness to those who think we are trash.

Because, honestly, maybe God isn’t interested in making you a better person. Maybe God is interested in making you a new person.

Because being better people – being good-er Samaritans is something we can do on our own. But to become new people we need God. To become new people, we need a God who daily drowns our old dying selves in the watery grave of baptism and raises us to new life. To be new people we need a God who offers us a way where there is no way. Becoming new people is what this whole Jesus-following thing is about. In this parable we see that sometimes it comes by being robbed. Robbed of our shame. Robbed of our opinions about other people. Robbed of our old ideas about ourselves. Maybe you are sitting here today with some pretty worn-out old ideas about yourself. And if so, I hope you get knocked over by the holy spirit.

And sometimes becoming new people comes from being beaten. Beaten down by the impossibility of perfection. Beaten up by the bondage of resentment and victimhood. And sometimes it is from that ditch where you lay unable to rise to the occasion, unable to do for yourself, unable to justify yourself, unable to choose your mode of healing … that your salvation comes near you in the form of the last thing you’d expect. From the neighbor of last resort.

The one in this parable who receives new life is not the one who managed to be really super-duper merit badge good. The one who received new life was the one who received real mercy. real grace. And here’s the thing. As Richard Rohr says, once you have received real grace…real mercy… you are no longer in the position of deciding who the so-called “deserving poor” are.

When we have received grace, we become compassionate to anyone who is also in need of grace. This is how God’s kingdom works. It’s a league of the guilty. I bet you anything that the Samaritan wasn't just some merit badge level good guy. I bet he was someone who had also needed help at some point and just knew what that felt like. Maybe he himself had robbed someone and not “gotten what he deserved”. My money is on that explanation.

So, the good news is not that you can be a better person if you just try harder so that then Jesus won’t have to keep being disappointed in you. The good news is that you can be a new person. That indeed you are being made a new person by God. And, wait till you get a hold of who God is making you into, because it might just look like God is making you into a person who has experienced so much grace that you cannot help but come near to the one who lays robbed and beaten -- God is making you into someone who shows mercy not out of your goodness, but out of your newness. And, new people are what all Jesus’ best stories are about. I can’t wait to hear how yours turns out. Amen.

Second Sunday after Epiphany -- January 19

10 a.m. Worship with Communion

Announcements

 Fellowship Time: Join us after worship today in the Fellowship Hall for our coffee and conversation, Let’s Chat.

 Weekly Bible Studies:

  • Zion’s weekly Bible Study continues at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 15, with the continuation of The Bible from Scratch, series, focusing on The New Testament for Beginners. The class will be repeated at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18. See the newsletter for more details.
  • A study of the life and legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) begins today. This study is on Sunday afternoons from Jan. 19-Feb 23 and will include a Soup Luncheon at 12:30 p.m. followed by the study from 1 to 2 p.m., in the Fellowship Hall.
  • Save the Date -- Feb. 2: Join us for First Sunday Potluck, then stay for our Annual Congregational meeting.
  • Flowers 2025: There are many opportunities to sign up to sponsor flowers in the new year. You can sign up for any time in 2025, and there are special giving opportunities for Easter Sunday. The flower book is in the back of the sanctuary and the suggested donation is $35. Envelopes are in the flower book for making those donations. If you have questions, talk to Lynn Chase.
  • 2025 Church Directory: It’s time to update information for the 2025 Church Directory. If you have updates to your information or photo, let Julie Wersal know no later than Feb. 3.

E-formation – The Second Sunday of Epiphany -- Jan. 19

In Sunday’s gospel, Jesus provides 175 gallons of wine for a newly married couple. Whatever for?! Come to worship and hear about God’s good news in Christ.

 

John 2:1-11

Christ establishes a new world order, symbolized by the details of this story: his attendance at a wedding, his messianic distance from his natural mother, his providing what the couple needs, the astonishing abundance of Christ’s gifts, and the steward’s words about “the good wine.” Christ’s “hour” is coming on the cross. The story concludes with reference to the disciples’ belief in Christ. Later, in John 15, Christ himself is the vine.

 

Isaiah 62:1-5

This poem is set next to the Cana story because it describes the new world that God promises to establish and because it develops the marriage image that has been important for Christian interpretation of this gospel reading. Our baptism, at which we receive the “new name” of Christ, is like our marrying God, who is like our lover.

 

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

This Sunday begins a semicontinuous reading of 1 Corinthians. During the weeks after Epiphany, 1 Corinthians is read over the three years: chapters 1–4 in A, 6–9 in B, and 12–15 in C. In chapter 12 Paul presents the beginnings of Christian proclamation concerning the Holy Spirit, the divine spirit who now inhabits the body of Christ. At the beginning of a new calendar year, it is good to hear this list of the gifts that together build up the body of the church.

 

Zion's Lutheran Church

A Reconciling in Christ Community

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719-846-7785