Sermons from St
Faith's
Neighbours
Fred Nye, Sunday, 10th July, 2016
I once had a neighbour, who I’ll call Ann, who lived
(shall we say) at number 18. She was a friendly woman, and
particularly helpful to the elderly disabled lady who
lived next door to her at number 20. But one day, when Ann
and I got talking about the business of ‘loving your
neighbour’ it gradually became clear that for Ann
‘neighbour’ meant the people living either side of her.
For Ann, the duty to love one’s neighbour didn’t seem to
include anyone else!
In the gospels, when Jesus talked about being a neighbour
he wasn’t just talking about getting along with the people
next door: he had a much wider vision. Jesus said
that we are to love our neighbours as ourselves, and in
the story of the Good Samaritan he explained what he meant
by this. The Samaritans and the Jews, although they shared
the same scriptures, had been religious enemies for
centuries – and I’m sure I don’t have to dwell this
morning on the misery that religious hatred and fear of
the foreigner still cause all over the world. So it’s a
surprise that in talking to his fellow Jews, Jesus used
the hated Samaritan as an example of a good
neighbour.
In the story Jesus told, a Jewish traveller is attacked,
beaten up, and left half-dead by the roadside. Along comes
a priest, but he avoids all contact with the injured man.
After all the poor man might be dead, and the priest would
be ritually contaminated if he touched a dead body. So he
gives the man a wide berth and passes by on the other side
of the road. Close behind, and following him, is his
assistant, a Levite. But if his boss is afraid to help,
why should he? It would be more than his job’s worth. So
he too crosses to the other side of the road and hurries
on. And so despite the injured traveller being in effect
his enemy, it is the hated and despised Samaritan who
rescues him, tends his wounds, and carries him to a place
of safety. But imagine the scene as the Samaritan faced
the crowd at that inn, with one of their countrymen half
dead and slung over his mule – it’s a miracle that they
didn’t lynch him on the spot.
Since the earliest times, Christian scholars have seen
Jesus himself mirrored in the character of the Good
Samaritan. Jesus’s love for the world was so great that it
crossed all human barriers, even the barriers of hate and
prejudice, so great that he gave his life for us on the
Cross.
We see all around us the effects of this sort of
transforming love, and perhaps above all in human
relationships. Children who are brought
for
baptism in our church come surrounded and fed by their
parents’ love, and as they grow up supported by family and
friends they become secure, strong, generous and at peace
because of that love. And as they grow in faith within the
family of the church we pray that they will reflect some
of that transforming love back into the world. As
baptised Christians we are all called to follow Jesus
across the boundaries of enmity and prejudice, called to
help him transfigure our world from a place of hate and
suffering into a realm of light and joy and peace.
In baptism,
Jesus invites us all to join him on his journey.
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