Have Mercy
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Have Mercy
May 1, 2011
by Rev. William “Buck” Day
We want to turn today and look at a little bit of a fairly familiar story for many of us. It is the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke Chapter 10. So I want to invite you to follow along as I read our Scripture today. So God’s word for us, starting at Luke 10, starting at verse 25. (Luke 10: 25-37)
Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’
God’s word for us this day. Would you join me in prayer?
Mighty and holy God, thank you, that you are Lord over all. Lord we ask that you would speak to us through your Scripture this day. Use the words of the Scriptures and the meditations of my heart to teach us whatever you might have for us this day. We ask that because of Christ and it is in his name we pray. Amen.
Well it was 3:20 a.m. on March 13, 1964. Kitty Genovese, a 28-year-old bar manager from Queens, New York had just arrived at home after working the evening. She parked in a parking lot across from her apartment, about 30 yards to cross the parking lot to her apartment. As she got out of her car she noticed there was a man at the other end of the parking lot that began to come towards her. She turned and went the other way trying to go down the block about a half of a block to try to get to a police call box. She never made it. Just as she about got there, the man attacked her and began to stab her repeatedly. At that point she began to start crying for help. “Help me I am being stabbed.” At which point a light went on in an apartment across the street. A window opened up and someone yelled out, “Let that girl alone!” at which point the attacker backed off and began to move away; but very quickly after that, the lights went off and the window went back down, so the attacker returned a second time to Kitty and began to stab her again. She is screaming, “I am dying! I am dying!” Again more windows open, more lights go on and at that point the attacker backed away and actually gets into his car and begins to drive off. At that point, Kitty was almost near death. She couldn’t walk. She began to crawl towards her apartment. She made it in the front door but no farther. Once she got in the door, at that point the attacker returned a third time and finished what he had come to start—he killed her at that point.
During three separate attacks over a thirty-five minute period, not one of Kitty Genovese neighbors helped her. After that third attack, someone eventually did call the police and the police were there within just two minutes; but at that point it was too late. Residents were later interviewed and they said, “Why didn’t you do anything?” And the neighbors said, most of them, “I didn’t want to get involved.”
This is a true story. This is a story I have heard over the years of a brutal story, a brutal death in the ghettos of New York in the 1960’s. Yet, in the midst of it, it echoes our Scripture today, doesn’t it? I wonder, what would Jesus have said to the neighbors of Kitty that night? My hunch is it would probably be the same kind of thing he said to our lawyer in our Scripture today, as the lawyer was looking for a way to justify himself, looking for a loophole to get out of loving your neighbor.
The story we are talking about today, that Jesus is telling, isn’t just about helping people. It is also about excuses. It is about self-justification. When we think about that that is a problem we all struggle with, isn’t it? Too often we try to justify ourselves in not helping others with some kind of excuse: either I am too busy, or it is too dangerous, or I don’t have enough money to help. So as we look at our story, look at the cast of characters and it begins to peel away some of the things that are going on in the story that Jesus is trying to teach us. The cast of characters include: the robbers, the man who was left half-dead, a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan. As Jesus tells the story, he is telling the story to a Jewish audience. The priests and the Levites were ranking Jewish officials. They were bigwigs, if you will.
If you kind of make the parallel of the story that Jesus is telling to Goldilocks and the Three Bears (go with me on this….), as Jesus began to tell the story about the priest and then the Levite, it was very similar in the listeners’ minds to the story: Well, first comes Papa Bear home; then comes Mama Bear home. Then, who comes home after Mama Bear? Baby Bear, right? O.K. So the Jews are thinking: Who is going to be Baby Bear? Well the Baby Bear is going to be just a regular Jew. But Jesus throws them a curve ball and he says, “A Samaritan came along.” For those who were listening, that is like: O.K., Papa Bear came home, Mama Bear came home, and then a skunk comes home. That’s what they are thinking like, “What?!” That is what is going on as Jesus says this because the Samaritans were considered half-breeds by the Jews. They weren’t looked upon very fondly because they had lost faith during the Assyrian occupation. So Jesus is saying, right out of the gate, the person who is your neighbor is somebody you might think is actually an enemy.
Jesus is beginning to craft the story of the Good Samaritan to show us we need to look past excuses when we think about who is a good neighbor. Being a good Samaritan is a good neighbor because they show mercy to those in need. So let’s take a look at what that mercy looks like in this story. One of the ways that the Good Samaritan shows mercy, I think, is that he took a risk. He took a risk.
There is a town in Colorado called Telluride. Many of you, perhaps, have been there or have heard of it, many of you may have even skied there. It is a wonderful ski town up in the mountains. But it didn’t always have that kind of a reputation; in fact, during the Wild West days, it was actually known by another name. But the road to get to that town was a road that was full of robbers and, as a result, so many people were injured on that road. They actually changed the name of the town to be a contraction for what they called that road. They called that road “To Hell You Ride.” And that is similar to the road between Jericho and Jerusalem. It was seventeen miles of desert and rock and it also had a special name. It was called the “Way of Blood” and that is because there was much blood that was shed on that road between those cities. In other words, it was not a great place to be. It was probably like the ghettos of New York in the ‘60s. The Samaritan stopped in the midst of that anyway, even as he knew he might be next for those robbers. He didn’t use taking a risk as an excuse to stop and act. How many times do we do that? How many times do we stop and use an excuse not to do something?
All too often I think it is not that we risk too much for many of us, it is the other end of that spectrum—we don’t risk at all. Pastor Francis Chan has a great illustration of that. I think you can actually see the video of it on youtube, where he is actually standing on a balance beam, the kind of thing they use in the Olympics, and he is saying this is what life is for most Christians. He says, “We stand on the balance beam and in the course of life we get a little out of balance. As a result of getting a little out of balance, we go “Whoa! That was scary. I don’t want to do that anymore. That was too much!” So what we do, he literally gets down on the balance beam; he wraps his legs around it and he hugs the beam, laying on the beam. He says, “This is how most of us live our lives as Christians.” We want to be safe. We don’t want to take any risk. So that when we get to the end of our lives, what happens is, we climb down off the balance beam, we stand before God, and just like in the Olympics, we go—(we throw our hands in the air in victory), Tada! Ten! And that is how we live our lives. We say, “Look at all the risk I took. Look what I did for you guys.” No. Not at all.
Part of following Christ is to take risks. I think that is part of what it means to “take up your cross.” How risky is taking up your cross? So we can’t use “risk” as an excuse not to help our neighbor; it is that simple. The Samaritan, I think, also showed mercy by being personally involved with the one who fell into robbers. He had compassion on him, our text said. He dressed the wounds of the one who had been beaten by them. There is a story of a man who was getting something out of his trunk and as he stepped back he stepped on the edge of a manhole cover and it was halfway open and it flipped open and he fell down into it about five feet. So he is stuck in the manhole and he is asking someone to help, as people are walking by. Ten, fifteen minutes he is asking; no one stops to help. The only way he eventually gets out is by actually pulling out his cell phone and calling for help. But the Samaritan in our story did get involved, didn’t he? He didn’t call 911. He didn’t call the pastor. He didn’t write a check. He had compassion. He got down in the dirt; he got dirty with the beaten up man; he probably got bloody with the beaten up man, and took care of him. We can’t use not wanting to get involved as an excuse to hold back.
The Samaritan also showed mercy because he took the time, he took time. He put the man on his donkey; he took him to the inn; he stayed with him through the night. That was probably not on his agenda. That was not in his schedule. That was not on his Blackberry or his iPhone. But he didn’t use it as an excuse.
For us, many of us, we live and die—and I confess that I am as guilty of it as anyone—of living as slaves to our schedule. Our schedule determines what we do and what we don’t do. There is nothing that can enter our lives that is beyond our schedule. I think we have to break that role; we have to break that habit, if you will.
There was a study that was done among seminary students. The study was set up to simulate this story of the Good Samaritan. What happened was there were students in one building and they were told that they had to go and do a talk in another building. And in the process of going between buildings they were going to encounter someone who was injured. Well most of these students said they knew the Samaritan story (I wonder what kind of seminary that was) and they even said that they would help. But the caveat was that as they were told to go to give their talk, they were told they were late and they had to go now. So as they went the majority of the students bypassed the person that was injured and went on to do their talk. Those who were doing the research were fascinated by this. They said, “This suggests that the conviction of our hearts and the content of our thoughts is less important in guiding what we will do, our actions, than the immediate context of our behavior. Simply by planting the words ‘you’re late’ caused them to become indifferent to the needs around them.” That is the world we live in today, folks. Go, go, go, go. We have to be here. We have to be here. Gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta, get done.
So when it comes to helping those in need, helping and loving our neighbor, our greatest ability is our availability. So don’t let time give you an excuse.
The Samaritan also showed mercy because it took money. Think about what happened here, not only did he stay with him but he also went to the innkeeper and he said, “Innkeeper, take care of him. I will pay for whatever the expenses are.” If you think about that he probably had some kind of relationship with this innkeeper, like he had been there before, at least to the point enough that the innkeeper trusted the Samaritan; that the Samaritan would actually come back and pay. Two days wages he spent.
The story of a young high school boy who gets hit by a car—it wasn’t too bad, but it was just enough to scrape him up and bruise him. So he was sore and he wandered into a local fast food store and he wanted a little bit of ice just to put on his scrapes. The fast food guy said, “Well I can’t just give you ice. You have to buy a pop. That will be 99 cents.” The Samaritan spent two days wages and he said more if you need it. We can’t let money be an excuse not to help. When we look at this whole passage and we ask ourselves, did Jesus answer the question that the lawyer was trying to trick him with: Who is my neighbor? Did he answer that question? Well, he did, didn’t he? He answered that question by saying: Your neighbor isn’t always the person that is right next to you, it is anyone who is in need. It is anyone who needs help.
So I think about that today as we see pictures of what is going on in the South and in Alabama. The reality, folks, is that those are our neighbors because they are in need. They need our help. But Jesus didn’t just answer the question of who is my neighbor. He went beyond that. He said the true neighbor is the one who shows mercy. Jesus is actually changing the question from who is my neighbor to what kind of neighbor are you? What kind of neighbor are you? So my question for all of us is what kind of neighbor are you? Would you want yourself to show up on the scene that the Good Samaritan walked into? Jesus calls us to treat others as we would like to be treated. That is what he calls us to do. So following, our life with Jesus, is about going beyond managing to-do lists and schedules and finances and showing mercy. It is about showing mercy. That is where Community Days of Service really has an opportunity for us to demonstrate that lifestyle, to take that first step and get involved, to share God’s love with people in need; for that is what Community Days of Service is really all about.
This morning there is, out in the information area, there are two big tables with sheets all over them. They are our signups for Community Days of Service. Community Days of Service, as Denny said, will be in three weeks on the 21st and the 22nd, a Saturday and a Sunday, and there are opportunities to serve either on Saturday, in the morning or afternoon, or on Sunday in the morning or afternoon. Just pick one. Just pick one, something of interest; there is something for everyone there to do. It can be things as physical as planting flowers at Beacon Hill, or Feed My Starving Children. It can be something as simple as making quilts or writing letters to service personnel. There are opportunities for everyone. Faith Church along with seven other leadership churches in St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka are all a part of this. So there are over 900 of us that are going to be serving over this weekend in different locations, all within our St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka area. It is an opportunity for us to step in, to try something new, and to get out of our comfort area, to try something different. So I want to invite you to do that.
On the 22nd, which is a Sunday, we are not going to have regular worship like this. We are actually going to cancel our worship because our worship is going to be going and doing and serving somewhere over the course of the weekend, whether it is Saturday or whether it is Sunday; it doesn’t matter. But we are going to have on Sunday morning a short blessing service. We are going to come and we are going to say, “God, for those who served on Saturday, thank you for their work, thank you for the blessing; and for those who are planning to work, we send them out that they may be your hands and feet to serve this community.” So it is an opportunity for us to gather, to be a blessing to each other, and it also, realistically it is an opportunity for us, we are going to take an offering too. So, we want to invite you to do that if you are a faithful giver; that is going to be your opportunity to continue to give on that week, as well. But in terms of a regular service, we won’t have it; but it is a chance to kind of break the routine and I think for many of us that is what we need to do. We need to break the routine. So after the service, check those out. The sign up sheets are going to be out there for the next three Sundays, so we invite you to do that. Sign up and I think you will be blessed and you will be a blessing. That is what God says to Abraham. “I have blessed you to be a blessing.” That is our opportunity in this community to be a blessing to the communities in which we live; and we can do that by serving and showing a little mercy.
Let’s pray.
Mighty and holy God, thank you. Thank you Jesus, that you call us to live beyond ourselves. You call us to look beyond ourselves, beyond our needs, because you say you know our needs and you will provide. So help us to provide for those who are in need in so many different ways and so many different opportunities. Lord, may we be used. May we be your hands and feet on the 21st and the 22nd. In your name. Amen.