Neighboring and Neighborly in God's Neighborhood

8 Pentecost, Cp10, July 13, 2025

Amos 7:1-17 Ps.82

Col. 10:25-37  Luke 10:25-37

Lectionary Link

The parable of the Good Samaritan includes within it a parable about incomplete definitions of what a neighbor is as well as why we might often be bad neighbors and rationalize it.

Let's ponder some of the stereotypes which attended the Lucan Gospel which was written when synagogue and church had separated, when Samaritans were part of Christ-communities and the Gospel writers could not hide their disappointment that all the Jews had not become followers of Jesus.

What are we to make of a story of Jesus who presents a member of a foe of the Jews, a Samaritan, as the hero of a story, and revered religious figures of temple and synagogue, a priest and a Levite, as those who are lacking in moral character?

For our reading we need to remove ourselves from the specifics of the stereotypes of what was implied in the time of Jesus and in the time of the writing of Luke's Gospel and generalize the enduring universal messages.

What might those messages be?

The big message is that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  We are to respect the dignity of every human being, as we promise to do in our baptismal vows.

What does a bad neighbor do?  A bad neighbor creates people as being "other."  How so?  By asking the question, "Who is my neighbor, or who do I have to love?"

Rather than being over-critical of the priest and Levite who are presented as "bad neighbors," we should ponder seriously how we ourselves are often bad neighbors and how we might justify our being bad neighbors?

First, it may not always be easy to be a good neighbor.  Not every situation which we encounter the requirement for loving response is easy or even safe.  We may justify our lack of response because of our unwillingness to be a hero in a difficult situation.  We may not always be ready to "lay down" our lives, especially if it is not for a friend or family member.  We may be fearful about our abilities to respond to emergencies but our willingness and readiness to help in the ways that we are able is the main issue.

The priest and Levite who observed the injured man on the roadside and did not stop maybe represent the reality that our social identity status does not necessarily mean that we are exerting ourselves to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Perhaps we think it is adequate to offer care to those with whom we have an affinity or those who can reciprocate with care for us.  Perhaps there is the sheer inconvenience of the circumstances which interrupt our schedules: "I can't stop because I have things to do."  Perhaps there is good religious reason for the Levite and the priest not to stop.  If the man appears to be dead, then to touch a dead person would render one ritually impure which would require the hassle of going through rituals of purification before assuming normal community interaction.

And what was the purpose of the parable of Jesus within the parable of the interaction between Jesus and a lawyer?

The purpose of the story was to convict about a smugness that we can assume about our religious identity and performances.  The lawyer would certainly know about inheritance laws.  One doesn't have to do anything to inherit something.  One inherits through the accident of being the child or relative of the one who passes away.  A child of God inherits eternal life by simply accepting oneself as a child of God.  But the lawyer who encountered Jesus missed the point; he wanted to make sure that he could be affirmed by a Rabbi, Jesus, for his superior performance of the law.

And the moral of the story, is that one is never finished performing loving care and love and justice makes everyone a neighbor in any situation, and neighbor is not just the passive notion of close physical proximity or natural affinities; neighbor is being the active care giver of those who need it.

The active notion of being a neighbor is very ably stated by the Psalmist who implores us to save the weak and the orphan, and defend the humble and needy.  Also, the Psalmist gives us the mission to rescue the weak and the poor and deliver them from the power of the wicked exploiters.

The long and short of the Scripture lessons today is that the work of loving is never finished.  The question is not about how much loving I have do do, but how much is left to do in the continual work of healing that is needed in our world, God's neighborhood, where everyone is called to be neighbors and do neighboring to one another.  Amen.