Luke 10:25-37

This is a familiar story. On its surface it is a simple tale of morality. The question of who is our neighbor is one that is still discussed. Jesus answers with a parable, giving us something to discuss, not some pre-packaged answer. As mentioned two weeks ago, Luke may have been “spiritualizing” the apocalypse. This parable is unique to Luke and he may be giving something that we can do here on earth to bring ourselves in line with the new kingdom. If the kingdom is here, in our hearts, then we should act like it, instead of waiting for Jesus to return and conquer our enemies.

To understand the story on a deeper level, it helps to understand who is in the story, not just what they say. That it is a lawyer that asks the question may be a bit of humor, or something more poignant. The people that pass by the man who was left for dead, the Priest and Levite, are the people Jesus is speaking against. There are many other passages about them. This week I’ll spend more time speaking about that corrupted power structure in the Old Testament reading. In this story, what is significant about the helpful person being a Samaritan?

Hatred between Jews and Samaritans goes way back in the Bible, some of it reflecting actual history. Ephraim and Manasseh were given to the tribe of Joseph, and eventually became Samaria. This was part of the Northern Kingdom when Israel divided. Both parts of the Kingdom were conquered and Samaria became a mix of many cultures. When Jews returned from exile, the Samaritans did not want to return to those traditions. They had mixed their cultures and were happy with it. But these weren’t just any pagans. The land had once been part of Israel and they retained some of Jewish culture. Samaria was more cosmopolitan and polytheistic. Samaritans living or traveling in Jerusalem might have seen the Jewish YHWH as one of many gods. To most Jews of Jerusalem they would be considered heretics or the more crude term “half-breeds”.

Samarians were “others”, but not just any “other”, they were nearby and were seen as people who had taken what rightfully belonged to Israel. Of course that ignores any earlier history when that land belonged to someone else or any earlier wars fought by Kings anointed by God. Jesus isn’t looking at any of that though. He’s looking at the people themselves, and saying they are good. They aren’t good because of where they come from. They are good because they are people.

I understand that parables are designed to get people to think, and to repeat the stories, rather than have them repeat the logic of an argument when they may not understand, but this is one where I really wish Jesus would have given us a straight answer. When asked who our neighbor is, couldn't he have just said it's everyone in the whole world? It makes me wonder how aware he was of the rest of the world and of a future where our simple choices about what to eat have a direct affect on the lives of others on the other side of the globe. As Judas sang in Jesus Christ Superstar, “Israel in 4 BC ain't got no mass communication, don't get me wrong, I only want to know.”

A friend of mine noted the similarity of Samaria and Jerusalem to Mexico and the United States. I took his idea and rewrote the story.

Amos 7:7-17

Most preachers will skip Amos. They didn’t want to hear him 2800 years ago, or today. That’s a compliment to Amos. He tells the unjust that they are being unjust. It’s a short book, and he spends most of it talking about the wrath of God. If you don’t believe in God, the threats he makes don’t mean much. If you do or don’t believe, there is a short passage in the middle of all that explaining just why this wrath is coming.


The problems Amos is addressing are not just that people are not going to church enough; it’s that they are tearing apart the fabric of a decent society. They are breaking the social contract by giving a different form of justice to the poor than they do to the rich. This has always ended with either a revolution from within a society or a take over from without. This book comes at the end of the Old Testament around the time the Northern Kingdom is falling.

It is probably included in this part of the lectionary because of the parallel to Jesus talking about the Samaritans. The parallels to today regarding justice are increasingly coming to light. If you want to know more about that, read, “The New Jim Crow” or try to figure out what the “Panama Papers” are about.

Amos is calling on a higher power. He’s saying God has shown him these things. As modern readers, we can see similar things in our daily news feeds and use the sum of human knowledge and wisdom to see they are wrong. We know our history far better than any other people that have ever lived. We can choose to hear those lessons or not. That Amos only shows up once a year in the lectionary, and not the passage I provided above, is an indicator of the choices we make.

In the passage for this week’s lectionary, God is saying he’s going to lay waste to Israel and the places of Isaac. Not the usual message. He eventually paints a rosy picture at the very end of the book, but I wonder if that isn’t one of those tacked on verses. We don’t know much about Amos or how this book was assembled.

The actual story in the passage is, Amos is having trouble with someone telling a King that Amos has a conspiracy against the crown. This is a pretty standard tactic when someone is threatening the status quo, claiming the prophet himself, who is supposed to maintain justice is not doing his job. When Amos is called a “seer”, he’s being called a cheap-trick magician. Amos retorts that he is indeed not a trained prophet, but he claims a higher calling. He says he is a simple man from the fields, but he was compelled by what is right to come speak against the church that has been corrupted by money and political power. He doesn’t mince words either!

This is an Old Testament Book that needs to appear more often in the lectionary.