Thus may read the newspaper headline about the unfortunate traveler in Luke 10: 25-37. This story is more commonly known as The Good Samaritan. All too familiar in popular parlance and in the pews to promise many new insights…or is it?
Traveling along Southern California’s highways we speed past broken down cars, we rush past the homeless, and barely notice the cars that travel the same highway as we do, … as we distractedly reach for our phones to make one more call. We are post-modern, wired, connected, Twittering, and utterly caught up in the distractions of our lives. We are busy. Our children are scheduled for play-dates, extra-curricular activities, and music lessons. We train them early that every minute must be scheduled, planned and used efficiently, lest they grow up “wasting time” or worse yet, that they be bored. We are not unlike well-functioning automatons on a quest to eradicate inefficiency once and for all. Surprises, pleasant as well as unpleasant, threaten to unhinge the well-oiled schedules that dominate our lives. In fact, I would argue that at times we mistake our schedules for our lives!
While we tweet, text and message our time away we are a distracted bunch, forever plugged in, but never connected. We rush past those in need, not even taking note of their existence. In a recent study on homelessness, the homeless reported that the greatest burden was not their lack, but their invisibility. No one, but children, would greet them, smile at them, and acknowledge that they exist! They are left by the side of the road for dead, socially as well as materially.
One may argue we are not quite unlike the Priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan. Possessed with an unqualified zeal, we pursue our tasks and appointments as though salvation was dependent upon them. All the while, we are missing the mark, namely to bring the Good News of Salvation to a hurting world.
Yet, the Samaritan slowed down. He slowed down long enough to notice the need, to get involved and give of himself, so that a stranger might find healing and hope. Did the Samaritan have a much less demanding schedule? Surely not! But he did have control over the way he treated his schedule and his resources. Rather than being aimlessly driven on and on by never ceasing pressures and tasks, this traveler understood time as a precious gift from God, of which he was the steward. He slowed down, he helped the victim and he followed up several days later. As he exercised the power to control his time and his schedule, he was able to bring the kingdom to a soul in need.
Only when we slow down and behold our neighbor in need can we be God’s agents for healing and hope in a bruised and beaten world.
by Dcn Kirsten Gardner