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Being a Neighbor

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This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, July 14 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Luke 10:25-37. Are any of Jesus’ parables more familiar than this one we entitle the Good Samaritan? We think we know it so well. It is hard to see it with new eyes, to go beyond our preconceived notions that we bring with us to this text. But that’s just what we are going to try to do. And I’m going to need your help too. First of all, it’s easy for us to miss the shocking nature of this parable if we start to think that this story is only to teach us to imitate the Samaritan. Parables were intended to be shocking. This parable says so much more to us about God, our relationship to God and the lengths to which God will go to reach out to us. Who is this lawyer who approaches Jesus? Is he like those we hear of on tv and radio ads? No, he isn’t that kind of lawyer. He is an expert in the Torah, in the Old Testament law of God. In other words, he really knows his stuff. Luke write