That's a good story. It's a good story. Jesus just made it up, but it's a good story. Although, if you go to the Holy Land today and you give a few dollars to the guide, he will bring you to the exact inn where the Good Samaritan brought the victim. And you can even buy some postcards there. I don't know how they do that, because it is just a story.

You know, I like to say that when we look at the public life of Jesus we find that He only does two things over and over again. He told stories and He went to parties, and both of them got Him in trouble. His party-going got Him in trouble because He partied with the wrong people. He partied with publicans and sinners, and that got people upset. He partied with tax collectors, like Matthew and Zacchaeus, and that got people upset. He partied with women. He had women come in, and He even discussed faith, and religion and the Torah with them. Those were areas that had a sign on them in that day and age that said "Men only." And that got people upset. We even have the record that a local prostitute wandered into one of His parties and He made her welcome. And that got people upset. His party-going, sooner or later, got Him into serious trouble.

But as if that was not enough, His storytelling did the same thing, because His stories always raised more questions than answers, and very often end up embarrassing His host and His listeners. This is a good example, the Good Samaritan. I think most of us have heard the story of the Good Samaritan more times than we like to remember. It features four figures: No. 1, there is the pushy lawyer who asks, Who is my neighbor? No. 2, there is the pious priest who avoids the victim and won't even look at him. No. 3, there is the righteous Levite who stays on the far side of the road where it's safe. And finally, there's the Good Samaritan, whose one good deed in the story actually changes the use of our language.

Remember, the notion of a Samaritan only had two meanings before. For an Orthodox Jew, a Samaritan meant a hated foreigner, an untrustworthy alien, a religious heretic to be avoid as unworthy, as unorthodox, as not clean. And for the rest of us it meant a Semitic citizen of a little stretch of land between Galilee and Jerusalem. That's what it meant. But with the one good deed of the Samaritan the meaning changed.

For example, in 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot in a Los Angeles hotel, and they rushed him to the Good Samaritan Hospital. You know, not just hundreds, but thousands of orphanages, health clinics and hospitals have been named after the Samaritan. That's a different understanding. Groups of people who work and volunteer with the needy and with victims are often called Samaritans. Hollywood even got the notion. I look around; I don't think anyone can join me. Does anyone remember 1948 Hollywood put out a movie called Good Sam? Gary Cooper was the hero in it, and he couldn't help himself to stop helping other people. Good Samaritan. Good Sam. Even Hollywood got the idea.

But today the story still raises questions for us and questions that we don't particularly want to answer. For the pushy Jewish lawyer, it was easy enough early on. Jesus began with the story of the pious priest. And that pious priest avoided the victim so that he would not have any uncleanness when he could go about his religious duties. And I'm sure the attorney said, Absolutely right, the priest did the right thing. Then comes the righteous Levite. And the attorney must have said he did the right thing, he stayed on the safe side of the road, he protected himself and his future. He did the right thing. And then Jesus introduces the compassionate Samaritan and turns and asks, Now, which one is the neighbor, who is the true neighbor? And then He says, You go and do likewise.

Now that pushy attorney either has to rethink his religious convictions, rethink his regulations and rethink his priorities, or he has to get very upset with Jesus. We're not told which happened. My guess is he got upset with Jesus. Now, what about the rest of us? I think this story raises questions that are personal, questions that are communal and questions that are political.

Questions that are personal. Are we willing to at least look across the road and see the victim in need? It's time for us to do that. We live in a city, and a town and an area filled with freeways. And freeways are wonderful. I love the freeway except when I have road rage. But as you drive on the freeway, you get to bypass the poor, bypass the inner city, bypass the victims, you don't have to look. The same way in living in the suburbs, by and large we don't have to look. The same way with the remote on your TV, if it says too much about the poor, the victim, the needy in the world, we don't have to look. And this story really says to us, Are we willing to look across the road, let alone, are we willing to say I must be the neighbor, I must go and do likewise? Tough questions.

Communal questions, not just personal. The communal questions that the story raises is do we support ministries and organizations directed at supporting and helping victims and the needy? Or do we say let someone else do that? Or do we say let someone else be the neighbor? Or do we say let someone else here go and do likewise?

And, finally, there are political questions. In a book called The Three Realms of Ethics the author retells the story of the Good Samaritan, and I think he does it in a way that is more fitting for our situation and our society today. In retelling, he begins with the Good Samaritan stopping along the way to help the victim. Once he has helped him, he continues his journey, but as soon as he turns in the road he finds another victim. So he helps the next victim. And then he goes down the road a little further, and he sees the third victim and he's about to help that victim, but he looks up and sees a fourth victim, and a fifth, and a sixth, all the way down the road. We live in a world with unlimited needs and unlimited victims, and we have limited resources. So this question says how do you rethink your own values and your own opinions about things like welfare and the welfare system, about things like health care, about things like immigration? Or do we just get upset with Jesus?

The stories of Jesus still raise questions and are still alive. And Jesus still invites us to the party. This Eucharist feast doesn't look like a party, but it is. Jesus gathers us together to challenge us, to nourish and support us, and to say listen to the Gospel, hear the Gospel and make a difference.

Amen.

cml