Rev. Molly F. James, PhD
St. James’s, West Hartford, CT
Proper 10C, July 14, 2019
May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In 1973 some researchers at Princeton Seminary conducted a study about helping behavior and the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The parable we have just heard. They wanted to test the hypothesis of whether or not being religious and studying the parable would mean that the students would be more likely to engage in the helping behavior modeled by the Good Samaritan. The results are surprising, and, I think, provide some valuable insights for us today.
This is how the study went. Students were told they had to give a presentation, either on their own faith journey or on the Parable of the Good Samaritan. These were seasoned seminarian students, so either of those presentations should have been easy. Then they were either told that they had plenty of time or that they were late. On their way to the presentation they passed someone in distress. You might think the study offered results that can allow us to pat ourselves on the back. That confirm the fact that those of us who are good, faithful Christians are better at helping people, especially if we are engaging with our Scripture on a regular basis. Surprisingly, the biggest factor in whether or not someone stopped to help someone in need was not their faith or whether or not they had just spent time studying the Parable of the Good Samaritan, it was home much of a hurry they were in. Yikes.
That study is now over forty years old, and yet I think it is just as relevant for us and our own faith journeys as it was when the results were published. I find the perspective and insight it offers to be refreshing and valuable. This Parable of the Good Samaritan is so familiar to us that it can keep us from really absorbing its impact or its invitation. We can think, “Ah yes, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. I know that one. I mean the term “Good Samaritan” is part of our everyday lexicon. It is part of our civil law. We all know we are supposed to stop and help people in need.”
This is where I like to remember the wisdom of one of my seminary professors, which is that we should never make the mistake of confusing familiarity with understanding. So, what kind of new understanding might we be being invited into this morning as we reflect on this very familiar passage?
I think this is where the study is helpful in providing us with new ways to reflect on a familiar passage and to expand its relevance and meaning. We know to get someone in distress the help they need. Blessedly we live in a town and a state with excellent emergency services, and support services for residents whether they need food, housing, social services or mental health services. We have lots of resources to which we can connect needy people. We are not likely to have to make do with the services of a local innkeeper as the Samaritan did.
So if we don’t have the same challenges as the Samaritan did, what is the invitation for us in this text? I think the invitation is to ask ourselves what else might we be hurrying past? If we think of this text on a more metaphorical and less literal level, how might it help us in our own daily lives? How might it help us to be more faithful followers of Jesus? How might it help us live more joyful and fulfilling lives?
Many of you are likely familiar with the set of spiritual practices offered by our Presiding Bishop at our General Convention last summer, The Way of Love. The Way of Love offers seven key practices: Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, Rest. And it is that last one that is so key. Rest. I think most of us don’t get enough of that. We can all too easily jump from Go to Turn. Just like the Priest and the Levite, just like those students in the Princeton study, we can be so focused on what is next, in such a rush to DO the next thing, that we can miss something important that is right in front of us.
It might not be a person in literal distress, but I know that if I am not careful, I can miss important moments because I am too busy, too task oriented, too distracted by future planning to be present to the moment. I can miss wishing a friend Happy Birthday. I can miss a conversation with my children or that moment when they just want me to watch them do something silly. I can miss having a conversation with my husband about something other than who is doing which part of the carpool schedule tomorrow. I can miss watching the sunset or hearing the birds sing. I can miss out on my own prayer time with God. This list goes on, and I am sure you have your own list too.
So, I hope that in the coming week, we can carry with us an invitation from our Scripture lesson and from The Way of Love, it is an invitation to be in just a little less of a hurry. A lesson to remember that God is with us, always. If we find our hearts quickening or our anxiety rising, if we find our To Do List dominating our thoughts, we have an invitation to pause, to reflect, to breathe. To ask ourselves, what might God be inviting us to pay attention to in this moment? To check in and make sure we are not missing something in our hurry to get to the next thing.
It is all too easy to become so future oriented that we forget to live in the present moment. Hopefully summer is a time when the pace is a little less frantic, and so it is good time for us to pause and reset our priorities, to be sure that our tasks and the pace of our lives rarely come at the cost of our relationships.
AMEN.
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