To Help Our Neighbor

Every Sunday here at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley we rise together to say in unison the words to our congregational covenant.

Words which should have a great deal of meaning for each of us, but like anything that is repeated over and over again I wonder if sometimes we aren't saying the words more by rote than from our hearts.

"Love is the spirit of this church;

The quest for truth is its sacrament.

To dwell together in peace,

To seek the truth in freedom, and

To help our neighbor;

To these ends we covenant with one another."

As I sat at my desk Friday morning, and thought about these words I was struck by their simplicity, their honesty, and by what a great sermon series there would be in investigating each one separately.

And as each of us seeks what is true for ourselves don't we run the risk of trampling on another's truth?

Now I'm not sure that our understanding of our covenant is in any way different from members of other churches all across the country who will be saying words very similar to these in their own services this morning.

But this morning I do want to touch on the last idea expressed in our covenant and that is the notion that we covenant with one another to help our neighbor.

This certainly sounds good and seems to convey some sense of lofty goals, but I wonder what it really means to the individual members of this congregation.

So in order to get there from here I want to go way back in history and take a look at two familiar stories.

The first story comes to us from the Hebrew Bible and is contained in the book of Genesis.

Adam knew his wife Eve intimately, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. She said, "I have had a male child with the Lord's help."

In the course of time Cain presented some of the land's produce as an offering to the LORD.

And Abel also presented [an offering]— some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions.

The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but He did not have regard for Cain and his offering.

If you do right, won't you be accepted? But if you do not do right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must master it."

And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

When God inquires of Cain what he has done with his brother, Cain responds with these well-known words, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"

A close reading of the Biblical text reveals that God never answers this question.

His sentence is a life of wandering the world marked for his crime but protected against harm.

I think it's significant that the author or authors of this story chose to have God not answer that famous question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

After all people across the centuries have asked the same question in relation to issues of justice, of equality, of compassion.

When I see a stranger walking along RT. 11 in the pouring rain should I be obliged to stop and offer a ride?

When I pass the homeless individual and I am in too much of a hurry to drop a few coins in his cup, am I compounding his precarious situation?

When I see a parent in the grocery store correct their child with undo for or verbal abuse, am I called to intervene?

But perhaps it is those folks I've just mentioned, the drifters, the homeless, the mentally ill, individuals with AIDS, criminals who today wear the mark of Cain.

Generally protected for harm, they wear their crimes on their sleeves just as Hester Prynn wore her Scarlet letter.

Now the second text I want to lift up is the story of the Good Samaritan from the New Testament.

"One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?"

The man answered, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"Right!" Jesus told him. "Do this and you will live!" The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

"A Jewish man was traveling on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits.

They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.

A Levite walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them.

Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him.

The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, 'Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here.'

"Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?" Jesus asked.

The man replied, "The one who showed him mercy." Then Jesus said, "Yes, now go and do the same.

At the time of Jesus' telling of this story Samaritans and Jews generally despised each other, so it would have come as a huge "surprise ending" to hear that it was the Samaritan helps the injured Jew.

Obviously Jesus tells the parable in response to the commandment to love one's neighbor as yourself as well as the question of who one's "neighbor" is.

The parable of the Good Samaritan is in some ways similar to the account of Cain and Abel.

The cast contains some good characters. We have a priest and a Levite, both of whom were "religious" people who had supposedly dedicated their lives to living according to the commandments of Moses.

No, and it's quite possible that the social codes of the times may have prevented them from helping even if they had wanted to.

I would think that at one time or another, maybe even right now, you've felt like that beaten up man on the side of the road.

You've quietly gone about your business carrying out your life's calling when at random something has come up and knocked you flat.

You've been left begging that someone in this world would come along and carry out the ommandment to love one's neighbor- someone who will go the extra mile - someone who won't just prevent your suffering from getting worse, but will bind your wounds, take care of you, and nurse you to the point that you can get back on your feet again and continue this journey of life.

The people you'd expect to be there for you when you're down, often their efforts are quite disappointing, even if they care to help at all.

But we all know individuals who are willing to step over the social divides that separate us one from another and who are willing and able to help their neighbors when times are hard.

If asked the question, "Am I my brother's keeper? They would have no hesitancy in answering yes!

These are the individuals who volunteer in the Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter, who work with Habitat for Humanity, the Blue Ridge Food Bank, the Volunteer Farm.

Who are big sisters and big brothers reaching out to children in need right here in our own neighborhoods.

They deliver meals. They tutor children after school. They visit with elders and shut-ins to bring joy and happiness into an otherwise grim existence.

If I am called upon to be the Good Samaritan will I help or flee? I hope our answer is just I will do all that I can with all the means I have in what ever way I can.

Through the efforts of the social justice program and our children and youth we have been able to reach across continents to help a little Indian child who has been orphaned.

In the Khasi hills where Distabor lives, many women marry very young and quickly have several children.

The young husbands quickly realize there is no way to earn enough money to help their families so in a story that is common around the world they leave their small villages and towns to go to the big cities to find work.

This leaves a desperately poor mother behind who often has no option other than placing her children in a situation where they can be cared for because she is no longer able to care for them herself.

Oh, they have never hurt anyone, but they have been marked for a life of poverty and deprivation.

It is up to the good Samaritans, those we might least expect, to come forward to bring hope, assistance, nourishment, and ways to find a better life.

When I think of what we Unitarian Universalists are called to be in this life, I am reminded of this lovely quotation from the poet, Gwendolyn Brooks, wrote this in her tribute poem to Paul Robeson:

"we are each other's harvest:

we are each other's business: 

we are each other's magnitude and bond.

Indeed, if we are to truly love our neighbor as ourselves then we are surely called to be each other's business. You look after me and I will look after you.

If you honor and respect me for the person I am I will honor and respect you for the person you are.

These are the actions of those who have internalized Jesus' message to "go and do likewise."

Or as Rev. Martin Luther King, who most assuredly took to heart Jesus' teaching said: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

I do believe that at the heart of twenty-first century Unitarian Universalism is the call to indeed be our brothers keepers as well as our sisters, and our children and our environment, and indeed the entire interconnected web of existence of which we are all a part). We are called to be each other's business, to be each other's harvest.

The priest, the Levite, the Samaritan, and the man who fell among thieves meet in heaven to talk over old times.

Since heaven has no past or present, they find themselves in the inn on the road to Jericho.

"I feel awful about not helping you," the priest says. "My heart wasn't open enough. But I am working on it.

"The last time I stopped to help a wounded man by the side of the roadside," the Levite said, "he beat me and ran off with my wallet. I was afraid."

"It was my god fortune to be in the right place at the right time," the Samaritan said.

"I didn't stop to think; the oil and wine poured themselves, the wound bound itself. My only problem came later, dealing with all the praise."

"Charity begins at home." He says. "If I had been kinder to myself, I wouldn't have been in that mess to begin with.

But I am very grateful to all three of you. It takes great humility, to step aside, for a parable's sake.

So, may we have the courage and the convictions to be the keepers of all creation.

May 16, 2010

The Rev. Henry Ticknor
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley