Most school students who have studied anything about American history have read about the so-called “Good Neighbor Policy.” It came about in 1933 while Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President. He pledged the dedication of this country to be good neighbors, mostly to Central and South America. In his inaugural address in March of 1933 he said, “In the field of world policy I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others.”  That policy bore good fruit when World War II broke out with Germany. 

Jesus took the matter of being a good neighbor much farther and much deeper. His parable of the Good Samaritan is probably the best known of all the 30+ recorded parables in the New Testament. If the parable is not known, the idea of the parable is known. “Good Samaritan” is a common reference even outside the church. It is also used widely. There are Good Samaritan hospitals, there are Good Samaritan campgrounds, there are Good Samaritan counseling centers. As a matter of fact, Pittsburgh Pastoral Institute, which does counseling here at Christ Church, is now affiliated with the National Organization of Good Samaritan Counseling Centers. 

In this parable, Jesus teaches us a critical ingredient of discipleship. He tries to explain what God’s idea of what a good neighbor policy looks like. I fear we have lost or forgotten or are losing a great deal of this. 

I read a story about a moving truck that was parked in front of a suburban home. A woman who lived across the street saw the garage door open and a man emerged. She immediately walked out the door of her house and across the street with a fresh-baked apple pie. “Welcome to the neighborhood,” she said. “I want you to have this. I baked it myself.” 

“Oh no, I really couldn’t,” the man replied. 

“Yes, I insist,” she said. “When we moved in two years ago, no one ever welcomed us, and I want to make sure you’re welcomed.” She thrust the pie into the man’s hands. 

“Well, I really can’t. You see, we moved in four years ago and we’re moving out today.” 

The woman stared at the man dumbfounded. Finally she said, “Well, enjoy the pie anyway.” And she walked away. 

Are we losing the idea of “neighbor”? Do we even notice? 

There was a column in the Post-Gazette this week on the matter of cell phones. The writer said that we are sometimes so tied to cell phones as we walk down the street, that we don’t even notice anybody—much less somebody who might be in difficulty. It’s like we are in a cocoon, in our own shell. Maybe that’s why the two temple leaders walked by the injured man on the road to Jericho. They were talking on their cell phones! 

A lawyer asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded as he often did by telling a story. What is Jesus teaching us here? 

DO SOMETHING 

For one thing, he is saying to all of us, “Do something. If you would be my follower, you must do something.” 

There are interesting translations of this particular part of the parable. The most recent translation says simply, “Which man was the neighbor of the one who fell among thieves?” However, a previous version says it like this: “Which man proved neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?” I think that’s the force of Jesus’ teaching here. He says, “Do something!” 

The comedian Flip Wilson once said, “I am a Jehovah’s Bystander.” Someone said, “Don’t you mean a Jehovah’s Witness?”

”No,” he said. “They asked me to be a Witness, but I didn’t want to get involved, so I’m a Jehovah’s Bystander.” 

Jesus is saying, “Do not be a bystander!” 

The parable is part of the Great Commandment to love God and to love our neighbor. Jesus says there is a vertical dimension to life: your relationship with God. There is also a horizontal dimension to life: your relationship with others. Keep them in healthy balance, and don’t forget the neighbor. 

Remember the earliest television sets with all sorts of controls in the front? Many of you are old enough to remember when there was a horizontal control and a vertical control. The knobs were very sensitive. You had to delicately adjust each one of them to get the right picture on the screen. 

Perhaps Jesus saw something in his questioner. He would be saying to this man and to us, “Most of you will pray. Most of you will worship. Many of you will take communion. Many of you will read the Scriptures. But you are inclined to forget or neglect the acts of mercy. Don’t forget you have to do something. 

John Wesley said the same thing to his 18^th century English followers. These people asked Wesley, “Is it more important to work on our relationship with God, or is it more important to work on our relationship with our fellow human beings?” Wesley simply said, “Do both. But if you have to emphasize something, emphasize the one you are most likely to neglect—a relationship with your fellow human beings.” 

Listen to this statement from Brian McClaren in his new book, A Generous Orthodoxy (p. 184):

For me, the “fundamentals of faith” boil down to those given by Jesus: to love God and to love our neighbors. These two fundamentals will not satisfy many fundamentalists, I fear. They’ll insist on asking, “Which God are we supposed to love? The God of the Baptists or Brethren, the God of the Calivinists or Methodists, the God of the Muslims or the Jews?” I’ll respond by saying, “Whichever God Jesus was referring to.” Then, still unsatisfied, they’ll ask, “What exactly do you mean by love, and who is my neighbor?” At that point I’ll probably mutter something incoherent about Samaritans and walk away. 

Don’t be a bystander. Do something. 

This is why 90+ persons from Christ Church are headed for Jamaica in two weeks—youth and adults together, doing something in Jesus’ name. We will have a medical team, a dental team, a Vacation Bible School team, and a construction team. This is why I raised up the possibility of a volunteer team to Russia this fall to help finish building a dormitory for a Methodist seminary there. This is why we’re hoping to raise up teams for Zimbabwe next summer. This is why we have the Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers here in the South Hills. It’s why we have lay pastors at Christ Church. It’s why we sent 25 or 30 youth this past week to do a Vacation Bible School for the children on the North Side of the New Hope United Methodist Church. 

Jesus is simply saying, “If you would be my follower, do something.” 

DO THE UNEXPECTED 

But there’s even more to this parable. Jesus is saying, “Do the unexpected. There is no indication of what was on the agenda of the man who stopped to help the injured fellow on the side of the road. We don’t know what was logged into his Palm Pilot for that day. We don’t know what mission he was on. We can be pretty sure it was not to stop and take care of a beaten and battered man by the side of the road. 

Somewhere Henri Nouwen once said, “I used to resent the interruptions in my life until I realized the interruptions were my life.” Is that not the story of Jesus’ earthly ministry? 

Many of you have heard this saying: “Life is what happens to you when you are making other plans.” Jesus would say, “Life is who happens to you when you are making other plans.” 

A colleague was interviewing a couple preparing for marriage. They were not members of his church. My colleague asked, “Are you church members? Are you believers?” The woman replied, “Well, I guess I’m sort of a Christian, like everybody else.” The pastor thought for a moment and then said, “Let me offer you an upgrade to that today.” 

Jesus is saying to you and me, “Let me offer you an upgrade. God is a God of unexpected mercy and grace. Model that unexpected mercy and grace in your own life. Do something! Do the unexpected.” 

DO THE EXTRAORDINARY 

But there is even more here. Listen to the parable carefully. Jesus says, “Do the extraordinary. Do the extravagant. Do the excessively generous.” 

Most of the time when we hear sermons on this parable we hear about the shock value of using the word “Samaritan.” Who was it who stopped to help? It was a Samaritan! People would gasp, “Oh no! Not one of ‘them’!” Samaritans were the least likely persons to stop and help a regular Jewish pilgrim, and vice versa. But there’s something deeper in this parable that we need to see. 

Jesus was talking about a man who was extravagantly generous in his mercy. Consider these issues. First he poured on expensive oil and wine to stem the infection. Then he put the man on his own donkey. The Samaritan walked, while the injured man rode on the animal. Thirdly, he took him to an inn and paid for his lodging while he recovered. And then—get this—the man said to the innkeeper, “I’ll be back in five or six days and when I come back, whatever is due on his account, I will pay it.” 

Jesus carefully and incisively makes this point. Don’t just do something. Don’t just do the unexpected. Do the extravagant. That’s what makes the Kingdom of God so radical. That’s what makes Kingdom living radical. That’s what makes following Jesus so special, so exciting, and so fulfilling. 

A young woman named Karen was writing her checks and paying her bills one night. It was late and she was very tired, but it had to be done. A few days later she got an “overdrawn” notice from her bank. She had never gotten one before. “How could this be?” she asked herself. She went back to her checkbook and looked at it one more time. Sure enough, she saw the error. In one instance she had written a check entering the entire balance in her checking account instead of the specific amount she wanted to enter. To make matters even more embarrassing, it was her check to the church! 

She thought she would try to take care of the matter when the banks opened on Monday morning. But when she got to church on Sunday, she was greeted at the door with so many smiling faces, so many excited people. She knew that she had to leave the check as it was. 

Jesus said, “What pleases God is excessive generosity. What pleases God is doing the extravagant, the extraordinary.” 

A few weeks ago I received an Internet story. You may have received it also. The story was entitled “Ben Stein’s final column. I tried to check the authenticity of the story this week, but I could find no certain verification. I did find out about Ben Stein. Ben Stein is a writer. He was a speech writer for two presidents. He is also an actor. He lives with his family in Beverly Hills, California. Living where he does, he meets many other actors on a day-to-day basis. Here’s what his final column says, in part:

I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated.

But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.

How can a man or woman who makes an 8-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today’s world…Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. They can be interesting, nice people. But they are not heroes to me any longer.

I now realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters. This is my honest and best use as a human being. And it is my duty in return for the lavish life which God has bestowed upon me, to help others He has placed in my path.

Jesus calls us to the extraordinary—beyond the normal—generosity. 

I think about this often when I distribute your gifts to the Pastor’s Fund to various persons. Out of necessity I have often set limits. I must allocate limited resources carefully. Occasionally I remember that Jesus would say, “No limits.” The Good Samaritan says to the innkeeper, “Whatever is needed when I return, I will gladly pay it. 

Extraordinary generosity! Can you and I live that lesson? Being ready and able to do something—to do the unexpected—to do the astoundingly generous thing. “That,” says Jesus, “is what following Me is all about.”