On proving to be neighbour to others
Ordinary Sunday 15: 15th July, 2001
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's Eastern Hill
"Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who
fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy."
Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." Lk 10: 36-37.
We are told that the context for this parable of the Good Samaritan was a
series of questions from a lawyer. He began with a big one. What must I do to
inherit eternal life? And he answered his own question by acknowledging the
commandment to love God and love neighbour. But then though, who actually is
my neighbour, he asked? There is the trick part of the questioning. There
remains the difficulty, both then and now.
This is a really important set of very practical concerns. It has impact
on the way we live and on what we might hope for. It is not only about what
we might believe but also about how we might live. It involves the
practicalities of how ordinary decent people attempt to connect the big issues
of the here and now and the life of the world to come. It is also about posing
challenging and confronting pressures on our very natural desire for a quiet
life.
We should not be surprised that this teaching parable has some twists and
turns. It is the way the Lord taught. It is the way he captured and retained
the attention of those who were listening. By the time the parable is complete
the question about who is my neighbour has been turned on its head. It is not
now a question of the attributes or qualities or background of the person who
might be the neighbour. It is a question of what lies within the heart, soul
and mind of each person who would consider themselves a believer and a
follower. So, the question becomes, therefore, 'Am I being a neighbour', 'am I
being neighbourly to the other?' And the one in this parable who shows the
appropriate response, indeed the only response acceptable to God, is an
outsider. There he goes again.
While it is true that this parable stands as one of the best known in all
the gospels and the expression 'Good Samaritan' has become part of the
language, yet the central and pivotal message remains very confronting. It
is clear that being a neighbour to others can indeed be unpleasant, demanding,
frightening, unwelcome, and hard; instead of, or as well as, being heart
warming and rewarding. But if we are to receive the plain teaching of the Lord,
there is no real choice in the matter for us. We do have to try. We have an
unavoidable obligation to attempt to respond to need, or to assist in the
shaping of social structures that will better address those needs.
So it is that Christians from the earliest times have been willingly and
sacrificially associated with acts of care and charity and mercy. Shelters,
hospices, kitchens, the helping and healing professions, have for all the
centuries been the care and concern of the Church and of individual Christians.
It is a question of vocation and of obligation together. This flows from the
living and the explicit teaching of the Lord himself.
So it is then that individual Church communities seek to assess the
situation within which they find themselves in their specific context, as
well as being part of a wider regional, national or world community. So it
is then that in actions and deeds, as well as in material support, Christians
try to consider how they themselves stand as a neighbour for those near or
far whose needs are so apparent. What a challenge. What an almost overwhelming
burden. How hard it is. How disheartening it can be.
There has never been a time when St Peter's people have not had to confront
the issues of people in need: but sometimes more than others. There have always
been those worse for wear, on the edge of the law, mentally disturbed or just
plain down on their luck around this place and indeed part of our community
here. Some of these people have backgrounds strikingly different from their
present sad circumstances. Each would have a story to tell. Each is a child of
God. Each one could in other circumstances be you or me. Often this can be
confronting and disturbing as well as saddening.
We can freely admit that sometimes our instincts are indeed to turn away,
indeed to pass by, as it were, on the other side, to leave what ever needs to
be done to someone, anyone, else. Sometimes the demands put upon us can be
unreasonable or just plain fraudulent. There would be very few of us who have
not felt angry, resentful or abused sometime or other. So of course do many
of those in great need.
This then is where we are. St Peter's is a city church. This is our joy,
our apostolate and our challenge. That does mean that, more than many Christian
communities, these are very live issues for us.
It needs to be acknowledged and affirmed that it is utterly appropriate for
us to seek to find a balance that allows all aspects of the necessary works
and functions of our church to continue. This of course includes the ready
availability of a peaceful and beautiful place for worship and prayer and
reflection. It includes the provision of places for fellowship and education
and enjoyment; places for gathering and meeting and working and preparing. It
includes providing safe and restful places for those who live and work on site.
And as well, it includes providing places and opportunities for service and
care for those who come to us – or who are from our own number – who
are in need.
It means caring for and maintaining all this complex network of people and
places and activities. A church community is about all these sorts of things.
So for us it is not a question of whether we do any of these things but rather
of how we do these things and more, and of how cooperatively together we can
do it better.
Without doubt though, our own present response here in terms of our
breakfast program, our emergency food and our developing cooperative venture
in our Lazarus Centre project is very much part of what a place like The Hill
has always been involved in. It is basic to being Christian.
Now in this generation we have an opportunity to try to improve what we
offer. There is for instance no doubt that the improvement in the Maynard
House kitchen and storage facilities in the parish hall building that is
coming through the Lazarus Centre project will help. We are most fortunate
that this is so. This will be funded by our Foundation, hugely assisted by
the Federal Government's generous seeding grant. With Anglicare Victoria, the
Cathedral, ourselves and the Order of St Lazarus working together, there will
be a paid worker and a developing team of volunteers including those of us already involved, both here at St Peter's and at the cathedral. Here
specifically this will greatly assist our breakfast program and the
distribution and obtaining of supplies of food.
It was interesting to read the letter from the Archbishop in the current
Melbourne Anglican . He makes the clear point that emergency support should
not be provided from the doors of clergy residences. It is sadly getting
dangerously violent. We are working towards a change from our own 'vicarage
door' approach. We are looking at a properly resourced service that will
function here for three hours each morning and then be offered into the
evening from the cathedral. This represents a very considerable improvement
on what we have been able to provide or offer.
With the refurbishment of the Maynard House kitchen and some new tables
and chairs likely for the Hughes Room the parish will have a real improved
asset. This is at no cost to us. As well, we are now able (because of a most
welcome and generous donation) to erect improved security gates for our
courtyard between the church, the hall and the street, so that the whole area
will be able to be secured when appropriate and the whole property safer at
night. It will also provide an improved amenity for our more general use. That
side of the church buildings will also therefore be able to have better
outdoor furniture and be better cared for, in addition to being the place
for this important social outreach.
Active social concern of course is part of a very long tradition here and
within our Anglo-Catholic understanding of the life and function of the
Church. Consider the pioneering work in the slums of 19th century East End
London. Consider our own Mission to the Streets and Lanes and the work of the
Sisters of the Holy Name in the slums adjacent to this church. Consider the
foundation of the Brotherhood of St Laurence from these very buildings at the
height of the Depression of the 1930s. Consider our response to the wave of
immigrants in the gold rush of the 1850s. Consider through all these
generations the steady stream of people, sometimes frightened and embarrassed,
sometimes less than attractive, very often desperate, all coming to this
city church for the help that they still expect to be able to find.
When all else fails, there is still a church. Some churches actually make
a point of remaining open outside of service times. Some churches actually
make a point of having clergy and others resident on site and available. St
Peter's is a place like that. They will be able to offer something, surely.
That remains the operating presupposition. Surprisingly, when whole sections
of our society have given up on the Church, the poor and the needy have not.
And the Church has not given up on them.
In the parable there were good underlying ritual reasons for the priest and
the Levite to pass by on the other side. The man could have been dead. They
may not have been able to do what they needed to do in Jerusalem. A lot of
people would have been depending on them. They could have been in a hurry.
They might have invited trouble on themselves. As it happens it was a foreigner
– one who would not have been expected to show sympathy to Jews –
who was the one who stopped and did everything that was required. It was an
outsider who is presented as the one who is able to show the insiders the way
forward; the way of God.
When we take a deep breath and are open to the needs of others as best
we are able; when we do not respond harshly or with indifference, but rather
with care and with appropriate support; when we are open to our own very
natural fears of difference, our own needs and vulnerability, our own desires
for security and hope; then indeed we are brought close to God. For this is
how God would deal with each of us. Then we come closer to doing and being
what is asked of us, then we are closest to that promise of eternal life
with which that lawyer's questioning of Jesus began. The example of a
compassionate outsider was used to show the way forward.
"Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who
fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy."
Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." Lk 10: 36-37.
Amen.
|
Views is a
publication of
St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne Australia.
|
