15th Sunday of Ordinary Time - July 10, 2022

Who is my neighbor? What does it mean to be neighbor to one another?
Jesus once answered this by telling us the parable of the Good Samaritan. In essence, as he told it, the parable runs something like this: A man was taking a walk one day when he was beaten up by thieves and left for dead
in a ditch by a road. A priest saw him there, but passed him by. Later still, a scribe also passed by without stopping to help him. Finally, a Samaritan, the kind of person you would have least expected to respond, saw him, was moved by compassion, and stopped and helped him.
When he saw the face of that wounded person, something in him suddenly changed.
One of the interesting things in this parable is that those who did not stop to help him, the priest and the scribe, did so for reasons that go far beyond the question of their individual selfishness and selflessness. They did so for certain ideological, religious reasons. Thus, the priest did not stop because he feared that the man was dead and, being a priest, if he touched a dead body he would be ritually defiled and thereby unable to offer sacrifice in the temple. The scribe had his own religious reasons for not stopping. The Samaritan, who had the least to lose religiously, was able to be moved by simple human compassion. Given this background, the parable might, in our own language and categories, be recast to read like this:
One day a man was taking a walk in a city park when he was mugged, beaten up, and left for dead by a gang of thugs.
It so happened that, as he lay there, the provincial superior of a major religious order walked by and saw him. He realized instantly that the man was in a desperate way and he felt that he should respond. However, he thought to himself: “if I help this man, I will set a dangerous precedent. Then what will I do? Having helped him, where will I draw the line? Will I have to stop and help everyone who is in need? Will I then have to give money to every panhandler, every beggar, every charity? If I give to this one, then on what basis am I justified in refusing any charity? Where will it stop? This would be dangerous precedent. I simply cannot help everyone I see in need and, thus, it is best not to help this one. This is ultimately a question of fairness.” And thus he passed him by.
A short time later, a young woman, a theology student, happened to come along. She too saw the man lying wounded. Her first instinct was to stop and help him, but a number of thoughts made her hesitate. She said to herself: “In that course on pastoral care we just took, we were taught that it is not good to try to rescue someone. We must resist the temptation, however sincere and religiously motivated, to naively wade in and try to be someone’s rescuer. That’s simply a savior complex which doesn’t do the other person any good in the long run and comes out of a less than pure motivation besides. I would only be trying to help that person because it
makes me feel good and useful. It would be a selfish act really; ultimately only this man can help himself.” She too, this person preparing for ministry, despite much good intention, passed by the wounded person.
Later still, a third person chanced to come along, the chairperson for the local diocesan commission on social justice. He too saw the wounded man and he too was, instinctually, moved. However, before he was able to reach out and touch the wounded man, a number of hard questions surfaced: “This man really is not the issue. The more important question is how
he got here. What things within the larger picture—our social and economic system—produce the conditions that make for this type of violence and hurt. To help this man is simply a Band-Aid, solving nothing. It does not address the deeper issue of justice and why our society perpetually creates this kind of victim. To help this individual is simply to do the Mother Theresa thing, but it doesn’t solve anything really. It’s the old temptation really—it’s easier to give bread to a hungry person than it is to address the issue of hunger!” This man too, for all his dedication and sincerity, like the religious superior and the theology student before him, passed by the wounded man without stopping. Finally, it so happened that the CEO of Texaco Oil happened to be out joy riding in the new BMW he had just purchased. He chanced to see the wounded man lying there and he stopped to have a closer look. When he saw the face of that wounded person, something in him suddenly changed. A compassion he didn’t even know he possessed took hold of him. Tears filled his eyes and, deeply moved, he got out of his car, bent over, and gently picked up the man. He
carried him to his car and gently laid him in the back seat, oblivious of the fact that blood was staining the clean white upholstery.
Arriving at the emergency entrance of the nearest hospital, he rushed in and hollered for the paramedics. After a stretcher had brought the man into the emergency room, they discovered that he had no medical insurance. The CEO produced a Visa Gold Card and told the hospital
staff to give the wounded man the best medical attention possible. Money was to be no object. He promised to cover all hospital expenses.
Who was neighbor to the wounded man?
In Exile

A mezuzah (Hebrew: מְזוּזָה "doorpost"; plural: מְזוּזוֹת‎ mezuzot) is a piece of parchment, known as a  klaf , contained in a decorative case and inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4–9 and 11:13–21 [1] ). 

I have often heard people say:
I wish God would just tell me what I must do to be assured that I will go to heaven. To which I would respond….well our Jewish brothers and sisters have known and prayed the answer for thousands of years.
They often mark every door post of their homes with it….in tiny scrolls rolled up inside tiny little boxes and attached to every front and back door post and every door post of every room in which they sleep, eat or gather…its called a Mezuzah…and inside of it is the saying called the “Shema”…which goes like this. She ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Eḥad 
Veha HAY ta Et Adonai Eloheka Beh KHOL Le vav KAH Ooveh KHOL
Nafsheh KAH Ooveh KHOL Meh oh deh KHA Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

I wonder why we stopped putting that on our door posts?
Was it some religious reason….like the priest not stopping to help the wounded one in the Gospel?
Maybe we need to bring it back….maybe we need to remind ourselves like our Jewish brothers and sisters do…that ultimately life, both this one and eternal are about love.
For your convenience….I have several copies of the prayer here and will have it posted on our website as well for you who are joining us online.
The answer to the ultimate question of eternal life is there for us all…

Love God and Love our Neighbor---in fact we often rather flippantly call it the “Golden Rule” Yet the Golden Rule while simple it is anything but easy.
I honestly do not think these words absolve us from struggle, In fact they do just the opposite, They throw us head first, kicking and screaming right into the heart of conflict, fear, misunderstanding, and division. I am going to invite you to think of someone in your life whom you find very disturbing Someone you dislike or maybe even distain…
We often think, or have often thought…and I am among them….that the Church should be a place without conflict, without division, that everyone is of like mind….
Yet Jesus did not say to the lawyer who questioned him, how he was supposed to love and what it meant….rather he asked the lawyer, how he understood the Shema. And the lawyer hit the key to the challenge by asking the ultimate question ….who is my neighbor… Love doesn’t absolve us from those with whom we have no conflict, disagreement, or pain,
Rather, love thows us head first into the conflict, fear and pain and says….
figure it out… How can we love and still be safe?
How can we love and not be destroyed by the other?
How can we love when the other believes something directly opposite than what you and I believe?

How do we live with a decision of our Supreme Court when it stands in direct opposition to our understandings or beliefs?
How do we walk with a Church who’s structure says one thing and our hearts say something else? There is a principle of which we rarely hear in the Church and its called….the Primacy of Conscience…
Which basically states….just like Jesus said to the lawyer….how do you interpret it…it assumes after prayer, consultation, study and personal reflection, not only is it ok to stand against something that is in conflict with your beliefs about God or faith, but it is a moral imperative that you do so, for to not stand for what you believe is to stand in violation of your conscience. That is the heart of faith….the journey of together struggling to understand how to live the Gospel Out Loud…. or to put it another way….
the heart of faith is learning to love the most unlove-able people in our lives Where can we find your commandments, O Lord?
Could be hidden in the sky? Who will go up  and get it there and explain it to us? Is it across the sea? Who will cross the sea and get it for us so we can ponder it and attempt to understand it? 
“The command that I gave you is not remote or mysterious.
Look no further than your heart. My law, the law of love, is written there,
in your heart, in your mouth, in your very being. I created you in my image. You love because I love.” 
Lord, you are as near to us as our skin. Help us always find you in our loves.