Sermon for 15 July 2001, 11.15am Matins, St Mary Magdalen, Sheet, published on www.trikeshed.com

If you are in Petersfield just after school dropping off time you might see me sneak into Waitrose before I cycle off to work, to get a sandwich. As I enter that establishment, I always pause to contemplate what is on the minds of Middle England, as reported by that venerable organ, the Daily Mail, whose three-inch headlines shout at you as you go into the shop. On Tuesday I was particularly struck by the headline "THE MAN WHO PROVES THERE IS A GOD". In my naïvité, I imagined this might be something to do with scientific discoveries about the Big Bang, about the fact that we are only here because the matter in the universe lasted fractionally longer than the antimatter, so that there’s more matter than antimatter, so the universe didn’t start by cancelling itself out, thank God.

No, this was the story, the admittedly amazing story, of today’s most famous Croat, Goran Ivanisevic, who apparently has proved there is a God by winning Wimbledon against 125:1 odds. I have no right to judge anything about Goran’s faith, but it does seem to be the superstitious aspects that excited the media – not shaving, making sure he had his lucky ball back each time, kissing the place on the court where a Rafter ball went out, and so on. Certainly the man said that God was on his side, sending rain when he needed it. It may be that some people have been brought closer to God through his antics, or even through the headlines of the Daily Mail, but I wouldn’t recommend relying on these stories as a means of sustaining faith! Surely there is more to faith, more to God, than that!

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Now here is a story which is so powerful I find it hard to think of it as a parable. I’ve seen that dusty, rocky road plunging 3,300 feet in 17 miles, and I can just picture the man lying there, and the priest and his levitical colleague not wanting to get their hands dirty; and then the Samaritan, the man who showed mercy. This story so powerful that the despised Samaritans gave way to the Good Samaritan, so that just the word Samaritan now has the opposite meaning, hence we have the Samaritans, merciful, kind folk, giving desperate people a chance.

Jesus is well known for turning comfortable ideas on their heads. But here he turns the culture of the day upside down and back to front as well. The Samaritan is your neighbour. He is not to be despised. It would have been enough for Jesus to have told a story that encouraged people to respect and look after these despised people. That would have been upside down enough. But it’s back to front too because the man was the victim and the Samaritan the one showing mercy. Jesus really does answer the question "who is my neighbour? and not just "what must I do?". When Jesus has finished his parable, he asks, "which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law could not bring himself to say, "the Samaritan". It was "the one who had mercy on him". Perhaps here is the man who proves there is a God, not by winning at tennis, but by being a neighbour, by having mercy. It’s a more powerful message but not one that gets into the headlines of the newspapers.

Now of course perhaps the most important four words of this story are the last four. Jesus speaks them to this expert in the law and through his Word they are spoken to each one of us. Go and do likewise. Go and show mercy to someone you despise – hard enough. Go and show mercy to someone who despises you – wow! And here the questions creep in. Life isn’t that simple, we say. We’re faced with so many conflicting demands crowding in on us from across the crowded tiny globe we live on. Demands for neighbourliness, for mercy. I don’t think it’s too fanciful to extend this to the need for us to show mercy on our world itself, after what has been reinforced this week about climate change. Yet we are told to go and do likewise.

And we are in a culture that hasn’t learned about being neighbours. Two headlines that missed that top slot at the Waitrose entrance last Tuesday: The race riots in Bradford, and the report saying that the two communities were actually becoming more entrenched and less integrated. Jew and Samaritan. And the unbelievable story of the 13-year old girl, gang raped under Bournemouth pier, her screams for help heard by dozens of holidaymakers and locals; all of them ignored what was going on. Passed by on the other side. We are rich and powerful in the world. So, actually, was our Good Samaritan. He had at least some money and means. And he risked something, perhaps quite a lot, to help the man in the road. When the needs of the world face us from just across the road, Jesus says we can take the risk, and we must take the risk. This is our neighbour. No need for us to try to outsmart Jesus, asking the question to get the upper hand, as that teacher of the law did. It’s simple. Go and do likewise. If there is any way for us to be the man or woman who proves there is a God, then it’s not by kissing tennis balls or performing any other ritual. It is by being a neighbour, by having mercy. It was the best thing that was ever done for us, after all.

© Mike Knee, 2001

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