Yesterday, as part of our monthly theological reflection group I shared this retelling of a familair parable that I had found on line...

The Good Samaritan Retold – Again

I guess we all know the parable of the Good Samaritan?

On one occasion a British politician stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

"What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.'”

"You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

In reply Jesus said: “A Syrian refugee was going down from Hungary to Germany because his country and family had been attacked by robbers.  They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  Many politicians happened to be going down the same road, and when they saw the man, they passed by on the other side.  But a German politician as she travelled, came where the man was; and when she saw him, she took pity on him and 800,000 of his fellow refugees, she went to them and bandaged their wounds and took them all in.

"Which of these politicians do you think was a neighbour to those who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The British politician replied, “That's no way to reach a long term solution to the problem.”

And Jesus wept.                                  

(Steve Bunn)

It's very challenging, and it's meant to be.

It also serves as a keen reminderof the tension between short term urgent responses and long term, lasting solutions.  The British politician is cast in the role of the baddy - and yet there is truth in what he says... responding to an acute humanitarian need  is not of itself a long term solution.  The point of the story, or at least as I heard it, is that the British politician justifies his inaction in the here and now rather than really advocating a long term, thought through, solution to an impossibly complex set of circumstances.  Self-righteous refusal to engage - the attitude we ascribe to the Pharisee and Levite in the orginal.

I remember either hearing a sermon or reading a reflection on the original parable, that pointed out that this, too, was an acute repsonse to a specific incident, not a long term solution to the problem of attacks by robbers on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho.  The instant, humanitariin response is essential, is indeed the demonstration of neighbourliness.  But it isn't ever enough, at least not in a disordered world where the root causes of violence, injustice, poverty, religious fundamentalism etc continue unabated.

The German politician in the story is a neighbour to those she helps... but the British politician has a point too, just not the one he thinks he's making.  It isn't ever as simple as 'either/or' it has to be 'both/and'.  Fish and fishing rods.  Aid and agency.  We have to be neighbours here and now - to recognise and respond to the human need of others.  We also have to take a long term view and work towards a day when such crises are old history.

What makes Jesus weep is self-righteous inaction, the denial of humanity in oneself or another.  It is a challenging story, and so it should be.

On 23rd August 2010, my BC:AD (before cancer - after diagnosis) day, the specialist breast care nurse handed me a leaflet produced by Breast Cancer Care which explained what was going on... though I didn't yet realise it, they were "here from day one".

I can be really annoying, I am one of those people who carries in her head/heart a whole raft of dates, times and places.  I hear a song on the radio and work out the year it was released by associating it to people, places and events.  And perhaps most annoyingly, I have a whole catalogue of personally significant dates locked away on my mind.

One of the ways I 'make meaning' of my cancer experience, weave it into the tapestry of my life, allow God to transform and redeem it, is to volunteer with Breast Cancer Care... at the time of this blog post, I am giving telephone support to five women (typically one call a month) and email support to another four.  It also means I got a sneak preview of the new advertising being launched today with it's strap line "here from day one" (also "care from day one" on some items)

This video, one of half a dozen or so that will be released in the next few days/weeks, resonates with my personality that recalls dates... "On Day X..."  I love the strap line - it expresses something important.  See what you think of the video...

Yesterday we weclomed as many guests as regulars to morning worship at the Gathering Place. 

This had involved team of around eight folk coming down the day before to carry chairs up from the cellar, wash them and arrange them, along with every 'normal' chair we could muster to accomodate everyone. 

It had also involved the family who were giving thanks for their child researching and identifying an appropriate liturgy to combine with our usual 'infant/child blessing' liturgy to reflect the unqiue circumstances that had brought us to this point.

And, let's be honest, it had involved me getting more than a bit stressed and grumpy in the final run-up.

As is the way of these things, and so often depsite us, God's Spirit was at work and we enjoyed a happy, beautiful occasion with a 'child in the midst'.

The three candles were lit by the parents as part of the Iona/Wild Goose liturgy they had chosen to give thanks for the adoption of their daughter.  One candle for the birth parents, one for the foster carers, one for the child and her forever family.

The cake was made and decorated by one of our ladies, who marvelled that her choice of butterflies as decoration echoed the metaphor of butterflies I'd used in my sermon.

Our prayers of intercession skilfully led by another church member, allowed us to recall the child refugees fleeing Syria and allowed us to pray for those who try or struggle to parent children.

Yesterday I could not help but remember an infant blessing from exactly five years ago, a boy, the second born of his parents (and who was there yesterday with his older brother and younger sister) about which I blogged at the time here. 

A lot of memories were stirred for me yesterday, more perhaps than was comfortable, not only in that service but in the songs someone else had chosen for the evening service.  Today feels more settled, the intensity has waned and that's probably a good thing.

Yesterday was a profound privilege, giving thanks for the daughter of one church family, visiting the (grown up) daughter of another in hospital recovering from a very serious illness... life in its fulness for sure.

The crisis of Syrian refugees has prompted a huge, even enormous, grass roots response - from petitions to rallies to humanitarian aid.  It is a complex situation that I cannot claim to understand, but at the end pof the day these are desperate human beings seeking safety... we cannot just stand by cogitating, theologising, tutting or prevaricating.

Social media is chock full of grass roots responses all over the UK, and I happened to stumble across a spreadsheet of many here.  I know that it is only time until the media circus moves on to the next tragedy, that there are no quick fixes or easy answers.  Signing petitions is good, donating goods or money is great, praying is helpful - but there are longer term matters to consider. 

Yesterday I was very challenged by a Baptist minister asking churches if they'd be willing to host up to five refugees whilst they went through the asylum process - housing them and providing their needs for an initial 12 month period.  That's a real "put your money where your mouth is" challenge, and not one I could easily rise to (I'm honest if nothing else).  They also offer some slightly more attainable options to be considered, which I've borrowed to share here...

1. asking local agencies what they need. L'Auberge Des Migrants, Medicins Du Monde are the two we met, but CalAid also does a great job of communicating facts. They are all on facebook. It is a human urge to need to do something when faced with tragedy, but it is important we do what is helpful and not cause further difficulties. It is also important not to make the Calais camp a tourist site.

2. collecting useful donations but looking for localised collection and distribution points who are working with local agencies to coordinate deliveries, so as not to overwhelm the small team of volunteers in Calais or cause disruption in the camp.

3. volunteer some time to go over and help in Calais or other refugee camps you can reach. You can liaise directly with agencies although I would consider organising a rota for Calais with those agencies if people want to offer dates.

4. volunteer in your local area to help lobby councils and local government and offer hospitality when policies change - https://secure.avaaz.org/en/uk_refugees_volunteers_faq/

5. donate money to grass roots agencies so they can buy what is needed

6. remember that the numbers in Calais represent a minuscule percentage of the millions who have fled Syria, so for every pound donated to Calais why not donate at least a pound to groups in Lebanon who have been hosting the vast majority with minimal resources for years. Haddath Baptist Church has a number of excellent projects supporting refugees and you can donate at www.hbcbeirut.org or support World Vision, or find a group in Greece etc.

(Original list, by Rev Juliet Kilpin)

I end with a prayer...

Loving God, as I go to bed tonight,

Help me not to feel so overwhelmed that I am rendered helpless

Not to be so naive as to succomb to romantic idealism

Not to be so cynical that I am deaf to the prophet's cry

Not to be so sensible that I cannot imagine an alternative

Not to be so selfish that I close my ears and heart

Not to be satisfied that I have done enough

Not to be disappointed with myself for what I cannot do

Loving God, in this complex situation, show us how we can truly be bringers of your Shalom

Amen.

Yesterday in a very different web-based context, I came across a recordig of a very long sermon that ought to have interested me because it related to what I will be speaking about this Sunday.  I couldn't get past the first five minutes or so because the exegesis, which was very authoritatively delivered, seemed so incredibly iffy! 

The speaker boldly asserted that the reference to 'little children' in the gospels meant 'infants' or 'babies', which is inaccurate, at least so far as any Greek I can find suggests.  'Paidon ' can mean child (and clearly does in context) but can also mean a 'slave/servant boy/girl' or even, ahem, a 'boy' whose role was to satisify an older male.  The translator's choice to render this as 'little child/children' is probably defennsible, given the use of the word 'mikron' (small, little, wee) in the wider context, but it sure isn't 'baby' or 'infant'. At no point does the Greek have either the narrator or Jesus saying 'little child/children', it is always either 'child/children' or 'little ones'.  Tsk, translators!!

Then, today as I've allowed my mind to ruminate, I found myself recalling the Pauline concenr with the need to 'put away childish things'... which is not what the Greek says either.  The word 'nepios' used in 1 Corinthians 13 means... (according to my interlinear anyway) infant.  So, rather than contradicting (or seeming to) Jesus, what Paul is eschewing is an infantilised faith.  Which is something very different indeed.

So that has given me much to ponder and play around with between now and the final version of whatever I end up writing!  And it all goes to prove that those Greek classes through which I laboured weren't entirely wasted!!