This is the text of Rev. Geoff McKee’s sermon of 10 July 2016 – on the Parable of the Good Samaritan – with the relevant scripture (Luke 10: 25-37 – NIV) at the beginning. If you would like to download a pdf version of the text of the sermon, you can do so by clicking here (download begins immediately; 78kB).
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 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.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Bob Holman, the Christian academic and community activist, who died on 15 June 2016 was one of the most unsettling people I have ever met.
He came to lecture at a college I was attending in the 1990s.
Here was a man who gave up a very good job as Professor of Social Administration at the University of Bath to move to the Southdown council estate in Bath, to live among and to
serve the poor. Later, he moved to Easterhouse, outside Glasgow, one of the most deprived housing schemes in Britain, and gave the remainder of his life to helping the poor and disadvantaged.
One day he came to give a lecture to a very middle class bunch of students who would have been good at ‘saying the right things’ but would have struggled to really understand the
radical call of the Christian life. And, from the moment he began to speak, I can remember feeling very uncomfortable. He was telling stories that made sense, but he was telling them in a way that challenged my sensitivities.
How Jesus unsettles us
Likewise, Jesus seemed to have had a profoundly unsettling impact on those who saw him and heard him. Even among those people who would come to see him as their friend, Jesus had the uncanny knack of making them feel distinctly uncomfortable. In the familiar surroundings of Israel, where so much was predictable, Jesus had a habit of making people feel uncomfortable. [Read more…]
