Religion in Daily Life

 © By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min.

Rector, All Saints’ Church

Thanksgiving Day, 28 November 2002

http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org

We will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday in a wounded world. Think how appropriate it is for us to ponder a story Jesus told about a wounded man. This man was the victim of a mugging on a road in Israel, a road from the city of Jerusalem to the town of Jericho. This parable is commonly called the story of the Good Samaritan. Forty years ago, the pastor of the City Temple in London, Leonard Griffith, pointed out the three philosophies of life inherent in the story. These different outlooks on life are personified by the robbers, the religious professionals, and the reviled and despised man from the region of Samaria.

What was the robbers’ philosophy of life? It was this: “What’s Yours in Mine, I’ll Take it.” This is the philosophy of those who are accused of robbing a veteran who lived in Haverford Estates in mid-November. “Three Philadelphia residents are wanted by Lower Merion police in connection with a scam that authorities said cost an elderly World War II veteran most of his life saving” (The Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 14, 2002). Unfortunately, there are robbers in every generation who are like the men in Jesus’ parable who robbed the man “who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho” (Luke 10:30).

Two religious leaders saw the wounded man on the road, “then walked by on the other side” (Luke 10:32). What was the religious leaders’ philosophy of life? It was this: “What’s Mine is Mine. I’ll keep it.” How often have religious professionals ignored people who have been hurt by life – sometimes hurt by religious leaders themselves who have made victims out of members? Bishop Sheen once observed wryly that the reason the religious professionals passed by the wounded man was that they saw he had already been robbed.

A despised Samarian came upon the wounded man, “his heart was filled with pity. He went over to him, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them; then he put the man on his own animal and took him to an inn, where he took care of him” (Luke 10:34). Jesus made the Samaritan (hated by Jesus’ fellow-countrymen) the hero of the story. What was the Samaritan’s philosophy of life? It was this: “What’s Mine is Yours. I’ll share it.” As we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, we remember the wounded in our nation and around the world. May we choose to be like the one described in Psalm 109: “For he stands beside the poor and hungry to save them from their enemies” (Psalm 109:31, LB).