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A Few Words From Pastor Bryan
Well yes, I had a wonderful vacation visiting family and friends and loved ones and driving all over the place! And it's great to be back.
A few weeks ago during Bible Study the parable of "The Good Samaritan" came up for some reason. It's one of Jesus' most well known stories. He told it in response to some religious critics of his asking him just "who is my neighbor?" They were wondering who it was they had to love and show compassion to in order to live up to the teaching to "love your neighbor as yourself." So Jesus told this story about a man who was beaten and left for dead, and about two religious experts who should have known what to do, but who because of certain religious obligations and responsibilities passed by on the other side of the road and ignored the dying man. Then a Samaritan man--one whom the people Jesus was speaking to would NOT consider to be a neighbor, comes along and does the right thing. He stops, takes care of the man, and goes out of his way to help him.
While we were discussing this at Bible Study, I remembered a rather well known story that took place at Princeton Theological Seminary in connection to this text. Evidently a Greek class at seminary had been studying this one parable all semester long. They'd taken apart the Greek and explored all the layers of meanings and nuances of interpretation.
The day came for the final exam for this class. The students all gathered in the classroom, at which point the professor came in and said, "I'm so sorry but we're going to have to take this exam in another building across the quad. There's been a conflict with the use of this room. The instructor told them which building to enter. As the focused and nervous students hurried over to the other building, at the doorway of that building there was a homeless man obviously in some physical pain asking for help. And NOT ONE of the seminarians stopped to help the man. I mean they had an exam to take! They were busy.
Once the students were all gathered in the new room, the professor entered, went to the front of the room with tears in his eyes and said, "You all just failed the exam. Go home. If taking this academic exam is more important to you than stopping to help a man in need, then you obviously have not been studying this text at all, and you are certainly not ready to preach it or teach it to others."
That story haunts me. I know I've "failed that exam" plenty of times. We all have. We can't stop EVERY time. We all know that. But do we ever stop?
An hour ago, while running from one pastoral appointment to the next, and racing to get a bunch of "church related" things done before another meeting--including getting this newsletter out, I drove past a family (man, woman, and two very young children) standing on the corner near my house with a sign saying they were desperate. I thought, "I don't have time now. Not today. I have to get the newsletter out among other things."
And then I remembered that parable and that seminary "exam," and I circled back. Don't be impressed. More times than not I wouldn't. But it was the kids. I n the 90 degree sun. Good God. I stopped and listened to their story. I was able to help. I gave them my phone number and told them our church might be able to help them get settled somehow. I don't know if they'll call. I hope they do.
As for "exams," to be honest I don't care. As I said, I blow it more times than not. And most of the time I'm not even sure I'm doing the right thing. But I do, like most of you, want to live my faith and not just talk about it.
I really don't have the time to write more now, because you know, I've got important religious tasks and obligations to attend to. :)
Hope to see you soon one way or the other!
Pastor Bryan
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