Greetings!

This week we’re going to continue our sermon series on “Mutual Aid” with a story that is very well known, even beyond church circles—it’s the tale of the “Good Samaritan.” I’m sure most of you have heard many sermons reflecting on this passage and could give your own explanation of the point of the story.

But have you ever tried to connect with the experience of the people who don’t stop to help? Have you ever tried to put yourself in their shoes? With all the challenges we are facing today – challenges of disconnection, the sense of barriers or of conflict and difference all around us – maybe the characters in the story we are closest to are them, and not the Samaritan or the hurting man.

Come join us on Sunday as we continue to think about how we can be better neighbors to each other in this time of separation and alienation. Maybe we can imagine new possibilities for ourselves and our SVPC ministries.

In hope,

Hardy

Please join us immediately following the Sunday morning service for our Coffee Hour

(in-person in Trinity Court or online via Zoom).

bit.ly/SVPCCoffeeHour

Theme for Sunday

“Our social situation constantly tries to adjudicate between the track of the consumer market, which has such a compelling power and such visible payouts, and a path, which we are naming neighborliness, that lacks those visible rewards but is in sync with who we really want to be. We move back and forth and try to reconcile that tension all the time.”

-Peter Block and Walter Brueggemann, An Other Kingdom

• When was the last time you helped a stranger – in person, in the moment? What happened, and why did you choose to help them?

• Was there a time when you thought about helping a stranger but then didn’t? What stopped you? What were the fears of concerns that got in the way?

Luke 10:25-37

A legal expert stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to gain eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law? How do you interpret it?”

He responded, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

But the legal expert wanted to prove that he was right, so he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied, “A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He encountered thieves, who stripped him naked, beat him up, and left him near death. Now it just so happened that a priest was also going down the same road. When he saw the injured man, he crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. Likewise, a Levite came by that spot, saw the injured man, and crossed over to the other side of the road and went on his way. A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion. The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds, tending them with oil and wine. Then he placed the wounded man on his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, he took two full days’ worth of wages and gave them to the innkeeper. He said, ‘Take care of him, and when I return, I will pay you back for any additional costs.’ What do you think? Which one of these three was a neighbor to the man who encountered thieves?”

Then the legal expert said, “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”