Dear Well-Meaning Samaritans,

Among the strengths of our FPCLG congregation are the many thoughtful people who go out of their way to express care, concern and hospitality…except that right now, going out of our way is not only a bad idea; it’s exceedingly unneighborly. 

It’s helpful to remember that when Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves, he told the parable of the Good Samaritan—the one about the guy beat by robbers, lying in the road, bleeding and battered. Of course, the Priest and the Levite, as instructed by the officials, practice good social distancing; they cross the street on the other side and avoid contact. The Samaritan, on the other hand, administers first aid to the battered man and, using his own transport, takes him to an immediate care facility and agrees to cover his copay if he is admitted. The Samaritan also promises to visit the man on his return trip, offering to pick up toilet paper, hand sanitizer and bleach wipes; but he has absolutely no idea why there isn’t any yeast at the store, like all of a sudden in the middle of a crisis everybody has decided to become a flipping baker? But I digress.

Of course, when asked a question, Jesus often answered by telling stories—great stories with deep meaning and fluid interpretation. Unfortunately, the preacher’s job is to transform these beautiful narratives into dry, pedantic bullet points of proscriptive instruction. Except when the world shifts, the preacher’s seamless connections disintegrate, and rigid interpretations snap like a dropped PowerPoint laptop.

The parables of Jesus are not rigid dot-to-dot drawings where the interpreter connects the points into an inevitable picture. (Look, it’s a kitty!) Nor are they Rorschach tests where each and every viewer is invited to gaze at the image and take away his or her personal meaning. Parables are stories with a purpose, but because they are stories, their application is malleable, bringing insights that resonate with each new circumstance. As the world changes, the questions Jesus answered with parables do not, but how these stories address each new circumstance invites us to revisit Jesus’ words.

So, in these days of social distancing, we should praise the Priest and Levite for their behavior. They both worked with frail, elderly colleagues, and their possible contamination would jeopardize the lives of others with whom they came in contact were they to help the infected crime victim, unlike that wicked Samaritan… (Whoa, that’s not right!)

The point of the story is an illustration of neighboring, not a prescription of how, but a command to express that love whenever, however and wherever we can. Neighbors never allow their disinterest to be justified by distance. Were the story told today, the Priest and the Levite could have been commended for keeping a safe distance but quickly calling a qualified first responder for help. That reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the cellphone and the selfie, but that’s for another time.

Keeping distance but not losing touch, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor