\nand do likewise.\u201d \u00a0Amen<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/64.media.tumblr.com\/ffa715fac760a430abe7d3510fb9a221\/fbb6704198d83ec6-5e\/s540x810\/71e9bb031ea5c820354ecec08abbdd22d4104f87.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Or…maybe…
\nthere are some other things to consider. \u00a0Even with this story we
\nknow so well, even with the simplistic moral that we struggle to
\nlive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This
\nweek I found myself wondering about the robbers. \u00a0I’ve never paid
\nattention to them before. \u00a0After all, they’re more in the set up to
\nthe parable than the parable itself. \u00a0But I’ve always taken for
\ngranted the \u201cfacts\u201d that the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was
\ndangerous, and roaming groups of robbers attacked people there,
\nespecially people traveling alone, and it was sort of a gamble to
\ntake that road.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Which
\nmakes me sort of wonder about myself, and why I took that for
\ngranted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Upon
\nexamination, I am well aware of places like the Jerusalem to Jericho
\nroad. \u00a0I’ve spent my life getting messages about where not to go \u2013
\nespecially alone at night, about what not to drink, about making sure
\nI have my carkeys in hand before I leave a building, about holding
\npurses in particular ways in particular areas… etc. \u00a0So, perhaps, I
\ntook for granted that there are dangerous places because it so easily
\nmirrors the world as I know it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However,
\nI’m at this point in my life well aware that \u201cdangerous places\u201d
\nare actually \u201cdesperate places.\u201d \u00a0Most people who have
\nnon-violent, viable ways to care for themselves and their loved ones
\nchoose those options. \u00a0It is when those options are closed off that
\npeople are forced into other choices. \u00a0And, let’s note that addiction
\nis a huge factor in increasing desperation and urgency, and addiction
\nitself is incredibly responsive to social factors as well. \u00a0Desperate
\npeople make desperate choices. \u00a0If we want to decrease the prevalence
\nof those choices, the most effective way is to decrease the
\ndesperation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Which
\nleads me back to wondering about those robbers. \u00a0WHY were there bands
\nof robbers along that road? \u00a0The answer I’ve been taught to give is
\nbecause it was rocky and it was easy to hide behind the rocks, which
\nperhaps answers the question of \u201cwhy there\u201d but doesn’t actually
\nget to the core question of \u201cwhy at all?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Because
\nbeing a part of a roaming band of robbers isn’t an ideal way to live.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I
\ndon’t think people decided to do it for fun, or adventure, or even
\nprofit. \u00a0It was an act of desperation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We
\nhave some knowledge of what that desperation looked like in those
\ndays. \u00a0You may remember that Ancient Israel brought great
\nintentionality to making sure that each family had land access, and
\nthat it couldn’t be taken away from them. \u00a0For many generations, the
\nagrarian society had been largely sustainable, even if there were
\nimperfections in the system, and greed from the top. \u00a0But, people
\nfarmed the land, fed their families, and took care of each other.
\nThey even had enough to give away, to care for both the religious
\nleaders and those who by circumstance, were landless (widows,
\norphans, foreigners).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At
\nits best, the system outlined in the Torah and lived in Ancient
\nIsrael created a system of radical equality. \u00a0This lasted until
\nkingship, of course, but between the people and the prophets there
\nseems to have been maintained an idea that all are equal before God,
\nand all people have a right to a livelihood.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By
\nthe time of Jesus, the system was buckling under the pressure from
\nthe Roman Empire to enrich the upper class at the expense of everyone
\nelse. The tax burden was so high that landowners regularly fell into
\ndebt, indebted landowners often lost their land and their livelihood,
\nthose without land struggled to get hired as day laborers, and those
\nwho couldn’t get hired had no way to eat except to steal. The
\nECONOMIC SYSTEM created the conditions by which people were so
\ndesperate that bands of robbers stole what they could to eat while
\nthey could.\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Which
\nis to say, that the backdrop of the Good Samaritan story is the
\ndehumanization of the people, the ways people were seen as
\nexpendable, and the desperation such policies create.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jesus
\nthus started a story saying, \u201cA man was going down from Jerusalem
\nto Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him,
\nbeat him, and went away, leaving him half dead,\u201d but only because
\nthe people he was talking to were already aware of the circumstances
\nof their lives, and that the story really started with, \u201cThe Empire
\nis stealing our land, our labor, our livelihood, and our hope. \u00a0Those
\nfighting to live are desperate, and that desperation is visible in
\nthe bands of robbers who hide behind rocks on the road from Jerusalem
\nto Jericho.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For
\nme, remembering the robbers are people too, actually changes the way
\nI hear the story. \u00a0Now, after I had this insight about the robbers I
\nwent to my handy \u201cSocial Science Commentary on the Synoptic
\nGospels\u201d (one of the books I sighed in relief over when I unpacked)
\nand read what Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh had to say about
\nthis story. \u00a0And, as per usual, their analysis suggest mine hasn’t
\nyet gone far enough. \u00a0Here is a part of their textual notes on Luke
\n10:25-37:<\/p>\n
\nThe priest and the Levite would
\navoid contact with a naked and therefore presumably dead body. \u00a0A
\npriest could touch a corpse only to bury immediate family (cf. Ezek
\n44:25). \u00a0The fact that the injured man had no clothes would make
\nascertaining his social status difficult.<\/p>\n
\nA Samaritan traveling back and
\nforth in Judean territory may have been a trader, a despised
\noccupation. \u00a0This is suggested by the fact that he possesses oil,
\nwine, and considerable funds. \u00a0Many traders were wealthy, having
\ngrown rich at the expense of others. They were therefore considered
\nthieves. They frequented inns that were notoriously dirty and
\ndangerous and run by persons whose public status was below even that
\nof traders. Only people without family or social connections would
\never risk staying at a public inn.<\/p>\n
\nBoth the victim and the \n<\/p>\n Now, <\/p>\n And <\/p>\n I’ve <\/p>\n The <\/p>\n It <\/p>\n OK, <\/p>\n And, <\/p>\n About <\/p>\n When <\/p>\n For <\/p>\n Because, <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a>1<\/a>Bruce 2<\/a>\u201cThis <\/p>\n Rev. Sara E. Baron <\/p>\n July 10, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nSamaritan were thus despised persons who would not have elicited
\ninitial sympathy from Jesus’ peasant hearers. \u00a0That sympathy would
\nhave gone to the bandits. \u00a0They were frequently peasants who had lost
\ntheir land to the elite lenders whom all peasants feared. The
\nsurprising twist in the story is thus the compassionate action of one
\nstereotyped as a scurrilous thief.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\nhere is where I’m shocked by this perspective: I don’t think in our
\nsociety that there is generalized agreement that desperate people
\njust trying to get by are the heroes while wealthy individuals or
\ncorporations underpaying their employees to enrich themselves are the
\nreal thieves. \u00a0I think, somehow, we’ve societally bought into the
\nidea that someone shoplifting food for their family is MORE at fault
\nthan the employer who pockets what could otherwise be a living wage.<\/p>\n
\nthat worries me.<\/p>\n
\nmentioned before that the most common theft in the USA is WAGE THEFT2<\/sup><\/a>
\nwhich is almost never prosecuted, while petty theft lands people in
\njail. \u00a0But, I don’t hear much outrage about this. \u00a0I fear we’ve given
\nup on even the ideals of justice, and bought into the narratives of
\ncapitalism \u2013 including the ones that say that companies and the
\nPEOPLE who own them should maximize profits at all times no matter
\nwho they harm, AND that people who are poor are either not trying
\nhard enough, or failures, and if they wanted to, they could \u201cwin\u201d
\ntoo. \u00a0But, the truth is that OUR economic system is terrifyingly
\nsimilar to that of Jesus’ time. \u00a0It is similar to gambling: the house
\nalways wins. \u00a0Money flows up, people at the bottom are considered
\nexpendable, and the fear of landing at the bottom keeps everyone else
\nquiet in the face of injustice.<\/p>\n
\ndifference, it seems, is that at that time the people still saw it as
\nunfair (and not just \u201cthe way things are\u201d) and that JESUS was
\nwilling to talk about it.<\/p>\n
\nseems shocking, then, that the fact that the wealthy trader was the
\nhero is the TWIST in this story, because it isn’t really the twist
\nfor us. \u00a0I think the twist for us is realizing that the impoverished
\nbands of bandits were ASSUMED to be the heroes. (Think Robin Hood.)
\nAlong with the fact that it was the Samaritan’s wealth and occupation
\nthat were ALSO hated, and not just his background. \u00a0Well, and the
\nidea that being wealthy was seen as being a thief.<\/p>\n
\nso, basically, the original context of this story is so radical for
\nus, that we can’t really get past it into the story, because we’re
\nstill trying to process the concepts of justice contained in the
\ncontext. \u00a0Or at least I am.<\/p>\n
\nactually, I think that’s enough for today.<\/p>\n
\na decade ago I learned that The
\nUnited Methodist Church is getting wealthier. \u00a0That is, the wealth of
\nindividual members is increasing. \u00a0Specifically, as members die off
\nin small rural churches (or when those churches close), new members
\nare mostly found in church plants in wealthy suburbs.<\/p>\n
\nthis was shared with me, it was shared as a neutral fact. \u00a0I’ve spent
\na decade being horrified by it. \u00a0Jesus, and John Wesley for the
\nrecord, focused their ministries on people in poverty. \u00a0If we are a
\nchurch that is good news to the wealthy, but NOT to the poor, we need
\nto take stock of what our message is and whose our message is.<\/p>\n
\nquite some time, this congregation was predominated by white upper
\nmiddle class people, the engineers and middle management of GE in
\nmost cases. \u00a0In the most recent decades, it has diversified, thanks
\nbe to God. \u00a0However, the models and assumptions of being a white
\nupper middle class church still linger among us, and I believe our
\nwork to walk into the PRESENT as well as the future includes noticing
\nwhere we are still holding on to those models and assumptions.<\/p>\n
\nfriends, the followers of Jesus who heard him tell the parable the
\nfirst time assumed the WEALTHY were thieves, and the petty robbers
\nwere heroes. \u00a0They saw what was happening economically and what
\nimpact it had on people, and they found it morally reprehensible. \u00a0To
\nfollow Jesus, to follow John Wesley, to build the kindom, to see the
\nworld clearly, I think that we need to too. \u00a0May God help us. \u00a0Amen\n<\/p>\n
\n\tJ. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh Social-Science Commentary on the
\n\tSynoptic Gospels (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003) \u201cTextual
\n\tNotes on Luke 10:25-37\u201d pages 270-1.<\/p>\n
\n\treport assesses the prevalence and magnitude of one form of wage
\n\ttheft\u2014minimum wage violations (workers being paid at an effective
\n\thourly rate below the binding minimum wage)\u2014in the 10 most
\n\tpopulous U.S. states. We find that, in these states, 2.4 million
\n\tworkers lose $8 billion annually (an average of $3,300 per year for
\n\tyear-round workers) to minimum wage violations\u2014nearly a quarter of
\n\ttheir earned wages. This form of wage theft affects 17 percent of
\n\tlow-wage workers, with workers in all demographic categories being
\n\tcheated out of pay.\u201d –
\n\thttps:\/\/www.epi.org\/publication\/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year\/<\/a><\/p>\n
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/<\/a>
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n