Luke 10

In Luke 10 Jesus told the parable of the Lousy Priest, otherwise known as the parable of the Good Samaritan.

There was a man that was beaten and robbed while traveling on a road. He was lying half dead in the road when a priest saw him. Instead of stopping to help the man, the priest chose to walk around him. Then came a member of the Levite tribe, which is the Hebrew tribe that God set aside for religious work, Moses was a Levite. This Levite, like the priest, chose to walk around the man lying in the street. No one stopped to help the man except a Samaritan.

The Israelites looked down on the Samaritans, claiming their religion wasn't good enough.

The priest walked around the man in the road. The Levite walked around the man in the road. But the Samaritan, with his inferior religion, stopped to care for this man in his time of need.

It has been two months since a murderer walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and killed innocent children and adults. It has been two months of grief and pain for a community that is hoping to wake from this nightmare. It has been two months that this community has been lying in the road.

What have we done as a church? What have we done as a nation?

As a church we have argued over the involvement of Lutheran pastors in inter-faith worship services. We have pointed fingers at each other and said, "I'm glad I'm not one of them!" (This actually happened on my Facebook page!)

As a nation we have argued about our rights to own guns. We have talked about the Second Ammendment and what it really means. Did the founders of our nation believe that American citizens have the right to own a semi-automatic assault rifle with a 30-round magazine? I don't know the right answer, but I don't think that now is the best time for the conversation. 

As this community looks for support we are talking about who should be allowed to pray and when.

As this community looks for healing we are talking about who should be allowed to own a gun and how many bullets it can hold.

As this community looks for love we are talking right around them.

Lord, help me to be less like the priest and more like the Samaritan.