Samaritans and Politicians

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  When it comes to familiar Gospel passages like today’s parable of the Good Samaritan, it’s easy to gloss over the text because “I’ve heard this one before.”  We know the message, and we know the point.  Christ is quite clearly teaching us that we are called to love our neighbor, even the neighbors that we don’t find so lovable.  The Samaritans, after all, had separated from the united Kingdom that David had led, and because of that separation, had wandered away from God to follow false gods.  Eventually their sin of idolatry led to them being exiled by the Assyrians, who conquered the northern kingdom of Israel.  What remained, then, was a hodgepodge of Judeo-pagan practices and worship (we would use the word synchronism today).  And yet, it was the Samaritan that cared for the man taken upon by robbers.  The shock of a Samaritan helping a Jew is also echoed in the story (not parable) of our Lord interacting with the Samaritan woman at the well in John, chapter 4 (she says, “What do you, a Jew, have to do with me, a Samaritan?”).  
    But well-known passages like this give us an opportunity to go beyond the surface level.  It’s so easy to say to ourselves, ‘I do my best to love my neighbor.’  We might even think of people of different races or religions that we get along with as evidence that we’re not like the lawyer who asks, “‘And who is my neighbor?’”  But let’s look beyond race and religion, and go to something which, currently, is perhaps an even more divisive indicator of belonging: politics.
    We are in the midst of election season.  The rhetoric has been vitriolic, to say the least.  Former-president Trump survived an assassination attempt in July.  If words were bullets, we’d be in a heated firestorm on the battlefield.  There are more than two parties, but the two parties that have the most power currently accuse each other of being a threat to democracy and to our nation.  The sense that politicians communicate conveys that belonging to the other party indicates some sort of evil present in the soul of one type or another.  

    What intrigues me about all this is that religion has been condemned for decades for requiring total obedience of the person.  People have been asked why they can’t think for themselves if they follow what their religion teaches.  Religions are condemned as the source of most violence and wars.  And yet, when it comes to politics, the two major political parties each demand total obedience from their members, or else they are fake or members of their party “in name only.”  I would dare say that more violence and civil disturbance has been done in the name of politics over the past ten years than religion.  Indeed, if people could get away with witch-hunts and burning people at the stake, streets across our nation would be illumined by the tar and feathering of “heretics” of modern politics.
    But beyond the out there, our Lord encourages us to look in here, at myself.  I cannot control what others do, but I can control what I do.  Sin, and virtue, has a social aspect.  When I live as Christ calls me to live, that encourages others to do so.  When I do not live with the love of God and neighbor in my life, others find it easier to ignore the great commandments Christ expounded in today’s Gospel.
    So how do I treat those who do not agree with me politically?  Of course, I’m not advocating that we simply roll-over and allow poor policies and laws to continue.  Healthy and respectful debate are exactly how we change minds and hearts (at least partially) so that we come to a greater understanding of the truth and the impact it has on the way we live our life.  But if you’re anything like me, you probably find it easier to just ignore the person who espouses other political theories, to cut them out of your life, rather than to engage the other, and even to treat them like a human person.  The Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, famously wrote, “The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.”  And that’s exactly what our society tends to do when we disagree with someone.  We unfriend or unfollow them.  We call them names, in our head or with our mouths, to make them seem less human, less worthy of our love.  We puff ourselves up with the righteousness of our position so that we can put them down for the error of theirs.  
    At the end of the day, we fail to recognize in the other the fact that our political enemy is a creation of God, a human person, worthy of respect and love for no other reason than he or she was created in the image and likeness of God.  We apply labels to the other to excuse ourselves from what Christ commanded us today: to love the other regardless of what separates us from them.  
    Now, Christ did not praise the Samaritan because he worshipped false gods.  The Samaritan’s life certainly had room for conversion.  But the Samaritan was praised because he recognized in the Jew beset by robbers, languishing on the side of the road, someone whom God thought should live; someone God willed into being and loved infinitely.  We don’t have to agree with bad policies or laws.  We should fight non-violently against those who promote error and bad policies and laws.  But we should, first and foremost, recognize that they are a creation of God, worthy of love and respect, a person for whom Christ died on the cross.  
    And yes, sometimes the talk about politics becomes so poisonous that we have to take a step back.  Sometimes people are unwilling to listen to the truth and we realize that we cannot reason with someone who is unwilling to consider that his or her position may be wrong.  But, no matter what a person advocates, no matter how a person votes, God loves that person, and so, as He taught us today, we should, too.  
    It’s easy to say that I’m not generally a hateful person.  It’s easy to think that I do my best to love my neighbor.  But don’t just think about the neighbors who are easy to love, who agree with us, whose identity doesn’t clash with ours.  Consider those who annoy us the most, and ask yourself if you have been a neighbor to that person.  Because that person is created in the image and likeness of God: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.