Left at the Roadside

The last few weeks have been painful as news of the unmarked graves of children near residential schools and the brazen attack against a Muslim family in London have been shared across the country and beyond. What we have heard of issues of Islamophobia, racism and homophobia are the tip of the iceberg.

Preaching on the Good Samaritan story took a different focus for me as I reflected on that Muslim family literally left bleeding at the side of the road and on the Indigenous children who should have been cared for and valued by leaders of the church at the time. People should not be afraid to walk in their city. Parents should not be separated from their children and never told of their deaths and burial sites.

There has been a call to cancel Canada Day or, at very least, to not have fireworks out of respect for the intense grief of our First Nations brothers and sisters. It should instead perhaps be a day of quiet reflection, of listening more intently and becoming better educated about our history that often isn’t taught in schools. It should be a time to think about how well we truly embrace our neighbour who is not like us, and about making communities of safety and welcome rather than attacking or fearing those who are different.

The Church needs to think about how often we are the priest or Levite, happy to feel some sort of superiority or moral authority because of our faith or membership, and yet walking by those not like us or those who to help may cost us. The Church leaders, who would have been valued and honoured by their community, literally walked by on the other side, pretending they didn’t see the suffering man in the ditch. Their agendas and self-protection were more important than helping someone in desperate need.

The one who proved to be the neighbour by helping the victim was a sworn enemy of Jews; an outsider, one who didn’t live out their faith like them. And Jesus asks us to go and do likewise - be a good neighbour, give generously, help those in need, see our common humanity rather than being self-consumed.

In Covid times, we need to be more careful, for the sake of the other as well as ourselves, but there is nothing stopping us from listening, offering support and pointing people to needed resources. There is nothing stopping us from learning about others not like us, giving generously to front-line charities doing the work, or advocating for change so maybe those robbers can’t attack us or don’t need to in the first place because they have what they need.

We are asked to be good neighbours, and while we can’t erase history we can actively work towards a better future right now. We can choose ways that build the Kingdom of God and make love tangible. We can help to transform grief and hurt into healing and reconciliation.

May we be good neighbours by God’s grace.