Sermon, 10/9/22: The Tale of the Three Samaritans

18 Pentecost

Psalm 66:1–11; Jeremiah 29:1, 4–7; II Timothy 2:8–15; Luke 17:11–19

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him … explaining the word of truth. 
       II Timothy 2:14

To borrow a concept often employed decades ago on the children’s program Sesame Street, I should like us to consider today the number THREE (3).  It was always Count von Count, affectionately known as Count Dracula, or simply as “Count,” whose function on the show, in keeping with his title, was to teach children the joy of numbers.  Count Dracula counted things.  It is today’s Luke’s gospel which caused me to recall Count Dracula.  However, before I can give Luke his due, I should like to refresh your memory about others who, before Sesame Street, have brought to our attention the number three.

I am not familiar with the English curriculum in today’s high school, where English is now classified under “the Arts Curriculum.”  In earlier times, Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, (1844) a historical adventure novel, set between the years 1625 – 1626, chronicling the adventure of three swordsmen who fought for justice.

Who has not heard, or even used the phrase “Good things comes in three’s,” or “Three’s a charm”?  Apparently, as folklore has it, this latter phrase has as its origin in Old English Law, but it was John “Babbacome” Lee (b. 1864 in England, died 1941 in Milwaukee, Wisc.), who apparently, as folklore informs us, defied three attempts to hang him for murder in Exeter and had to be set free.  I would suggest a less life-threatening adage or example can be found in the saying, “try and try again.”

The number three can be found throughout our Book of Records, the Bible.  In Hebrew the word for three (shelosh), connotes harmony, new life, and completeness, and when voiced in repetition signifies something special.

In our liturgy, we shall in a few minutes sing: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God of power and might,” (BCP p. 362 Rite II) or “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts” (BCP p. 334 Rite I).  In so doing, we sing in faith what the prophet Isaiah proclaimed to be the task of the seraphim:
Each had six wings … and one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:2f.)

This image is repeated in the book of “The Revelation to John” who writes almost verbatim: “Each of them with six wings, … and day and night they never cease to sing, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.”  (Rev.4:8)

That the number three evokes in the hearer’s or reader’s mind something special, cannot be overlooked, when we recall the Three Magi who traveled great distances together, in search of the one to be born Prince of Peace and to bestow on him their three gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Nor can we, as people of faith, overlook the Feast of the Resurrection, which we call Easter.  Jewish thought at the time maintained that a person was truly dead after three days.  Thus, that Jesus should rise from the dead after three days, shows his power to overcome death.  And then there is the number three as it describes the harmony of the Holy Trinity, God, Son, and Spirit.  The Apostle Paul emphasizes this in his letters to the churches in Corinth (I Cor. 8:6 and II Cor 3:17) and Colossae (Colossians 2:9).

My question of the day is: “How instructive is the number three, as we attempt to exercise our Christian faith?”  To that end, I ask you today to consider “The Tale of the Three Samaritans.”  It might be helpful if I were to offer a synopsis of biblical history and contemporary events.  Samaria is known today as Sabatiyah and is situated in Central Palestine, since 1967 under Israeli administration.  Historically, Samaritans, who by the latest world census number ca. 800, claim descent from Jacob, as do our Jewish sisters and brothers. They are today considered neither Jews nor Arabs.  At the center of the dispute between Samaritans and Jews is the question where God should be worshipped.  Jews maintain that God’s holy place is Mt. Zion in Jerusalem.  Samaritans claim that God’s holy place is Mt. Gerizim near Shechem, on the West Bank.  With that brief historical background, I turn to “The Tale of the Three Samaritans,” who may prove instructional to our 21^st century faith.

The First Samaritan: In the Gospel according to John (4:4–12), when Jesus left Judea, to avoid confrontation with the Pharisees because his disciples, like his cousin John, were baptizing people, he had to pass through Samaria in order to get to Galilee.  En route, he encounters a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, a site held sacred by both Jews and Samaritans.  Jesus and this unnamed woman engage in a lengthy exchange, about their ethnic and religious differences and the fact that she had had five husbands.  Those niceties out of the way, Jesus makes a pronouncement which sets a new tone between the Jews and the Samaritans and which, if we listen closely, is addressed to us as well.  Jesus says:
Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.  (John 4:21f)  

The Second Samaritan: The second Samaritan under consideration today has been codified into laws in the all the states and territories of the United States.  The Gospel according to Luke (10:25 – 37) tells, as you will immediately recall, the story of a man—Luke describes him as a lawyer—who sought to justify himself before Jesus but fails.  Then, Jesus tells the lawyer a tale.  And that tale was of another man on a journey who is set upon by robbers and left injured on the wayside.  A priest passes by and ignores the injured man, as does a Levite.  Both these men had rank and status among the elites.  A third man comes alone, finds the injured man, puts him on his own beast of burden, takes him to an inn and pays for all expenses of the robbed and injured man.  This third man, who could not ignore a fellow human being in need, was a Samaritan.

(Jesus said:) Which of these three … proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?  (The lawyer) said, ‘The one who showed mercy on him.’  And Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’ (Luke 10:36)

The Third Samaritan:  The third Samaritan whom I place before you in “The Tale of the Three Samaritans,” needs no further introduction, as we have just read about him.  However, just for the record, it is perhaps noteworthy to recall two not so insignificant details.  The first is that those who came to Jesus to seek his healing power numbered ten.  I make no assumption regarding gender.  The second detail is that Jesus advised all ten, in accordance with Judaic law and custom, to present themselves to the priests in the Temple, which they all set out to do.  But then comes the first twist in the story.  While the ten were enroute to the priests in the Temple, one man noticed that already healing was taking place, indeed had taken place.  He stops, turns around, and goes back to Jesus.  The others, the nine, continue on their way.  That one man breaks from the group, and praising God for the good which has come his way, falls at Jesus’ feet and thanks him.  That one, whom Jesus described as a ‘foreigner,’ was a Samaritan.  And Jesus then “said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made your well.’” (Luke17:19) 

At this point, to paraphrase another historical document, I hold these truths to be self-evident.  Reflecting on the last of the Samaritans, I conclude that the Leper was technically under no obligation to go to the Temple, as it determined later in the story, that he is not a Jew.  Recall, his seat of worship was not at a temple in Jerusalem.  Recall also, there was historical animosity between the Samaritans and Jews, regarding who had the right to claim God.  But he took Jesus’ advice and went.  Secondly, if our Book of Records is to be believed, Jesus did not ask for personal identification, such as a passport or a Medicare card prior to healing the man.  Sufficient was for Jesus that he recognized someone in need and responded.  Indeed, all ten of them.

And so, before us, we have “The Tale of the Three Samaritans.”  They were, each in her and his own way, the outsider, the alien, the Other, the foreigner.  And from the Foreigner comes the unexpected, the positive act of love of neighbor, and the praise to God for his unlimited and unrestricted care for all humankind.  The Magi came years prior to the encounters with the three Samaritans, looking for the infant Prince of Peace, and that message of the now adult Prince of Peace, voiced in many forms, says now, as then:  Tribal instinct may tempt us to want to hoard God unto ourselves, to assert a special right to and claim on the grace of God.  However, we are commanded to reject such an image and doctrine.  Rather, in the many examples which the Prince of Peace sets before us, we are to understand that God is to be recognized and worshiped in spirit and in truth.  Boundaries constrain us, not God!

Neither a golden calf, albeit shaped out of a valuable ore, nor a holy mountain, according to the Prince of Peace, can begin to describe what joys and freedom can be ours, and not ours alone, when we remove the restrictions which we believe we may place on God.  The Prince of Peace says clearly, as people of faith we are to allow God to be God, be the “I am that I am,” who moves without restrictions of place among the created order, as the woman at Jacob’s well, comes to understand.  The Good Samaritan is the gold standard for our own journey with those who share in that creation.  The Leper keeps us focused on that intangible standard which is that essential element called faith, for faith cures us of our self-imposed restraints.  Our faith in the resurrected Christ obligates us to hear the words spoken to the third Samaritan: “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.”  Amen.