Monday, July 11, 2016

The "Good" Samaritan as Antiracist Parable: A Bishop's Sermon, Ripped from the Headlines.

My bishop, the Right Rev. Douglas J. Fisher of Western Massachusetts, has posted this sermon, which we heard at the Episcopal cathedral in Springfield yesterday. The title is: "There is no 'us' and 'them'. There is only 'us.'"

The main text for the homily is the parable of the Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37.

Bishop Fisher writes
By telling the story that he does, about a man beaten, robbed and left to die in a ditch, Jesus changes our question about Eternal Life by “plugging us into a world of violence.” Following Jesus will not mean escaping violence – it will mean engaging it. Sound like 2016 yet?
Read the rest here.

Le bon Samaritain (1880), by Aimé Nicolas Morot
Image in public domain in USA
(via Wikimedia Commons)