Where is the Good Samaritan

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

I have just returned from General Convention 2009 and have been in the process of emotionally unpacking the two week experience. Part of the process has been to reflect on readings from the Holy Scriptures and the Parable of the Good Samaritan edged its way into my heart and mind. I couldn't discern why until I read and prayed about it for thirty minutes or so then it came to me. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is fitting for the state of the Episcopal Church.

As I reflected upon this it occurred to me that over the past thirty years the self-righteous on both sides of the issues which have divided the Episcopal Church during this time continue on their way leaving the Church to languish on the side of the rode. Oh, to be sure, they have their reasons, just ask them, but the reality is the church has been beaten and battered by cries for justice on the one hand, and cries for religious purity on the other. Each has been guilty of , to use a term from Walter Brueggemann, exclusionary absolutism. Where is our Good Samaritan?

I do not have a right answer for this question but I do hope and pray that God will send his servant to us to help us to be healed and restored to wholeness and newness of life. It is clear, given the decline in the Episcopal Church's ASA, membership, and financial resources, what we are doing isn't working and to believe it to be working is a recipe for disaster.

We need a Good Samaritan, the one who will show mercy and what it truly means to love one another.