As I am sitting here in my college's library, reflecting on this past weekend that was spent worshipping and fellowshipping with fellow Emory & Henry Students, but also students from around the United States (while I should be writing an annotated bibliography), I am greatly overwhelmed by the story of the Good Samaritan as interpreted by Shane Claiborne.
All that we know about this Samaritan is that he was moved with compassion. He was so moved that he did not stop to ask anything of the man he was helping. He helped without knowing his sexual identity and orientation, without knowing where he was from, without knowing who he was, without knowing what he believed in. All the Good Samaritan knew was that this person needed help, that he was a human and that his life mattered.
Before we can deal with the injustice that is happening in our world, we must first allow this injustice to become real within our lives. We have to see that this injustice is happening to people we know, and people we love. We have to get into the streets with our brothers and sisters and allow these injustices to seep deeply enough into our lives that we become so moved to change them.
It is easy to avoid injustice. In order to embrace it, you must allow your life to be interrupted. You must fight your case, fight for others, and fight for freedom. In order to meet and stand up with our brothers and sisters who face injustice, the church must rise up to interrupt. The church must say that the things happening are wrong, and that they are not what our faith is based on. The hatred that has come to the surface is an injustice. The Good Samaritan faced this injustice head on. He helped and felt moved to help someone without knowing anything about them. That is how the church needs to be. We need to work to face all injustice regardless of things such as sexual orientation and identity, gender, race, or religion. Injustice is for us to face head on.
To say that we cannot feed someone who is homeless is to say that we cannot feed Jesus. If you don’t welcome the stranger, you don’t welcome Jesus and you don’t welcome me. We need to care for and love on immigrants and refugees because our love does not stop at borders.
Our faith should be our fuel for the way that we care about this world and the people within it. Jesus did not come to solely prepare us to die, he came to teach us how to live. He came to teach us to love everyone, no matter their circumstances or where they come from. He came to show us how to love.
We need to live in ways that contradict this world. We need to challenge each other to live in solidarity and face adversity head on as a functioning group. Faith and works are inseparable if we ignore our brothers and sisters how are we living a life for God? We need to be active members of our communities, our churches, and people’s lives. We need to be active with people and work to fight injustice and adversity as a community.
By being active with people, we create community. Community is how we function, and how we will overcome injustice. Being in a community allows us to mourn with heavy hearts and have people who will carry our sufferings alongside us. These communities will create holy habits within our lives and allow us time to rest, appreciate the Sabbath, and have time for prayer.
Throughout this, there has been an overwhelming theme of love, generosity, and simply being a Good Samaritan. It is important to combat poverty on all levels. We must keep the relational dynamic within a community, but also work to incorporate and work with the justice dynamic. We need to do the things that we love and that we are wired for, but work to do these things in a way that fights injustice. Connect your deepest passions with the world’s deepest pains and you won’t struggle in finding an area of injustice.
