Ensuring that there is room at the Inn – Luke 10: 25-37

This week two parts of Sam’s world collided, as 2 young men from Boys’ Brigade both aged 15 went to complete work experience at Barnardo’s. Sam arranged for them to be placed at a Sure Start Centre in Acocks Green, which seeks to work with the Under 5s and their families to help them with parenting and family difficulties that would get in the way of those children succeeding when they get to school.
On the last day of the placement he arranged to go and formally inspect the service so that he could see how they had been getting on. To his shock he found that the lads had delighted in telling the staff stories of what he was really like when not in work and when the real stories ran out they made stuff up like attributing his constant sun tan to sun beds, fake tan and excessive moisturising.
Needless to say, the staff weren’t aware of all this, but they were grateful to the lads for filling them in. After spending time reassuring staff that the tan was from the garden, Sam sat down with the lads to find out how they had got on and what they had learnt from their week.
They had cared for a little African Caribbean lad who was 2 and wore a protective helmet to stop him from injuring his head when he head banged through his emotional and learning difficulties.
They had been promoting the nursery through helping with the running of a fun day, honing their face painting and crèche worker skills.
But of most significance was being part of a parent craft class for young people all of whom would soon be parents. In this session they looked at issues of practical care and the impact that having the responsibility of a small child would have on their day to day life.
For the 2 lads this was the most compelling group, as the young people soon to become parents were the same age as themselves.
In the context of our Bible reading today involving the question – who is my neighbour – the definition of this for them expanded and enlarged as they sat and listened to the young people’s stories. They heard from one young woman - who was expecting soon but had recently been kicked out of home and in temporary accommodation and from another – who had lived with a number of foster carers and was now looking to return home after 2 years away. They were both taking on such responsibility but within the context of their own lives that presented as so fragile and vulnerable.
For the 2 lads from Brigades they gained an understanding that these young women were part of their neighbourhood, living only round the corner from them, but in terms of life experience and expectations in life, their neighbourhoods could be a million miles apart.
The Christian Writer Anne Morisy, in an engaging book, “Beyond the Good Samaritan,” challenges us to look at the Bible reading for today from a fresh perspective. She states that our usual default position on the story is to see ourselves as the priest and the Levi rushing past to get to a busy church meeting. Should we see to the stranger lying on the floor or to the group of people who have expectations of us elsewhere? We feel conflicted, think resentfully for a while and then move on.
What can make that decision feel easier for us is if we perceive the person in need, for whom we would have to go out of our way, as less deserving or problematic. In the parable, the Jew left for dead by the side of the road would have been perceived as ritually unclean with the potential of making both Priest and Levi also unclean if they got involved.
In our society today, the likes of the young people in the group at the children’s centre might also be seen by some as problematic or the architects of their own difficulties. However, when forced through circumstances to come along side them and their need, our 2 lads from BB could not but help recognise that they were young people like themselves.
Far more productive, suggests Anne Morisy, and in keeping with the question asked by Jesus, is to put yourself in the position of the injured Jew, abandoned on the side of the road, and to ask from this position of vulnerability and fragility who is my neighbour?
From this position, who is the neighbour of the two young women shortly due to have their babies?
Who is the neighbour of the little boy who needs to wear protective head gear so that he doesn’t injury himself when he head bangs – who is his neighbour?
Today in a time of budget deficit, where the long held assumptions of our welfare system are coming under scrutiny, it is important that we ask with some rigour the question who is our neighbour? Who is the most vulnerable here? Who has the most fragile existence? The danger is, in a time of perceived scare resources, those with the loudest voices are heard and those with very little voice can get left behind.
To guard against this, this story, this well known story of the Good Samaritan, invites all of us to sit at the side of the road for a while, to make sure that we recognise that everyone is our neighbour and not just a selected few whom we deem worthy. Amen