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The Citizen, 2019-01-10, Page 17THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 2019. PAGE 17. By Pastor Gary van Leeuwen Blyth Christian Reformed Church Many of us are familiar with the phrase, “the Good Samaritan.” It is commonly used to describe people who are willing to stop and help a stranger. We encourage each other to become good Samaritans, to help those who are in need. The Good Samaritan appears in the Bible in a parable that Jesus told. It is somewhat ironic that the Good Samaritan, although one of the most well-known characters from the Bible, never actually existed. Jesus created him in a tale he told to teach us a valuable life lesson. And that life lesson, as I have already mentioned, is that we help those in need, even people who are strangers to us. We can learn from the story of the Good Samaritan: we should be willing to help those in need, even if we don’t know them. But the story of the Good Samaritan goes deeper than that. The story goes like this: a man was travelling on the road that led from Jericho to Jerusalem. It is a remote and dangerous road that still exists today. It is treacherous at best of times, but to make it even more dangerous, it provides ample places for bandits to attack unwary travellers, rob them and kill them. No doubt many people died on that road, and their bodies were never found. This man who was travelling on that road, most likely a Jewish man, for that is who lived in that area of the world, was attacked and left for dead. Two people passed him by, members of the religious elite who should have stopped to help him. But they didn’t do so, even though they had just been in Jerusalem, most probably at the temple, worshipping God. A third person is also travelling along the road, and he is a Samaritan. We need to understand how Jews felt about Samaritans in those days. Jews and Samaritans did not get along at all. In fact, they hated each other. The Jews believed that God had rejected the Samaritans, and they should as well. The Samaritans hated the Jews because of what the Jews said about them. There was an intense mutual dislike between these two groups. In fact, as Jesus told the story to his largely Jewish audience, and when he mentioned the Samaritan, many of the Jews might have fingered him as the bandit who attacked the unwary traveller. After all, you can’t trust a Samaritan, would have been the common belief. Looking at things from the Samaritan’s perspective, it would have been better not to waste time on the injured man because he was probably a Jew who would just return help with hate. Everyone would have expected the Samaritan to simply pass the Jew by as the two members of the religious elite had done. The Samaritan, however, did something completely unexpected. He stopped, tended to the man, and then he loaded him on his donkey, brought him to a nearby inn, paid the innkeeper to tend to him, and then promised to return and pay any additional money that many have been spent on the doctor’s bills that might arise from the medical treatment this man needed. Jesus tells this story in response to the question: “Who is my neighbour?” He had been discussing with someone the biblical command to love our neighbours as ourselves, and the one with whom Jesus had been having this discussion wanted to know how Jesus would define who our neighbours might be. Are our neighbours just our friends? Or should we include strangers in need as our neighbours? Or, as the parable suggests, are our neighbours those who might also be our enemies? The parable seems to opt for the third option, not excluding the first two. We are called by God to love not only our friends or even needy strangers but also those who dislike us and who we have reason to hate. We must also treat them as the same way we care for ourselves. We are not Good Samaritans, then, if we only stop and help the stranded person on the side of the road change a flat tire. That is a good thing to do, of course. We can only live up to the qualification of being a Good Samaritan if we dedicate ourselves to loving those who have no love for us, who might even hate us. That is the standard Jesus sets for us. This whole discussion about neighbours and the story of the good Samaritan arises out of another question: “Who gets to go to heaven?” This is the question that started the whole discussion and led to the story Jesus told. The answer is this: if we can love our enemies, even those who hate us and want the worst to happen to us, as we love ourselves, we might be good enough. And at this point we all probably need to admit that that standard is pretty hard to achieve. It is difficult to love those who have turned against us. To do good for a needy stranger is one thing, but to bless an enemy by helping them out is too big of a demand for most people. None of us do that very well. We would have to conclude, then, that the standard Jesus sets out for us is too high, that by this standard, none of us will make it to heaven. But that does not leave us without hope. This story of the Good Samaritan has undertones of how God treats us. The Bible is quite clear that we have a tendency to rebel against God, to do things that are contrary to His will. Our rebellion makes us His enemies, for what rebel is a friend to those against whom he/she is rebelling? Yet, God, in His great compassion and love for us, comes to us in our broken and rebellious state, and He pays for our healing himself. He did that by sending His Son, Jesus Christ to die in our place and in so doing, loved His enemies. It is God’s love for us that heals us and restores us. We are not good enough to be Good Samaritans, truly, but God is. And putting our faith in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven for not meeting God’s standards and then become able to enter into heaven, into eternal life. Everyone Welcome! The Regional Ministry of Hope BLYTH BRUSSELS Trinity Anglican Church St. John’s Anglican Church 9:15 am 11:15 am MINISTRY OFFICE 519-357-4883 COME WORSHIP WITH US! Rev. JoAnn Todd, Rector email: revjoann@hurontel.on.ca The Regional Ministry of Hope St. Paul’s Trinity Anglican Church WINGHAM 11:15 am THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO ATTEND HOLY MASS. OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE AS FOLLOWS: Brussels: St. Ambrose Saturday 6:00 p.m. 17 Flora Street Wingham: Sacred Heart Sunday 9:00 a.m. 220 Carling Terrace Listowel: St. Joseph’s Sunday 11:00 a.m. 1025 Wallace Avenue N. OFFICE: 519-523-4224 Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday ~ 9:30 am - 2:00 pm blythunited@tcc.on.ca Special Speaker: Trish McGregor Accessible Sunday, January 13 Worship Service at 11:00 am Blyth United Church Facebook: Blyth and Brussels United Churches Blyth United providing meals at the Broomball Tournament on January 11, 12, 13, 2019 at the Blyth Community Centre huronchapel.com huronchapelkids.com huronchapelyouth.com 519-526-1131 ~ 119 John’s Ave., Auburn Wednesdays 6:30-8 p.m. HEIRBORN (JK-Gr. 6), 6:30-8:30 p.m. Jr. & Sr. YOUTH (Gr. 7-12) Fri. Jan. 11 - Jr & Sr Youth Sledding & Games Night Sun. Jan. 13 9:30 a.m. Sunday School, 10:30 a.m. Worship Interim Pastor Phil Delsaut “Sent to Bless” (1 Peter 3:8ff) MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS SUNDAY, JANUARY 13 Nursery care available 519-887-6687 Fridays 11:30 am - 1:00 pm ~ Soup & More 2 - a free community meal held in Melville’s basement, and made possible by the Brussels churches working together. Worship & Sunday School - 9:30 am (*New time) Coffee & Snacks following the service We invite you to join our church family in: Hwy. 4, Blyth www.blythcrc.ca 519-523-4743 Minister: Pastor Gary van Leeuwen BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH SUNDAYS Morning Service 10:00 am Evening Service 7:30 pm You’re Invited To Join Us In Worship Youre Invited to come worship with us Sunday, January 13 at 10:30 a.m. & 6:00 p.m. 650 Alexander St. (former Brussels Public School) Sunday School for children 4 to 12 years of age at 9:30 a.m. Childcare provided for infants and preschoolers during the sermon. Coffee & cookies after the morning service. For additional details please contact Pastor Andrew Versteeg 519.887.8621 Steve Klumpenhower 519.292.0965 Rick Packer 519.527.0173 BRUSSELS United Church Worship and Sunday School Sunday, January 13 at 9:30 am Worship leader, Trish McGregor All are Welcome From the Minister’s Study God shows us what a Good Samaritan can be