00:00:10.890 - 00:00:57.390

I am fully convinced that all of us here tonight wake up every morning contemplating a similar existential question. What kind of contributions does theological education make to church and society? Now, looking at your faces from this point of view, I can see I may have assumed too much, and that concerns about the significance of theological education in today's culture may not be at the top priority when organizing your morning thoughts. It may be far below on your list, outrank it by deciding if you want syrup on your pancakes.

00:00:58.430 - 00:01:44.670

or if you have enough gas in the car to reach to your first destination of the day. And honestly, I also focus on other mundane concerns when I wake up, splash cold water on my face, and get ready to face the world. But occasionally, asking oneself about the purpose and bearing of one's vocation whether as a theological educator, or a theological education collaborator, or a theological learner, is central to our commitment to invest time and passion in this journey that we all share.

00:01:46.270 - 00:02:32.190

That is why we begin this academic year by asserting a new message at Austin Seminary, that at Austin Seminary, we will strive to be a place where faith intersects purpose. When I reflect on the significant contributions that theological education has made to society beyond shaping the next generation of Christian leaders who have served the Church with intelligence, energy, love, and imagination, I always think about the spiritual and civic leaders who have studied theology and have changed the lives of many.

00:02:33.950 - 00:03:00.510

I think that one of the gifts of Presbytery and theological education to American culture is a faithful servant named Fred McKinley Rogers, or as many knew him through their television screens, Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers' message to children and adults during his half-hour television show

00:03:01.550 - 00:03:36.990

was theologically informed in ways that often went unrecognized by the lay audience. Yes, themes of kindness, empathy, acceptance, and inclusion are common topics that reflect values that we can distill from the Gospel. However, in many ways, these messages of civility are also common to children's programming, which aims to educate and prepare kids for responsible citizenship.

00:03:38.590 - 00:04:03.150

Yet, Mr. Rogers appeared to display a keen theological sensitivity by embracing the difficult conversations that faith development requires. His soft voice concealing a prophetic challenge that often goes unnoticed in the feel-good Sunday school classroom.

00:04:05.150 - 00:04:39.870

With Mr. Rogers, children learn that the joy of play and family affection is interrupted at times by death, and the deep sorrow that follows death, and that feeling angry is acceptable. With him, we learn that we cannot have nor deserve everything we desire and want, but what we have may be enough. And that should inspire gratitude.

00:04:41.790 - 00:05:32.550

That we will not be liked or loved by everyone, and that we may need to look for new friends when others are not able to recognize the good in us. You see, all these messages were a more straightforward retelling of deeper theological concepts, such as theodicy, unmerited grace, and the Imago Dei. The text we read in Luke tonight, the known story of what has been called by biblical editors, in some act of hermeneutical malpractice, the Good Samaritan, as if the character was a rare species among bad Samaritans.

00:05:34.190 - 00:05:47.550

This text is the subject of theological problematization in Mr. Rogers' theme song. It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood. It's a beautiful day for a neighbor.

00:05:48.270 - 00:06:34.750

But would you be mine? Could you be mine? I have always been struck by the insight of these simple lines, which recognize that we live with others in a shared space that we can effectively call a neighborhood or a community, but that alone does not make us neighbors. Contrary to what we may think in secular terms when we look at the people living adjacent to our homes and call them neighbors, theologically speaking, a neighbor is not a condition determined by proximity or sameness or simple cordial or superficial interactions we have with others.

00:06:35.790 - 00:07:10.670

To be a neighbor is a conscious decision that we make to be with others in ways that make living possible, because we care for each other. We look for each other, and we are accountable to each other, even at moments when we may disagree, or have competing interests, or are trying to fulfill different needs. And this is the question that we, who inhabit this space we call Austin Seminary,

00:07:11.150 - 00:07:27.070

should ask each other, sometimes repeatedly, Would you be my neighbor? Would you be mine? Which means, do you have the desire to be my neighbor? Could you be mine?

00:07:27.710 - 00:08:17.310

Do you have the capacity to be the neighbor to me? And the reason I ask you to explore these questions in the context of our living together in this residential campus is that if we seek to be an exemplary community of God's love to the Church we are called to serve, and to this society striving for human compassion within a political realm that seeks to distance us from one another, that encourages us to pursue personal interests, above the needs of others, and to mistrust each other, if that's the world we're living in, we ought to start being neighbors here and now.

00:08:20.190 - 00:09:08.990

And the lesson from the gospel serves as an excellent springboard for this practical reflection. In the midst of a conversation with His disciples, a teacher of the law interrupted Jesus with a random left-field question about the criteria for gaining access to eternal life. Jesus, in typical rhetorical fashion, returns the question back and says, As an expert of the law, give me the appropriate legal response. And the man responded, quoting the Torah, Love the Lord your God above all things, and love your neighbor as yourself.

00:09:11.150 - 00:09:32.190

Perhaps in tweeting Jesus' attempt to escape the fine details of a conversation that could get him into trouble, the lawyer presses to get a more substantial answer. Come on, Jesus, give me something to work with here. This is easy. It's an easy answer.

00:09:32.430 - 00:10:12.110

Who is my neighbor? While Luke implies that the first question was intended to trick Jesus into contradicting the law, I think the second question is probably a genuine one, as the man was seeking to justify himself as someone who knows what is required of him, and therefore, he can say he certainly loves his neighbors. By asking the question the man, or in this case, Luke as the narrator, infers that neighborliness is not a given.

00:10:13.630 - 00:10:52.910

In fact, in the world where this exchange occurs, where there are only two distinctive socio-political identities, You're either an insider or an outsider, friend or enemy. And it is in this context of a reality defined by a friend, an enemy, that the story of the Samaritan sojourner and the wounded man unfolds. Once, one was an outsider and an enemy, while the other was presumably an insider

00:10:53.470 - 00:11:39.630

and a fellow man to the priest and the Levite who passed by. In this story, those markers of social, political, and cultural difference disappear, as their place of encounter is a road that is neither Jerusalem nor Jericho, but a space in between that no one can claim as their own. At the crossroads, there were neither outsiders nor insiders. Everything seemed to be fair game in this crossroads, including robbing and injuring another human being without regard to origin, religion, ethnicity, or social class.

00:11:41.550 - 00:12:12.990

And it is on this borderland that the possibility of answering the call to be a neighbor can happen. The neighbor is neither enemy nor friend, but it's a third way of relating to others. I would say it's an alternative form of sociability available to us. Before a person who is neither friend nor enemy, we face an important decisional moment.

00:12:14.790 - 00:13:10.350

where we must determine whether the other person who crosses our path and addresses us is treated as a neighbor or not. Centuries of preaching this story as a moral lesson have perhaps oversimplified this critical question to the point that we fail to recognize the spiritual weight of this decision we are called to make. What else have we learned from the story besides the reiterated conclusion that those who should show compassion did not, and that the one who did was a stranger, and that ultimately, we are good neighbors if we follow his example? Now, personally,

00:13:11.510 - 00:13:39.870

I'm not a fan of the didactic method used by the gospel writer to teach the lesson of this story. Sorry, Luke, I'm not a fan of your pedagogy here. One of the reasons I'm grateful, and you should be also grateful for graduate education, is that with it comes the end of something dreadful we used to call multiple-choice exams.

00:13:42.110 - 00:14:18.110

In fact, I think multiple-choice exams are antithetical to everything you will learn here and learn in seminary. From applying the hermeneutics of suspicion, where not always the simple answer is the correct one, to the insight that the best response to a dialectic tension is not an either/or, but a both/and. Yet, according to Luke, Jesus tells the story that tests the master of the law with three choices.

00:14:18.910 - 00:14:42.190

Who is the neighbor to the man in need? A) the priest B) the Levite C) the Samaritan with a possibility of a D, none of the above. The lawyer, presuming that empathy towards the other is a higher moral good, responded immediately.

00:14:43.070 - 00:15:12.110

The answer is C, the one who showed mercy. And notice that Jesus does not say the lawyer's answer is correct, but only responds. Go and do the same. Like saying, be less worried about who your neighbor is and put more intentional thought into how you ought to be a neighbor to others.

00:15:15.230 - 00:15:56.030

However, considering the religious norms of this culture, where the text is written, and more importantly, How this story can be read against our current cultural context, I dare to say that there is something neighborly about each person who walks that road. We have a priest who was heading toward Jerusalem, perhaps to perform a cleaning ritual in the temple, and touching the bleeding wounds may have compromised the sacramental purity needed to continue his work within his primary community.

00:15:57.790 - 00:16:47.790

And when we weigh the interests of our people against the interests of other people, we are taught, especially in this culture, always prioritize your own. That is why it can sometimes be difficult to develop empathy toward those who are experiencing pain and suffering in the world or even around us, because we are not capable of visualizing our loved ones, our friends, or even ourselves in those traumatic situations. If we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, We may need to suffer ourselves as our neighbors suffer.

00:16:50.510 - 00:17:39.070

Think about opening the pages of a newspaper or a news website and seeing a picture of a person being forcibly handcuffed and carried into a dark vehicle, and then being taken to an undetermined place to be deported. Look at that picture. And now replace the face you just saw in your mind with that of your brother, your sister, or your father. What if in the picture of a suffering woman holding a famished child in front of a home in ruins in Gaza, you can see your own mother holding you on her bus?

00:17:42.310 - 00:18:30.350

What happens when you read the names of those children injured or killed by a mass shooter, and the names of every school age or church kid you know start to appear on that page? Neighborly love, as an imperative essentially linked to our love for God and for oneself, ought to boost the empathy deficiency that plagues our culture. Now, there was also the possibility that the Levite, connecting the human predicament to God's will, may feel the situation of this man was deserved, adding moral injury upon physical injury.

00:18:32.710 - 00:19:05.670

Are we not living in a society where religious people especially some Christian communities, use every opportunity to condemn those whose lives are far from what they consider to be a perfect life because of mental illness or health conditions, extreme poverty, and social neglect. How many times have we used religious discourse as a primary tool to blame the victim while feeling morally entitled to do so.

00:19:08.190 - 00:19:47.310

Correspondently, a modern master of law, one of those lawyers who advertised their services in big billboards and promised large sums of money, may look on the beaten person as an object of interest. Don't move, stay there, let's take some pictures. and see the businesses around, just identify who can we sue. So Luke makes clear that both the priest and the Levite did not pass by someone invisible to them.

00:19:48.590 - 00:20:26.430

They put their eyes on Him, which means there was a moment of reflection where they made a conscious choice of what type of neighbor there will be to this man who was neither friend nor enemy. And they make their decision. So let's say, to simplify this, if you have nothing good to say about someone that is down, or something to contribute to his, her, or their well-being,

00:20:27.310 - 00:21:03.550

or if you are expecting to have a transactional relation where you will gain something out of this relationship, then be a neighbor. Keep your mouth shut. Avoid the voyeuristic snapshot and the solicited social media commentary and keep moving like the priest and the Levite. Because sometimes, by staying around, you are capable of doing more harm than good, and you will stop being a neighbor.

00:21:06.190 - 00:21:31.390

But, yes, they may be neighbors on their own way, but don't conform yourself to being a neighbor in this way. Be a better neighbor. Like the Samaritan man who saw the man not only with his eyes, but according to Luke, He felt him with his splash throng, with his entrails.

00:21:32.830 - 00:21:58.590

The beaten one provoked in the Samaritan a bodily sense of dis-ease. And this dis-ease was a gift from the other that moved him to mercy and compassion. You know, Mr. Rogers understood well that being a neighbor is not a moral duty that positions one person above another.

00:21:59.870 - 00:22:27.870

In this story, a lower image of a beaten Jew is leveled with a heightened image of a compassionate Samaritan. Both were accountable for the choice of giving and accepting neighborly love. It was a mutual calling, solidarity, rather than top-down charity that finds for us people of faith the spirit of neighborliness.

00:22:30.110 - 00:22:56.910

And that is the reason that Mr. Rogers, after visiting a friend or a young person in trouble or that was ill, will always ask a question that surprised the people he ministered to. He will say, and I quote, As I have come to offer you comfort, I'm not leaving until you do something for me.

00:22:59.430 - 00:23:17.550

What? Yes. Please, as I leave this place, can you pray for me? This is the way he empowered the beaten one to accept the gift of love as an invitation to go and do the same.

00:23:20.830 - 00:23:56.430

Show mercy to others in an ongoing chain of compassionate acts that make it possible, amidst these disappointing social circumstances and politically induced moral injuries, that we can enjoy at last a beautiful day in this neighborhood. Won't you be that neighbor? Could you be that neighbor? May your worship tonight and your participation in this table be your affirmative response.

00:23:56.990 - 00:24:02.830

Yes, I can be and will be your neighbor. Amen.