Drought, flooding and extreme temperatures. Fires have been raging uncontrollably in the west -- in Utah, Washington and California – because of extreme drought in those areas of the country. Extreme rainfall has flooded states like Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas in the mid-section of our country. Extreme temperatures along the eastern seaboard, in the cities of Washington, DC, New York and Boston, have approached the century mark.

            What is happening with our weather?  Is it the jet stream?  Is it a pattern known as La Nina? Is it global warming? The media, meteorologists and even politicians lean towards the later explanation. Without a doubt, something is happening with the weather.

            How easy it is to get caught up in our ever-changing world. The latest in cell-phone technology -- the I-Phone – raises questions about this hand-held web browser\camera\ phone. Is it worth the $600 that it cost?  What about the battery life? Why would you want to pay $70 a month for the basic service to operate this phone?

            Our world bombards us with so many new concepts, ideas and situations. Some of these are quite disturbing and leave us feeling fearful. Others are geared towards a consumer society that is hungry for the latest innovation.

We can easily become saturated with all the things of the world that vie for our attention and lose sight of the compassion of Jesus, which calls us to love our neighbor. We can become so full that we can easily take on the character of the priest or the Levite, who, in their hurried pace, leave the wounded man in the ditch for dead.

            The main point of the Good Samaritan story is not the priest, or the Levite, who leave the wounded man in the ditch. It’s not even the Good Samaritan, who, with the compassion of Jesus, pulls the man from the ditch, takes him to the inn, and dresses his wounds. The main point of the story is the man in the ditch -- a man who is wounded by life and left to die. Do we ever feel like that man? Have others passed us by or failed to care about us?  Has life ever robbed us of our integrity, innocence, or health?  If so, then we know what it feels like to be the man in the ditch.  By the same token, maybe someone who cared acted with compassion and pulled us out of the ditch. Who pulled us out: a spouse, a teacher, a friend, our brother Jesus?

            Last Sunday, I announced that we need 50 people to go door-to-door in our neighborhood this Sunday to survey our parish neighbors and gain a deeper understanding of their basic life needs. This survey information will be used to better serve the needs of these people, who will come to our neighborhood Block Party in October. 

            Who are some of our neighbors? Jessie is one of them. She walks the streets. She’ll talk to anyone who will stop and listen to her. She’s probably more emotionally deprived then physically deprived.  Another called the parish at about 11:00PM a few nights ago. I had been asleep for nearly an hour. When I answered the phone she said, “Are you the priest?” I said, “yes.” She began to cry and then said, “I live in the neighborhood and social services came and took away my son. I miss him dearly. I didn’t know who else to call.” Another one of our neighbors came to the front door of the rectory a couple days after Christmas; at about ten at night, the doorbell rang. I answered it to find a neighbor, who lived at the corner of Pearl and Fifth Streets. His wife had thrown him out of the house, and he had no place to stay.  I was able to call the Budget Inn and find him a room for the night. There are many other stories and needs. Will you come and help us this Sunday, so we can better serve our neighbors with the needs in their lives?

            We can easily fill ourselves up with the many fears of life. We can even feast on the consumerism of our culture. But this dulls our ability to love and to act with the compassion of Jesus.  Like us, some of our neighbors may be in the ditch; maybe we can help lift them out.

sdrose@bellsouth.net
7-29-2007