SAINT ANDREW’S CHURCH
LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA
Eve of the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost [July 10, 2004]
Canon Richard T. Nolan
Commentary - "Caution: Samaritan Burnout Can Be Harmful!"
The Parable of the Good Samaritan has been used too often to support the notion that we as individuals are fully responsible for all our neighbors. Our specialists in biblical studies disagree. In this sermon we shall explore answers to two questions: what are the meanings of the Good Samaritan parable? and, what is meant by "Samaritan burnout?"
MEANINGS OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN PARABLE
What are the meanings of the Good Samaritan parable? Just over a decade ago a distinguished Roman Catholic theologian observed, "The point of that parable was not that we should always lend a hand to a neighbor in need. Too obvious, and, therefore, not challenging. No, the main point of the story was that the hated Samaritan was 'good.' He alone came to the aid of the man who had been beaten and robbed. … It is utterly crucial to remember that to the Jews Samaritans were a heretical and schismatic group of false worshipers of the God of Israel. They were detested even more than the pagans. … But Jesus would have none of that bigotry …. The Samaritan, a detested enemy of 'upright' Jews acted like a good neighbor to another in need, in contrast to the indifferent and irresponsible behavior of two respected and 'upright' members of their own community. … Had Jesus been addressing a U.S. audience some 19-and- a-half centuries later, he might well have substituted a gay (man) or lesbian for the Samaritan. Homosexuals fall roughly into the same category of the despised, reviled, and resented."1 Can you imagine a speaker at the coming Democratic or Republican Conventions telling a parable about a "Good Homosexual?"
Other interpreters have explored the meaning of "neighbor" implied in this parable. Does the parable of the Good Samaritan resolve the definition of "neighbor?"
In the Old Testament "neighbor" generally means a fellow Israelite, including fellow Jews and resident aliens - someone living nearby. While not defining "neighbor," the parable of the Good Samaritan is a significant contribution to our ongoing conversation with the Bible about this concern. When Jesus made a hero of a despised Samaritan, when he brought together goodness and a Samaritan's assistance to the wounded victim, Jesus forced his hearers to think the unthinkable: that one's neighbor can include outsiders, regardless of class, culture, racial and national heritage, or apparent worthiness. This parable shatters the parochial restrictions of the customary neighborhood; Jesus opened the whole matter of one's neighbor for reconsideration as his disciples were to face various situations. The new factor in the Christian ethic of equal regard was that it crossed all social and religious barriers and saw a neighbor beyond one's own kind.
Throughout the ages Christians have understood their "neighborhood" in various ways, sometimes including the entire cosmos, sometimes as all living creatures, other times including all humankind, or, at other times some or all persons with whom one comes into face-to-face contact. Without a clear-cut, absolute New Testament definition of "neighbor," it is up to the prayerful conscience of each Christian to determine at any given time the extent of one's neighborhood, that is, the specific persons to love - with the personal responsibilities active love may call for in concrete situations. The parable does not relieve you and me of the responsibility of answering the question: what does "neighbor" mean in the present situation, and how is love best expressed?
Sometimes it may mean lending a direct hand by offering to take strangers to a hospital or to call an ambulance or the police for them, or it may mean directing someone in need to a competent agency. It might even mean saying "no" to a neighbor's specific request. Regrettably, some who perceive themselves as "rescuers" jump in as if every person in difficulty that they come upon is a command for them to take over. One of the important things that we clergy learn in our clinical pastoral preparation for ministry is that we may not be the ones who are to rescue every situation, every person in need, whether near or far. Rather, perhaps most of the time, we point people in need to secular resources equipped to minister to them. And, the person in need has to make the decision whether to follow through responsibly; if they do not, the consequences are of their own making.
Whatever the situation may be, faithful Christians will probably differ about who the neighbor is and what it means to love one's neighbor. Nonetheless, disciples of Christ are undoubtedly called to be no less than empathetic, compassionate and just to all human beings - which at times might call for "tough love."
"SAMARITAN BURNOUT"
What is meant by "Samaritan burnout?" In my forty-one years of ordained ministry I have observed a number of faithful lay and ordained men and women functioning with an exaggerated sense of responsibility. Their desperate need-to-be-needed often leaves them drained, bitter, and with severely diminished personal relationships. Their misunderstood notion of being a "Good Samaritan" together with their own psychological needs drive them to the persistent role of "rescuer." Some of these individuals have just not accepted their human limitations. They have not learned to distinguish between their own and others' problems. They have difficulty referring people in crises to other more capable care-givers. Sometimes "rescuer" becomes the core of a benevolent person's identity. They appear to have little self-regard and eagerly await the next opportunity to "save" someone in actual or apparent distress. Unfortunately, their well-intended messianic outreach results in the premature burning out of a bright light. As "Samaritan Burnouts," they fail to incorporate in their lives a principle of balance - which is so necessary for everyone's mental and spiritual health. (I do hope that you will read Dr. Fisher's helpful comments at http://www.philosophy-religion.org/criticism/rescuers.htm)
ARE YOU AND I PREPARED ……. ?
I would hope that Christian congregations would recognize themselves as communities of neighbors; as such, members could determine their range of neighborly responsibilities to each other. Would that members of all Christian congregations become to one another no less than a neighborhood of family, friends, and caring acquaintances! However, we are reminded that those whom we have been taught to dislike, even despise (such as the Samaritan) might become neighbors to us; for, all sorts and conditions of people have been invited by Christ to full membership in the covenant community.
Are you and I prepared to discover that our neighbors - whether in this place or beyond - might be our own distorted versions of a despised Samaritan? Are you and I willing to recognize goodness, where it exists in their lives? Will you and I respect their true needs in critical times - without assuming that in every instance we are the ones to rescue them? Also, will we strive for a graceful balance in our own lives, so that we may both receive and give love, thereby fulfilling Jesus' mandate that we love our neighbors as ourselves?
1Richard P. McBrien, "The Parable of the Good Homosexual" (10/30/92) in "Essays in Theology" [a weekly diocesan newspaper column]. Fr. McBrien is the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. See http://129.74.54.81/rm/.