Luke 10:25-37
Jim Crow, Jane Crow, and Love
I want to focus on just one sentence in this well-known story of the lawyer’s question and Jesus’ telling the parable of the good Samaritan. Who is my neighbor? That may be the most important question we have today. Who is my neighbor?
Michelle Alexander writes in her book, The New Jim Crow, that says that Jim Crow laws were a highly effective terrorist campaign in the past. We have not ended racial caste in the United States, we have just redesigned it and rebranded it. She says that the criminal justice system is the contemporary system of racial control, just as Jim Crow laws were in the past. Jayland Walker was only 25 years old when he was shot 60 times by police officers in Akron, Ohio. He had no criminal record. He could have been our son. Is Jayland Walker our neighbor?
Now we have Jane Crow laws. I did not know that this phrase was coined in 1947. I thought it was a new phrase but it isn’t. A Black woman, Pauli Murray, coined the phrase in 1947, to describe a system of racial discrimination that prevented Black women from participating in society. Murray was an activist, poet, priest, and lawyer and she came up with this phrase to describe what she was up against. She also used the phrase to talk about gender identity and sexuality and intersection of racial justice and gender justice. In the present era, Jane Crow laws apply to all sorts of women’s health issues, as well as racial and gender justice.
Who is my neighbor? How do race and gender shape your experience in our society? Can we create a safe space in this church to talk about such sensitive and difficult questions? I think so. I think we can. We have to have a safe place to practice dangerous conversations. In Luke’s story the lawyer felt secure enough to just go up to Jesus and ask him straight out, “What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?” It was a selfish question. He felt like he had earned the right to ask that question. Jesus took the question out of the sky and put it on the ground. He gave it arms and legs and feet and hands and flesh and then he asked the question: “Who do you think proved to be a neighbor?”
It is so much better to keep ourselves grounded in the world we live in. It is better to avoid these abstract, lofty, erudite questions. What must I do to inherit eternal life? I’ve been good. I’ve done everything I was asked to do. I’ve checked all the boxes. Jesus says, put your score card away. Life is not about keeping score. Life is about answering a simple question: Who is my neighbor?
The parable gives us some guidelines to follow before we go out and ask that question. First, we have to look past labels and identity badges. Rabbi, Levite, Samaritan. These are abstractions. Labels. They are ways to categorize people. Oh, I see, you’re one of those. Once I put you in a pigeonhole then I know how I have to relate to you. I think it was Sally’s first year teaching when her principal came to the classroom for an observation and evaluation. After class she asked Sally a series of questions. Are you a member of such and such a group? Sally said, “No.” How about this group? Again, the answer was, “No.” The principal went through a check list and Sally said “No” every time. Then the exasperated principal said, “How am I supposed to evaluate you if you are not a member of any of these groups?” Sally said, “Well, can I teach or not.” Look at the person, not the label. Where does so and so stand on this issue or that issue? The lawyer asked, seeking to justify himself.
Secondly, Jesus says don’t pay attention to class or zip code or employment status. It takes guts to cross the road. It takes courage to step out of your comfort zone. The parable says that if we stay only in our so-called safe place, act only in our self-interest, we are going down a dangerous and difficult road, and sooner or later we are likely to end up in the ditch. Take a look sometime at how many people in Kansas today are living on the economic edge or in the ditch because of low wages, no health care, debt, or other conditions. These are our impoverished neighbors. We label them “poor,” but they are impoverished by a system that denies them a living wage, adequate health care, and a meaningful social safety net.
Habitat for Humanity says we have to put love in the mortar joints of life because everyone deserves to live in a decent house and in a safe community. What I like about that statement is that it does not just talk about love in a general way. Love is tied to a goal and a timeline. We need dreams. It’s great to dream of the day when we will all love one another. But until you fasten that dream to a specific goal, it’s just a wish, a happy feeling.
Remember the song, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” We jump to the end of the line and talk about harmony. We don’t spend enough time talking about teaching and learning. We need to think strategically about teaching and learning. Since I am calling this a school for Christian discipleship, I like to make assignments now and then to give you something to take home and work on this week. Jessica, Carmen, and Sally have said they want to go visit other churches in the community and learn about what they are doing. So, I want to send them forth on behalf of the whole congregation. Anybody who wants to go with them is welcome to join them. Don’t go to just the safe places–to churches you think are like Pine Valley. Cross the road. Visit other racial and ethnic churches. Visit the pastor ahead of time and tell him or her that you’re coming and explain your purpose. The rest of us can be thinking about the road we are on and who is there with us. What are we learning? Who is my neighbor? And, importantly: How can I become a neighbor to my neighbor?