Dead Man’s Curve (Luke 10:25-37)

 When Ginger, Ethan and I moved to Bloomington from southern California 2½ years ago, we more or less followed the historic route 66; and we stopped at a number of Route 66 tourist spots along the way. 

You’ve probably heard that, this year, Route 66 is celebrating its 100th year. There are celebrations planned in nearly every Route 66 town.

Route 66 was established in 1926. By 1938, the entire stretch was fully paved. 

Over the years, sections of Route 66 were realigned or rerouted. Often this was done in the interest of safety. 

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One such place is the section in nearby Towanda called “Dead Man’s Curve.” 

Right there where the curve was, there was a house, and the owners kept having to replace their porch because cars travelling too fast would approach that curve and run off the road, hitting their porch and destroying it. 

Then one day a semi ran off the road and knocked the whole house off its foundation. The house was removed after that.

In 1954, Route 66 through Towanda was re-routed, and drivers no longer had to travel through Dead Man’s Curve. The new road was safer, kept more people alive, kept them from destroying houses, and allowed more people to arrive at their destination.

Because what is the point of a road if it does not help people to arrive, safely, at their destination? What is the point if it doesn’t help them safely get to where they want to go?

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The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was about 18 miles long, which one could do, on foot, in a day. It was mostly downhill, since Jerusalem sits at 2,500 feet elevation, while Jericho sits below sea level.

Some of you have been there, so you know better than I.

As you descend into Jericho, the terrain gets hotter, drier, and more barren. The road meanders through canyons and ravines; in some places, it is quite narrow, wedged in between a cliff rising up on one side, and dropping off dangerously on the other.

A first-century Dead Man’s Curve.

Jews who lived in Jericho often travelled up the road to Jerusalem, especially for holy days and festivals. Then, after the holy days, they travelled back.

They had to be on the lookout for robbers, who took advantage of the terrain, and often hid in the ravines or behind rocks to attack unsuspecting travelers. 

Many of these robbers were Samaritans. A Samaritan wouldn’t think twice about robbing a Jew. The animosity between these two groups knew no bounds.

It was always safer to travel in a group, for this and other reasons. Remember at Easter, the story of the two disciples traveling to Emmaus? And how Jesus came up to them, (yet they did not know it was Jesus) and asked to join them? They were not surprised that an apparent stranger asked to journey with them, and in fact, they probably welcomed the extra company, since there is safety in numbers.

But the man in the parable that is our story for today… is traveling down to Jericho by himself. 

And, at Dead Man’s Curve, is attacked by robbers, who strip him, beat him, and take off.

And they leave him there, on that narrow road, exposed to the harsh desert sun, with no food, no water, no shelter; bleeding, bruised, naked, and not far from death.

The vultures are already circling.

I’m not sure what this man’s purpose was for traveling to Jericho. Perhaps he had been to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage, there for one of the holy days, and was returning home. As we’ll see shortly, there does seem to be other religious-types traveling the road that day… although why they didn’t all meet up, and travel together, I don’t know.

Whatever his purpose was for traveling that day, the road he traveled on did not bring him safely to his destination. He did not make it safely to Jericho. He did not reach his goal.

We are all on a journey. We are all traveling to some destination.

Some are on a journey toward prosperity. Some are on a journey toward healing. Some are on a journey toward security in their life.

Those who are graduating have successfully completed one stage of their journey… but the journey continues…

And we all want to reach our destination safely. We all want to achieve what it is we’ve set out to achieve. 

As a society, we build roads to help people reach their destination. I’m speaking metaphorically here.

Education is a road to the future, for example. 

We’re all looking for a road, a path, that will lead us to our future. And as a society, we try to make those roads safe and accessible. If there are any dangers or roadblocks, we try to remove them. Or, at least, we should.

Yet many dangers and roadblocks remain.

Racism places roadblocks in the paths of many. 

This past week, we’ve seen in a few states, congressional districts redrawn, in an attempt to disenfranchise people of color. It’s scary how fast some states have been to redraw those lines, and exclude Black people, especially, from having representation in government.

In the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) we recognize that racism is a sin, and we are committed to ridding both our church and our nation of racism.

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A letter to the church from our General Minister, Terri Hord Owens, and the members of our church’s Reconciliation Ministry Commission—dated May 8—reaffirms our denomination’s stand against racism.

The letter notes that free and fair access to voting, and fair representation, are currently under threat.

The letter points out that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, were signed by President Lyndon B Johnson, a lifelong member of the Disciples of Christ.

The letter also points out that, in 1982, the Voting Rights Act was extended by President Ronald Reagan, who grew up a Disciple (and who attended Eureka College, which is affiliated with our denomination)

The letter then states that “We are the church of Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell, leaders that were committed to creating religious and social systems that broke down barriers … even as they lived out their faith and political commitments in different ways.”

I think another way to say this is that we are committed to making the roads we travel safer… for everyone… so that everyone has a fair chance of making it to their destination safely.

This work is so important today. 

Once upon a time, it was robbers hiding in the rocks on the way to Jericho that presented a danger.

Once upon a time, it was a sharp curve on route 66 that presented a danger.

Both of these things kept people from safely reaching their destination.

But today we are called to make the journey safer in other ways… and one way is by continuing the work to be a pro-reconciliation, anti-racism denomination.

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In my previous congregation, there was one lady who said once in a group conversation that she didn’t think racism wasn’t a problem anymore; and she didn’t understand why people kept bringing it up.

And maybe she saw that her congregation, as small as it was, was incredibly diverse, with members who were Black, white, Mexican, and Asian, including immigrants from Pakistan, Burma, Cambodia, and Samoa. 

That diversity was something we rightfully celebrated. And maybe she looked at that, and thought, racism must no longer exist.

But maybe she hadn’t ever really talked to those members about their experiences, and how their experiences might not be the same as hers, and the additional roadblocks and dangers they face as they journey through life.

In a different congregation, even earlier in my ministry, Ginger and I once took a group of youth from the church on a camping trip. We had a reservation at a privately owned campground near Santa Cruz, California, and we pulled in at dusk. Our reservation was for a specific campsite, so I drove around very slowly, looking through the almost-darkness to figure out which campsite was ours.

When I found it, I parked the car, and went to check in with the campground manager.

Before I got to his office, he storms out toward me and starts berating me. He said to me: “This is a family campground. We have families with children here. We don’t need you coming in here, driving around like crazy.” 

His anger made no sense to me. Confused and upset, I walked back to our campsite. The youth could see that I was upset, so I explained to them what happened.

The kids just shook their heads. I expected them to be as shocked as I was, but they just shrugged their shoulders, as if the manager’s behavior was to be expected.

I looked at the kids I had brought: they were a diverse group. one was Black. One was white. One was Asian… And, looking at the expressions on their faces, I finally got it. I finally understood.

I realized: it wasn’t my driving that upset the manager. It was who I brought with me.

And for those kids, this is how the world works for them. They’re used to it, and were not surprised by it. This is what they experience every day.

But for a white person like me, it was a whole new experience.

They are used to roadblocks, barriers, and dangers in their path. They are used to not being able to safely reach their destination, and having to find an alternate route, or turn back.

Our call, as followers of Jesus, is to be the good neighbor who helps make the journey safer, by removing the roadblocks and the dangers, not just for ourselves, but for everyone. 

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Something like racism is at play in our scripture today. Those listening to Jesus tell this story knew that robbers lurked along the Jericho trail. And they knew—or assumed—that most of those robbers were Samaritans. 

Because that’s just how Samaritans are.

But then, in the story, some good, righteous, religious folks come traveling down that road… and when they see the beaten, left-for-dead traveler, they pass by on the other side of the road… which took some effort on their part, since the road really wasn’t very wide. They would have had to hug the cliff, or scamper down below, to pass by without coming near the injured man.

But then a third traveler comes along… and he’s a Samaritan. 

Come back to finish the job, no doubt, or to see if there was anything of value left on the victim that the first group of robbers might have missed, that he could take for himself. 

But no; this Samaritan… this Samaritan… offers aid to the wounded traveler. This Samaritan is the only one who actually worked to make this road a little safer, a little less dangerous. The only one who actually helped the beaten man make it to his destination.

By making this character in the story a Samaritan, Jesus challenges all the racial and prejudicial assumptions of his day.

If we want to faithfully follow Jesus, that is work that we should be doing as well. We need to challenge all the racial and prejudicial assumptions of our day.

In a sermon he preached in 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. asked what systems are in place today that leave people beaten and battered? He asked, How do we transform the road, making it safer?

On another occasion, King said to a friend of his: “I think the Good Samaritan is a great individual….but I don’t want to be a Good Samaritan… I am tired of picking up people along the Jericho Road. I am tired of seeing people battered and bruised and bloody, injured and jumped on, along the Jericho Roads of life. This road is dangerous. I don’t want to pick up anyone else, along this Jericho Road; I want to fix… the Jericho Road. I want to pave the Jericho Road, add street lights to the Jericho Road; make the Jericho Road safe [for] everybody….”

The prophet Isaiah once said: “make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” As people of God, we are called to do the same, by making those highways straight, safe, and accessible for all of God’s people.

Showing Support (Esther)

 If you aren’t familiar with the story of Esther, here’s a little background: the king is King Ahasuerus [a-HA-sore-us], also known as Xerxes I. 

His queen—Queen Vashti—displeased him, so he disposed of her, and began a search for a new queen.

And that search ended with Esther. ***** Esther became the new queen.

King Ahasuerus had an advisor named Haman. Haman hated the Jews. And Haman devised a plan to get rid of all the Jews in the kingdom.

Esther herself was a Jew, along with her cousin Mordecai, although Esther kept her Jewish identity a secret. Yet if Haman’s plan were to proceed, she very likely would be found out, and she, along with all the other Jews, would be in great danger. 

Just because she was the queen did not mean she was safe. Just look what happened to the previous queen!

But, being the queen did give Esther access to the king. Perhaps, if she did it right, she could convince the king to stop Haman’s plan to destroy all the Jews.

Would the king be displeased by her boldness and audacity? Would he get rid of her just as he had gotten rid of his previous queen?

This is the big, scary, intimidating task that was set before Esther.

But the first thing Esther did is that she had all the Jews fast on her behalf. She called on them to fast and to pray. She called on them to lend her some of their strength. 

She knew that her own strength was not enough. She needed the strength and the help of her people, in order to have the courage to do what she knew needed to be done.

I think it’s far too easy for us to miss the point of this part of the story. 

Because we live in a highly individualistic society.

In fact, no society in human history, past or present, is as individualistic as ours.

In many traditional cultures, there is a more communal sense to things. It’s more about relations and connections.

When you meet someone, you immediately start asking about their family. Their parents. Their grandparents. And you start telling them about your family.

Family bonds and connections are important. Community connections are important.

But we’ve moved away from that. For us, it’s all about the individual.

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You may have heard the story about an anthropologist visiting Africa, who once proposed a game to children in an African tribe. He put a basket of fruit near a tree and told the children whoever got there first could have the basket. 

When he told them to run they all took each other's hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. He was surprised. He asked them why they had run together like that, since one of them could have had all the fruit for themself. They said: “How can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?”

Those children taught him the concept of ubuntu. Ubuntu means “I am because you are.” And ubuntu is something many in our own society just don’t understand.

Even now, when we read the story of Esther and preach on it and look to it for lessons for our lives, we often look just to Esther, and lift her up as “the hero,” and give her all the attention, as if she acted all alone; as if it was all her strength, and her strength alone, that enabled her to do what needed to be done.

That’s how we read and interpret the story.

And we miss that important detail, that before she did anything, Esther sought the strength of her community, her people, by asking them to fast and pray on her behalf.

We in the Disciples of Christ practice believer’s baptism. That means that we normally wait until an individual is old enough to affirm for themselves faith in Jesus Christ; we wait until they are old enough to respond to the presence of God’s love and grace in their lives.

Yet last month, on Easter, we baptized an individual who really wasn’t capable of making that affirmation for himself.

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In thinking about this, I was reminded of a story in scripture in which four men bring to Jesus their paralyzed friend. They try to carry him into the house where Jesus is, but there is a crowd and they can’t get through, so they go up on the roof and dig a hole in the roof and lower their friend down to Jesus from above.

And Jesus “saw their faith… and said to the paralytic, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

This story appears in both Mark 2 and Luke 5, and both times, that declaration of forgiveness is given when Jesus sees the faith of the friends. 

That paralyzed man couldn’t get to Jesus on his own. Physically, there was no way he could have entered that building. But I think that spiritually, as well—he didn’t have the faith, or the courage to ask, or the ability to believe. 

In this story, the paralyzed man never speaks, he never acts; he is a completely passive character.

But his friends do act, and because of their faith, the paralyzed man encounters grace and forgiveness.

This story convinced me that baptizing Max was the right thing to do. 

Now, here in Esther, we have something similar.

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Esther cannot do what she needs to do on her own. She needs the strength and the prayers of her people.

The only thing Esther can do, at first, is ask for their help.

And, by their strength, and by their prayers and their fasting, Esther is then able to do what she needs to do.

But it started by asking for help.

Now Esther is a great hero from the Bible! There’s no doubt about that!

Yet sometimes the greatest act of the greatest hero… is to ask for help.

And sometimes, asking for help is also one of the hardest things we can do.

Let’s think back to last week’s scripture, which was about Jesus inviting Peter to walk on the water with him.

Peter stepped out onto the water, but when he saw the wind and the waves, he began to sink.

Maybe one reason he began to sink is that he thought he had to perform that task—walking on water—on his own, all by himself. 

What if, before he stepped out of the boat, called back to the other disciples, and said: “Hey, guys: I’m kinda nervous about this. Can you pray for me?”

Would that have made a difference?

And what if he had ignored the wind and waves, but instead kept his eyes focused on Jesus the whole time? When he took his eyes off Jesus and noticed the wind and the waves, he must have felt that it was just him, by himself, against the elements. 

And maybe for a moment he fought against the wind and the waves; and then, as he began to sink, he fought even harder, forgetting all about Jesus, giving in to the fear that he was about to drown.

But then Jesus reached out, and took Peter by the hand. Peter was not alone, after all; And he did not drown, but was brought safely back into the boat.

So: do you think it would have made a difference if Peter had asked the other disciples for support, to pray for him, first, before stepping out of the boat? Maybe they could have given him the faith and the courage and the spiritual strength he needed to stay above water, and not sink down into the waves.

Yet sometimes it is just so hard to ask for help.

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Esther asked for help. She asked her people to fast and pray for her. She knew she couldn’t do what needed to be done on her own. She didn’t have the strength, the courage, or the faith that was required.

But by the strength of her people, and the fasting and prayers they undertook on her behalf, she was able to go to the king, and put  a stop to Haman’s evil plan to rid the kingdom of her people.

Even though we do live in an individualistic age, we do know a little about the power of receiving strength from the community.

I was reminded of this the other day in a message that was sent out by our regional minister, William Crowder. 

A week ago, William Crowder and his wife Stephanie Crowder lost their son, Sollomon, who was found dead just one week before he was to graduate from Howard University.

In the message he sent out, he said: “We give thanks for a community of faith that has surrounded… our entire family with compassion, prayer, and unwavering care. In fact, your prayers have carried us when words have failed and have reminded us that we do not grieve alone.”

I think many of us have, in our lives, received this type of support from our community of faith; and many of us have shared in offering this type of support to others going through difficult times.

Last week, we celebrated the 189th anniversary of First Christian Church. And throughout our 189-year history, we have learned that ministry is done better when we do it together.

We do ministry together; with one another. 

We do ministry in partnership with a dozen other organizations in our community, who share with us the goal of bringing wholeness to our fragmented world.

We do ministry with ecumenical and interfaith partners in our community, which is a way of recognizing that we ourselves do not have an exclusive claim on God’s truth, and that we cannot possibly do what God is calling us to do on our own, but only when we work together.

We do ministry with nearly 3,000 other congregations with whom we are in covenant through the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Through all these partnerships, we help one another do the task that God is calling us to do.

And now we are taking part in the New Beginnings process. Over 1,000 congregations have already taken part in New Beginnings, and we are drawing upon their wisdom and their strength.

And helping us through this process are our assessor, and our consultant, and our associate regional minister Alex Ruth.

We are not doing this alone, by ourselves. We are drawing on the strength of others, and we are drawing on the strength of the Holy Spirit, to follow the path God is calling us to.

The same is true for each of us. 

Yes, the path God calls you to is not always easy. Like Esther, you may be challenged, to do some difficult, scary, and even dangerous tasks, leaving behind the comfort, the security, or the familiarity of the past.

But whatever God is calling you to, you are not alone. The strength and the encouragement and the support of God’s people is with you. 

You can depend on them, just as they can depend on you, to provide the strength and the encouragement that is needed.