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.
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