Sermon for Fifteenth Sunday of the Year
Year C
July 15th 2007
The Good Samaritan
Patristic inspiration: Caesareus of Arles and St Augustine. Both these fathers wrote and preached on The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Their themes were quite similar, perhaps to the point where Caesarius is dependent on the Doctor of Grace.
In St Augustine’s Sermon 198, 43, (preached on New Year’s Day 404 ad) there is a brief allusion to the Good Samaritan parable, during an argument on the essentiality of the Church for human salvation. Augustine says that Christ is the one who runs on the way inhabited by sinners, but does not stop on that way. Christ, the new Adam is not distracted from the path of goodness and completes the course. Christ is, therefore, the one spoken of in Psalm 1.1 “Blessed is he who has not turned aside in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stopped in the way of sinners.” Adam, on the other hand, fell into the hands of thieves and brigands who beat him, and left him on the roadside bleeding. He was not determined or strong enough to finish his course. So Christ had to do so for him. Christ binds up the wounded Adam, and puts him into the Church to be healed. “But the one who was traveling along this way, not stopping but running, saw him; he found him wounded, put him on his beast, and handed him over to the innkeeper.”
My sermon needs to be explained a little so that the unfamiliar image of the inn will be well appreciated. Unless the congregation appreciates the unsavory nature of the stabulum or πανδοξειον, They will miss out on one of the points in the sermon.
Introduction
The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is a type for the human descent into sin due to the fall of the First Adam. That Adam is thrust out of Paradise.
Two men came forth from the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem. The first is Everyman; he is me and he is you. This first Adam is thrust out by God from his inheritance for his greed and his disobedience. This man stumbles out onto the Jericho Road, full of false confidence and bravado. He struts about and makes his moves. He tells the world that he is ready, that he needs nobody. “Look out world. Here I come. Move over because superman Adam is here!!”
The fallen human is stripped of the garment which is love. He is without the dignity of a child of God.
But take a look at how we stumble, you and I who are Adam. Look at that road a few days later and you will see him fallen on the wayside, bleeding and gashed and miserable. This brave and assured man is now frightened and hurt. His clothes are gone and he is naked- crouching in agony as he seeks to cover his shame. The beauty he once had is gone, his fine clothes are vanished. This once arrogant fellow is a squirming and disgusting tramp n the side of the road. The garment which made him so fine, the cloak that made him look like God Himself is stripped from him. He has abused love. By his sins he has lost the wedding garment which allows him to sit with God at the banquet table. He has no love. He who does not know love does not know God. Without love a human soul has no dignity and no beauty.
The New Adam comes willingly out of the gates of Paradise to save humanity.
And then the gates of Heaven open again and a far more beautiful man comes out. He is a perfect man, a man like Adam in all things except sin. This Adam wears the white garment of love. He is a child of God, in fact he is God’s only Son. This Son of god is truly human and truly Adam, the new Adam. He comes to rescue Adam from the road to Jericho. Jericho Road is well known as the road to hell. Our friend Adam is fallen and beaten and cannot get up. He cannot help himself by his own deeds. Only Grace can save him now, the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
The New Adam sees his brother on the road, takes pity on him and shows compassion.
The wounded man needs the healing balm of the new Adam from Heaven, the Christ. Oil for Chrism is poured into the wounds and the sweet wine of the Eucharist makes him heal. The great Doctor has healed him
The inn is a despicable place where respectable people shun. The profession of innkeeper is not respectable.
The inn is the Church, the free choice of the new Adam. It is Christ’s choice to bring the wounded to the Church so that they may be healed. The Church is necessary for salvation.
If you recognize the inn, it's the Church; an inn now, because while we live, we are travelers. But it's going to be house and home, from which we shall never more depart, when we arrive hale and hearty at the kingdom of heaven. Augustine Sermon 131, 6
The innkeeper is a sinner. He is chosen, not for his virtue, but for his convenience. Christ chooses the Church because he wants the services of sinners to save other sinners. Clergy are the unworthy innkeepers.
The innkeeper is warned and promised that Christ will return. The innkeeper knows that his conduct to the man who had fallen among thieves will determine how the Samaritan will reward or punish him upon his Second Coming.