Pastors, practitioners and pundits
What are your excuses for not helping the poor and the needy?
These thoughts reminded me of our responsibility to the mentally ill in our churches. I have been reading Spurgeon's Expository Encyclopedia, Volume 4 on the parables of Christ. If you get a chance read his sermon, The Good Samaritan. I especially like his 7 excuses why the priest did not help the wounded Jew.
(1) The priest and Levite were both in a hurry to get back home
(2) He was not a surgeon/doctor and was afraid he might "mangle things."
(3) The priest felt the man was half dead and soon would die, why waste his money?
(4) Also, the Levite would be coming along soon, he could help him.
(5) He thought that he should not stop in a place where another man had been killed by thieves who could return for him.
(6) The man might die, and the person found near the body could be charged with murder
(7) He may have not wanted to be defiled, {Volume 4), pp 111,112
We do.
ReplyDeleteI heard Billy Graham preach on the Good Samaritan in Halifax in 1979. Since 1989 I have been working at The Scott Mission in Toronto, Canada. I began working with Seniors and for the last 11 years have been a counselor to street folk and others in need. The Mission has been serving God since 1941 in its present non-denominational form and since 1908 under Presbyterian leadership. Please read my blog on Christian faith and related mental health/poverty issues at www.globalchristianangst.blogspot.com Incidentally, The Scott Mission has long had the Good Samaritan as its logo.
Blessings, Richard