The Unlikely Good Samaritan
Who Might They Be?
I always love seeing our people as they see themselves in the Bible stories and then adapt them for our time. We just began the conversation on Wednesdays on the Book of Romans, written by the very human and transparent apostle Paul. Even in chapter one, we found ourselves engaging the challenges of the conflicts of the church in Rome and how it matters to us even now.
This past Sunday, I encouraged you to engage with the Holy Spirit pulling the church along into greater and greater welcome by rewriting the Good Samaritan story for our day. We are meant to see ourselves in the story. I shared how I had transformed the story to The Good Lesbian in full leather regalia who found the battered woman lying on the side of the road and managed to get her up onto her motorcycle to take her to the women’s shelter, and even offered to check back in on her welfare. Also, The Good Homeless Transwoman who managed to get the mugged socialite into her shopping cart and to the emergency room and then hung around to hear that she was okay.
I even shared my own story of finding myself stranded with my best friend Jeannette in her Sunbird on the median of South Braeswood as the storm hit too fast and flooding made the road impassable. We looked at a long row of beautiful homes along the floodway that were intact but also dark and locked. We tried a few with no luck. Then we saw a house up the street with all the lights on and we waded to it. As we arrived, an old Lincoln with its engine steaming pulled into the driveway. The driver was one of the owners of the house who, despite the high water, had risked going out to buy more food for the 30+ people sheltering in his home. We were welcomed in and fed, and I was even given dry socks. We found out that the male couple had been making this their home for 20 years. That’s my account of The Good Gay Couple on South Braeswood before I’d ever come out, even to myself, regarding my own gayness. But I remember the hospitality of these gentlemen, even if not their names, to this day.
How do you see yourself in the stories of faith? How do you update them to both challenge you and to remind you of the Holy Spirit’s ongoing invitation to keep seeing God’s love in your daily life and sometimes in those you might least expect? You can experience the whole of Sunday’s Contagious Hospitality worship HERE.
Breathlessly trying to catch up to the Spirit’s beckoning,
Rev. Troy
PS: We have Wednesday conversations both online Jesus Through the Eyes of Women and in person Romans: The Gospel of Paul that you can still join. Or maybe you just need to have some fun and join the Line Dancing on Thursday or the OWLS Game Night on Friday! There is a place for you.
Rev. Elder Troy Treash
Senior Pastor
Link to Newsletter HERE