Everyone is so busy these days, have you noticed that? There is always somewhere to go, or something to do, or something that we feel like we should be doing. I recall vividly a conversations I had with my pastor before I became a pastor myself. Looking at the nice summer day outside the church door, I made the completely ignorant comment; ”At least, since adult classes, confirmation, and Sunday School is over, you get to enjoy these nice days.” I swear that I saw reflected in this kind, Godly man’s eyes the urge to lovingly strangle me. He knew what I now know and you know also from your own lives; just because some cars clear off the busy freeway of life does not mean there are not others speeding up the on ramp, trying to butt in. And so, even through the summer, we continue to speed around, swerving as we go, hoping not to hit anyone.
This can’t be healthy; all of this rushing and speeding from place to place. We miss a nice little thing called rest. You remember what rest is like don't you? I had a dream about resting once, then I was abruptly woke up: "Did you remember to squeeze the toothpaste toward the front end of the tube?" "No, I’ll go do it now honey.” There is always something we’ve forgotten or need to get done. And, I don’t think that rest is the only casualty of our modern lives. Another casualty of speeding around from place to place all the time is that we never seem to have time to “Go and do likewise.”
You know what I’m talking about. As we are driving along, we see someone walking along the side of the road, probably stranded and homeless, and in true Christian fashion we take our car and swerve over the center line a little so as to keep the person from getting sideswiped; that’s very thoughtful of us. The example of the Good Samaritan pops up in my head every time I do this, and I feel like I should do be stopping and doing something. “Go and do likewise” rings around between my ears. Now, we know logically that there could be any number of good reasons that this person is stranded, walking on the highway. Their car could be broke down, or they could be running away from an abusive situation, or they just may be someone down on their luck who could use a little help. Of course, my brain quickly weighs these options and quickly comes to the conclusion that the person is likely a 87 year old mass murderer. The walker is just a ruse to get me to stop. Plus, my Bible is sitting on the passenger’s seat and there couldn’t possibly be any room.
I also like to play the “Well, I can’t help everyone in the world” game. Do you like to play that one? An example: we hear that care givers of aids patients in Africa need hygiene kits to keep them safe from the disease; simple things like latex gloves and the such. But, we have also heard that people are starving in India, and the food pantry is low on food, and the fine arts center could really use your help to expand their stage. So we shout, “Well, I can’t help everyone in the world.” It is true that we can’t help everyone. However, we can help at least someone. Not realizing this fact because of the overwhelming nature of life, the "Well, I can't help everyone in the world" game usually gets wild and goes something like this:
“Can you give just a quarter to help feed the infants.”
“Well, I can’t help everyone in the world.”
“Daddy can you please get me a glass of water?”
“Well, I can’t help everyone in the world.”
The best excuse of them all though is: “I have something important and I just don’t have the time.” This is the excuse of people who actually do care. The Levite and the priest were surely thinking that they should help the person bent over and bloodied on the side of the road. The cleanliness laws of Judaism do allow space for compassion on people who are bloodied and in need of help, so don’t imagine for a second that they wouldn’t have stopped if only they had the time. But, they have lives devoted to caring and were surely on their way to something very important. We, caring people, are always on our way to something important.
A sociological study done at Princeton Theological Seminary proves this point. In this experiment, seminary students (people who presumably love their neighbor) were informed that they were to give a talk that would be tape recorded in another building. “Along the way to the place for the talk, the subject encountered a ‘victim’ slumped in a doorway. The question was, under what conditions would the [students] stop to help the victim.
Half of the [students] were assigned to talk on the Good Samaritan Parable; the others were assigned a different topic. Some of the [students] were told they were late and should hurry; some were told they had just enough time to get to the recording room; and some were told they would arrive early” (Harman).
Now, one would assume that those students who had just studied the parable of the Good Samaritan would most definitely be more likely to stop and help. But they weren’t. “The only…variable that made a difference was how much of a hurry the [students] were in. 63% of subjects that were in no hurry stopped to help, 45% of those in a moderate hurry stopped, and 10% of those that were in a great hurry stopped” (Harman).
Becoming too busy is a sin. You know that already. You have felt its effects. It’s not a sin we are necessarily punished for though. As the writer Ann Lamott puts it, we are not punished for the sin, we are punished by the sin. I think this is the case with being too busy. When busy, we get that frantic, brainless feeling. When busy, we become entangled in ourselves and start to feel stuffy. When we are busy, others get punished by our sin also, because they are not cared for as they should.
It was no surprise to me when I studied the Greek word used for “Go” in “Go and do likewise" and found that it doesn’t simply mean just leave point A and get to point B. It is not that bland of a word. It has the flavoring of life to it. The flavor would make it sound like, “Go and truly live” or “Go with a fulfilling purpose.” The idea is that, when we “Go and do likewise” we are doing something that is nourishing and refreshing to both ourselves and the person we are helping. Surely you know what I am talking about. You know how refreshing it feels to slow down in life, pull off of your busy freeway, and do something meaningful for someone. It is like fresh cool water purifying your once stuffy soul.
A friend told me of an African pastor who was one of these refreshed souls. While attending a church in the bush of Africa, my friend stood in the crouded room for two hours, waiting for the service to start. The pastor of the African church had not yet arrived. The pastor did finally arrive, calmly sauntering in. After services were over, my friend asked if the congregation would be mad at him for being late.
“Of course not,” was his response. On his way to church he encountered an ill man who needed his help. “’Why would they be mad about that?” the African pastor asked.
“In America, people usually aren’t late, it is considered rude,” my friend mentioned.
“In America, you have watches, in Africa we have time,” he said in that peaceful way that spiritually fulfilled people do.
“Go and do likewise.” These words of Jesus are not a command as much as they are a gift from our savior. They are a gift of a new way of life that allows us to say "no" to being busy and "yes" to a life full of richness and purpose. It is the gift that Jesus had himself. Jesus had the time to save us. Nothing distracted him. No amount of business got in his way. God always has time for us. Share in that peaceful and enriching gift. “Go and do likewise.”
The study cited can be found at http://www.princeton.edu/~harman/Papers/Virtue.html, Moral Philosophy Meets Social Psychology
Virtue Ethics and the Fundamental Attribution Error by Gilbert Harman of Princeton University
All Scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and is used by permission. All rights reserved.
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