Friday, November 15, 2013

The Good Samaritans

       There is a hospital just down the road called the Exempla Good Samaritan Hospital.  Every time I read the name I can’t help but ruminate. The phrase “Good Samaritan” has become such a common cultural reference that it is hard to imagine just how offensive it was the first time that famous parable was uttered.  The Judeans viewed Samaritans as aliens, as half bred heretics who were in league with pagan gods.  Who would hold up such an “infidel” as the universal symbol of charity and holiness?
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          “Yes, Ryan Sir we are preparing for Diwali” Binod’s voice crackled over Skype.
          “Dadju, please tell everyone in Daragaon Diwaliko Subhakamana from my family.”
          “Of course Ryan Sir, Devi Didi will miss you on bhai tikka this year”
          “We would love to be there.  How is our new volunteer at the school doing?”
          “Oh, Elizabeth is doing great.  The children love her already and are enjoying all of her games.”
          “That’s good to hear, how about the other staff?”
          “Everyone is good in their attendance and working hard.  Ryan Sir, it is just hard for our village teachers to adopt a new way of teaching.  I just wish they could learn from the example set by Ian Sir and the other volunteers.  Our people are so slow to change sometimes.”
          “It’s okay.  The school is not perfect but it’s growing and improving.  We’ll get there one day. Just remember how far we’ve come.”

          When Amanda and I moved into Daragaon we did something extremely offensive.  We moved in with a Hindu family and not just any Hindu family, they were Sadhu.  Our intention wasn’t to offend but instead befriend… but the small Christian community took offence anyways.  The members of the “Himalayan Free Church” were instructed not to work with us or develop deep relationships with us.  We, the new neighbors, were deemed guilty by association with the old neighbors.  In the end Binod, Tilak, Arjun and our mostly Hindu friends were the ones to work with us in transforming Daragaon.  The Christians remained huddled in their temple afraid of being contaminated by unholy association.
Ten years down the road, it is those Samaritans that I still miss when the fall holiday season rolls around.  I call them every year or visit if I can.
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The Namesake of the huddled Christians was tested by the Lawyer who asked, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
The Teacher replied, “Well what is written in those scriptures of yours?”
The Lawyer replied, “Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and the second is like it… love your neighbor as yourself.”
The Teacher commended, “Correct.  Do this and you will live.”
Uncomfortable and wanting to save face in front of everyone, the lawyer retorted, “Well just who then is my neighbor?”
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          I skipped church on a Saturday evening to go with my neighbor Kiran to a Diwali celebration.  Around 20 Nepali families from across the Front Range had gathered in Longmont to celebrate.  The night was filled with dancing, feasting and music.  After dressing up like a disheveled Brahman priest and dancing like a “joker”, Kiran led the group in playing the back and forth singing game called Deo Su Rey.  The families were smiling ear to ear having been transported back to their homeland for at least an evening.  I was smiling too.
          Traditionally, male Deo Su Rey carolers go door to door singing and are given sweets, Sel Roti and a few rupees. Judging that too difficult in an area sparsely populated by Nepalis, everyone just sang (male and female alike) in the living room of one host family’s abode.  A woman brought out a nanglo filled with treats, Prasad, and lamps and sat it in the center of the room.  Everyone danced around the nanglo and threw down money as they did.  The M.C. jested, “This guy owns a gas station and he’s only given $100 dollars!”  The owner laughed and opened his pocket book again.  Another was jested, “What a $20?  Don’t you have a job?”
          By the end of the evening the basket was full of money… but the carolers weren’t taking home the booty.  They were sending it back to Nepal to build houses for the poor neighbors who they’d left behind.
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In response to the Lawyer, the Teacher told him the now ubiquitous parable.  The Samaritan was traveling from his home up north in Samaria down to Jerusalem. He was probably a blue collar guy or at least looked poor enough not to attract the attention of the thieves. Chances are that he was going to city to pay his taxes.  Samaritans weren’t allowed to worship at the temple and had little other business in Jerusalem than filling Cesar’s coffers.  He was traveling into the Kingdom of Judah where “half breeds” like him were despised. Up ahead on the side of the road was a man beaten, bloody, naked and left for dead by thieves.  He was assumedly a “pure” Judean.  A Priest had passed him by.  A Levite had passed him by.  Their excuse that touching another’s blood would render them “unclean” for their religious duties. 
Then came the infidel.  He uses his bandages. This was a couple thousand years before first aid kits, so I imagine he had to tear his own clothes to make these.  He applies his wine and oil as medicine.  He puts the injured on his donkey (which still serves as an ambulance in many parts of the world), and uses his money… maybe even that tax money for Cesar… to heal the man.  And The Teacher asks, “So which one do you think was a neighbor to this man?”
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We do, to be honest, have two neighbors who we haven’t met yet.  To be fair, the couple lives in North Carolina so it has been challenging to “stop by for some sugar”.  They are our neighbors none the less and have been a neighbor to so many in the Himalayas as well.  Amanda and I have watched this uncanny juxtaposition develop over the last several years.  Churches and faith groups have let their support of our efforts fade away for various reasons.  Each group has its own.  At the same time Brian and Shawn have consistently risen to the occasion to support ECTA and advocate its work to so many others.  I can honestly say that the organization would have sunk several times without their generosity.  As a homosexual couple, they are considered Samaritans throughout most of the Bible Belt of America… but Good Samaritans they have been none the less.
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          Before our daughter’s birth in September, my mom made up a bunch of frozen meals.  We knew that we’d be busy and tired after the baby came and thought this would be a good way to lessen the load.  After returning home with Juniper, we set out a meal to thaw one evening.  Around 4 o’clock Kiran’s mother, whom we call Maiju, stopped by and informed us, “We are cooking dinner for you this evening.  Don’t start cooking.  Just rest.”  The meal was delicious and the left overs took care of lunch the next day as well.  This gave our frozen meal time to thoroughly thaw for dinner the next day as it waited in the fridge.  Around 4 o’clock that next day our Tibetan neighbors showed up with a huge tray of momos and biryani.  As we sat down to enjoy the feast that evening, our Afghani neighbors swung by as well with a pressure cooker full of the traditional chicken soup that is given to mothers during the post-partum period in their homeland.
Who are these people?  Who are these folks “in league with pagan gods”?  Who are these CNA’s who change the bed pans, gas station owners who count the tills behind safety glass, factory workers who drive the forklifts and used car salesmen who tie the balloons at the corner of their lots?  Who are these Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims?  Who are these homosexual philanthropists?  Who are these aliens, immigrants and… Samaritans?  Who are our neighbors? 
In response to the Teacher’s question, the Lawyer… not even able to say the word Samaritan… responded, “The one who showed mercy.”
Who would hold up ones “such as these” as symbols of the holy life we are to lead?  Well Christ did as much in his parable.
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          The Samaritan was probably 2-3 days journey from his home.  A stranger in a strange land, unwanted and despised.  These days, thanks to the transportation revolution, we can reach almost any spot in the world in 2-3 days journey.  So now I ask, in this new paradigm, “who is our neighbor?”  What are we to do now that the suffering of an entire planet is within an arm’s reach, flight, phone call or wire transfer?  If we are to follow the “Exempla” of the “Good Samaritan”, we should embrace those who have been passed by the legal and religious institutions, to tear our shirts to bandage those left bleeding on the side of the road by modernity, to uncork the wine, to cleanse the wounds and pour out the oil of healing liberally.
We named our first ambulance “The Donkey” for two reasons.  It was a donkey who bore Mary to Bethlehem as she was in labor and the second is like it… it was a donkey the Samaritan used to take the broken man to the inn.  This year Colorado Gives Day falls on December 10th and it is our hope to add another Donkey to our herd.  It is ECTA’s goal to raise $20,000 dollars to purchase an ambulance for the village of Daragaon and the surrounding region.  I’ve personally assisted in carrying multiple patients on stretchers from that village... including my own wife and first born son... and I would have given anything then to have even a four legged donkey at my disposal.  A vehicle road is being built to Daragaon and should be completed in 2014.  Our plan is to install the new ambulance when we return next May.
While Dashain and Diwali have already passed us by, there is still a chance to dance, sing and throw down your offerings in the basket this Holiday Season.  I invite you to come to the party December 10th.   This year may we all be “the ones who show mercy” and when we do we will assuredly receive the true blessing assured in that parable which is “do this and you will live.”  Not only will you live but others will be given the chance to live as well.

ECTA – That all may be born into love, live in hope and die with dignity.
Sincerely,
Ryan Phillips
Executive Director - www.ecta-international.org

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