Throw Out the Religious Map and Forge a New Spiritual Path

At our Friday morning Free Store conversation we talked about Jesus' parable in Luke 10, "From Jerusalem to Jericho."  The story is about a man that is robbed, stripped, beaten, and left for dead on a lonely seventeen mile stretch of road between ancient Jerusalem and Jericho.  As the guy lay dying two good guys (a priest and levite) pass that way but quickly scurry past without lifting a finger to help.  Fortunately for the victim a bad guy (Samaritan) comes along and has pity on him and helps him out.

We started the conversation by talking about how we all have these religious maps in our heads that mark out the boundaries between good and bad people, moral and immoral, insiders and outsiders.  These maps lead us to look down on and exclude those people that live outside of our holy tribal territory.  In Jesus' society the priest and levite were the heroes and the Samaritan was the bad guy.  Ironically it was the villain that turned out to be the one that had compassion for the victim.  We talked about how this parable challenges us to throw out the maps and to chart a new path into unfamiliar territory.

As the conversation progressed our friend David said, "When I came back to Charlotte and my church found out I was homeless this lady said 'me and my husband want to put you up in a hotel for a week so you don't have to sleep on the street."  He said, "Tears shot out my eyes."  At this George said, "Since I been at the free store I've seen a lot of people judgin the homeless."  He also said, "I got cussed out yesterday" (just to clarify it was not by someone judging the homeless) which made us laugh.

At this point we talked a bit about how we tend to label people and then exclude them.  Someone made us laugh when he said, "You either need good neighbors or good fences."  David said, "My whole life I was called an n-lover cause I have always had black friends."  Marney said, "It's no fun to be excluded.  I was excluded in high school."  David said, "My dad was an alcoholic.  I got excluded from playing football in high school.  The coach wouldn't even let me get on the scouting team.  So I quit since I knew that even if I gave one hundred and ten percent I'd never get on the field."  These stories made us feel sad for our friends.  Marney then said, "I have friends that don't understand why I'm always runnin to the free store.  They think I should be working harder instead of hanging out with homeless people.  But I like my friends here and I don't like to be judged like that."

As the conversation came to a conclusion we talked about why people draw boundaries, label people, and cling to their stereotypes.  Marney made us laugh when she said, "Some people think their crap don't stink."  Someone said that the real problem is when we start to internalize the negative judgments of others and then beat ourselves up.  David said, "Sometimes I'm afraid I'll never find Mrs. Right.  I think that with my criminal record no one would want me."  We encouraged David to keep his head up and that good things would come his way.  Someone said, "We are all richer when we open our lives up to others."  It's like that scene in Lord of the Rings where Frodo and Sam are leaving the shire.  Frodo stops and says, "If I take one more step I'll be father away from home than I've ever been before."  But by taking that step he discovered a bigger home in a bigger world and embarked on a greater adventure.  God's kingdom calls us to throw out the religious map and forge a new spiritual path into the world.