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Luke 10:25-37

The Good Samaritan

July 10, 2022

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Year C

Supplies: Three apples and one orange (you can use pictures, if need be)

Related message(s): N/A

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning!
What am I holding in my hands here? [hold up the 3 apples]
That’s right, I’m holding three apples.
And is this [hold up the orange] the same thing as those three apples? (No!)
That’s right, an orange is not an apple.

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

In today’s scripture story, Jesus tells a story that we call “The Good Samaritan.” And what I’m going to do is retell it to you with these 3 apples and this 1 orange, ok?
One day, an apple [hold up one apple] was walking along the road and was robbed – meaning, the apple had its stuff taken from him.
The apple was also badly hurt while being robbed. In fact, the apple was so hurt that it couldn’t walk [put apple on ground and tip it over]. The apple could only lay there and hope that some other good apple would come along and help it.
And guess what? Another apple DID happen by [hold up another apple]. But that apple saw the hurt apple and thought, “It’s a trap!”
So, the healthy apple turned around and ran away – without helping.
So the hurt apple just laid there for awhile longer until…
…another healthy apple showed up [hold up another apple].
And the hurt apple said, “Please help me. I’m hurt.”
But the healthy apple said, “All these bad apples keep getting hurt. If I help you, then I’ll have to help all of you.”
So the healthy apple just WALKED past! Can you imagine? The healthy apple didn’t even stop.
So now the hurt apple was really scared and sad. It looked like no one was going to help the hurt apple.
But then, an orange walked by [hold up the orange].
Now, you may not know this, but apples and oranges don’t like each other. That’s why there’s no such thing as apple-orange juice. Or orange-apple pie. Or an “Or-pple” Starburst candy.
Anyways, the hurt apple thought there was no way an orange would ever help.
But then something very surprising happened: The orange stopped and took very good care of the hurt apple! The orange helped the hurt apple get better!
[Put the hurt apple back upright, again – then put all fruit in a bag so that the kids don’t get distracted]

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

Like I said before, this apple/orange story is a lot like the story of the “Good Samaritan” that Jesus tells in today’s scripture story – where the Samaritan acted just like the orange did.
Jesus told this story of the Good Samaritan because he wanted his people, the Israelites, the apples in the story, to really think about who their neighbors were.
See, there was this rule that God had shared with the Israelites. That rule goes like this: Love your neighbor as yourself.
But the Israelites would always argue about who their neighbor actually was.
In this story, who do you think was the hurt apple’s neighbor? The other apples or the orange?
The orange? Yep, I think so too.
Jesus thought so, too – which is why he told the people in the story to go and do like the Good Samaritan Orange did – to go out and help those who are hurt and needing help.
Jesus’ story still reminds us, today, that when we live God’s better way, then we can be God’s loving neighbor to any and every person, no matter how different they might be than us.
In fact, we can even be neighbors to people who think of us as NOT-their neighbors.
When we do this, when we love our neighbors, even those super-silly apples, then we are helping God share God’s love in this world.
That’s the good news for today. Let’s pray.

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,

Thank you for loving us.

Help us to receive your love...

…so that we can then share your love…

…with all of our neighbors.

Thank you and Amen

Originally posted July 10, 2013
Updated on June 13, 2022
Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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