As you’ll have seen, we’ve had a State visit from President Macron of France this week which included the news that the Bayeux Tapestry would return to England on loan. I say return, since there is strong evidence to suggest that the embroidery is the work of Anglo-Saxon artists. With the Tapestry depicting the events around the Norman Conquest in 1066, it’s a great example of our shared history with France.
And it’s July 14th tomorrow. That’s Bastille Day in France, first celebrated in 1790, a year after the storming of the Bastille, the castle in Paris that had been used as a prison and had come to symbolise royal oppression and political control of the masses.
It’s said that on that first Bastille Day, a catholic mass was celebrated on the Champ de Mars in Paris for an estimated 260 thousand people. But that was then followed by a 4-day feast, fireworks, fine wine and running naked through the streets to display their ‘greater freedom’… So, a bit like the opening to the Paris Olympics! I’ll be watching carefully in case any of you start shedding any garments to reveal your French ancestry…
July 14th has become the day when the French celebrate their national identity – and identity is what’s important in our readings today. In Deuteronomy it’s taken 40 years wandering through the desert but now they’ve arrived on the border with Canaan, the promised land of milk and honey. Moses has led them from the start, but he won’t be going any further. He’s dying.
Parting words
Deuteronomy contains his parting words. His final instructions. 34 chapters, the first 30 of which are 3 sermons and given on the brink of something new, something they’ve strived so long for. So, 3 sermons taking 30 chapters… and you thought I went on a bit!
The last of those sermons, of which our OT reading is part, focusses on giving the Israelites comfort. If they mess up, which we all know they surely will, then the promised land may get taken from them. But if they repent it can be restored.
In Jewish communities our passage today is the last in the cycle of weekly readings of the Torah, the law. It’s read immediately before Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year. So, it’s important.
Choose
In it, Moses says that if they repent, if they turn their lives around, and return to God, if they heed God’s commandments, then he’ll take them back. He’ll bring them back together from the ends of the earth. Moses pleads with them to choose life by loving God and keeping the commandments.
And Moses says this is not difficult, it’s easy. It’s within everyone’s reach. Not up in the heavens or beyond the sea. It’s right here within us already. Inside us. In our hearts and in our mouths.
He’s asking them and us to choose: What kind of people do you want to be? As you enter your promised land and make a fresh start, what do you want to be known for? How do you want to be remembered?
Shema
Earlier in Deuteronomy, in his 1st sermon, we have what’s called the Shema Yisrael, the defining statement of Jewish identity: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength”.
Moses says: is this how you want to be known? If so, you can do it. It’s within your grasp.
All three readings today pick up on that same theme, one that’s just as relevant for us today. What kind of people do you want to be? How do you want to be known?
Reputation
In Paul’s letter, the people he’s writing to are apparently known for their faith and for their love of all God’s people. That’s a pretty good reputation to have, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be great if the congregation here was known throughout Heywood for their faith and for their love of all people? Perhaps you already are? But wouldn’t it be amazing if our nation was known for that too?
And in our Gospel reading we have the story of the man who was injured and the Samaritan who helped him. Here our expert in the law is looking for a short-cut to eternal life. Jesus turns the question back and asks him what scripture says. The expert quotes that passage that we heard about earlier from Deuteronomy 6. Loving the Lord God with all your heart, soul and strength. And then he adds “to love your neighbour as yourself” which is from Leviticus.
The parable that Jesus tells in response, gives his audience, both back then and us now, a choice about the kind of people they and we can be. It’s not the quick fix that the expert was after but a life choice. The shock, the surprise, was who Jesus picked as the example to follow. He didn’t say look at me and do what I do. Jesus picked a Samaritan.
An enemy
We don’t need to go into all the history now but enough to say that his Jewish audience would consider the Samaritan an enemy. This is not someone a little odd or a little strange or on the fringes. This is someone that they didn’t trust, that they feared, whose religious outlook was different. There was violence between Jews and Samaritans not just in their past but in the time of Jesus too.
And Jesus tells his audience: act like this person, do what they do. This person that you don’t trust, that you fear. Not only that but accept assistance from this person if you need help. And it’s an imperative, an instruction. Go and do likewise.
The expert in the law had the head knowledge. But Jesus was looking for radical action not theoretical understanding. For people that do and not just talk.
Hamas
A modern-day equivalent to the parable would be a Jewish national being attacked and left for dead. The only person to give him help, to show compassion, is a Palestinian supporter of Hamas. The Orthodox Rabbi and the Red Cross paramedic don’t go near him. It’s someone from Hamas who not only gives first aid but organises ongoing care too. And the injured Jew accepts that help – help from someone they would consider an enemy.
It may be tough for you and me to consider a parallel. If you can, you need to think of someone you really don’t like or someone you fear. Depending on your politics maybe it would be someone on the hard left or the hard right? Someone from a different religion or ethnicity? Perhaps it’s closer to home and you really don’t get on with one of your family, or neighbours or, God forbid, even with someone here in church! Would you help that person if you found them in trouble?
Perhaps a harder question is: would you accept their help if you were the one that was needing it? If you were the one left in the metaphorical ditch… And not just as a one-off but as a long-term commitment?
Choose life
Our scriptures today ask us to choose life. To be known for our faith, our love and our compassion for all, even those that we don’t particularly get on with. And with God’s help it should be easy for us, within our grasp. In our hearts and in our mouths.
So, what kind of person do you want to be? How do we want to be known as a church? What is our identity as a nation? And what are we going to do about it?
At a funeral service, you normally get a bible reading and often it’s Psalm 23 or the one about a place being prepared for us. But once or twice I’ve heard the Parable of the Good Samaritan held up as an example of the life led by the recently departed.
What a different world it would be if, when the time comes, that same reading was chosen to sum up the lives of more people – especially those in, or aspiring to, political leadership. But, when it comes to our end, yours and mine, will it be the Samaritan reading that’s chosen for us too, by those who know us the best? Amen
“Identity” was delivered by Ian Banks at St Margaret’s, Heywood on July 13th 2025. It was based on Deuteronomy 30:9-14 and Luke 10:25-37.
References:
- Levine, A-J. (2014). Short stories by Jesus: the enigmatic parables of a controversial Rabbi. HarperOne.