Smashing Boundaries

 Pentecost V, Grace Episcopal Church, Monroe, La.

Boundaries are often good things. I’m talking about social boundaries, the kind that help us manage our human relationships.

 

When I finished my Bachelor’s degree at the University of Iowa in the spring of 1980, I went straight to graduate school that fall. I had decided I was called to teach at the college level, and as an Iowa farm girl, I figured  that I really needed to diversify my own experience of the world. So, of the several graduate programs that offered me admission and a graduate assistantship, I chose the University of Pennsylvania—not for its academic reputation but because it was situated in Philadelphia—a major city known for its racial, ethnic and class diversity.

 

I was right! I had many experiences in Philadelphia that taught me about social boundaries and how they guide our behavior in interaction with other human beings. In fact, I found it so interesting that I made that a significant part of my graduate study.

 

One really rather mundane lesson that I still laugh about today actually happened in church. I chose a lovely church full of lovely people near the Penn campus. They were very welcoming.

 

But one Sunday after leaving coffee hour, I got to thinking about the fact that although I loved the worship and thought well of the people, coffee hour was always a bit uncomfortable.

 

Now at that church, coffee hour came after the principal service. It lasted about 20 minutes, and we did NOT sit at tables as we do here. Rather, we stayed on our feet, coffee cup in hand, and mingled.

 

So, after a few weeks of reflection and sort of “studying” my own behavior, I realized what was happening. Basically, I—from small town Iowa—was accustomed to much closer social space than is customary in a big city. I was quite literally backing people around the parish hall and into corners by standing too close!

 

They’d take a step back, and I’d take a step forward. They’d take another step back, and I’d close what was to me a “gap” between us. And on it went. I literally had to learn to plant my feet on the floor and resist with great discipline the impulse to step into their preferred private space.

 

Boundaries. They help us keep our social relationships on track. And they come in all forms. Here’s a verbal one I also had to learn: When the convenience store cashier, with whom you have never done business before, calls you “baby”… if you’re in the Deep South, you smile and say “Thanks, Hon.” If you’re in the north, Yankee Land where I’m from, take a step back and get out of there as fast as you can!

 

So those are some funny examples, but boundaries are also serious business. I think it important to know that many people with autism have difficulty understanding and navigating social boundaries. They often struggle a lot to interpret social cues and to recognize nonverbal communication, and so they are often not sure how to make their own interactions “fit in.” They’re often not sure what is appropriate to say or do in any given situation. It is exhausting and anxiety producing.

 

Cultures also shape boundaries—not just rural vs. city culture, but cultures based in race, ethnicity and social class shape our perception and use of social boundaries. These can become particularly difficult and even deadly boundaries.

 

And that leads me, finally, to today’s Gospel story, in which Jesus is in the business of smashing boundaries.

 

Open Heart by Cromwell Ngobeni

To talk about the boundaries Jesus smashes in this story, I’m going to dwell for a moment on the guy in the ditch.

 

Who was he? Was he a Jew? I’m guessing that’s the common assumption. But in this story, which is ALL ABOUT who people are and the social boundaries they live within, Jesus says not a word about who the guy in the ditch is. It’s almost as though.. it really doesn’t matter! Right? He’s your neighbor. That is all.

 

Jesus also doesn’t answer any of the questions we might ask, like what did the guy do to contribute to his fate of getting robbed? Was he flaunting his wealth? Was he dressed provocatively? Was he careless? You know: What did he do to provoke the attack? All questions we might well ask seeking to justify our lack of desire to help.

 

It is particularly ironic that the religious guys—the priest and the Levite—do not help the guy in the ditch. Loving God and your neighbor as yourself is NOT a New Testament idea. Jesus did not make that up. He was quoting Hebrew scripture when he said that, and the priest and the Levite surely knew it. (Leviticus 19)

 

It is more than ironic, it is positively egregious when Christians today use Jesus himself to build boundaries between themselves and their neighbors—not only the ones who don’t worship Jesus, but even those who do worship Jesus but who perhaps don’t believe all the right things about him, or who don’t live by the right moral standards, or who have decided that Jesus sides with one political party over another, or whatever. Using Jesus to create deep and angry political divisions between people and nations seems to be a favorite past time these days.

 

 Author Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest, said this: The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. (Holy Envy)

 

See, this story of the Samaritan is not the only time Jesus smashes boundaries. Jesus smashed boundaries all the time. He dined with sinners. He hung out with low-lifes, like tax collectors. His smashing of boundaries is precisely what got Jesus into trouble with the good church people of his day over and over again.

 

So today I invite us to consider how we justify ourselves, what kinds of boundaries we use in deciding who is our neighbor and how we should respond to them. We are very invested in determining who “deserves” our help and who doesn’t. I think we are quite good at coming up with justifications that allow poverty and injustice to thrive in our society, and that defend the status quo, which just happens to benefit us!

 

Maybe it’s time each of us spends some time doing an inventory: What are my boundaries, especially when it comes to people who are very different from me? How do I use those boundaries in shaping my interactions with such people? Or do I have boundaries that prevent me from ever having to interact with people outside of my comfort zone? Which of my boundaries might be overdue for smashing?

 

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, AMEN.