5th Sunday After Pentecost Year C: An Ecological Reading of the Good Samaritan

Laurel Dykstra

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

What if, in this time of climate crisis, we read this parable and understood that it was the earth which had fallen among robbers

Been robbed
Been stripped 
Been beaten
Been left half dead -abandoned when it had nothing more to give

How then would we see ourselves in the story? How have we taken part in the plunder? How have we benefitted from it?
Seeing the earth abused, how have we turned our head, how have walked by on the other side?
How have we been like the Samaritan, what actions have taken to care for the broken earth?
For the creatures, the forests, the waterways who are our neighbours?
And like the Samaritan who left coin with the innkeeper and promised more, how have we made financial commitment to the care for the earth?

Image Description:

Aerial view of the Alberta tar sands, Canada. The tar sands is the world's second largest deposit of oil. To extract the oil huge amounts of water and CO2 are necessary.