The Good Samaritan, an Ass-Whuppin', and Long Hairs in Church

Hey, man. This is Chilly Billy Howell and I’m out yakkin’ on Alcorn Island in the middle of the Moon in my Gitche Manitou Mystic Moonglow Stellar S16G2. I was filming with the GoPro but it got too hot. Imagine that. It is over 100° heat index.

I’ve been thinking about The Good Samaritan.

Madge and I went to St. Peter’s Episcopal Church last Sunday where we sometimes worship when we are in Oxford. They had a visiting padre (Rev. Hank Dunn) that spoke about The Good Samaritan, the importance of helping the broken, not being judgmental, not leaving things undone.

In the Good Samaritan story, the Jews and the Samaritans kinda hated each other back in the day after Soloman’s reign, when the 10 tribes went north and two tribes went south, Judah and Benjamin. At the time, the Jews considered the Samaritans as being unclean and unworthy.

The story is a young man asked Jesus, what must I do to be saved? And Jesus said, you have got to love God and love your fellow man as yourself, and love your neighbor as yourself. Basically. And the man said, who is my neighbor? And Jesus told the story of The Good Samaritan.

A Jewish man was walking down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He got robbed, got his butt whupped, got beat up and left half dead. A priest walked by; he didn’t help him, he walked on the other side of the road. A Levite walked by and did the same thing.

You have got to remember the priests were Levites but all Levites weren’t priests, but that is for another day…

They wouldn’t even help him even though they were supposed to be uber empathetic by nature of their position.

Then a Samaritan came by. The Samaritans and the Jews didn’t even get along. The Samaritan stopped and helped the man, nursed his wounds, put oil and wine on them, took him to an inn, and paid for the innkeeper to take care of him, and said any other fees that are charged, just let me know and I will come back and pay those too. That’s a good samaritan!

Rev. Dunn also said something really good about find within ourselves what we criticize in others. Wow! I deal with that a lot.

And the coup de grâce was a quote by Frederick Buechner, a Christian apologist back in the day, who said that God calls us to a place where our deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger. Because we can’t solve every problem but if we have something we really get joy from (and that isn’t self-interest… it’s like the difference between happy and joy. Happy is a feeling; joy is intrinsic. Same thing here.), find that deep gladness where the God-shaped vacuum within us tells us what it is we are uniquely put here to do.

That was all so powerful to hear.

Then I get up during the tithe, not because I was avoiding it, but because I had to go to the restroom. So, I’m walking back to the restroom and this guy smirking on the back row looks up at me and he mimics cutting hair, like I needed to cut my long hair. I just went, “Hell no.” I kept walking. I did smile.

The difference is if I was still in active addiction I would have probably head-butted him, whupped his ass or at least tried to, or at least we would have had a come to Billy meeting. But, I didn’t do that. I did do better. I smiled. Said two words. Came back to my seat and didn’t mess with him. That’s what I did do. The in addiction is what I would have done. And what I should’ve done is just smiled at him and kept going. That would have pleased God more.

I got back to my seat, told Madge and we kind of chuckled. And then she pointed at a picture of Jesus behind the pulpit with long hair. Now I’m not making a comparison, I’m just sayin’, hair ain’t the big issue! If that’s what you have got to judge me over, there are plenty of other things you ought to be judgin’ me for.

Let’s all be a good samaritan.

Y’all have a good day.

— Chilly Billy Howell