^{Afghan women are being transported on the back of taxi car in Jalalabad, provincial capital of Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Saturday, July 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)}

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The first thing in the inbox today was a link to Brave New Film's latest video, "Rethink Afghanistan Part 5". The video of 10 minutes is sad and powerful in its story of what women in Afghanistan are facing during the war. The war has made life worse for the women, the war is worse than the Taliban. The movie shows some of what the women have gone through and it is gruesome to watch. This is worse than a horror film because these are not actors, but real women facing the tragedy. Their cry of distress is for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan, not a cry to God or Allah, but a cry to a nation of people; to us. The photo above is not of cargo in an old car, that is a photo of women in Afghanistan.

Next in the day, a writer (pen name Apache Savage) on Open Salon writes her story, "EVICTION - welcome to the street PARTY OF FIVE" and this story is not in third person, the eviction is happening to her, her family and her autistic son and scared daughter. The economy in the U.S. tanks and is taking families with it. What does one say to a family losing their shelter, who has only till Thursday (which is tomorrow) to move the family of four out of the house?

Latest heading on CNN (besides the Michael Jackson scene) eleven-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover hangs himself because of bullying at school.

"What could make a child his age despair so much that he would take his own life? That question haunts me to this day, and I will probably never know the answer," Sirdeaner Walker said in a House Education and Labor Committee hearing on school bullying."

A child of eleven kills himself because of bullying, because he has lost hope, because of humanity's cruelty and insensitivity. A family with a special needs child loses shelter and women in Afghanistan lose their faces because they try to go to school. What is our world coming to these days?

Then, at St. David's Episcopal church, the liturgist reads tonight these words from Psalm 18:

Psalm 18

¹I love you, O Lord, my strength. ²The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. ³I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies. ⁴The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of perdition assailed me; ⁵the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. ⁶In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. ⁷Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. ⁸Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. ⁹He bowed the heavens, and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. ¹⁰He rode on a cherub, and flew; he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind. ¹¹He made darkness his covering around him, his canopy thick clouds dark with water. ¹²Out of the brightness before him there broke through his clouds hailstones and coals of fire. ¹³The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice. ¹⁴And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.

This is who the people need, the God who will save them, swoop down and rescue them from the tormentor, the one who destroys and takes away. God be mighty and come down we all pray. Help these people...and so often we wish it was the rest of the story, but there's more. For after the liturgist read the Psalm there was a Gospel lesson. A Gospel lesson always means "good news" even when the good news is hard for the listener to hear. The irony of it all, or the serendipity/sacredness of it all is the next scripture read was of the story of the Good Samaritan from Matthew:

Luke 10:25-37 (NRSV)   The Parable of the Good Samaritan  (Mt 22.34—40; Mk 12.28—34)
25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit
eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27 He
answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to
him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied,
“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. 31 Now by chance a priest was
going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a
Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan
while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him
and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own
animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii,
gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you
whatever more you spend.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who
fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to
him, “Go and do likewise.”

 

Like the lawyer, so many people want to find ways to get out of caring for a neighbor. Religious reasons can be cited. Legal reasons can be used to shore up all the reasons we should not interfere, help, intercede, rescue another. There are so many challenges in life and now, like the lawyer we are faced with a question that Jesus answered in his parable. The parable is a good story. Shows everyone what's expected, but just in case the message isn't clear, anything/anyone that lives and breathes is your neighbor. Go and show mercy. Yet again, the good news is you.