Deuteronomy 30:10-14/ Colossians 1:15-20/ Luke 10:25-37
We can’t help it but we are always attracted to what is free.
Be it free service, free upgrade, free flow of drinks, free WiFi. Yes, whatever that is free, we will go for it, like bees to honey.
But as we may know by now, nothing in life comes for free. So we will just have to settle for what comes next, and that is whatever that is good, cheap and fast.
Especially when it comes to service. We would like to have cheap, good and fast service.
But we know by now that good and cheap service won’t be fast.
And good and fast service won’t be cheap. And of course fast and cheap service won’t be good.
So, it means that in life, we can’t have it all, and much less can we ever have it free.
Yet, in the area of information technology, there are certain things that can come for free – free apps, which are available for free download.
It all started when some clever and generous people decided to use their talents and create some open-source programs and applications and offer it to those who might have use for it.
So now what is available free on the internet are programs and apps that really come for free – free anti-virus, free operating systems, free email (even free encyclopedia).
Yes, we have used these free programs and apps and they have benefitted us.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, these clever and generous people have given us an example that there are people in this world who are willing to help others – for free!
And that their contributions can make a difference and indeed have made a difference.
In the gospel, we heard Jesus telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.
The parable was a response to a lawyer’s question of “Who is my neighbour?”
And the parable shook the ground of the listeners because of the dramatic twist in the story.
Because the hero of the story is not one of their own people.
Rather, it was an outsider. In fact, an enemy of the Jews, someone who was despised and written off by the Jews.
But why would Jesus want to bring in a Samaritan into the parable and risk the possibility of turning away his listeners and maybe even hardening their hearts?
But the point of the parable was to awaken His listeners.
The implicit question here is that are they not going to help their own people in need? Can they just walk away from those who are half dead and let the outsiders and even enemies take care of them?
And that is also the question for us as the People of God. Are we not going to help our own people in need? Can we just walk away and leave them to outsiders?
Today we are reminded of the law that is written in our hearts – To love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength and with all our mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves.
It is with that kind of love that we can restore the hope of our own people and the hope of humanity.
We may have heard of this word “ubuntu”. For those who are geeks among us, we know of it as a free, open-source operating system for computers and electronic devices.
But there is a story behind the word “ubuntu”.
An anthropologist had been studying the habits and customs of an African tribe, and when he finished his work, had to wait for transportation that would take him to the airport to return home.
He'd always been surrounded by the children of the tribe, so to help pass the time before he left, he proposed a game for the children to play.
He'd bought lots of sweets in the city, so he put everything in a basket with a beautiful ribbon attached. He placed it under a tree, and then he called the kids together.
He drew a line on the ground and explained that they should wait behind the line for his signal. And that when he said "Go!" they should rush over to the basket, and the first to reach it would win all the sweets.
When he said "Go!" they all unexpectedly held each other's hands and ran off towards the tree as a group. Once there, they simply shared the sweets with each other and happily ate it.
The anthropologist was very surprised. He asked them why they had all gone together, especially if the first one to reach the tree could have won everything in the basket - all the sweets.
A young girl simply replied: "Ubuntu! - How can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?"
The anthropologist was dumbfounded! For months and months he'd been studying the tribe, yet it was only now that he really understood their true essence.
That also makes us think. How can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?
Ubuntu also means, "I am because we are." Ubuntu is a Zulu or Xhosa word, and a traditional African concept. It's a term for humaneness, for caring, sharing and being in harmony with others and all of creation.
If ubuntu means “I am because we are”, then how about the word Christian?
Christian would mean “I am love because God is love”.
Jesus had said : You received without charge, give without charge. In other words, we received love freely, we too must give love freely.
In loving God and loving our neighbour, we will truly understand the meaning of happiness.
Because when others are happy, then we in turn will be happy. As that little girl told the anthropologist: How can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?
So let us be a loving neighbour to one another and help those in need and share the happiness of life with one another.
Let us make a difference in this world that tends to be indifferent.
With that we will restore the hope that humanity can love freely and generously, just as God has loved us, freely and generously.