A Tale to Open Ears

A Tale to Open Ears (written during NAIDOC week which celebrates indigenous history, culture and achievement)
Pentecost 5; Luke 10:25-37
We may not share their long historic spite;
now “good” Samaritan’s a common term,
but Jesus’ listeners thought the opposite.
Religious difference spurred each side’s disdain.

“Samaritans praise God on mountain top,
the Jews in temple at Jerusalem,”
said woman of Samaria at the well
when Jesus broke taboo to ask for drink.

Disciples would have brought down heaven’s fire
on village that refused their band a bed -
rejection not of them but of their goal,
Jerusalem where temple rule prevailed.

The priest and Levite bent upon their path
were bound by laws of ritual purity:
touch blood or corpse and they could not fulfil
their duties in the temple on their day.

How radical the theme of Jesus’ tale
to challenge prejudice and righteousness
and show compassion as true godliness
where one we hate may dare to save our life.

Now hear it not from distant place and time,
but from our nation’s shameful history:
First Nations robbed and beaten by the whites,
while privilege walked past averting eyes.

For sixty thousand years their culture thrived,
attuned to country and its spirit lore,
cut down by those who thought that white was might
and other races ripe for victimhood.

It turns out some who intervened weren’t good:
they thought it best to make the mixed race white.
They took the child from mother, mother tongue,
left families and culture torn by grief.

The White Australia Policy is gone:
white privilege, however, still persists,
and prejudice remains that will not see
the good and wisdom in a darker face.

Let Jesus’ tale reach our complacent ears,
as once it challenged them to turn and see
a man who braved the risk of hurt or death
to bind the wounds, find haven for a foe.
	Barbara Messner7/07/2025