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July 13, 2025 Luke 10:25-37 Fifth Sunday after Pentecost This Sunday’s gospel reading, the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37, surfaced in the news recently. In a Fox News interview, Vice President JD Vance, a conservative Catholic, aligned “America First” politics to what he said was a Christian concept of “ordered love”—a hierarchy of obligation that prioritizes family first, then neighbor, then community, then country, and finally, the rest of the world. Later, on social media, Vance asked pointedly: “Does [anyone] really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away?” Vance’s ordering can feel intuitively right. Of course, we prioritize the people closest to us. It’s hard to argue against caring first for our children, our partners, our communities, giving what’s left over – if anything – to those out of sight and mind. But the gospel disrupts our intuitive answers; Jesus consistently calls us beyond what is expected or culturally acceptable. He doesn’t just reorder our obligations; he often explodes the entire premise of hierarchy. In Luke 14:26, Jesus tells would-be disciples they must “hate” – hyperbole for “detach from” – their father, mother, spouse, children, siblings, even their own lives. He protests against the powerful and aligns himself with the poor and the vulnerable. He says things like, “the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16). Jesus calls us to reorder our hearts, not around physical proximity or bloodlines or geographic borders, but around compassion. Jesuit Priest James Martin responded to Vance’s comments by publicly referencing Luke 10:25-37, writing, “This misses the point of Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan. After Jesus tells a lawyer that you should ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’ the lawyer asks him, ‘And who is my neighbor? In response, Jesus tells the story of a Jewish man who has been beaten by robbers and is lying by the side of the road. The man is helped not by those closest to him (a ‘priest’ and a ‘Levite’), but rather by a Samaritan.” Martin reminds us that the priest and Levite, presumably higher on the “order of love,” were the first to walk away, while the Samaritan would be the last person responsible for the wounded man. Samaritans and Jews of Jesus’ day were not only strangers from different regions and religions, but historical enemies. Parables aren’t strict instruction manuals. ... Read the rest of the commentary at pres-outlook.org. Want to do a sermon series on nonviolent resistance?  This webinar offers biblical insight, stories, and tools to preach peace in a violent world. "Pay-what-you-can" for the recording now! Learn more Order of worship — July 13, 2025, by Teri McDowell Ott Churches hope to tap the power of pickleball by Bob Smietana Supporting your congregation’s caregivers by Phillip Blackburn The Rev. Glenda Hope: One of the first women ordained in the PC(USA) by Maggi Henderson Want the worship resources for July 6, 2025? You can find them here. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT... Cleveland Heights church focus is on student debt relief as repair Congregation’s Racial Repair and Restoration Task Force addresses historic harms with new program. — Beth Waltemath National Black Presbyterian Caucus finds hope in ‘Labor Not in Vain’ The caucus provides a vital space to address challenges and issues that are specific to Black Presbyterian congregations. — Dartinia Hull Intentional awe, awareness and connectivity Whether it's people or trees, we are surrounded by community, writes Colleen Earp, but connection requires intentionality. Reckoning with History: Settler Colonialism, Slavery, and the Making of American Christianity William Yoo's work is of interest to all people of faith, who are called to a more honest approach to American history and who seek a faithful way forward for the church, writes John Wilkinson. 100 years ago, the Social Gospel movement pushed to improve workers’ lives – but also to promote its vision of Christian America How has white Christian nationalism changed since the Gilded Age? Religion scholar Christina Littlefield compares the Social Gospel with the Christian right today. Just Making: A Guide for Compassionate Creatives In "Just Making:" Mitali Perkins explores the seemingly bifurcated relationship between creativity and justice and finds that the two are not as opposed as she once thought. — Caroline Barnett