Dear Parishioners,

Jesus said, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?  The one who showed mercy.  Go and do likewise.”
(Luke 10: 36-37)

The familiar story of the Good Samaritan came alive for me recently.  I was travelling back home with Paul and my son Alex, having spent the day in Sheffield celebrating our grandson’s 2nd birthday.  Snow began falling several hours before we began our journey home, so we decided to take the longer route via the motorway.  The road conditions were bad, and the journey took much longer than usual, but we thought we were on the home strait when we saw the ’10 miles to Stoke’ sign.  Then all the traffic suddenly came to a halt, and we sat in the same spot for an hour.  A man walked past, and said he’d heard that the tailback stretched all the way back to Stoke.  There had been an accident, and the road had been closed for hours.  It was not likely to open for a while.  It looked like it was going to be a very long, cold night.

We decided to leave the car and walk to a nearby hotel, to see if we could use their toilets and perhaps get a hot drink.  As we entered the hotel, a friendly receptionist greeted us and asked if we were stranded.  We said yes, and she said something like, “Come in, make yourselves at home.  Sorry we can’t offer you a room - we’ve already given them all out to families with small children.  But we’re leaving the restaurant open all night for anyone else who’s stranded – we’ll give you some blankets and pillows, and tea and coffee, and you can stay all night if necessary.  At least its warm and dry here!”  Compared to the prospect of spending the night in the car, her offer seemed very inviting.  Needless to say, we accepted, along with some 50 others who had already camped out in the restaurant.  The staff, who should have gone off duty at midnight, stayed there all night to serve us and never stopped smiling.  They even turned the heating up so we wouldn’t get cold!  The road eventually opened at 5am, but they said we could stay until morning if we wanted to.  We eventually left at around 9am.

How much did the hotel charge for this extraordinary hospitality?  Not one penny!  They are part of a national chain, with premises all over the country, and are primarily in the business of making a profit.  Yet in our hour of need, they made absolutely no attempt to profit from our misfortune.  Their decision to help us was not just a case of the staff following company policy either - in many ways, they were breaking all the rules.  They did it, simply because they could.  And their kindness and generosity transformed the experience for all of us, from something that could have been very unpleasant, into something which was memorable for all the right reasons.

It was also a powerful reminder of the story of the Good Samaritan, and the fact that God works not only in the Church, but in the world, wherever he finds people who are willing to do the right thing.  We can all try to be good neighbours, but there are also times when we all NEED a good neighbour.  So who is our neighbour?  The one who does the will of God, whenever we find ourselves in need in the world.  Thank God for those people.

Linda Lucking