A Modern-Day Parable
One day an old Christian named Rufus Leekin called his brother in Christ, Lee Vight, and asked if he would like to buy some of his family antiques.
“Why do you want to sell those things, Rufus?” asked Lee. “I thought you really liked them.”
“Well, I do, but I need to hire somebody to shingle my roof, and I don’t have enough money saved up. I’ve been out of work for a year, so things have been tough lately. Life has kinda beaten me up and left me half dead.”
“Man, I wish I could help you, but I’m not really into antiques. Good luck, though.” Lee hung up.
Later that day Rufus saw a member of his church named Jessup Riest downtown. When Rufus waved and tried to get his attention, Jessup acted like he didn’t see him and passed by on the other side. (He had heard from Lee that Rufus was trying to pawn off some of his old junk on church members.)
Out of desperation, Rufus finally called a guy he used to work with named Sam Herriton and gave him the same pitch. Rufus knew Sam was a nice guy and was pretty sure he went to church somewhere, but he wasn’t sure where.
When Sam discovered the reason behind his solicitation, he took pity on Rufus. But instead of buying his treasures, Sam decided to round up some other guys from his own church and just take care of the roof for free.
Rufus was overwhelmed. He tried to turn down their offer, but the good Sam Herriton was persistent. He and his crew worked all day Saturday shingling and repairing structural damage. Unfortunately, they only got half done and rain was expected Sunday night. They were afraid the precipitation would find its way into the house if it wasn’t finished right away. As much as Sam and his helpers hated to miss their worship service, they decided to finish the roof before the rains came and beat up on the house. (Sorry, wrong parable!) So they worked all Sunday morning and finished roofing the roof of Rufus.
At different times, Lee Vight and Jessup Riest drove by Rufus’ house on the way to church, and they were both appalled that anyone would skip worshipping God to work on a roof.
Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into hard times?
How are YOU being a good “Sam Herriton” to your neighbor?