Who is My Neighbor?

Deacon’s Corner

“Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Luke 10:25-29

A lawyer of the people wanted to know what it took to have eternal life. He posed the question to Jesus. As Jesus was wont to do, asked the lawyer what was in the law. In summary, he answered with the proscribed response, ‘love God and to love one’s neighbor.’

When we are challenged to give an account of our understanding of our religious commitments, we give the correct answers, but do we live out our words? Knowing the requirements of our faith walk is one thing. Living into those requirements is another thing. As Jesus told the lawyer, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." We do give the right answers sometimes. There is much more to having eternal life than giving the right response about being a person of faith. We find ourselves wanting to have clear directions as to how to make our path to eternal life possible.

We, like the lawyer, want to know who we should consider as persons worthy of our respect and attention. We ask, ‘who is my neighbor’? I have great community neighbors. But does that mean that my understanding of my neighbors is limited to the four households that are near mine? Our Baptismal Covenant tells us to expand our neighborhoods. Beyond vowing that we will resist evil and proclaim the Good News of Christ, we pledge to seek and serve Christ in all persons, Loving our neighbor as ourselves. And while we are at it, we pledge to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. (And may I add, to care for all of God’s creation.) That will look different for each of us. Caring for the least in our community (writ large) does not stop at our street or our immediate neighborhood but expands to all that God has created. Our environment, the local needs of our fellow humans, those who look different from us, those who worship differently from us, those immigrants that get threatened with deportation, and the unhoused persons, are all our neighbors. Jesus spelled this out to the lawyer, can we give a deaf ear to what he said?

The Rev. Br. Simeon (Lew) Powell