Who is my neighbor? Community Devotion on March 5

We showed a News Clip from You Tube: from the CBC about a Muslim gentleman who gave his shoes to a homeless man on a bus and walked home barefooted… a Sikh busdriver reported it and the man’s Imam talked about him, but the man did not have his picture shown because he wanted no recognition for doing it.

    A lawyer came to the Teacher and asked what he had to do to be right with God.

The teacher said, “Love God with everything you have, and love your Neighbor as much as you love yourself.”
   The lawyer knew there were “those people” he didn’t like so much … in fact, he hated them…and didn’t treat them so well, so he asked the teacher, “And who is my neighbor?” hoping that whoever the Teacher said, those people he hated were not among them…
   The teacher told this story…

    One of the Bloods was walking between turfs from one part of town to another,

and two of the Crips rolled up on him and beat him almost to death and threw him in
an alley.
A neighborhood pastor came walking by and saw him but didn’t want to get involved,
but he was afraid that if he stopped to help he might offend some Crip members of
his church.
Someone from his own neighborhood who knew him saw him, but couldn’t be bothered, afraid someone might see her do it.
But a member of the Crips saw him, took him to Grady and payed the bill.
  The teacher asked… who was neighbor to that young man?
The lawyer knew what the teacher was getting at, but answered “The one who helped him.”
The Teacher said, “Go and do the same thing.”  THAT IS loving neighbor as self.  That is being a neighbor.

You see…

   To God, Neighbor is NOT defined by commonality, geographical proximity or shared ideology or faith… it is stranger… the one who is different from myself, even enemy…
   To God, Neighbor is defined when ACTION is taken on behalf of someone,  anyone in need… anyone who needs you to be neighbor to them
   To love neighbor as self means that you would no more want to have harm come to someone else than you would want that for yourself or someone you love.
   And it means that you would not want to see anyone, even a stranger or enemy go without what they need than you would want that for yourself or someone you love.

    So, we are to no more want harm or lack come, even to a stranger or enemy, than we want that for ourselves… THAT is loving Neighbor as self… and THAT is being a Good Neighbor…

   You see it is ACTING on behalf of another in need that makes one a good neighbor…
regardless of how one feels about them.  The Agape Love taught here is not about
feelings, but rather is defined as “active commitment and therefore committed action on behalf of the other, even stranger or enemy, and especially the most vulnerable”.

Regardless of our differences… over race, ethnicity, culture, economic class, sexual orientation, religion, ideology or whatever else makes us different, we are to be about Crossing Boundaries… Connecting with compassion…  Focusing on our Commonality… we are to advocate for other human beings… to lend them our power, our voice, our resources… so that their lives will be made better… lives of well-being, completeness and wholeness, which is shalom – Peace.

As the Teacher commanded that those who follow Him love neighbor like THAT…

   So the teacher commands all who would follow God’s Way to live today…
If we want to be right with God – if we want to be right in our spirit -
the Question is NOT, “Who has been a good neighbor to me?”, but rather
   “Have I been a good neighbor to others, even strangers and enemies?”         

 We then showed a PSA CLIP from You Tube:   A clip from Thailand television about a homeless man who was shamefully treated by a shop owner, but who had been a good neighbor to the shop owner all along.