Love your Neighbor

 Luke 10:25-37

Now this story is used a lot, so it is helpful to ask questions of it so we can enter this in a different way. Who is your neighbor? Think about it, don't answer it right away. Maybe even get a piece of paper and list who is your neighbor. Think about it in all the ways Jesus shows us.

Jesus shows us a neighbor is the poor, the woman crippled and healed on a Sabbath, the dead, the woman with an issue of blood, the lepers, and now someone we don't have pity for is the example of what it is to be a neighbor. Think of the story rewritten with whoever you think would be the worst example of being kind and generous. A democrat, a republican, a mask wearer, a non-mask wearer those we think of as bad this is what Jesus uses today to give the shining example of what a neighbor is.

The next question is what is the cost? Being a neighbor costs us something. For the Samaritan today it cost him a room and then the follow up. When he comes back through he will pay all the injured ones bills. Food, shelter, and anything else the innkeeper dreams up. So what is the cost of being a neighbor?

We aren't supposed to count it, we are to do. This leaves us in scary spots. It leaves us vulnerable to others. It has us give a care for another never knowing what the impact will be. Yet Jesus shows us this in every interaction he does. Healing a blind man, talking to a woman, another Samaritan and a woman, or raising Lazarus from the dead which then leads to his death in John. The cost could mean our very life. Yet isn't this what Jesus tells us: Those who lose their life will gain it all.

Risking helping our neighbor is something we don't explore often. Bishop Deon gave us an example yesterday of a woman who didn't have enough to pay her grocery bill and he offered to. It seems like a small risk and yet it meant everything to her. There are other times we are asked to risk more deeply. Maybe it's actually having a relationship with someone. 

Risking is hard, it means we invest our time, talent or treasure. It means we sometimes have a relationship with others and risk our own hearts. Yet this is what being a real neighbor means. If the Samaritan didn't truly care about the wounded one on the side of the road he wouldn't have arranged for his care after he left him. Being a true neighbor asks us to risk our hearts.

Paul puts it eloquently this morning. If I do things and have not love I am just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Being a neighbor a true neighbor only has meaning when it is done in love. Otherwise we are just doing things for show, to build up our own image of ourselves and not to be the neighbor Christ intends us to be.

So let us risk to be the neighbor Christ intends. This is what brings light to the world. Not just empty deeds, but our hearts ready to be offered to one another in love.