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Who Are Your Neighbors?


Have you considered who your neighbors are?  Do you know them?  How much do you know about them?  Do you have to know them to love them or help them? 

I think about the Parable of the Good Samaritan who helped the man left for half dead the road from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke 10:25-37).  The Priest and the Levite passed by this man by crossing to the other side of the road.  Those would have been the ones we would have thought to help.  But they approached a situation that the God in them was big enough to handle (the God in them).  So they saw it fitting to pass this stranger, who was also brother/neighbor.  Why was he a brother/neighbor?  Because he, like we are, have been or will be, was in a situation that we can all relate to, left for half dead - ANOTHER TOPIC ANOTHER DAY.  This man had a need that needed to be met. The Priest and the Levite could have at least prayed for this man.  No, they detached themselves from the reality that this man needed help and the possibility they could help him. They were not neighborly. 

Along came the good Samartian, one who would have been least expected to help and he rescued this man, the man left for half dead.  He took him under his wing.  He nursed him the best he could, then he carried him to one who could really help him.  He did not ask this man what happened to him, he didn't ask who did it, he didn't even ask him what did he do to deserve such treatment.  He Simply Helped Him.  Sometimes when a person is in need they need the help first and then they will feel better about answer the questions.  Can you imagine someone asking you a zillion of questions and at the end they have figured out how they cannot help you.  You know some things can be obtained from observing, spending time with people or just by caring.  You will have time to play the role of Sherlock Holmes or Nancy Drew later.  Help is what's needed for such a time of a person left for half dead.

Jesus raises the question, who was being neighborly.  James 2:8 -If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.  Maybe the reason it appears that we do not love our neighbors as ourselves is because WE REALLY DON'T LOVE OURSELVES.  With that being said, when we love ourselves and love our God, we wouldn't do things to hurt people.  We would try to treat everyone with kindness.  I am not talking about how they treat us but how we should treat them.  Those of us who say we are followers of Christ. 

Sometimes people want to be neighborly in the worst way.  (Proverbs 25:17, Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, lest he have his fill of you and hate you. A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.)  ~~~Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house - when your mouth is in your neighbors house, so is your foot. 

When you are close enough to a person and they share their secrets with you and you use them for your benefit, you have crossed the line to being a good neighbor.  Again I point by to the Parable.  There is no recorded dialouge between the injured man and the Good Samaratin. No dialouge just deeds, good deeds. 

I am reminded on Mr. Rogers who I grew up watching on TV and hearing his song:  Won't You Be My Neighbor.  When a person is in need what they are really desiring is a neighbor, a good Neighbor.  Mr. Rogers always talked about being a neighbor and there was a neighborhood he would visit and help them, at times, to settle neighborly disputes or problems. 

Are you a good Neighbor?

 

The one and only Pastor Faith Herron