Sunday, July 10, 2016

Who Is My Neighbor?

What must I do to inherit eternal life?
Jesus is the first to bring together Deuteronomy & Leviticus – love God & love neighbor.
Now – who is my neighbor?

Robbers have beaten a man, taken his clothes and left him half dead. Who is he?
You can’t tell by his clothes & you can’t tell by his accent – he cannot speak. This is a real problem for the bystanders.

The Priest sees him – now, if he is not a Jew or he is even dead – if the Priest touches him, he would become defiled – and he must go back to Jerusalem to get purified – there is no time for this – not his problem.

Levite sees him – the priest is doing nothing, why should he? – he follows his bad example.

Samaritan – the outsiders, the ones who intermarried with Assyrians, who only follow the first 5 books of the Bible, who did not worship in Jerusalem.  He also has a problem – what if the injured man wakes up and seems me – my touch will make him unclean – maybe even his family will come after me.

This does not stop him!
Act of Mercy – no matter what, this is a human being – just like the two black men who lost their lives, just like the 5 police officers who lost their lives – they are human beings – made in God’s image & likeness. This is what we teach our teens when we go on a Midnight Run – we look past the color of skin – we look past mental illness – we look past alcoholism & drug addiction – to show mercy to a human being! To see the Face of God in them!        Act of Justice – it means there are times that boundaries must be crossed – to do what is right.

I read about a Religious Sister who was serving in a clinic in Syria. This clinic served everyone in need, including wounded Muslim soldiers. How could she do such a thing??? After all they are doing to Christians?

She said - We don’t do this because of who they are.
We do this because of who WE ARE.

In the midst of all that is happening in our country –
Who are we?           Who is our neighbor?

If we want to inherit eternal life, there is only one answer.