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WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?
Given by Craig Minke on July 25, 2022
"Is the glass half empty or half full?"
* In other words, are you pessimistic or optimistic?
* In our life struggles we face, it's tempting to see the glass as half empty.
* Paul reminds us that whenever we feel empty or lost, we have a good Father who completely fills that void with love and understanding.
* Our gospel reading today is taken from Luke, where Jesus defines the term "neighbor" and sets a high standard for loving others.
ILLUSTRATION:
Let's say you are walking down the street and is approached by someone who appears unwashed, with soiled and tattered clothes, and smells of alcohol.
In your mind you give the person the title of "homeless".
The homeless man is clutching a cardboard sign with his unfortunate circumstances scrawled in thick black marker.
His entire life is reduced to a couple of sad sentences and a plea for help.
With red, weary eyes, the homeless man looks at the man and asks, "Can you please spare some change?"
Now, you have a decision to make!!!
* You have money in his pocket.
Maybe it is not a lot of money.
However, you knows that you have more than the homeless man, whose entirety of possessions are stuffed into plastic shopping bags at his feet.
* Should you give the homeless man something, knowing that he could spend that money on booze?
* Won't that be making his problems worse?
* Will you be crippling the homeless man by making him dependent on charity instead of on hard work?
* Or, by not giving him money, are we depriving a fellow human being in need of a warm meal to eat?
* If we believe we are a Christian, are we not supposed to help the poor?
* But, when do the needs of the poor encroach upon our own personal needs?
* Maybe the problem is that the smallest bill we have in our wallet is a $20 bill.
Do we really want to give $20 to a stranger?
* We wonder if it is rude and selfish to ask a person wearing rags for change.
* All of these questions and more race through our mind as we avert his eyes and walk away without saying a word.
I think we can all identify with this classic moral dilemma to some extent.
* If you are anything like me, you found the story a bit unsettling because it hits so close to home.
* For all of us, the situation touches on a fundamental question, "What do I owe my fellow human being?"
Few questions are more important.
The question lies at the heart of every government law, every company policy, and every rule of etiquette.
* What do I owe my fellow human being?
* The answer to this question shapes our interactions.
* Yet, as we look at our society and our history, it seems like humanity struggles to come up with good answers to this question.
o Poverty is still with us.
o Homelessness is still with us.
o Sexism is still with us.
o Racism is still with us.
o Child abuse is still with us.
o Human trafficking is still with us.
If we truly cared for others,
* if we made sure that everyone had what they were owed, would not these things disappear?
* What do I owe my fellow human being?
* The truth is, apart from God, we do not have any hope of adequately answering this question.
Thankfully, Christ gives us the answer to this fundamental question.
* What we owe our fellow human beings is to be a good neighbor to them.
* However, what does it mean to be a good neighbor?
* Jesus defines neighbor in such a way that becoming one is a lifelong pursuit.
* Let's look his profound teaching, commonly referred to as the parable of the Good Samaritan:
LK 10:25-37 25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
"Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied.
"How do you read it?"
27 He answered, "'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, 'Love your neighbor as yourself."
28 "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied.
"Do this and you will live."
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers.
They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper.
'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
In this conversation with the expert in the law, Jesus did something extraordinary.
* The expert asked, "And who is my neighbor?"
The way the man phrased the question placed himself in the role of judging neighborliness.
* In other words: he was asking Jesus how he was to decide who was worthy of his love and concern.
* The expert in the law assumed his own neighborliness and wanted to know how to tell who was deserving of it.
* In his response, Jesus flips the legal expert's question on its head.
* After telling a righteously disruptive story, Christ asked, "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
* The way Jesus phrased his question makes neighborliness something that can only be determined by the person in need.
* According to Jesus' teaching, neighbor is not something that we judge in ourselves, rather it is something we strive for others to testify us to be.
* Are we going to be a neighbor to the person in need?
* Our personal neighborliness cannot be assumed.
* Every day Christ-followers are called to participate in the life and work of Jesus,
o being led by the Spirit,
o prayerfully hoping to bring glory to the Father
o by being a neighbor to someone in need of one.
Jesus' beautiful concept of neighbor is challenging for all believers.
It is a high standard to reach because it requires us to show care for every person we encounter.
* We naturally want to define neighbor for ourselves.
* Like the legal expert, we want to decide for ourselves who is worthy of our attention and care.
* We unconsciously develop our own rationale for deciding who gets excluded from our love.
* Following Christ means giving up a vote in who is and is not our neighbor.
* It calls on us to see all human beings as our neighbor.
* Not all neighbors will see us as neighborly unless we provide them with what they want.
* It's vital to understand we are called to serve and be servants to others, but they are not called to be our masters.
* Jesus is our master.
Our neighbor is the one the Spirit leads us to and the one the Spirit leads to us.
* We have no say
o in how they look,
o how much money they have,
o how they smell,
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