Dear Church of the Open Bible,
I wouldn’t say that I grew up avidly watching Sesame Street but I must have here and there because a few things still stick out to me. One of them is the song, “Who Are the People in Your Neighbourhood?” I can hear the tune in my head as I type this, so it must have been pretty catchy but the question is worth reflecting on.
Last Sunday, as we looked at Luke 10:25-37, Jesus’ main concern with the well-spoken lawyer was not whether he knew what God required but whether he was living it out. Specifically, whether he was loving others as himself, i.e., being a neighbour. The parable exposes the man’s failure to obey this horizontal command, especially regarding the scope of who we are called to love.
Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” - Luke 10:36–37
Who are the people in your neighbourhood? Who are those you are willing to extend love to? Who are those you struggle to extend love to, or don’t think of as neighbours at all? The boundaries we put around our neighbourhood can come from a variety of distinctions: political, economic, racial, age, religious, etc. How might God’s love for you and your responding love for Him, move you extend the limits of your neighbourhood? May we prove to be neighbours this week.