Who is My Neighbor?

Galatians 5:13-23

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  --Galatians 5:13-14

Paul’s words to the Galatians echo the teachings of Jesus.  Jesus says that the law is summed up in two commandments:  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:38-39).  But, what does it mean to “love your neighbor as yourself?”  In discussing this with a lawyer (an expert in the Law), the lawyer asks Jesus this question, “Who is my neighbor?”  Good question.  In response, Jesus tells the well-known “Parable of the Good Samaritan,” a story about a Samaritan caring for a Jew who had been beaten and robbed. (Luke 10:25-37). Samaritans and Jews did not like each other, and did not get along, a point that would not have been missed by the lawyer.  But the answer to the lawyer’s question, “Who is a neighbor?” is ultimately this:  “The one who shows mercy.”  Being a neighbor is to show mercy.  Even to one others might ignore, avoid or even disdain. But, what does mercy look like?   In the “Parable of the Sheep and the Goats” in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his listeners that the one who feeds the hungry, gives a drink to the thirsty, welcomes the stranger and clothes the naked and cares for the “least of these,” does it to him.  (Matthew 25:31-46)  That’s mercy. Compassion.  Kindness. In the “Sermon on the Mount,”  Jesus teaches that we should even love our enemies! (Matthew 5:43-44).  Paul teaches that, through Christ, we are freed from sin, death and the devil, not just for our own sakes, but so that we might serve our neighbors, and to do the good works God has prepared for us to do. (Galatians 5:1-14, Ephesians 2:8-10).

So, in our own time, who is our neighbor?  Our neighbor is not just the person who lives in the house across the street, or who sits in the pew next to us on Sunday morning.  Our neighbor is also the person who is of a different race, or ethnicity or who speaks a different language, or comes from a different culture.  Our neighbor is also the person who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or describes their gender in a way other than we do.  Our neighbor is the immigrant at the border, or living in our community, or the refugee seeking asylum from violence and war.  Our neighbor is the person who we disagree with on almost every hot button issue out there, who votes the opposite way we do, and who says and posts stuff that makes our blood boil.

The question is, how do we love all these neighbors in the way of Jesus?  With mercy, compassion, kindness and servanthood. The way Jesus taught us to love.  The way Jesus himself lived.  Like the one who, while we were still sinners, gave his life for our own.  Luther put it this way in his explanation of the 8^thCommandment,  “We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations.  Instead we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”   

This “loving our neighbor” business is complex, challenging and never easy.  We often fail at it miserably.  Sin, death, and evil continue to have their way with us.  Lord have mercy on us!  And, praise God!  In Christ, the Lord does, graciously freeing us through the power of forgiveness so that we might go about the work at loving our neighbors again and again.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading. Pray for those neighbors who you find it hard to love.

Afraid of Jesus?

Luke 8:26-39

Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear.  –Luke 8:37

A few years ago, my wife was asked to rehab an injured, young blue heron.  Herons are large, beautiful birds with long sharp bills and lots of attitude.  She put the bird in our guest bathroom tub and set to work caring for the bird.  The bird didn’t realize she was trying to help.  She had to wear a protective mask to keep the bird from poking out an eye.  It reacted in fear whenever she tried to take care of it.  But her love overpowered the bird’s fear and, eventually, she returned the bird to the wild.  (This is a picture of release day)

This week, I’ve been struck by the attitude of the Gerasenes to Jesus’ healing (the Greek literally says, “saving”) of one of their own.  One would have thought they would be grateful for Jesus’ saving act which both freed the man from his torment, and the community from their need to try to control him.  Instead, like my wife’s blue heron, they react with fear.  Rather than thank Jesus – they ask him to leave.   

In pondering all this, I wonder, are there times when we, like the Garasenes, are afraid of Jesus and his power?  Of his power to transform us through the renewing of our minds? Of his power to change us.  Of his power to save us?  Change can be a scary thing, and Jesus’ love can change us!

It’s easy, I think, to turn Jesus into a sweet guy who we can call on when we need him; to see him only as a kindly comforter.  But, that’s not the Jesus we meet in the New Testament. Jesus embodies God’s love and compassion, yes.  But Jesus also wields God’s awe-full and overwhelming power.  He calms stormy seas with a word.  He overcomes legions of demons.  He defeats the power of death itself.  And that kind of power can upset the apple carts of our lives, run our precious herds off the sides of cliffs, and knock over our sacred cows.  Jesus’ teachings can challenge us, and sometimes, yes, even terrify us, especially when we are comfortable with the status quo -– as unsavory as that status quo may be.  

Sometimes Jesus’ love and grace for us can feel like law to us, especially when his love for us challenges us to love in new and not-so-easy ways.  Sometimes Jesus’ love and grace comes as Gospel, as good news for our weary, tormented souls. Often times, it comes as a little bit of both!

When we feel challenged by Jesus’ teachings, we might be tempted to ask Jesus to leave.  Or, we might just look for another church where they preach a less uncomfortable Jesus. A Jesus who doesn’t occasionally strike fear in our hearts.

We can be a lot like blue herons.  But the good news is that Jesus just keeps on loving us, and saving us and healing us, and sending us out to declare how much God in Christ has done for us. 

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading.  Pray for those who are tormented to be comforted, and for all of us to be challenged by the powerful, life changing love of our Lord.

The Assault on Truth

John 16:12-15

[The Spirit of truth] will guide you into all the truth.  –John 16:13

“What is truth?”  Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, asks Jesus this question during Jesus’ trial before his execution.  It’s a question being asked a lot these days.  In recent years, the whole idea of “truth” has been under assault.  There is, it seems to me, an emerging cultural belief that each of us has the right and responsibility to define our own “truth;” that “truth” is a relative thing tethered to our own personal experience.  In the era of “fake news” and media spin and our tendency to read and watch and listen only what we happen to agree with, this relativism divides us into rigid camps of certainty and, at the same time, leaves us feeling like we are walking on glare ice much of the time. 

Against the backdrop of this relativistic assault on the whole concept of “truth,” how do we hear Jesus’ promise that the “Spirit of truth will guide us into all the truth”?  “Truth” is a key concept in the Gospel of John. In John, Jesus himself defines the truth because of his relationship with the Father who is the source and basis of all truth.  According to John, God’s Word is truth and Jesus is that Word made flesh.  It is the Spirit of truth which opens our hearts and minds to see the truth that Jesus embodies.  As disciples of Jesus, we do not define our own truth, Jesus does.  As disciples of Jesus, it is not our personal experiences that create our truth, but our trust that, in Christ, we come to know the Truth that is God.

That’s heady stuff. But, if we are to find a solid place to stand in the whirling world of relative truth, it gives us a place to start.  And, that place is found in teaching and way Jesus himself.   It is found in the life, death and resurrection of the one who came to show us the depth of God’s great love for the world – the whole world – no exceptions. It is found in the one who says to Pilate that his “kingdom is not from this world” (John 18:36) who transforms the world by defeating sin, death and the devil, freeing us from fear so that we might love others (yes, even our enemies) as he loved us.

So, is this just one more relativistic “truth” in a world of competing truths?  Perhaps.  But I believe it is something more.  Much more. The Truth which Jesus embodies reflects the deep wisdom that lies at the heart of all creation.  Why?  Because the Truth he reveals is the God who created the heavens and the earth, and you and me, and everything that exists.  He reveals a Truth worth staking our life on because it gives life not just to me, but to everyone else – even those who think and believe and act differently than I do. 

This is why proclaiming the word and witness of Jesus needs to be at the very center of who we are and what we are about as disciples of Christ.  It can’t just be background noise, or subtext or corollary to a life of faith.  It is the Truth which transforms the world, even when we, as is so often the case, fail in our efforts to do so ourselves.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thank-you for reading.