and who is my neighbour? (part 2)

The stories I gave in the last post are simple examples of our church communities trying to discover natural ways of demonstrating expressions of Kingdom principles. The focus is around promoting a practical commitment to neighbourliness, which is rooted in the sake of a commitment to neighbourliness itself – rather than neighbourliness as an aperitif for a main course of more self-conscious (and often up-tight) evangelism. This is justice and hospitality etc. for justice and hospitality’s etc. sake. In the process of doing neighbourliness, principles of building God’s Kingdom here on earth (now) are employed. These principles subvert a more traditional and obvious approach to mission. It’s about developing models of mission for people who don’t do mission, church for people who don’t go to church.

When Jesus was asked by a smart-alec lawyer, “And who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29), he was really asking, “Where, within the boundaries of those with whom I naturally have something to do, does my responsibility end?” So, he was actually trying to get a theoretical and technical definition that would absolve him from having to do anything with people who fell outside of the definition of ‘neighbour’. But Jesus was ruthless with him by telling the parable of the Samaritan (note that nowhere in the text is the Samaritan referred to as ‘good’). And a Jewish lawyer hated nobody with as much venom as he hated a Samaritan. At the end of Jesus’ parable, in verse 36, he asks the lawyer, “Which….do you think was a neighbour…?” The lawyer must concede that the neighbour was the Samaritan because of what he did. Jesus challenges the lawyer to, “Go and do likewise”. In other words, be like the Samaritan, a doer of God’s word, not just a theoretician about God’s word.

So, who is my neighbour? Neighbours are doers of God’s word. They should of course, include those of us who say that we are followers of Jesus, committed to living fully alive, shalom-like ways that bring resonances of heaven here on earth. But they can also include the most unlikely ones who, by their concrete actions in everyday life, demonstrate the principles of the Kingdom of God. Let me encourage you to be a good neighbour for the sake of our community – a community that God loves.