Sermon: Who Is My Neighbour?

When God calls us to love our neighbour, who does that include?

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In a world that is screaming division between us and them, friend and enemy, us and the ‘Other,” we are reminded that the Gospel places no limits on who is - and is not - our neighbour. As we seek to respond to the ecological crisis and climate emergency, let us allow our hearts to open to include all within the Earth community as our neighbours.

Scripture Readings

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. ³ You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. ⁴ Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.

¹⁵ You shall not render an unjust judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbour. ¹⁶ You shall not go around as a slanderer^[a] among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood^[b] of your neighbour: I am the Lord.

¹⁷ You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbour, or you will incur guilt yourself. ¹⁸ You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:1-4, 15-18 NRSV)

²⁸ One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ ²⁹ Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; ³⁰ you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” ³¹ The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ ³² Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; ³³ and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ (Matthew 12:28-34a)

Sermon: Who Is My Neighbour?

Let us pray:

God of Life,

May the words of my mouth

And the meditations of all our minds and hearts

Lead us to deeper understanding of you

And the love you call us to live. AMEN.

There is a lovely crab apple tree in my backyard, right outside the kitchen window. In the spring, its gorgeous pink blooms fill the window. My family and I watch them carefully and try to guess just which day they will have been at their fullest bloom. We know when that day is because, on the very next day, the blossoms just don’t seem quite so full.

I have known that tree longer than I have known my three younger children. As my children have grown, each of them likes to climb it; they need some help getting onto the lowest branch, but then they climb up and enjoy the vantage over the back hedge. The tree doesn’t seem to mind; it is also home to cardinals, chickadees and sparrows, as well as black, grey and red squirrels. All of these creatures are fed from the crab apple tree. The apples are tiny, just ornamental, so I cannot gather them for jelly. But they are the most nourishing food for the birds and squirrels.

I love that crab apple tree. The blooms are gone now, just ripe fruit that is falling every day onto our deck and lawn. Soon enough, the branches will be completely bare, as the seasons change and the tree goes dormant in the winter. But I know, as well as I know the rhythms in my own body, that buds will return in the spring, and I will watch them unfurl, some into leaves, some into blossoms, that will, once again, turn the yard and the air pink with beauty.

I feel a real sense of kinship with that crab apple tree. That crab apple tree is a part of my home; it has stood tall over my babies as they have grown; it is something of beauty and nourishment and nurturing for birds and squirrels, for me and my family. I feel a sense of kinship, and it makes me ask the question: who is my neighbour?

Who is my neighbour? This is a question that has been asked throughout our faith tradition, too. It is a question that has been asked and answered based on the context facing our faith siblings in different times and places.

In the reading from Leviticus that we hear today, God, through Moses, tells the Israelites that they are to love their neighbours as themselves. God speaks into the context of that time to emphasize what love should look like: be fair and impartial in your dealings; do not slander others or profit from the misfortune of others. Do not have hate, hold vengeance, or bear grudges against others. God spells out the way that love is to be lived out in our relationships with others. In that era, this commandment was interpreted to be in relation to people’s kin, as well as those in their community. This is a central text that spells out who is our neighbour, and what loving our neighbour is to mean, in the time and place of the ancient Israelites.  

Then, in first-century Palestine, Jesus widens the context for who our neighbour is, as well as widening our understanding of what it means to love our neighbour. We are reminded in the Gospel of Mark text that we are to, once again, love our neighbour as ourselves. Through the telling of the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke, Jesus shows us that our neighbour includes not only our family and our community; it includes outsiders and strangers.

Through this parable, as well as evidence throughout Jesus’ ministry, we see the context for who our neighbour is widened to include outsiders, outcasts, the marginalized and the poor. And loving our neighbours is to include actively caring for them, as the Samaritan does with the man who had been beaten and robbed. Loving our neighbours is to show compassion, mercy, care, and justice.

We learn from the ministry of Jesus that there is no person who is not our neighbour. We also learn, from the passage in Mark, that the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves is bound up with the commandment to love God. In this way, Jesus has reframed the commandment so that loving our neighbour is, now, central to our discipleship. If we are not loving God and our neighbour, we are not being followers of Jesus Christ.

Who is my neighbour? I now know that there is no one who is not my neighbour; they include kin and community, the stranger and the marginalized. And how am I to love my neighbour? Through respect and fair dealings; avoiding grudges or hard feelings; through acts of care, compassion, mercy, and justice. Loving my neighbour, I have discovered, is central to my discipleship.

As we know, our Scripture texts speak into specific contexts of time and place, which is why we see development and shifting emphases in Leviticus and Mark.

What about today? What is the context of time and place in which we continue to ask the question, Who is my neighbour? Who is my neighbour today? And how am I to love them?

Today, we are living in a context in which the world is better known to us, through the advancement of scientific knowledge. We know more, now, than we did in biblical times, about the Earth and our place in it. We are also living in a context of ecological crisis; our power in the world has led to human-caused destruction of habitats, and waterways, depleted soil, species extinction, and an utterly catastrophic climate crisis. In this context, of both scientific knowledge of the Earth and ecological crisis, who is my neighbour?

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