PostScript: Love your neighbour
Jesus' assertion that we are to love God and to love our neighbour is the essence of the gospel and the foundation of the kingdom (Matthew 22.34-46).
Introduction
On the surface, the words of Jesus look completely acceptable and straightforward – and yet…
The directness of the statements suggest simplicity but how hard is it to offer God all that we are, all that we do, all the choices that we make and the best loves that we can give? Jesus is reducing the gospel down to its barest essentials here – possibly because no other words are necessary and the central call of the Gospel on our lives is laid bare – as are our real motivations and the things that we hold back from God.
The world news and life in our own families and churches tell us that loving God with everything we’ve got is hard to live out in the day to day reality and loving our neighbour is a particular challenge when our neighbour is not like us.
Jesus is calling us to radical discipleship and to ‘no holds barred’ Christian living. Jesus is calling us to be transformed by God’s love so that we can show that same love in a world that is so troubled and fractured; so marred by hatreds and sectarian interest.
Context
The crisis situation of the Ebola outbreak calls for a generous response.
The world is smaller and the difficulties of our neighbours are our issues too
; our actions and choices in the world may impact on our own lives
.
David Cameron is set to attempt a renegotiation with Europe that may set him against one of the EU’s founding principles that of free movement between member states.
Fear and mistrust are colouring our view of our political neighbours in Europe and this fundamental attitude of suspicion affects the direction of Britain’s future.
How language is used also shapes the tone and soul of politics. Much talk and ink is being spent in analysis of UKIP and also on our relationship with Europe. How much of this is shaped by fear?
Reflection
Minding our language
There are many examples in the news of dehumanising language being used about groups of people in our society. Even using the term benefit claimant is one step removed from the person making the claim. Using the term ‘immigrant’ can have a similar distancing effect from individual people with lives and maybe with hopes and dreams.
The following hard-hitting piece places the focus on distancing and dehumanising language used in warfare. It is a challenging piece and disturbing to read because it hits on a truth about our contemporary culture. Look around – it becomes easier to victimise those that our language has debased; easier to target groups of people if our language has numbed our understanding that they are flesh and blood, like us.
In the light of today’s gospel, the challenge is to speak truth about our neighbours and to challenge situations where language is used to cover an ugly reality.
The Pharisees used questioning to try and trick Jesus. They are silenced by Jesus' own question to them. In the passage from Thessalonians, Paul asserts that they did not come with words of flattery but like a nurse – with tenderness and care. How do we use language in mission and evangelism? What does our language say about God and neighbour (1 Thess 2.5-8)?
Henri Nouwen once said that we should not set out to change people but instead offer them a space where change can take place – how might this view change the way we offer space and hospitality to strangers and outsiders in our church?
Where does ‘us and them’ thinking spoil relationships and prevent people from seeing our own humanity and that of our neighbour? How can the church offer a counter-cultural vision of what it means to be community? How can our worship and our witness become more and more including and generous?
We might link here to the story of the prodigal son and the attitude of the older son on the return of his troubled brother. We like to think that we welcome in the least and the lost – but honestly how uncomfortable is it to make room for people whose attitudes and values are so very different form our own or when exercising true hospitality and welcome disturbs our equilibrium or our lives?
In church who are the groups of people we feel most discomfited by? What might God be trying to say to us this week about understanding things form another person’s point of view – or walking a mile in another person’s shoes?
The incarnation speaks into this week’s readings, reminding us of God’s deep love for us - so deep that God in Christ became a flesh and blood human, loving us and all creation from within and loving us back into true relationship with God and with one another.
Prayer
God our creator,
you made us in your image
and called us your own.
Although we have failed to love you as we should,
you love us and call us back to your heart of love.
Learning to respond to you,
give us grace to open our hearts and lives
and to love our neighbours as ourselves.
Help us to treat them with kindness and mercy,
believing the best of them,
giving them honour and a place at your table.
Just as you have welcomed us,
teach us to offer the same unconditional love to others.
As we gather round your table,
remind us that we are all equal in your sight:
young and old, of every language race and culture;
reflecting your wonderful diversity
and the promise of your way of love
that leaves no one outside.
Amen