Love Your Neighbor

Being a Volunteer

/ pastorpete51 / 8 Comments

One thing I dislike about surgery is the paperwork needed to be filled out. Now, I don’t mind the forms that just need my name and address, but then come the pages that ask me to make payment in case the insurance doesn’t cover, accept medical consequences in case they mess up, etc. etc. I felt like they are pressing me into volunteering myself for things I don’t understand. You see we all love the idea of being a volunteer until they are asked to be one. From church organizations to community boards, from someone delivering meals to the elderly to simply being blood donors, there seems to be an ever-diminishing pool of people willing to volunteer. The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, (FLSA) defines volunteers as individuals that provide services without any expectation of compensation, and without any coercion or intimidation. Maybe things would change if we used Jesus’ much less complicated definition. He simply calls us to be neighbors. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus finds himself in conversation with a lawyer looking for a loophole (not much has changed in 2,000 years!) When asked about which was the most important commandment, the lawyer quickly answered.

…. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength 
and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 
Luke 10:27 ESV

When Jesus simply agreed with him, the lawyer realized that he had just opened himself up to a whole universe of things he might not want to do. So, looking for a bit of wiggle room, he followed up with another question, “And who is my neighbor?” We might feel superior to that guy because we know today that Jesus answered that question with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Who doesn’t love that guy? But are we really that much different? Of course, we all want to be a good Samaritan, until we get cornered about making actual commitments. Then we start looking for some wiggle room ourselves. In case you are short on wiggles, here are a few of mine: “I’ll pray about it. – I’ll have to check with my wife. – Maybe after the Summer (or Winter, Spring or Fall).” The hard truth is that there isn’t a convenient or comfortable way to be the kind of neighbor that Jesus asked us to be. But the good news is that Jesus never asked us to do this all on our own (something the lawyer missed). Jesus came to be our neighbor and He laid down His life so we could be His. When we ask Him to take over and be Lord of our lives, we discover that He has a place for us in His beautiful neighborhood in Heaven. If we thankfully remember that Jesus is our neighbor, it will make it so much easier to be neighbors to a whole slew of people that we discover along our way. Though it isn’t always easy, and it is a big world, with God’s help we can joyfully learn to go out and love one neighbor at a time!

God’s Grocery List

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:11-12

“Brother do you love me?” asked one of my jokester friends at Bible college one day. I was kind of puzzled where Jose was going with this so I decided to play along. “Okay Jose. I love you. What do you need?’ I answered. “Then obey my commandments!” he shouted with a big grin. Now that is a special memory and kind of a funny story that I still carry after fifty years, but it got me to thinking about Jesus and His commandment. We might think about it this way – the Pharisees had a list of six hundred plus commandments, Moses gave us ten, but Jesus narrowed the list down to one. Think of it like me going into the grocery store. In my hand is a list of four things which my wife has carefully written down. Nancy being a detail person usually includes things like the brand, and size she needs and even the aisle where I can find her items. Imagine her response if I returned home with two of the four things missing! Yet this happens every day with us. Jesus only left us one commandment – love one another as I have loved you.” Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s why everybody loves Jesus! Jewish people love him as a great teacher, Muslims love Him as a general in God’s army, Hindus love His peaceful resistance to unjust authority and even a good number of professed atheists think He was a nice guy. The reason these folks generally never show up for church has a lot less to do with Jesus than with how we flop at obeying His commandment.

So how can we do better? First, we could start remembering that His great commandment is not a nice suggestion. Swindlers and sick folks, strangers and thieves all felt right at home with Jesus. They each came to Him, not because He was one of them; but because they knew that He cared about them and was ready to help at any hour of the day or night. The problem is they often don’t feel that way with us. So then, who can I love today like Jesus loved me? I am convinced that God has a detailed grocery list that includes their brand, size and location and we can be assured that it will be the joy of His heart to show us exactly how if we are ready to obey!

The Gift of Being a Neighbor

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On coming to the house they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, and of incense and of myrrh. Matthew 2:11

Most of us do not have much gold lying around the house, fewer still Incense, and probably no one even knows what myrrh is any more. So over the next twelve days I’m going to suggest twelve things you won’t be able to find at the shopping mall or even on-line, that we should be putting on our gift list for Jesus Christ. Today we start with the gift of being a good neighbor.

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31 – Most of us know that Jesus told us to love our neighbors, but it helps to remember that Jesus had neighbors too! He took the time to talk with them while He was also doing the more miraculous things like healing some of them. Jesus took time to change water into wine at a nearby wedding. He raised a widow’s son from the dead at a neighboring village and showed fisherman how to catch enough fish for a month. But in His own neighborhood Jesus was rejected!

Do you have neighbors who have rejected our friendship, invitations to special events at church or even good mornings at the mailbox? But, their rejection doesn’t get us off the hook from the command to love. Instead, Jesus might say, “Welcome to the club!”  He was so roundly rejected and His own brothers and sisters didn’t believe in Him and even Mary began to wonder about His sanity. But Jesus just kept on doing what He could. Jesus continued to share the good news that God had anointed Him to bring the gospel to the poor, freedom for the captives and sight for the blind. One day some of them would understand. His mother followed Him to the cross. Two of His brothers became apostles and more than half of His disciples came from the nearby city of Capernaum.

How can you give the gift of being a neighbor to someone this Christmas? Shepherds gave him praise. A small boy offered five loaves of bread. The woman at the well gave Him water and a rich man, a tomb to borrow for three days. Ask God for ideas, then step out in faith, because we will never know what He can do with what we give until we place it in His hands!

This morning I’m sharing one of my favorite Christmas songs called There’s a Rose in Bethlehem. May you have a blessed day and stay tuned for eleven more gifts along our journey to Christmas this year.