Love your neighbour - even if you don't like them!

 

This piece was written early in the week commencing 19th October 2020. By the end of the week, 320 Conservative MPs had voted against extending Free School Meal provision for those eligible into half term and Christmas holidays. 

I feel my Reflection poses a few questions. Of course, the importance of loving and caring for "our neighbour". But also the need to try and love "our enemies". (Note the quotation from the Monk Thomas Merton towards the end. And as I go on to say "who I label as enemy may say more about me than about them."

Reflection Sunday 25^th October 2020

 

Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, we have various encounters between Jesus and “the scribes and Pharisees”. (Last week, you may recall, we looked at the passage where the Pharisees and Herodians tried to trick Jesus with a question about paying taxes to Rome.)

This week’s passage comes after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (on what we call Palm Sunday.) The scribes and Pharisees are becoming desperate for a way to stop Jesus. And once again they publicly confront Jesus to discredit him. This time one of the Pharisees “a lawyer” poses he question of which commandment is the greatest.

In reply Jesus quotes Judaism’s most fundamental, ancient, and widely used biblical passage, referred to in Judaism as “the Shema”

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Deuteronomy 6:5

But unwilling to leave it simply at that Jesus adds another Scripture which he says is “like” the first he’s quoted:

“You shall love your neighbour as yourself” Leviticus 19:18

Together these two passages of scripture provide a summary of Jesus’ mission and ministry. They are alike in the sense that they interpret one another, as Jesus goes on to say.

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”. Matthew 22:40

And later in Matthew 23: 1 – 12 Jesus goes on to criticise the Pharisees for misunderstanding and misusing the Jewish law to draw attention to themselves and to place heavy burdens on other people.

In quoting the Shema, Jesus is saying that the aim of the Jewish law is to direct one’s entire life toward God. But by adding the second verse Jesus is pointing out that one cannot love God, without loving who and what God loves. While the scribes and Pharisees used the law to place limits on those whom they were obliged to recognise as their neighbours, Jesus joins the two texts to break down the limits and boundaries of neighbourliness.

In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus says

“God makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and send his rain on the righteous and unrighteous” Matthew 5: 45

Therefore, one who truly loves God will also love his or her enemies just as God does. To love God is to love in the way that God loves – indiscriminately. To love God is to love what God loves – everything and everyone.

So, what does this all mean to us? How are to live in this way as Jesus’ followers?

Lewis L. Austin, in a book called “This I Believe”, wrote: "Our maker gave us two hands. One to hold onto him and one to reach out to his people. If our hands are full of struggling to get possessions, we can't hang onto God or to others very well. If, however, we hold onto God, who gave us our lives, then his love can flow through us and out to our neighbour."

Edgar Guest was a renowned American poet of the early 20^th century. Guest told of a neighbour by the name of Jim Potter. Mr. Potter ran the drug store in the small town where Edgar Guest lived. Guest recalled that daily he would pass his neighbour and how they would smile and exchange greetings. But it was a mere causal relationship.

Then came a tragic night in the life of Edgar Guest when his first-born child died. He felt lonely and defeated. These were grim days for him, and he was overcome with grief. Several days later Guest had reason to go to the drug store run by his neighbour, and when he entered Jim Potter motioned for him to come behind the counter. "Eddie," he said, "I really can't express to you the great sympathy that I have for you at this time. All I can say is that I am terribly sorry, and if you need me to do anything, you can count on me."

Many years later Edgar Guest wrote of that encounter in one of his books. This is how he worded it: "Just a person across the way a passing acquaintance. Jim Potter may have long since forgotten that moment when he extended his hand to me in sympathy, but I shall never forget it never in all my life. To me it stands out like the silhouette of a lonely tree against a crimson sunset."

What better way can there be for people to say of us, when we come to the end of Life’s pilgrimage “When we were ill she came to us; when we needed help, he was there; when I was down, she lifted me up.”?

 

Of course, it’s relatively easy to be neighbours to those we like, or those who are like us. The challenge is to love everyone, every neighbour, as God loves them. To love our enemies and those we dislike.

Who are my enemies, and who do I feel justified in putting outside my circle of concern?

These words of the 20^th century monk Thomas Merton are most helpful:

“Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is a savage just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he thinks you are a savage. Or perhaps he is afraid of you because he feels you are afraid of him. And perhaps if he believed you were capable of loving him, he would no longer be your enemy.

"Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is an enemy of God just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy precisely because he can find nothing in you that gives glory to God. Perhaps he fears you because he can find nothing in you of God's love and God's kindness and God's patience and mercy and understanding of the weakness of men.

"Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God. For it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and sensuality and selfishness that have killed his faith.”

In other words, 

 

Apparently, at the entrance to the one of the harbours on the Isle of Man there are two lights. One would think that the two signals would confuse the pilot. But the fact is, to arrive safely in to harbour the pilot must keep the lights in line; as long as he keeps them in line, his ship is safe. It is the same with these commands of Jesus: the love of God, love others, and love of self. When we keep them in line, we remain safe and well in the channel of the Christian life