Who is my neighbor?

I’ve said before how much I appreciate the ministry of Fred Rodgers. On his television show, “Mr.
Rogers’ Neighborhood” he took seriously the needs of children and used his platform to help children
in any way he could. While there are so many anecdotes I could share about Fred – one that comes to 
mind on this Sunday we read the lesson of the Good Samaritan, is one that addresses the topic of 
differences that can arise between people because of race, religion, gender or orientation. 

In Episode 1065 of Mr. Rogers neighborhood, it opens with Rogers inviting viewers to be in
his neighborhood; but instead of putting on his iconic cardigan, Rogers talks about how hot
the day is and how nice it would be to put his feet in a pool of cool water. 
He moves to his front year where he fills a small plastic pool with water and begins to 
soak his feet. Soon Officer Clemmons, a black police officer in his neighborhood, 
drops by for a visit and is invited to share the pool with him. 

Clemmons accepts, rolls up his pant legs of his uniform, and places his brown feet in the same
water as Roger’s very white feet. While today this may not seem to be a significant action of 
“neighboring” or “social justice” – in 1969 it was considerable. At that time public fountains,
 public transportation, and public schools, the public pool had become a battleground of racial segregation."  (christianpopculture.com)

In this pivotal moment of sharing a pool of cool water – Fred Rogers and Officer Clemmons 
boldly proclaim – “We are in this neighborhood together. We are each other’s neighbor."
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If someone were to ask you the question, “Who is your neighbor?” what might you respond? For
me, I’d first think of the people that share my street – my neighbor Bob who if I have a ‘need to fix 
something at my house” emergency; is only a phone call or a walk down the block away. If pressed,
I probably with look at my own geography – look at physical neighborhood that I live, where I go to
work, the grocery store I frequent – and think; yes, this is my neighborhood. 

If you have ever moved away from your “home” neighborhood – if you have ever had to leave what
was once familiar and go to a new place on the map; the loss of a send of neighbor and 
neighborhood can be jarring. As human beings, we derive comfort and a sense of stability from
feeling secure in our surroundings. Even today as we worship outdoors, we’ve make some changes
to the space worship outside – so to meet the needs of the people we are called to serve. To shorten
the walk, to make sure all can have access to the place we meet, to make sure everyone can hear – 
these are actions of cultivating neighborhood and a sense of belonging for everyone.

Neighborhood – and neighboring the people in our lives is an idea that may start out small – like a
 “You are here!” dot on a map… but as most things that start out with simple questions like, “Who
is my neighbor” as posed by the lawyer to Jesus… we find that God’s call to neighboring and 
expansion of our ideas of neighborhood is one that continually expands bigger and bigger.

When in seminary at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa;
 one of my first classroom neighbors was Peter. 

“Peter belongs to a group of young men known as the Lost Boys of the Sudan – he along with
 3600  other in 1999, were recommended for resettlement in the US – primarily with the help of
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and the US Catholic Conference. Peter and his 
brotherhood that dubbed him, “Peter Pan” for his care for so many other children displaced
by the violence and destruction of civil war – for nine years he endured and cared for the 
children that God brought into his “neighborhood” until arriving in Fargo, North Dakota
in 1999.”

You can imagine my wonder and shock to hear Peter’s stories of the Sudan. How when he first
arrived in the U.S. and was set up with two fellow Lost Boys in an apartment – 
and did not eat anything in the cupboards; because:

1. They were not sure who the supplies were for. 
2. They have never seen a box of cereal in their life. 

The culture shock for Peter and his brothers was incredible – but day by day; he became acquainted 
with this strange new “neighborhood” of Fargo, North Dakota and the Midwest. As I think back on
that classroom, with Peter – and in time many other international students that were in training to 
become pastors, I was always amazed by their desire to learn everything they could from their 
adopted neighbors – so that they could help cultivate a sense of safety, welcome, of true 
neighborhood; wherever it would be that God was calling them in the future.

As Lutheran Christians, “we have a deep rooted history in refugee and immigrant issues. One in 
every six Lutherans in the world was a refugee or displaced person after WWII.” And so on this
Sunday – in this moment of time we hear the lawyer’s question to Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
that expands our neighborhood from something tiny and close – to a globally expanded
neighborhood – seeking to seek God’s call for “dignity for all people and a value of family
 unity. We keep before us – so that we do not forget Peter, and all immigrants – 
of the grim realities many face and the resourcefulness and hope these newcomers bring with them.” 

In this lesson of the good Samaritan, Jesus engages the imagination of the listener to see and hear 
God’s call to neighboring. It is a spiritual practice – neighboring. It is something the church has been
doing for years. It is something that happens on global level and national levers with organizations
like Lutheran World Relief/Lutheran Disaster Relief. Neighboring happens inside the organization
process of local churches: from dinners delivered in illness or the birth of a new child, to quilts
and food, and coffee fellowship after worship on Sunday.

This act of neighboring, is something that happens in organizations, 
but in all honesty gets its
start with the question of the day,
 “Who is my neighbor?”

It’s in that answer that the wheels of compassion and neighboring move, live and change lives
for so many of us that within a generation or two, can also identify what it means to be new
to a neighborhood – we all in one way or another are immigrants of another place. 
And in a great spiritual sense, we are in this world – and not yet of it – but called to make it a welcoming neighborhood while we are passing through.

In this lesson, Jesus tells a story of humans trying to live into the question of, 
“Who is my neighbor?” 

Some people in this story, move on without getting their hands dirty with the human need that is 
right in front of them. Some take up the call to neighbor, and welcome someone they don’t know,
all because the need determines a compassionate response. Sometimes, in our own lives we are
rushed and think there is nothing we can do to help – for the problem is too big for one person to
solve. 

And, in many cases this is true – big problems call for the neighboring action of an entire
 community to come together, to live in compassion and the look at the person God places
 before them and exclaim,
 “Yes – you are my neighbor – will you be my neighbor too?”

Richard Rohr says this about stepping into the challenging space of loving God, loving
others and loving ourselves: 

“It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of imagination, to keep
on conjuring and proposing futures alternative to the single one the king want to urge
as the only thinkable one…”

Like Fred and Mr. Clemons sharing a pool of cool water on a hot day, like Peter becoming 
“Peter Pan” to take on the needs of fellow youth displaced by civil war, there are many ways to
love one another in Jesus name. 

In our baptisms, God makes us his children as we were sprinkled or possibly dunked with
cool, refreshing water. Our king – our God is one that invites everyone to the pool. Our God is one 
that engages our imagination to see a way forward, for all people to be welcomed as beloved 
children of God.

God calls each of us to wrestle with and craft the appropriate answer to the question of the day, 
“Who is my neighbor?”

Loving God, loving others, loving ourselves is a life-long ministry of ever expanding efforts, trials, 
failures, do overs and hope motivated by compassion. 

This is the “go and do likewise” that Jesus calls us to.
I am your neighbor, you are my neighbor and we are the neighborhood where God
invites everyone come to the cool water and finally be forever, safe, welcomed
and home.

AMEN

Luke 10:25-37
25Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal
life?” 26He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” 27He 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.” 28And he said to him, “You 
have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
  29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30Jesus replied,
 “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who
 stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was
 going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a 
Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan
 while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him 
and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own
 animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii,
 gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay 
you whatever more you spend.’ 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the 
man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 37He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” 
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”