| Are you my Neighbor? - article by Joel Hempel
In Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Scott stated, “As we consider the purpose [in the vision process] for our church, it has to be with our hearts open to neighbors, to our neighborhood, to the people around us . . . and how we can bless them.” As we know, Jesus once stated that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. He was then asked, “Who is my neighbor?” In response, Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate what it means to love in a self-sacrificing way. At the end of the story, Jesus directed, “Go and do likewise.” In the inner city where Marcia and I served in Cincinnati, there were multiple opportunities every day for all of us who lived and worshiped in the area to be a neighbor to people in our community. Many people who lived around us and came to church were underprivileged, addicted, homeless, mentally broken, or lonely. To be honest, I was never able to live up to the standards set by Buddy Grey, a Jesus look-alike. He would pick up homeless or beaten or passed-out alcoholics off the street and carry them to the homeless shelter we had established in the neighborhood. But the Lord brought to our attention many other ways to care for the “least of these” (Matt. 25:40). In Glendale, Missouri, there are no hurting people lying on the sidewalks or in abandoned buildings. However, we can be confident they exist and are all around us. Early in his ministry, Jesus stood up in Nazareth's Synagogue and read from Isaiah 61, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). Around our church building and where each of us lives, there are countless people who may not be economically poor but are spiritually impoverished – including some of the parents in our CCLS. I don't know how many of our neighbors have loved ones in prison, but I can assure you that numerous people are captive to sin, addictive substances, material possessions, and to mental brokenness. There are people who are oppressed by their circumstances and overwhelmed by hopelessness. Many are even blind to what will make them flourish in this life and the next. I don't yet know God's vision and the future he wants us to see. But, I suspect it has to do with what Jesus lived and taught. So, when he says to us, "Go and do likewise," what does that look like for us as individuals and as a congregation?
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