By Pastor Andy Sanders, Fairfax United Methodist Church

I will be traveling to South Africa in one week. I have been thinking of my upcoming trip where I will see how others around the world live out the call to be Christians themselves. I have traveled many different times to many foreign lands with the military, this however is the first as a civilian, and as a pastor. As I reflect on those past trips and what this trip may offer I had one scripture running through my mind;

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “ ‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Luke 10:25-29

Ever since that phrase has been uttered we as the body of Christ have struggled with how to answer this question. Who is our neighbor? Do you notice what was written directly before the question? It was a statement, “he wanted to justify himself.” Well that means that there are two ways of handling this scripture.

We can read it as the lawyer, that we too want to justify ourselves and say that our neighbors are only those that are like us, those who are already our friends, those we care about and love. We can all agree on those, however we need to think outside of those circles. Are other people on our radar as our neighbors, or does the polarized environment in which we live cause you to keep others out for fear that they are not really our neighbors?

Or we can read it as the one who is striving to connect with the idea that all people, regardless of any difference that they may have from us, regardless of their circumstances and regardless of their location of residence, are our neighbors. I believe that deep down this second way of reading the scripture is what we want to offer. As Christians, these attributes or fruit of the Spirit is given to us to show others the love of Christ, not to divide us.

The good Samaritan story which directly follows this passage is a great story of an overabundance of care that the Samaritan gave to the stranger. This stranger, who had many more differences than him, but was seen as his neighbor.

Being a neighbor means to show love and respect, honesty, integrity, doing the right thing when no one is looking and just being, I don’t know, neighborly. We live in a world where there are so many things that are polarized and being neighbors should not be one of them. Let us go out and care about our neighbors, say hello, treat each other with kindness and show the love of Christ. I am looking forward to meeting our neighbors from South Africa. I look forward to writing about it when I arrive home but until then, let us not justify our actions, but let our actions justify our faith. May the love of Christ shine through each of you, my neighbors, until all may know His love.