The Prophetic Hope of the Church: Our Neighbor

The Prophetic Hope of the Church: Our Neighbor

How many times the question must be asked? “Who is my neighbor?” We seek to justify ourselves by accomplishing “loving” acts only to those who are like us.  We think love finds her fullest expression with those who think, eat, believe and agree with us. Yet is this the highest expression of love that has been displayed for us? Does our human experience really confirm the power of love when it is held only inside the hands of those who are our allies?   

How many times the question must be asked, “Who is my neighbor?”    

We do not love our neighbors who are poor.  We pay lip service to the weak of our city through service projects and activities that are impersonal and distant.  We do not love our neighbor, as we increase the distance between us and them through large one-time seasonal events that are built to glorify our activity and use them as a means to our own ministry idolatry. We refuse to let go of our finances for fear of it being misused. (You would think only the poor misuse their money.) So we concoct all types of excuses about systems, policies and providing for the children of our enormous staffs as the reason to hold on to our dollars.  At the end of the day we refuse to develop long lasting relationships of solidarity with the poor because they do not meet our standards of economic and social acceptability.

We do not love our neighbor and God has been watching the whole time. 

We judge our Republicans neighbors who push people towards personal responsibility, who value the life of the unborn and place a premium on the defense of this country. You would think that those with conservative values are the plaque of the nation; outdated, women oppressing, voting suppressing Republicans.  We cast aspersions on our brothers and sisters who are Democrats because they remind us to remember the poor and the hard Romans 13 type truth that government does have a role in our society. They are those American destroying, marriage corrupting, and prophylactic distributing socialist Democrats.  We continue to exchange opportunities of peace and civility for chaos and vitriol. We believe, if we were honest, that whatever our political view; the opposing views will lead to the destruction of our nation.   

We do not love our neighbor and God has been watching the whole time.

And what shall we say about racism? Partiality has become our weapon of choice as we judge the image bearer of God in the diminished light of our ethnic distinctions.  While we should be exemplifying deeds that should be joyfully brought into the greater light; we have determined to display grace only to those who are ethnically like us. We have bludgeoned one another with the blunt instruments of stereotypes, suspicion and ignorance.  Most of us need to be honest that whether black or white, we maintain a level of hostility in the South against a brother or sister of the other ethnicity. God forbid if my daughter brought home “one of those people.”   None of us want to be viewed as owning our grandparents white sheets and burned crosses. None us want to claim we are descendants  of black fists in the air and join the chorus of "Black Power!"  So we do this in the dark. We utter our words on Facebook, design clever memes and 120 characters.  We hide behind these impersonal constructs because to say such things in the presence of the “other,” would be socially unacceptable.

We do not love our neighbor and God has been listening the whole time.

We do not love our neighbor and if it was not for Christ who determined to love his neighbor, the other, us; we would not know what sacrifice, peace and acceptability is regarding the holy President of Heaven and Earth.  When we could have been left unknown in our poverty with no one to understand the depth of our despair; God appeared.  When we could have remained with a worldview that centered on us; God declared to us his view of all things.  Finally, in extreme grace by which none of us could ever measure, God welcomed those who are not like him.

What is my hope for the Church in the South? My hope for the local Church is that she would recover in a fresh way, love for her neighbor.  My hope is that she would shower God’s grace upon those who are image bearers of Christ through prayer, forgiveness and acceptance. My hope is that her heart would become inflamed with extending her healing hand in the form of new hospitals, schools, aid agencies and communities that welcomes the weakest of our nation.

My prophetic hope for the Church in the South is that she would show mercy to our neighbor.